but the muscles that control bodily movement are all restrained. The explanation most often proposed is that immobilization stops us from harming ourselves by thrashing about or trying to flee from attack when caught up in a bad dream. A very few people suffer from a condition called REM sleep behaviour disorder in which the limbs don’t become paralysed, and they do indeed sometimes hurt themselves or their partners with their thrashing. For others, paralysis doesn’t immediately abate upon awaking and the victim finds himself awake but unable to move – a deeply unnerving experience, it seems,
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