There is a complex program running while you sleep. In short simple form, paralysis is there to aid and assist the physical body while you dream. If you watch a sleeping body you can see that they lay quite still during the dream but begin to stir when the dream has ended. This is because there are inhibitors in place to keep you stable and “paralyzed” so that you don’t act out your dream. Once the dream is over, the inhibitors break down and disappear immediately.
There are triggers in your body that say, “Okay, your done”. And occasionally there can be a malfunction in which the body continues to produce the inhibitors. Then the sleeper wakes up, can’t move, and panics. This panic is counterproductive because this is the exactly what the inhibitors are made for; to effectively keep you still!
What a person intends to do during the event of waking into sleep paralysis is to tell your system, “I’m awake now.” This can be encouraged by movements of the facial muscles. The small muscles of the body are the least affected by the inhibitors. So, movement of the small muscles in the face and neck will send the signal to the body that the dream is over.
Staying calm during this event can be very helpful especially if this is recurring.