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Sleep Paralysis
Sleep paralysis is characterized by an awake, signaling mind and an unresponsive body; no matter how desperately you want to move, you can’t. What if I told you procrastination works the same way?
Part 1: Awake but Frozen
Before I explain, let's switch the order of the article this time and discuss the mental aspect—procrastination—first.
Procrastination, which you’re likely fairly familiar with, is the act of delaying or putting off tasks until a later time or until the last minute. In most cases, it is a self-protection strategy: a person can procrastinate due to a fear of failing or a fear of judgement (for example, spending time worrying about a test rather than studying for it, or spending all of class contemplating whether or not you should raise your hand to ask or respond to a question and risk appearing “stupid”). Hence, procrastination prevents you from performing the task that you know you want to, and should, do because of underlying anxiety.
Now, let’s transition to sleep paralysis.
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Sleep paralysis is a terrifying condition in which, between states of consciousness in REM (rapid eye movement), a person remains aware of their surroundings but is temporarily unable to move any part of their body. This happens because, while a person is stuck between stages of sleep and wakefulness, the brain performs its normal mechanism of relaxing all muscles to prevent harmful movement during nightmares or dreams, creating the disparity between perception and body motor control. These are many causes of sleep paralysis, including sleep deprivation and stress. Sleep paralysis episodes, ranging from seconds to minutes, are also typically characterized by terrifying hallucinations of intruders in the same room. These are partially a result of the immense fear that dominates during sleep paralysis with the realization that one cannot move his/her body.
So, how is procrastination like sleep paralysis?
Well, as explained above, both conditions “freeze” you in place and prevent you from accomplishing your desired goal. Just as sleep paralysis acts as the uncomfortable and frightening barrier between either deep sleep or waking up, procrastination uses anxiety to paralyze you, even when you know its consequences could be dire. Just like the duration of sleep paralysis episodes is directly proportional to one’s level of fear, anxiety intensifies as procrastination drives a task closer and closer to its deadline.
And the worst part? Just like sleep paralysis, the longer you stay frozen, the harder it becomes to break free…
To be continued :)
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