Sleep paralysis in college students

Abstract

Objective: We examined the prevalence of sleep paralysis (SP), its association with stress and sleep, and associated subjective experiences and beliefs. Participants: 1,115 college students from a large university in the southwestern United States. The sample was predominantly Hispanic (94%) and female (70%). Methods: Validated measures of life-events stress, self-perceived stress, sleep quality and insomnia were administered to participants online. Results: 35% of students had previously experienced SP and reported greater stress and poorer sleep than those who had never experienced it. Effect sizes were larger when comparing those who had/had not experienced SP within the prior year. Conclusions: Based on our predominantly Hispanic and majority female sample, we found that SP is experienced by approximately one-third of undergraduate students and associated with both higher stress and poorer sleep. We therefore recommend that college health practitioners seek ways to integrate relevant assessment and education into campus health practices.

Keywords:

• College
• Hispanic
• sleep
• sleep paralysis
• stress

Conflict of interest disclosure

The authors have no conflicts of interest to report. The authors confirm that the research presented in this article met the ethical guidelines, including adherence to the legal requirements, of the United States of America and received approval from the Institutional Review Board of The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.

Notes

1 To provide some additional context to the sampled population, the institution is located approximately 20 miles from the US–Mexico border. Two percent of the student body are Mexican nationals and <1% are from other countries outside the U.S. The large majority of the students (∼93%) are from the four surrounding counties, and the small remaining percentage is from Texas or other U.S. states.

2 Experiences for those who had an episode during the past year (n = 229) were similar: 38% reported generally experiencing it as they were waking up, 30% as they were falling asleep, and the remaining 32% about equally. The majority (60%) generally experienced the SP when laying on their back, 15% on their side, and 7% on their stomach (the remaining 18% reported that the position was variable). Most SP episodes lasted between 1-2 minutes (30%) or 3-5 minutes (33%), with 18% of participants reporting episodes generally lasting less than one minute and the remaining 19% indicating episodes generally lasting more than 5 minutes. Two-thirds reported commonly finding the experience either very frightening (27%) or terrifying (39%).

3 The National Sleep Foundation and the American Association for Sleep Medicine both provide a wealth of useful resources for the general public and health professionals about sleep disorders and improving sleep health. See www.sleepfoundation.org and www.sleepeducation.org for more information. A recent article by Owens, Christian, & Polivka, also provides a straightforward review of sleep in traditional-age college students with recommendations for healthcare providers.²¹

Additional information

Funding

No funding was used to support this research and/or the preparation of the manuscript.