Proprioception

[Wind Swept]

A handful of times in my life I have woken up and found myself not able to move for a very brief period of time.

It's absolutely terrifying.

I actually opened up this New Topic dialog to write about Hank and John Green and to ask if there are any Nerdfighters among us, however I ended up watching Hank's most recent video in which he recants how this happens to him, often after lucid dreaming:



He describes part of this phenomenon as a loss of proprioception. Coincidentally, I learned the definition of proprioception four hours ago thanks to NPR which had a story on about Ian Waterman.

This is also terrifying.

[Luet]

A handful of times in my life I have woken up and found myself not able to move for a very brief period of time.

I have also had this happen to me a handful of times in my life. I thought it was called sleep paralysis.

[Ela]

A handful of times in my life I have woken up and found myself not able to move for a very brief period of time.

I have also had this happen to me a handful of times in my life. I thought it was called sleep paralysis.

Yes, it is.

[v-girl]

Proprioception is something different. It's kind of hard to explain, but it is the sense of knowing where your body parts are relative to each other and relative to space. Like, you are able to touch your finger to your nose even with your eyes closed, for example. Not at all related to sleep paralysis.

[Wind Swept]

Okay, my poor wording—that is, I left out the words "sleep paralysis".

I didn't mean to imply that sleep paralysis is a loss of proprioception, but that during sleep paralysis you don't have proprioception.

[Ela]

Gotcha.

I believe an episode of Radio Lab had a bit about the guy who lost his sense of proprioception. In general, I find Radio Lab pretty interesting. You can check it out here:

http://www.radiolab.org/2006/may/05/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Noodle]

I love radio lab.

[Wind Swept]

I believe that episode is what I heard on the radio.

[v-girl]

Well, I don't really agree that sleep paralysis is at all related to proprioception.

Sleep paralysis is just literal muscle paralysis - a complete loss of body muscle tone that always happens during normal REM sleep (except for eye muscles, of course). So when you get woken up during REM, occasionally you have the associated paralysis.

[Syphon the Sun]

I actually opened up this New Topic dialog to write about Hank and John Green and to ask if there are any Nerdfighters among us

Yes, there are. I saw them on their first Tour de Nerdfighting. After the event, they signed copies of their books and CDs, hung out and talked about random geeky things with a group of us, etc. Overall just really nice guys. (Katherine is also nice. I have not met the Yeti.)

[Ela]

Well, I don't really agree that sleep paralysis is at all related to proprioception.

Sleep paralysis is just literal muscle paralysis - a complete loss of body muscle tone that always happens during normal REM sleep (except for eye muscles, of course). So when you get woken up during REM, occasionally you have the associated paralysis.

Windswept didn't say it was "related to" proprioception, but that during sleep paralysis, you don't have propioception. Never having had sleep paralysis, I don't know if that is true or not. If it's true, it would mean that during sleep paralysis you don't have a sense of where your body and limbs are. Is that the case? If, during sleep paralysis, you merely can't move but still have a sense of where your body parts are, it's not a loss of propioception.

[Ela]

Well, I don't really agree that sleep paralysis is at all related to proprioception.

Sleep paralysis is just literal muscle paralysis - a complete loss of body muscle tone that always happens during normal REM sleep (except for eye muscles, of course). So when you get woken up during REM, occasionally you have the associated paralysis.

Windswept didn't say it was "related to" proprioception, but that during sleep paralysis, you don't have proprioception. Never having had sleep paralysis, I don't know if that is true or not. If it's true, it would mean that during sleep paralysis you don't have a sense of where your body and limbs are. Is that the case? If, during sleep paralysis, you merely can't move but still have a sense of where your body parts are, it's not a loss of proprioception.

[Luet]

If, during sleep paralysis, you merely can't move but still have a sense of where your body parts are, it's not a loss of proprioception.

The times I've experienced it, I would say that I still had a sense of where my body parts were. I tried to scream but couldn't, I tried to move my arms and legs but couldn't, etc.

[Ela]

How come proprioception is spelled wrong in your quote of my post but spelled correctly in my original post?

Weirdness!

[Luet]

I have no idea but I fixed it!