In the latest episode of Keeping Up With The Kardashians, Kendall Jenner revealed that she experiences sleep paralysis because of all the stress and anxiety that come with her modeling career. Kendall tells momager Kris and sister Kim, “I wake up in the middle of the night, and I can’t move. Everyone says I’m fine, but I don’t feel fine. It’s so scary when it happens—you literally feel like you’re never going to get out of it.” And the worst part is that it happens most when she’s on a plane.
So, what exactly is sleep paralysis?
Sleep paralysis is when you experience two states: dreaming and muscle paralysis. It usually happens during REM sleep, which is supposedly when you're supposed to be very relaxed.
Normally, while you’re dreaming, “the brain paralyzes the muscles of the body so that [you] cannot act out the dreams physically,” but with sleep paralysis, the two things happen simultaneously. Though sleep paralysis only lasts for a few seconds or minutes, it can be as scary as Kendall described.
Sadly, there’s no definite cause of sleep paralysis, but experts agree that it’s usually accompanied by a lot of stress. There’s also a higher chance of experiencing sleep paralysis when you’re jetlagged, or have just consumed coffee, alcohol, or other common sleep disruptors. Sleep paralysis is also common for people with serious sleep disorders like insomnia and narcolepsy, and mental health disorders like PTSD and panic disorders.
We hope Kenny gets the help she needs soon.
This story originally appeared on Cosmo.ph.
*Minor edits have been made by FemaleNetwork.com editors.
