Table 2.

Clinical and neurophysiological characteristics of sleep paralysis, false awakenings, and lucid dreaming, compared to normal wakefulness, and REM sleep.

	Wakefulness, Closed Eyes	Sleep Paralysis	False Awakening	Lucid Dreaming	REM Sleep
Clinical features
Feeling paralyzed	No	Yes	No	No	No
Feeling the surroundings as familiar	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No
Accurate awareness of the state	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No
Associated anxiety	None	Frequent	Frequent	None	None
Mentation	Awake thoughts	Feels awake but may feel hallucinations	Feels awake	Dreaming	Dreaming
EEG
Delta band	Low	Similar to REM sleep	Similar to REM sleep	Lower than REM sleep	High
Theta band	Low	Similar to REM sleep	Similar to REM sleep	Similar to REM sleep	High
Alpha band	High	Intermediate between Rem sleep and wakefulness	Intermediate between Rem sleep and wakefulness	Similar to REM sleep	Low
Beta-Gamma bands	High	Similar to REM sleep	Similar to REM sleep	Similar to wakefulness (frontal lobe) in one study and similar to REM sleep in another study	Low
EMG	High	Similar to REM sleep	Similar to REM sleep	Similar to REM sleep	Low
EOG
Spontaneous REMs	Present	Present	Present	Present	Present
Voluntary REMs (eye code)	Present	Present	Possible	Present	Absent

EEG = electroencephalography, EMG = electromyography, EOG = electro-oculography, REMs = rapid eye movements.