12% of night nurses surveyed claimed to have suffered from a totally incapacitating paralysis that may be related to sleep paralysis, and contribute to impaired levels of safety on the night shift. The incidence of this paralysis is shown to be age-related, largely confined to the early hours of the morning, and to increase over consecutive night shifts.
The practice of the transcendental meditation technique in subjects eliciting this state regularly for 3--5 years is correlated with acute decline of adrenocortical activity not associated with sleep during the practice.