双语阅览科学揭秘鬼压床是怎么回事

You jerk awake in the middle of the night in confusion. Is there a figure standing in the corner of the room? Your brain begs your limbs to move, but nothing happens. The anxiety increases. Your eyes scan the room. Just as you’re about to hit peak panic, you sit up and the figure disappears.

半夜里你忽然不可思议地吵醒。房间的旮旯好像有个人影。你想要动动四肢，但却动弹不得。你越来越焦虑。你的眼睛环视着房间。就在你的惊惧心情行将抵达高峰时，你坐起来了，那个人影也消失了。

You’ve just experienced sleep paralysis, one of many “parasomnias,” which is the name experts give to all sorts of weird things that occur during sleep.

你刚刚阅历了睡觉瘫痪，它是很多睡觉反常的一种。专家用睡觉反常来指代睡觉时发生的各种奇怪工作。

Sleep paralysis happens when the brain incapacitates the body to prevent it from acting out the vivid dreams occurring during REM (or, rapid eye movement) sleep. It often comes with a feeling of immobility, and a sense of choking.

大脑为了阻挠身体对异相睡觉（或快速眼动睡觉）期的生动梦境做出回应而使身体失掉活动能力时，就会发生睡觉瘫痪，常常伴随着一种无法举动的感觉和一种窒息感。

什么是睡觉瘫痪呢？

The good news is, it’s absolutely normal. Even if it’s terrifying.

好消息是，睡觉瘫痪虽然很恐惧，但肯定是正常现象。

But when sleep paralysis happens outside of deep sleep — when a person is just dozing off or waking up — it can be “disruptive of the architecture of sleep,” said Baland Jalal, a researcher who investigates the phenomenon. That could lead to more sleep paralysis. People with poor sleeping habits experience the phenomenon more frequently.

可是，研讨这一现象的科研人员巴拉德·贾拉尔说，当睡觉瘫痪发生在深度睡觉之外——例如当一个人仅仅打瞌睡或快要醒来时——它或许会“损坏睡觉结构”。这或许会引发更屡次的睡觉瘫痪。睡觉习气差的人则会更频频地阅历这种现象。

While the mechanisms behind sleep paralysis remain murky, Jalal said stress and worry play a part. Recent research indicates that people with anxiety and PTSD report experiencing sleep paralysis more frequently.

贾拉尔说，虽然对睡觉瘫痪背面的机制依然没有条理，但压力和忧虑是导致睡觉瘫痪的原因之一。最近的研讨标明，患有焦虑症和伤口后应激妨碍的人会更频频地呈现睡觉瘫痪。

“People who are anxious have much more emotional sleep. [They] are more likely to wake up during REM,” said Jalal. “If you have sleep paralysis, you probably also have anxiety.”

“焦虑的人在睡觉时遭到更多心情影响，他们更有或许在异相睡觉期间醒来，”贾拉尔说，“假如你有睡觉瘫痪的状况，那么你也很或许感到焦虑。”

The anxiety feeds into the sleep paralysis, said Jalal. People fret about experiencing the panicky feelings of sleep paralysis, which makes it more likely to occur again.

贾拉尔说，焦虑会加重睡觉瘫痪状况的发生。人们忧虑会阅历睡觉瘫痪的惊惧感，这反而会使它更有或许再次发生。

While about 6 percent of the population will experience sleep paralysis at one point in their lives, it occurs in about 30 to 50 percent of people with narcolepsy, a sleep disorder that includes excessive daytime sleepiness, cataplexy, sleep paralysis, and hallucinations, said Dr. Nathaniel Watson, president of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and co-director of the University of Washington Medical Sleep Center.

美国睡觉医学研讨院院长、华盛顿大学医学睡觉中心联合主任纳撒尼尔·沃森博士说，虽然大约6%的人一生中会在某个时分阅历睡觉瘫痪，但大约30%到50%的嗜睡症患者中会呈现睡觉瘫痪。嗜睡症的症状包含白日过度疲倦、昏睡、睡觉瘫痪和呈现错觉。

Students are more likely to experience sleep paralysis with as many as 28.3 percent of students reporting it.

陈述数据显现，学生更有或许呈现睡觉瘫痪，份额高达28.3%。

Some people report the feeling that someone or something is trying to strangle or choke them or will see someone coming into their room and not able to move or scream, experts say. It can also happen when the person is awake, lasting from a few seconds to a minute or two. It's associated with hypnagogic hallucinations, which occur as a person is falling asleep.

专家称，有些人陈述说，睡觉瘫痪的感觉就像有人或许有东西在企图把他们勒死或掐死，又或许是看到有人进到了房间里，但他们却无法移动或许叫喊。睡觉瘫痪也有或许发生在人醒着的时分，进程会继续几秒到一两分钟。它与催眠错觉有关，一般发生在人睡着的时分。

For most people, “it is not indicative of any kind of disease,” said Watson. While the experience feels frightening, the episodes last only a few seconds or minutes at most.

沃森博士说，关于大部分人来说，“睡觉瘫痪并不代表任何疾病”。虽然这种阅历很恐惧，可是它每次只会继续几秒，最多几分钟。

Most people slip out of it as quickly as they fell into it. A light touch from a partner can be enough to stop it, he said.

他说，大部分人一进入睡觉瘫痪就可以脱身而出。伴侣的轻轻触碰就可以阻挠睡觉瘫痪的继续。

鬼魂是实在存在的吗？亦或是一种睡觉幻象？

While not everyone who has sleep paralysis experiences hallucinations, seeing a person or a ghost in the room is the most common vision, said Jalal.

贾拉尔说，并不是任何一个人都在睡觉瘫痪时呈现幻象，最常见的幻象是看到房间内有人或有鬼。

Hallucinations vary by culture — the Chinese call it “guiya” or ghost pressure because they believe a ghost sits on people’s chests. In Newfoundland, it is the “old hag” because people see a witch and in Egypt people see Jinn (what Westerns call genies), which are known to hunt and sometimes kills their victims.

这种错觉因文明而异——中国人称之为“鬼压床”，由于他们信任鬼魅会坐在人们的胸膛上。在纽芬兰，人们称之为“老巫婆”，由于人们呈现的错觉里有一个巫婆。在埃及，人们看到的是精灵，精灵以打猎出名，有时会杀死他们的猎物。

These ghostly "waking dreams” can involve serpents, spiders, intruders and even ghosts. They're often associated with feelings of dread.

这些鬼魂般的“醒梦”内容或许触及蛇、蜘蛛、入侵者乃至鬼魂。它们常常与恐惧感联络在一起。

Some experts have suggested that alien abductions are really just intense bouts of sleep paralysis.

一些专家指出，所谓的外星人绑架其实仅仅睡觉瘫痪的剧烈发生。

“When you live in a culture where you are afraid of it, you are much more likely to be anxious [about sleep paralysis] and experience it,” Jalal said.

贾拉尔说：“当你身处在自己所惧怕的文明氛围中，你就更有或许阅历睡觉瘫痪，并对其感到焦虑。”

Sometimes an environmental reason is the cause of the spectral vision.

有时，环境要素也会引发鬼魅的错觉。

In 2005, theJournal of Emergency Medicinereported about a 23-year-old woman who was found delirious and hyperventilating after seeing a "ghost".

2005年，《急诊医学杂志》报导了一名23岁的女性，她在看到“鬼魂”后呈现精力紊乱和呼吸短促的症状。

“On arrival in the ED (about 30 minutes later), the patient was still hyperventilating but was able to talk. She denied taking illicit drugs or alcohol but recalled seeing a ghost while taking bath,” the researchers wrote.

研讨者写道：“抵达急诊室时（大约30分钟后），患者依然呼吸短促，但她可以说话了。她否定服用违禁药物或酒精，但她回忆说洗澡时看到了鬼。”

It was later determined that her new gas water heater had been improperly installed and her house was filled with carbon monoxide. After oxygen therapy, she made a full recovery.

后来确认了是她的新燃气热水器装置不妥，导致她的房子里充满了一氧化碳，她才会发生这种错觉。通过氧气医治后，她就彻底恢复了。