Trapped in your dream?

Were you trapped in a dream before? Did you try to wake up, but suddenly your body was immobile?

It is a nightmare. Your mind is awake but your body is still sleeping.

You can try wiggling your toes, fingers or try to make funny faces, but you just can’t wake up.

Many people have shared their terrifying experience, and for most of them it feels like they woke up dead.

Sleep paralysis is a phenomenon in which a person is either falling asleep or waking up, and has a temporary inability to move their body, speak or react.

“Most patients say the same thing to describe sleep paralysis: that it feels like you woke up dead. You know that your mind is awake and your body is not — so you’re trapped, essentially,” said Michael Breus, Ph.D., Clinical Psychologist and fellow of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.

“It is often accompanied by terrifying hallucinations, such as an intruder in the room, to which one is unable to react due to paralysis, and physical experiences, such as strong current running through the upper body. One hypothesis is that it results from disrupted REM sleep, which normally induces complete muscle atonia to prevent sleepers from acting out their dreams. Sleep paralysis has been linked to disorders such as narcolepsy, migraines, anxiety disorders, and obstructive sleep apnea; however, it can also occur in isolation,” quoted Wikipedia.

For centuries, people tried to figured out this unexplainable dream, blaming witches, religions, UFO’s and even ghosts. However, nobody could find the reason for sleep paralysis.

The first observation was made in 1664 by a Dutch physician who diagnosed a woman with “Night-mare.”

It was believed to be caused by demons or spiritual possessions until the 19th Century, when the term “sleep palsy” became known in medical texts.

There’s no definitive cause for such a thing, but depression, stress and even genes have been linked to sleep paralysis.

“Hypnagogic and hypnopompic visions and hearing a demonic voice when resistance is attempted are symptoms commonly experienced during episodes of sleep paralysis. Some scientists have proposed this condition as an explanation for reports of ghost parasites and alien visits. Some suggest that reports of extraterrestrial involvements are related to sleep paralysis rather than to temporal lobe lability. There are three main types of these visions that can be linked to pathologic neurophysiology; including the belief that there is an intruder in the room, the incubus, and vestibular motor sensations,” quoted Wikipedia.

Episodes can last from a couple minutes to hours, leading the individual to suffer a living nightmare.

I experienced sleep paralysis before, and I can tell how traumatizing it was. No matter how hard I tried to move my body, or control my movements, I felt like somebody was pushing me down, tying me and holding my arms and legs.

I felt distraught and worthless. I could hear an evil voice and a force stronger than my body, holding myself tied to the bed.

I wanted to wake up. I wanted to move, but the only thing I could do was remain still.

Reasons why bacon is good for you

I’m tired of hearing how bad bacon is for you, how fatty it is and how obese you’ll get if you are a bacon lover.

I understand that 68 percent of the calories in bacon are from fat, and that each ounce of bacon has has over 30 milligrams of cholesterol, but can bacon be good for your health? I think so.

I believe all things can be good if taken in moderation, so I decided to focus on the positive side of bacon. Come on, it’s bacon.

Bacon has a lot of proteins, especially the ones valuable to maintain our energy levels and keep our body functioning. Impressive enough, fat is actually very healthy for us.

I know many fighters that go on a diet where they eat zero carbohydrates, and eat all kinds of fat, including eggs, bacon, chicken, etc. Sounds like a diet that I can keep up with.

“The fats in bacon are about 50 percent monounsaturated and a large part of those is oleic acid. This is the same fatty acid that olive oil is praised for and generally considered “heart-healthy.” I personally wouldn’t worry about it much, especially if you’re already avoiding vegetable oils, which are the biggest sources of Omega-6 in the diet,” said Kris Gunnars, reporter from Authority Nutrition.

Bacon helps increase our intelligence and memory through choline, a very vital nutrient. Research shows that bacon can help individuals debilitate effects of Alzhelmer’s Disease and other chronic mental impairments.

Maybe eating bacon before your final exam isn’t a bad idea after all.

Let’s take a look of what 100-grams of cooked bacon contains, according to Authority Nutrition:

• 37 grams of high quality animal protein.
• a lot of vitamins such as B1, B2, B3, B5, B6 and B12.
• 89 percent of the RDA for Selenium.
• 53 percent of the RDA for Phosphorus.
• Decent amounts of the minerals iron, magnesium, zinc and potassium.

Remember: too much is bad, but too little can be worse.

Bacon has been loved worldwide by people of all walks of life, and according to them, bacon makes you feel happy, satisfied, blissful and helps you relieve stress. It relieves the negative effects of life and gives great joy.

In a late research by Maple Leaf People, 43 percent of the Canadian recipients choose bacon over sex, and 23 percent wondered if their partners loved them more than bacon. Yes, I said it, and you shouldn’t be surprised with the results.

Bacon has essential vitamins and minerals, such as Vitamin B1, Vitamin B3, Vitamin b12, Zinc, Magnesium and the list goes on. With that said, don’t make bacon your diet, but understand that everything can be healthy when there’s moderation. Bacon is very nutritious, and help us maintain a good quality of life.

Next time you hear about bacon giving you heart disease, please, educate these people. Several studies have shown that the Omega-3 Fatty Acids and choline found in bacon can protect the heart from developing problems.

Advice: Make sure to cook enough in order to kill pathogens, and try buying bacon from local farmers that use traditional processing methods.

Besides that, have fun and delight yourself with some super scrumptious bacon.

A version of this was published at The Vista.

Dangerous selfies lead to tragedy

Getting together with your friends, focusing on a tiny screen and recording a memory for life is what this generation is about.

Selfies are the new trend, and they are here to stay.

For those who don’t know, selfies are photographs that someone had taken of their self,  typically with a smartphone or webcam. They are often shared in social media with the intention of receiving a lot of encouragement and likes.

If you want to get popular, taking selfies might be the right way to do just that.

Can selfies be dangerous?

Teens are getting more creative when it comes to art and photos, and they are looking for unique places to capture the right photos.

Tragedy is happening and we need to aware that these teens to find safer locations for photos.

On May, a Romanian teenager burst into flames after accidentally touching a live wire while attempting to get an incredible selfie on the roof of a train.

Her friend, Anna Urse, 18, said it was all a plan to get the perfect photo for her Facebook account. According to Urse, she was laying on top of a train when one of her legs got stuck in the air, and an electrical field surrounding the overhead cables sent 27,000 volts surging through her body.

The teenager died in the hospital with burns to 50 percent of her body.

“Some selfies are increasingly cutting lives short. The number of accidents while people were taking selfies has been growing constantly. People are looking for new perspectives and unforgettable places; they are taking risks and they are forgetting that great photos can be done in a safe environment,” said the Russian’s Interior Ministry.

Xenia Ignatyeva, 18, a keen amateur photographer, had a great passion for taking pictures of herself with a camera she bought at the end of 2013. But little did she know, her passion was leading her to a fatal accident.

The teen plunged 30 feet to her death as she climbed onto a railway bridge for a selfie, and was electrocuted as she tried to grab live wires.

When you think it can’t get worse, it does. Unfortunately these are not the only stories of selfies that led to untimely deaths.

A bride-to-be was killed in a fatal car accidentally after taking a selfie on the way to her bachelorette party, a women fell to her death while taking selfies on a first date and a teen died after falling from the bathroom door while attempting to take a photo for the #SelfieOlympics.

We need to speak wisdom for teens that are willing to do anything to have fun. We understand teenagers, we have been there, but risking your life for a photo isn’t the way to go.

Some selfie lovers say that if there’s no risk, there’s no champagne. They promote dangerous actions and the great reward for it, some saying they are willing to do that in order to gain attention, reported CNN Kellie Morgan.

Be more cautions of your actions. Your life has more value than a simple photo.

Please avoid: Selfies with wild animals, portraits from high buildings, photos taken from cliff edges and selfies with moving trains.

Don’t let that incredible photo be the last memory you ever make.

A version of this was posted at The Vista.