Catch Some Z's

Sleep, its a beautiful thing. Unfortunately, it doesn't come easy for everyone. We do it almost every night, yet I seem to struggle with it still. That is why today i want to talk a little bit about something that is simply not addressed enough. Sleep paralysis.

For those of you who don't know what this is, it is when your brain is telling your body it is asleep when, in fact, you are conscious. Why is this a problem? When you brain tells your body you are asleep, it sends a out a chemical that paralyzes you completely, and if you're actually conscious while this is happening you are very aware you can't move at all and its a rather horrifying experience.

For me, this started when i was very young (about 4) and got really bad in middle school all the way through high school. For a long time I didn't even know what was happening, I turned to the internet (internet knows all) but the results I found were less than helpful, so I just had to deal with it and sort things out myself.

So now I present you with my findings and hopefully if you are dealing with sleep paralysis, this will be helpful.

-Sleep on your stomach if possible.
 I know this can be difficult or uncomfortable sometimes but for some reason it rarely happens when I sleep on my stomach.

-Listen to music.
 This, too, can be hard for some people if you prefer silence when you sleep. Now, you don't have to listen to heavy metal, just some kind of noise. Personally I like listening to the artist Blackmill, very relaxing and great to fall asleep too. Some of you might prefer a noise machine so you can listen to sounds of the rain forest, or just the sound of a fan.

-Try not to nap during the day.
When I was still in school this was near impossible for my, especially because sleeping at night was so difficult it was hard not to want a nap during the day. It's a vicious cycle that you should try to break.

-Have a regular sleep schedule.
I know that most of you work and go to school, and sometimes getting to bed at the same time every night is very difficult but if you can manage to try to go to bed and wake up at around the same time everyday this should help.

Now keep in mind this is just what works for me. I did not do any official studies on this (yet), I have no scientific research supporting this, but I find this works. I hope this was helpful for some of you, if you have any questions about this or any suggestions of what works for you please let me know!! Sweet dreams everyone!