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Sleep Paralysis
“Just like sleep paralysis, the longer you stay frozen, the harder it becomes to break free” - Part 1
Let’s break down what this means.
Part 2: The Panic Loop
As I highlighted in part 1, there is a fear loop involved with sleep paralysis; realizing you can’t move leads to panic, which heightens fear.
Procrastination-based anxiety works similarly: thinking about the fact that you haven’t started a task that holds value begins to spike anxiety. This fear leads to “hallucinations of failure” : the “intruder” for paralysis and the feeling that you’re already massively behind for procrastination.
You’re probably familiar with these components of the fear loop. But it doesn’t stop there.
To explain procrastination through the language of sleep paralysis: the more you panic, the more you freeze your body in place (procrastinate). And the more you keep falling into the same cycle of freezing and fear, the longer, faster, and more often you freeze (procrastinate). Why? Because, as with many other habits, your brain normalizes what it repeats: it learns that whatever type of task you’re avoiding is dangerous.
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Through a short story, let’s observe procrastination in action:
Alex sat at her desk at 9 p.m., fully planning to start her essay. She wasn’t tired or procrastinating “on purpose,” but something shifted when she reached for the keyboard. Her thoughts drifted to how perfect she needed to make this assignment, then to the classes she’d been slipping in, then to how far behind she felt.
Tension built quietly until she could feel her heartbeat pounding in her chest. While her mind was spinning faster and faster, her body lagged behind, frozen in place.
When she finally looked at the clock, 9:45 p.m. (almost an hour later), she fell deeper into panic: so much time had already been wasted. She had been fully conscious the whole time, wanting to start, but trapped in the same “mode” of sleep paralysis: awake but pinned down by invisible weight.
When procrastination consistently slows your progress and increasingly interferes with your goals, it becomes unbearable. Sometimes, trying to motivate yourself can actually fuel procrastination by increasing pressure and fear, similar to how efforts to move during sleep paralysis may prolong your "frozen state."
Procrastination might seem impossible to fix. But just like sleep paralysis, these freezes can be interrupted.
The goal isn’t necessarily to force yourself into motion. It’s to train your system to recognize the early signals, and to respond differently.
To be continued :)
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