"Sleep Paralysis: A waking nightmare"

According to “Sleep Paralysis: A Waking Nightmare,” what is sleep paralysis?

• a condition in which a sleeper is incapable of dreaming

• a condition in which a sleeper walks and talks while asleep

• a condition in which a sleeper feels awake but cannot move

• a condition in which a sleeper thrashes about while sleeping

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What does the author of “Sleep Paralysis: A Waking Nightmare” mean by describing sleep paralysis as a “waking nightmare”?

• The sleeper wakes up screaming and flailing around in bed but does not know why.

• The sleeper gains awareness but remains unable to move and experiences terror.

• The sleeper cannot awaken normally and must be shaken awake or slapped by someone.

• The sleeper has the same bad dream night after night until he or she is afraid to go to sleep.

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What is the most likely meaning of hallucination? Choose based on context clues in the passage.

Taken together, the symptoms of sleep paralysis may explain stories of “alien abduction” in recent years, or being harassed by demons in ages past. (The hallucination of an intruder would account for the presence of an “alien” or “demon.”)

• a reenactment of a real event

• a memory of a real-life experience

• a vision of something that is not real

• a story about people who are not real

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What does the context suggest is the most likely meaning of suffocate as it is used in this excerpt from “Sleep Paralysis: A Waking Nightmare”?

Sleep paralysis is also sometimes called “Old Hag syndrome,” for an evil creature thought to suffocate people in their sleep by sitting on their chests.

• prevent sleeping

• prevent breathing

• prevent dreaming

• prevent awakening

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Based on “Sleep Paralysis: A Waking Nightmare,” choose the words that best describe how someone might feel during an episode of sleep paralysis.

• annoyed; impatient

• anxious; hurried

• terrified; trapped

• weak; exhausted

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Cultures around the world have different words for these terrifying nocturnal experiences—the Japanese call it kanashibari, which means “bound up with metal.”

Which excerpt from the selection best explains why kanashibari is a good name for sleep paralysis?

• But people who suffer from sleep paralysis find themselves paralyzed and fully aware of their predicament.

• “Knowing that it will end eventually is of no comfort. Every second is hell.”

• Because sleep paralysis affects about 5 percent of the population, it could happen to you someday.

• Taken together, the symptoms of sleep paralysis may explain stories of “alien abduction” in recent years …

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In “Sleep Paralysis: A Waking Nightmare,” what is the author’s purpose for including quotations from Lori Ball, the woman from Ohio who suffers from sleep paralysis?

• to show that sleep paralysis can be managed if the condition is diagnosed

• to show that people react differently to the symptoms of sleep paralysis

• to show that very few people actually suffer from sleep paralysis

• to show that sleep paralysis is a real and terrifying condition

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