During my research this week, I came across an interesting video from Mutahar Anas (SomeOrdinaryGamers). Anas was live streaming Minecraft VR via Twitch, lay down for a moment, accidentally falling asleep for thirty minutes. He woke up within the world of Minecraft. Following this he decided to continue this experiment, bought PC virtual reality and started falling asleep in Minecraft.
Anas suffers from sleep paralysis, resulting in a fear of sleep and insomnia. During the course of his experiment, he aimed to reduce or eliminate all sleep paralysis episodes in order to rest healthily. Sleep paralysis is most often caused by a disrupted REM sleep (i.e. dream state), so some people may believe they are still dreaming when in fact they are awake. These experiences can be absolutely terrifying. During an episode, it’s very common to vividly hallucinate. In most cases people will hear and see a shadowy figure, hear screaming or banging on bedroom doors. As someone who has experienced this, I found Anas’ VR sleeping aid findings to be very interesting.
Anas eliminated all sleeping paralysis episodes, enabling himself to sleep comfortably for six months. He was rightfully worried about becoming dependent on sleeping in virtual reality but has since said that the number of paralysis episodes has decreased dramatically since the experiment.
I think the implications of this experiment are astounding. I feel the use of virtual reality from a medical standpoint could become commonplace in the next ten or twenty years.