Is this folklore or is there science behind it?

這是民間傳說，還是有科學依據？

We're going to hash it out in this video and talk you through what we know about sleep paralysis.

在本視頻中，我們將與您分享我們對睡眠癱瘓症的瞭解。

Sleep paralysis has literally been the stuff of nightmares for thousands of years.

幾千年來，睡眠癱瘓一直是噩夢的內容。

Stories of this phenomenon can be found all across the world.

這種現象在世界各地隨處可見。

With supernatural undertones passed on through traditional fairy tales, Canadian Eskimos believed that manic spells could paralyse people and induce hallucinations during their sleep.

加拿大愛斯基摩人通過傳統童話流傳著超自然的色彩，他們相信狂躁的咒語會使人癱瘓，並在睡眠中產生幻覺。

In Japanese culture, kanashibari, kane meaning metal and shibari meaning to bind or tie, is associated with a sleep demon that strangles the victim while they sleep.

在日本文化中，"kanashibari"（"kane "意為金屬，"shibari "意為捆綁）與一種睡眠惡魔有關，這種惡魔會在受害者睡覺時將其勒死。

Similar tales originate from Brazil, Spain and China describing shapeless creatures, intruders and ghosts as the perpetrators.

巴西、西班牙和中國也流傳著類似的故事，描述了無形的生物、入侵者和鬼魂是肇事者。

More modern interpretations are those of alien abductions, often featuring humanoid beings with large bug eyes, carrying out medical or even sexual experiments on their abductees.

更現代的解釋是外星人綁架，通常是長著大蟲子眼睛的人形生物對被綁架者進行醫學甚至性實驗。

This is some scary stuff but let's take a deeper look into the science and the evidence.

這是一些可怕的東西，但讓我們深入瞭解一下科學和證據。

So what is sleep paralysis?

那麼，什麼是睡眠癱瘓症呢？

These are more commonly known as night terrors and they're a part of a group of sleep disorders called parasomnias.

這些症狀通常被稱為夜驚，屬於寄生蟲睡眠障礙的一種。

These conditions manifest as behavioural disorders associated in particular with waking up during sleep.

這些症狀表現為行為紊亂，尤其與睡眠中醒來有關。

Episodes of sleep paralysis in particular occur just as you're about to doze off or wake up, when you expect it the least.

尤其是睡眠麻痺發作發生在你即將打瞌睡或醒來的時候，也就是你最意想不到的時候。

If you think this is a rare phenomenon, think again.

如果您認為這是一種罕見的現象，那就再想一想吧。

Nearly one in ten people in the general population will experience sleep paralysis in their lifetime.

在普通人群中，近十分之一的人一生中會經歷睡眠癱瘓。

Despite this, our definition and understanding of the disorder is poor.

儘管如此，我們對這一疾病的定義和理解還很欠缺。

But what do we actually know?

但我們究竟知道些什麼呢？

Sleep paralysis can happen in healthy individuals as a one-off event.

睡眠癱瘓可能發生在健康人身上，是一次性事件。

But ongoing episodes have been linked with underlying psychiatric, hereditary and other sleep disorders.

但持續發作與潛在的精神、遺傳和其他睡眠障礙有關。

It usually doesn't last longer than a few minutes at a time and it can be linked with the dream-filled portion of sleep, otherwise known as the rapid eye movement or REM phase of sleep.

每次持續的時間通常不會超過幾分鐘，它可能與睡眠中充滿夢境的部分有關，也就是所謂的快速眼動或快速動眼期睡眠。

This allows your eyes to continue moving as normal together with your chest muscles that help you breathe, whilst other voluntary muscle movements like your limbs or your arms and your legs are stopped or inhibited.

這可以讓你的眼睛和幫助呼吸的胸肌繼續正常運動，而四肢或手腳等其他自主肌肉運動則會停止或受到抑制。

When REM-based atonia or paralysis intrudes into wakefulness, it causes the dream world and the real world to collide, producing terrifying illusions, hallucinations and sensations.

當快速眼動期的失眠或麻痺侵入清醒狀態時，會導致夢境和現實世界發生碰撞，產生可怕的幻覺、幻聽和幻覺。

People who experience sleep paralysis report three different types of hallucinations.

經歷過睡眠麻痺的人都會出現三種不同的幻覺。

The first is the incubus.

第一種是 "孵化器"。

This is the feeling of weight or pressure on the chest whilst being choked or suffocated.

這是指在窒息或窒息時胸部有重量或壓力的感覺。

The second sensation is that of an intruder in the bedroom.

第二種感覺是臥室裡有入侵者。

Traditionally, this would be some kind of malevolent presence or spirit, which is personalised and interpreted through visual, tactile and kinetic cues.

傳統上，這將是某種邪惡的存在或精神，通過視覺、觸覺和動感線索進行個性化詮釋。

And lastly are vestibular motor hallucinations.

最後是前庭運動性幻覺。

That's the feeling of dissociation or to you and me, an out-of-body experience.

這就是 "解離 "的感覺，對你我來說，就是 "靈魂出竅 "的體驗。

Before we continue, it'll be useful to catch up on the neurobiology that supports REM sleep.

在我們繼續討論之前，先了解一下支持快速動眼期睡眠的神經生物學。

Don't forget we've covered some of this in our Anatomy of Dreams video.

別忘了，我們在 "夢想剖析 "視頻中已經介紹了其中的一些內容。

But anyway, let's go into the specifics of sleep paralysis.

不管怎麼說，讓我們來了解一下睡眠癱瘓症的具體情況。

There's an area at the back of the pons in the brain called the sublateral dorsal nucleus.

在大腦的腦橋後部有一個區域，叫做背外側下核。

We'll call it the SLD nucleus from now on.

從現在起，我們就稱它為 SLD 核。

But it's literally a nucleus that's at the back, to the side and just under the pons.

但從字面上看，它是一個核，在後面，在側面，就在腦橋下面。

And this pontine circuit plays a critical role in muscle atonia during REM sleep.

而在快速眼動睡眠期間，這種腦橋迴路在肌肉失張力中起著至關重要的作用。

That's the paralysis part and is comprised of some really complex neurocircuitry.

這是癱瘓的一部分，由一些非常複雜的神經迴路組成。

In particular, increased firing of specific SLD neurons is associated with REM sleep and causes your muscles to become atonic or paralysed.

特別是，特定 SLD 神經元的發射增加與快速眼動睡眠有關，會導致肌肉失張力或癱瘓。

These neurons give us clues towards understanding what goes wrong in something like sleep paralysis.

這些神經元為我們提供了了解睡眠麻痺等疾病的線索。

Currently, research indicates a strong link between REM sleep disorders and the development of neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson's and other types of dementia.

目前，研究表明快速眼動睡眠障礙與帕金森氏症和其他類型痴呆症等神經退行性疾病的發生密切相關。

This suggests that REM sleep disorders may be characterised by the loss of neurological mechanisms that control your REM sleep.

這表明，快速眼動睡眠障礙的特徵可能是控制快速眼動睡眠的神經機制喪失。

Now it's important to note that just because you're getting sleep paralysis experiences does not mean you're developing Parkinson's disease or some kind of dementia.

需要注意的是，出現睡眠癱瘓的經歷並不意味著你會患上帕金森病或某種痴呆症。

Lots of things can make these circuits fire wrongly.

很多事情都可能導致這些電路錯誤點火。

Some of the risk factors including drinking way too much alcohol and being sleep deprived.

一些風險因素包括飲酒過量和睡眠不足。

And that's why people commonly experience episodes of sleep paralysis after a long-haul flight, for example, when they're in a new time zone and they're sleep deprived.

這就是為什麼人們通常會在長途飛行後出現睡眠癱瘓的原因，例如，當他們在一個新的時區，睡眠不足時。

So, there's a neural reason why you might stop being able to move while you're waking.

是以，你在醒來時可能會停止活動，這是有神經原因的。

But why do people experience the hallucinations that go with it, specifically that incubus or the out-of-body sensation?

但為什麼人們會產生幻覺，特別是 "魅影 "或靈魂出竅的感覺呢？

The incubus sitting on the person's chest or the malevolent spirit in the corner of the room that's watching you is thought to be attributed to a disturbance in the parietal cortex, an area of the brain responsible for interpreting sensations and perceptions and integrating what you're seeing, hearing, feeling and touching with your visual system and plugging that all together.

人們認為，坐在人胸前的 "孵化器 "或房間角落裡注視著你的惡靈是由於頂葉皮層受到干擾所致，頂葉皮層是大腦的一個區域，負責解釋感覺和知覺，並將所見、所聞、所感和所觸與視覺系統整合在一起。

This normally allows you to construct spatially coordinated images that project and integrate with your natural environment.

這通常可以讓您構建空間協調的影像，投射並與自然環境融為一體。

Now, your muscles are a really integral part of this mechanism and they give your brain some input about what's going on in and around the world around you.

現在，你的肌肉是這一機制中不可或缺的一部分，它們為你的大腦提供一些關於周圍世界發生的事情的資訊。

But in this case, your muscles are paralyzed but you're waking up or dozing off.

但在這種情況下，你的肌肉已經麻痺，但你會醒來或打瞌睡。

Without this important sensory integration, centers including the right superior parietal lobule and the In case you've never heard of it, this is something we call the somatosensory homunculus.

如果沒有這種重要的感覺整合功能，包括右側頂葉上部和右側頂葉下部在內的中樞就會受到影響，這就是我們所說的 "軀體感覺同源體"。

It's organized by neural pathways that communicate between our sensory organs and the brain.

它由神經通路組織，在我們的感覺器官和大腦之間進行溝通。

It lays across the cortical surface of the parietal lobe and in pictures and textbooks, it often looks like a man draped over the brain and it assigns small sections of the sensory cortex to equivalent areas of your body.

它橫跨頂葉皮層表面，在圖片和教科書中，它通常看起來像一個人披在大腦上，並將一小部分感覺皮層分配給身體的相應區域。

This is how the brain processes sensation and may explain why people with sleep paralysis misattribute human-like shadow illusions to real ghosts and supernatural beings that really feel like they're standing right there.

這就是大腦處理感覺的方式，也可以解釋為什麼患有睡眠麻痺症的人會把類似人影的幻覺錯誤地歸結為真正的鬼魂和超自然生物，感覺它們就站在那裡。

That's all well and good but what about the vestibular motor or out-of-body experiences?

這一切都很好，但前庭運動或出體體驗又是怎麼回事呢？

That's slightly trickier to understand and is completely theoretical.

這一點比較難以理解，而且完全是理論上的。

To try and figure this out, we need to talk about serotonin and LSD.

為了弄清楚這個問題，我們需要談談血清素和迷幻藥。

Serotonin is an important neurotransmitter that's implicated in mood.

羥色胺是一種重要的神經遞質，與情緒有關。

Looking at well-established research and findings, serotonin has a really integral role in visual processing and that's all linked to a receptor in the brain called 5-HT2A and that's an important piece of this puzzle.

研究發現，5-羥色胺在視覺處理過程中起著不可或缺的作用，而這一切都與大腦中一種名為 5-HT2A 的受體有關，它是這一難題的重要組成部分。

As with a lot of our understanding about the brain, we need to look at when the brain goes wrong or when it's diseased.

正如我們對大腦的許多認識一樣，我們需要研究大腦何時出錯或患病。

Both schizophrenia and Parkinson's patients show increased densities of these serotonin receptors in the visual cortex and also report experiencing really odd visual hallucinations or delirious episodes.

精神分裂症患者和帕金森病患者的視覺皮層中的血清素受體密度都會增加，他們還會出現非常奇怪的視覺幻覺或譫妄發作。

To add to that, meditation and drug-induced altered states of consciousness are known to cause mystical and intense hallucinations, very similar to what people experience in sleep paralysis.

此外，眾所周知，冥想和藥物引起的意識改變狀態會導致神祕而強烈的幻覺，這與人們在睡眠麻痺中的經歷非常相似。

We know that the dissociative feelings or the out-of-body experiences caused by LSD through the 5-HT2A receptor activations may lead to users of LSD attributing increased meaning and personal involvement with otherwise meaningless things like shapes or sounds in the air.

我們知道，迷幻劑通過激活 5-HT2A 受體而產生的分離感受或出體體驗，可能會導致迷幻劑使用者將原本毫無意義的事物（如空氣中的形狀或聲音）賦予更多的意義和個人參與。

This characterises something called personal relevance attribution and that may embody some of the aspects of personal narrative and the out-of-body experience described in sleep paralysis.

這就是所謂的 "個人相關性歸因"，它可能體現了個人敘事的某些方面，以及睡眠麻痺中描述的 "靈魂出竅 "體驗。

Overall, this is a hugely interesting and complicated area of research that's, again, only really at its infant stage of exploration, even more so than the anatomy of dreams.

總之，這是一個非常有趣而又複雜的研究領域，同樣，它也只處於探索的初級階段，甚至比夢的解剖學還要複雜。

I know this was a really whistle-stop tour jumping from culture to neurobiology, functional anatomy and even psychopharmacology but I hope it's given you the impetus and I hope it's made some slight sense of this really complex matter and inspired you to go and explore for yourself.

我知道這是一次從文化到神經生物學、功能解剖學甚至精神藥理學的 "驛站之旅"，但我希望它能給你帶來動力，希望它能讓你對這一複雜的問題略知一二，並激勵你自己去探索。

Let me know if you've enjoyed this by commenting down below, click the subscribe button and hopefully see you in the next video.

如果你喜歡這個視頻，請在下面評論，點擊訂閱按鈕，希望我們下期視頻再見。

If you want to see more videos like this, please do let us know. you

如果您想觀看更多類似視頻，請告訴我們。