Abstract

HUAMANI, Charles; MARTINEZ, Amer; MARTINEZ, Carmen  and  REYES, Arturo. Sleeping paralysis prevalence and presentation in human medicine students. An. Fac. med. [online]. 2006, vol.67, n.2, pp.168-172. ISSN 1025-5583.

Objective: To determine life prevalence and characteristics of sleeping paralysis in San Marcos University human medicine fourth year students. Design: Observational, descriptive, cross-sectional study. Setting: Faculty of Medicine, San Marcos Major National University. Participants: One hundred thirty nine fourth year medicine students. Interventions: Life and characteristics sleeping paralysis non-concurrent longitudinal study for incidence density, done in August 2005, using a survey type questionnaire validated by experts. Main outcome measures: Sleeping paralysis life prevalence, characteristics, and one month prevalence in medical students. Results: Life prevalence was 56%; prevalence in the last month was 33 events per 100 students; 83,2% had hallucinations during the sleep paralysis events, 58,8% experienced anxiety. Remission was usually spontaneous (64,4%). Conclusions: The prevalence of sleeping paralysis in medical students is greater than that reported in previous investigations, with a high percentage of hallucinations and anxiety.

Keywords : Sleep; sleep disorders; paralysis; anxiety; hallucinations.

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