Jake Quickenden suffers with sleep paralysis.
The ‘Dancing on Ice’ star has admitted he sometimes wakes up in the middle of the night and can’t move his body or speak for a few minutes, which he finds really scary.
Speaking on ‘Lorraine’ on Wednesday (07.03.18), he said: "I always struggle sleeping. Sometimes, when I’m over tired, or I’ve been on my mobile phone all night and I’m looking at that, I kind of wake up but I can’t move…I’m basically paralysed. My eyes are open but I can’t speak, and you’re still in a dream. Its weird, it’s quite scary."
And the 29-year-old singer thinks his sleep paralysis is worse when he’s over tired but it’s like a vicious circle because he’s a "night owl" and only sleeps four hours.
He explained: "I’m a night owl, definitely. I wake up sometimes in the middle of the night and go down and make myself a cup of tea, which is the worst thing, and eat a full pack of biscuits, and then go back to bed at like three."
Despite the scary experience, the show’s Dr Hilary has explained that sleep paralysis is quite common and happens when a person is in between wakefulness and sleep.
She said: "What happens is, you’re aware, you’re awake, but you’re still in a bit of REM sleep – dreaming sleep. So literally you cannot move, your body is paralysed, but you’re aware, and sometimes you can’t breathe.
"Hallucinations, you can hear things, see things that aren’t really there. And it’s when you’re coming out of sleep or going into sleep."
But Jake is going to need all the sleep he can get this week as he’s set to perform in the ‘Dancing on Ice’ live final this weekend – and he’s already suffered a setback.
He explained: "I dislocated my thumb yesterday…It’s a lot of fuss over nothing…It’s all precautionary, I’ll be fine, even if they had to put a pot on it, I’d still be dancing in the final…I’ve come this far, I don’t want to not dance in the final."
Jake Quickenden has sleep paralysis
