Description of sleep paralysis in The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky

Sleep paralysis (SP) is defined as the inability to perform voluntary movements or speak at sleep onset or on awakening. The duration of SP ranges from seconds to a few minutes.1 SP represents a dissociated state in which REM sleep atonia coexists with the full consciousness of wakefulness. Individuals experience SP as an unpleasant phenomenon during which they are completely awake but cannot move or speak, usually with feelings of suffocation or chest pressure. The association with vivid hallucinations is common.

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