Diagnosis
Sleep paralysis is mainly diagnosed by ruling out other potential sleep disorders that could account for the feelings of paralysis. The main disorder that is checked for is narcolepsy due to the high prevalence of narcolepsy in conjunction with sleep paralysis. The availability of a genetic test for narcolepsy makes this an easy disorder to rule out. Once all other conditions have been ruled out, the description that the patient gives of their episode is compared to the typical experiences of sleep paralysis that have been well documented. If the two descriptions match and no other sleep disorder can account for the symptoms, the patient is diagnosed with sleep paralysis.
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