Sleep paralysis: Psychodynamics

Summary A patient with sleep paralysis is discussed in view of the paucity of such reports in current American literature. It is believed, however, that this disability is more common than realized and reported heretofore. This case is of additional interest in view of the still less frequent presentation of patients with sleep paralysis in the absence of narcolepsy or cataplexy. A study of this case permits conjectures as to the underlying psychodynamics in symptom-formation and as to the possible role of psychological conflict over the expression, or repression, of unconsicious homosexual drives. The symptom of sleep paralysis may then represent an, as yet, unsatisfactory compromise in view of the marked concurrent subjective anxiety often associated with it.