BAD DREAMS? WIGGLE YOUR TOES!

ANOTHER strange nighttime phenomenon is sleep paralysis. This is where you wake up and feel a crushing weight on your chest, possibly sensing an evil presence such as a demon, ghost or alien.

It happens because when you dream, your mind produces lots of strange images and your brainstem (an area deep in the brain that controls signals to the spinal cord) blocks almost all bodily movement. Once in a while you wake up from a dream in a somewhat confused state — with your brain becoming conscious but still experiencing the paralysis and weird imagery associated with dreaming. This is what makes you feel pinned to the bed imagining some sort of gremlin.

But this can be overcome — try wiggling your toes or fingers, which seems to break the paralysis.

Why the fingers and toes? They seem to be easier to move, because they’re micro-movements. To move a limb takes a lot more muscular action. Doing this also stops people panicking.