As weird as it seems, it's normal. It's called sleep paralysis, and every healthy brain does it; it's just that most of the time, we're asleep when we're under its effects.
In your dreams, you're probably really active, but your body stays mostly still aside from a few little twitches. That's because your brain has shut down your ability to act out your dreams as you sleep. Every once in a while, you'll wake up while that order to remain immobile is still in effect, and you'll become conscious of the paralysis. It's sometimes accompanied by leftover images and thoughts from dreams, which can make it pretty alarming as it happens.
You can't really stop it from happening, but it might help to know that it's a common event and not something wrong with you. It's not scary when you realize that "Oh, this is just my brain making sure I don't jump to my death trying to fly."
Is it normal to be awake and not able to move?
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As weird as it seems, it's normal. It's called sleep paralysis, and every healthy brain does it; it's just that most of the time, we're asleep when we're under its effects.
In your dreams, you're probably really active, but your body stays mostly still aside from a few little twitches. That's because your brain has shut down your ability to act out your dreams as you sleep. Every once in a while, you'll wake up while that order to remain immobile is still in effect, and you'll become conscious of the paralysis. It's sometimes accompanied by leftover images and thoughts from dreams, which can make it pretty alarming as it happens.
You can't really stop it from happening, but it might help to know that it's a common event and not something wrong with you. It's not scary when you realize that "Oh, this is just my brain making sure I don't jump to my death trying to fly."