Sleep Paralysis Wakeup

From dave on 2016/05/08 10:09:48 +0000

I, like many others, suffer almost nightly from brutal sleep paralysis. No matter how many times I experience it, it never gets any easier or less frightening.

I would LOVE if the app could detect the shaking I’m able to do in paralysis or the “hocking” sound I can make during an episode or even the rapid breathing that happens and wake me up by turning on the flashlight on my phone and setting off an alarm as well as vibration on my phone/watch.

As many people suffer this and have different reactions, maybe we could flag an audio recording (breathing pattern) or heart rate pattern and if a similar pattern is encountered during “sleep” then the alarm goes off and all hell breaks loose in order to wake me.

This could change the lives of many people and reduce ghost “sightings” and “alien abductions” significantly.

Thanks for considering.

Copied from original feature request: http://urbandroid.uservoice.com/forums/264867-sleep-as-android/suggestions/13775157-sleep-paralysis-wakeup

From Anonymous on 2016/11/03 00:53:56 +0000

Read this, it should be helpful. Many people suffer from this phenomenon.

From Anonymous on 2016/08/12 13:54:58 +0000

My mother has sleep paralysis as a symptom of narcolepsy. Idk if that helps at all, but something narcoleptics have in common is they go into deep sleep very rapidly. Most people take 20 min, my mom can already be dreaming within 20 seconds of closing her eyes. Again, idk if this info is helpful, as it has more to do with falling asleep than the sleep paralysis when waking up, but maybe sleep studies have some tell-tale info on sleep paralysis as well? Or some way of telling when someone is having a bad nightmare? If something could detect a nightmare and gently bring someone out of it, that would help a lot of people, as well as kids with night terrors.

From Petr Nálevka on 2016/07/13 11:14:18 +0000

+Dave… can you please post some graphs where you can identify the episodes? Maybe we can start with some experimental feature where we detect a sudden HR increase during the night and play an alarm?

From dave on 2016/07/12 17:19:35 +0000

Wow. Glad this is getting so much attention.

I'm afraid that my sleep paralysis is very different to what Josh posted above.

My physical symptoms, I believe, are more common:

-Rapid heart rate and even more rapid breathing (this is what I hope wakes my wife so she can shake me).
-Ability to move the tips of my fingers and toes (I try scraping my toes against the sheets in an effort to wake my wife too)
-ability to make a "hocking" or gurgling sound, quite loudly
-sometimes I get violent teeth chattering.

I've been using the heart rate tracking on my watch with Sleep As Android for almost 3 months now. The heart rate spike is like nothing else on the chart. It's plain as day.

I'd give half my salary for the rest of my life if an app could detect this, even an option of "set off alarm and turn on flashlight" if heart rate peaks x% above average " would be a great start and I'd love to see it in the beta channel.

Although using SAA has improved my sleep hygiene somewhat, it has also, as a result, decreased the instances of sleep paralysis I experience.

So, happy to test the Occams Razor solution I mentioned above. However, I'm not sure that would work for others like Josh above without any physical indications.

From Petr Nálevka on 2016/06/29 11:29:58 +0000

Hello folks, we would like to look at this some more, but could anyone do a short research and come up with some articles about this. We need to base the detection on some solids and it is unrealistic we can reproduce this in the lab so are there any research paper which would show successful detection of those events. I don't think we can base this only on high heart rate…

From Anonymous on 2016/06/28 23:35:42 +0000

Thank you for suggesting this.

I was just going to E-mail and ask about this feature, then I saw your post.

Us in the Sleep Paralysis community desperately need devs to help us. The technology is there and we are willing to pay for the apps!

There is a video of me having sleep paralysis.

What happens is that you are awake, but your body is asleep. You are not able to move, your heart rate goes up out of fear, you have trouble breathing.

If we could have a feature to SMS/Call/email someone when the heart rate shoots up or even vibrate the watch when heart rate goes up, it may be able to help us.

I have had sleep paralysis with my phone in my pocket. While I was having Sleep Paralysis, someone texted me, my phone vibrated in my pocket and it got me out of it.

Thanks and I hope you add this feature!

From Robin Markowitz on 2016/05/14 04:10:57 +0000

http://www.thesleepparalysisproject.org/about-sleep-paralysis/symptoms/

From Robin Markowitz on 2016/05/14 04:08:26 +0000

I had a similar sleep disorder from age 9 to 23. I was half in deep sleep yet able to walk. I wanted assistance but was unable to ask for it. It was dangerous because I could have fallen down stairs or anything.

So my suggestion would be to have the app recognize such disorders (including Night Terrors - which are not dreams) & then immediately send both a text and phone message to a family member or roommate that it is happening NOW.

In many cases of these disorders, the person often cannot be awakened, but can be assisted or protected.