Quora Question Answered – Do you ever feel paralysed while sleeping?

When you wake up during your sleep state and feel paralysed while sleeping is a phenomenon called sleep paralysis. The body automatically goes into a paralysed state whilst in REM sleep to stop you from acting out your dreams. Normally, this is something that you don’t notice.

The experience of waking up and noticing that you’re paralysed while sleeping is completely different. Sleep paralysis is normally accompanied by additional phenomena such as seeing entities or shadows, feeling pressure or weight on part of the body or seeing yourself whilst you’re sleeping.