Sleep Paralysis Therapy & Dream Science (with Dr Baland Jalal) | Sci Guys Podcast

This week sleep science expert Dr Baland Jalal joins us to chat about sleep paralysis & dig into his research!
Check out Dr Jalal: / drbalandjalal
Support the podcast on Patreon: / sciguys
WATCH EVERY EPISODE:
bit.ly/2z3ifN0
SUBSCRIBE TO SCI GUYS
Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2TAPC3h
Spotify: spoti.fi/2H91rZu
KZbin: bit.ly/2Z7bWTk
JOIN OUR DISCORD
/ discord
FOLLOW THE PODCAST
Twitter: / sciguyspod
Instagram: / sciguyspod
FaceBook: / sciguyspod
References & Further Reading
Dr Baland Jalal
psychology.fas.harvard.edu/pe...
www.neuroscience.cam.ac.uk/di...
www.researchgate.net/profile/...
MR Therapy
www.frontiersin.org/articles/...
www.frontiersin.org/articles/...
Sleep Paralysis
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...
www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/1...
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1...
www.thecut.com/2016/07/a-neur...
www.researchgate.net/profile/...
Follow the SCI GUYS
@notcorry / @jampkin / @lukecutforth

[@Susan-jr3ld]

In norse mythology you have Svartleheim, which is the home of the dark elves who sit on your chest and give you nightmares. I've always thought that was an early attempt at explaining sleep paralysis.

[@watchingthebees]

In Brazil we have a mythological creature called Pisadeira (means “stepper”) which is an old lady that steps on your chest and causes what we now know to be sleep paralysis

[@mrigaankamuch]

let us take this moment to remember that Corry dreamed he died as a 56 year old man with twin sons, and he was furious because someone tweeted that we lost a "gay icon" XD

[@SciGuys]

I wasn’t 56, only a couple years older than I was at the time. So 20 max

[@mrigaankamuch]

@@SciGuys well then you have already defeated fate :)

[@mrigaankamuch]

I have been addicted to this podcast for the past week and I just heard the science of dreams episode today :D

[@iquestionexistence8730]

Dr Baland Jalal seems like a kind guy and he's so engaging to listen to, his enthusiasm for learning is contagious :)

[@deadlymelody27]

Just finished and Baland is possibly the most interesting person to listen to.

[@fern8213]

Yes! I was so enthralled 😅

[@iquestionexistence8730]

Ikr, his enthusiasm for learning is contagious, also he seems like a kind guy too :)

[@juniperfox1064]

am i the only one who finds dr. jalal quite handsome?

[@c.k.g.]

I watched this after watching your episode on sleep walking. It's interesting how it's opposite

[@kenandjotjivau4636]

I almost forgot I was so obsessed with sleep paralysis and dreams growing up till I saw this episode. Knowledge refreshed and updated ✔ Love for science increased ✔ Thank you 🔥

[@More13Feen]

I used to get it often as a kid amd teen. Less so as a young adult. I was actualy told by my dad that it is my soul being traped or something traping it. Fun. I used to realy focus on just moving one finger and it always felt like houers.

[@deadlymelody27]

On the bit about external influences on dreams.. i had an alarm clock at my dad's house that was mutley from wacky races that barked the tune to how much is that doggy in the window. And i still remember having a dream where a real dog actually barked that tune at me in my dream 🤣 i mustve been about 11 of something at the time

[@thiel_spencer]

I don't have sleep paralysis thankfully, but beyond that I also don't remember my dreams very often. The last I can remember was from 3rd or 4th grade? ...I'm graduating high school this year.

[@mallory7198]

My experience with sleep paralysis started much like Luke’s, but ended more like Corry’s. Before I was aware what I was experiencing was sleep paralysis, I would hallucinate that shadowy figure standing literally right next to me holding a black and white picture of Jesus in a wooden frame….. so fucking weird. I’m not even religious, so idk what that was about. After I researched it, I started being able to recognize when I was in sleep paralysis, so I wouldn’t freak out or anything, and I would sort of spasm to get myself to move. After more or less fixing my sleep schedule (I get 7-9 hrs every night), I stopped having it all together. Side note: I absolutely adore this podcast, and I’ve listened to literally every episode over the course of 2.5 weeks… thank you for the amazing content guys!

[@miashinbrot8388]

This is very interesting. The sleep paralysis that I've experienced is a little different from what Baland describes, in that my eyes are always shut -- in fact, they feel stuck shut. When I was a kid, having to get up when my body wasn't finished sleeping, I would with great effort go through the steps of getting up. Then (usually when I'd just reached the toilet) I'd realize I was still in bed. This would repeat several times before I eventually actually did get out of bed and found out that it was far less effort than it had been during the sleep paralysis. Now, at 71, what I experience is being unable to get up -- my muscles are too weak to lever myself out of bed. And that is accompanied by fear, because presumably as I grow older there will come a time when my muscles really are too weak to get me out of bed.

[@minksrule2196]

If I wake up and am going back to sleep again, sometimes I feel like it's possible to go into sleep paralysis but I am drifting off to normal sleep. So instead of just going to sleep, I will take really deep breaths through my mouth and make the sleep paralysis happen. I've done this for many reasons in the past and most of the time I have regretted it but there were times when it was beautiful. Also I found that sometimes when I have sleep paralysis my hands and feet become tingly. I can move these tingles to other parts of my body if I focus on it but there were times that it was too intense and the pins and needles felt very sharp and physically hurt me so I had to disperse the tingles back to my hands and feet and then it was over. It's easier to be aware of what's happening in sleep paralysis if it happens as you're falling asleep rather then as you're waking up. I've also been able to change what I see during sleep paralysis in the past from something scary to something funny like in Harry Potter

[@pokemonfanthings4444]

Love the idea of using some of these concepts to help people with OCD

[@wynnieization]

I used to have sleep paralysis almost everyday. I both had visual and audio hallucinations. I also had spasms trying to stop the SP episode or trying to jerk myself to move my body. I got them so often that I too would just wait it out. I used to have hypnagogia more than hypnopompia when I was younger and I would sometimes feel this great force of sensation of being forced to sleep. I would feel my body become paralyzed and my eyelids being forced to go down. Meanwhile there's this defeaning buzzing happening inside my head. I also realized that if I think about it, the chances of having SP episode would increase. I don't have them now for a long time but looking back it was during I was depresssed or stressed. And yes, clinically depressed.

[@deannaweir-smyth3114]

I like you to do an episode on lucid dreaming, you don't have to if you don't want to.

[@mispaul1693]

Yet another informative episode.....

[@tanner3806]

It's incredible how much we can control with just our brain

[@oceanstaiga5928]

HI GUYS

[@iheartdubu]

This was so interesting! Is there an episode about Dissoziation ?

[@if5248]

I feel like I never see faces in dreams in general, I'm just aware of someone's presence but they tend to be behind me

[@jamiehighins9252]

i used to get sp but not recently thank god.

[@deadlymelody27]

So i get sleep paralysis. Only ever with going to sleep, not waking up. Its usually when I'm overtired, or sleep later than I should (like when i was a student and went to sleep when it was getting light, i got it alllll the time). Honestly having a good sleep routine has made it rare (although when my baby was born i got it a fair bit which made it even harder to sleep). I do get hallucinations but usually not in the room, just in my minds eye which is normally quite aphantasic, but this is like vivid, sometimes scary like melting skulls or spiders because my brain is going "dont think of spiders, dont think of spiders" so of course it happens... I used to feel a presence in the room but i always thought it was a housemate, partner or whoever I lived with walking into the room, and feeling them sit on my bed. I once had an auditory hallucination of hearing someone say something in my ear. But it was never an actual figure that i saw because my eyes were closed. I also wiggle my toes to try and get out. I also sometimes feel like im floating off the edge of my bed, or constantly falling out of bed for half hour... and i don't feel pressure on my chest, it's like pure fear, anxiety, like adrenaline feeling. So maybe that is the chest thing but my brain is interpreting it as fear. Because i always feel the fear BEFORE any hallucinations. Im only halfway through this episode and his explanations of things are more than i have ever been able to understand from looking up stuff online before now. FASCINATING.

[@Dariusissocool]

Mine are like Luke’s but I notice when I fall asleep like on the living room floor I would get sleep paralysis more. I assume it’s cause my brain was partially on the whole time because I wasn’t in the safety of my room in my own bed

[@askiabattle3678]

I have Experience sleep paralysis three to four times it's real I know it for a fact it's terrifying.

[@imgeniusish]

i very rarely have sleep paralysis but oh boi, when i do TwT

[@Pindapap]

I do get sleep paralysis, and it’s awful!

[@saulcontrerasOfficial]

You should talk about OCD

[@SciGuys]

We did!

[@kileekeeniiuuier2398]

I have it and its scaryy. That's all

[@stephanie5293]

I have gotten sleep paralysis, yes

[@joshuas.3832]

This was such an interesting episode! I've never thought I could find a scientific discussion so appealing. This man is the most interesting and cool scientist I know, I could listen to him for hours!