5 November, 2014 2:48PM AEST

Sleep paralysis: the demon of darkness

Health professionals are only beginning to understand how sleep disorders can affect your quality of life.

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Sleep deprivation has been linked to type 2 diabetes, depression, heart attack and stroke.

One of the rarer sleeping disorders is sleep paralysis, where sufferers wake up without the ability to move.

Kristy, who asked the ABC to only use her first name, says she suffers the condition.

She wakes at night unable to move anything but her eyes.

"It feels like an attack, that's what I'll call it," she said.

"I'll be asleep and all of a sudden I can open my eyes and I can look around and see what's happening in my bedroom.

"And it feels like something's pushing me down on my bed. Something heavy's on my chest. And I can hear noised like footsteps that sound very scary. There's banging."

Calling for help

Kristy says she tries to alert her partner sleeping beside her.

"I can't scream, I can't talk, I can't move, I can't do anything. I'm completely paralysed," she said.

Kristy says she can see and take in what is going on around her.

Her 'attacks' vary in duration.

"It feels like ages [or] sometimes a split second. If I'm really panicking it can feel like an hour," she said.

She believes her instincts kick-in, causing her to react with fear.

"You're automatically panicking because I suppose your survival mode kicks-in," she said.

"You can't do anything so you start panicking."

Her remedy

After suffering the condition for a few years, Kristy has worked out how to deal with it.

"I just automatically start calming myself down because I realise I'm just having another attack, and I just relax and it's going to be okay, and then I go back to sleep again," she said.

She has researched sleep paralysis online and says she will now seek medical advice.

Expert's explanation

Luke Thomson is the lead sleep scientist with SNORE Australia, which runs sleep disorder centres across the country.

He says sleep paralysis is historically associated with "night demons".

Mr Thomson says the condition occurs as our bodies flip between stages of sleep.

"During sleep we have different non-REM sleep, which is passive, and REM sleep, in which we are actively dreaming," he said.

"What happens during REM sleep, so we don't act out our dreams, our body paralyses itself."

Broken flip-switch

Mr Thomson says when someone suffers sleep paralysis the switch that controls our movement is faulty.

"So, if that switch is broken and it doesn't paralyse you, you act out your dream," he said.

"But on the other side of the story, you can slip out of REM sleep but you can't move.

"You're not awake and you're not into REM sleep."

Links to other conditions

Mr Thomson says sleep paralysis often happens early in the morning and is commonly linked to another sleep disorder called narcolepsy.

He says the Hollywood movie industry's interpretation of narcolepsy is false.

"Sufferers don't spontaneously fall asleep," he said.

"In reality sufferers are excessively fatigued throughout the day and their strong emotions will bring about a strong desire to sleep," he said.

"While they're tired during the day, they can't sleep at night."

Mr Thomson says to talk to your doctor if you think you suffer sleep paralysis or narcolepsy.