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– What is sleep paralysis?
– What is sleepwalking?
It’s just the effect of relaxing our musculature – one of the stages that prepare the organism for a good night’s rest. “This affects the eyelids first because they are the most sensitive regions of the body, with a very thin layer of skin and muscles”, explains Luciano Ribeiro Jr., member of the Scientific Department of Sleep at the Brazilian Academy of Neurology. When the body is very tired, the hypothalamus (one of the regions of the brain) sends a message to the musculoskeletal system that makes it gradually lose muscle tone. So much so that no human being can sleep standing up – he must at least be sitting or leaning somewhere, otherwise he will fall. The beginning of this process varies: on average, the human being is awake for 16 hours before starting to feel sleepy again.