Reading time: 4 minutes
Sleep paralysis has long frightened our nights. RACHAEL ELIZABETH looks at her own scary experience with the phenomenon.
Many years ago, when I was about seventeen, I woke up in my bed, but I couldn’t move; I lay on my back with my arms at my sides and was completely motionless.
At the time, I didn’t panic because my partner was standing at the foot of my bed; he leaned on the wooden frame and looked down at me, and I remember wondering why he didn’t say anything, but the more I stared at him, the more he started to turn into a horrible, bald creature.
The only way I can describe what I saw is to compare the image to ‘The Pale Man’ from Guillermo Del Toro’s 2006 film, Pan’s Labyrinth.
For years after this experience I was convinced that I had seen a ghost or perhaps something sinister, but it wasn’t until I got older and my interest in psychology started to grow that I started to learn more about sleep paralysis.
The term sleep paralysis was coined in 1928 by SAK Wilson, and in 1932 French researcher Henri Roger coined the term ‘parasomnia‘which sleep paralysis was categorized as. Many cultures have their own knowledge of sleep paralysis, and each culture has a terrifying backstory, enough to keep you awake at night… hopefully.
The first recorded case of sleep paralysis
The first recorded case of sleep paralysis was documented by Dutch physician Isbrand van Diemerbroeck in 1661. Van Diemerbroeck recorded a case study of a 50-year-old woman who was plagued by disturbing nighttime visions and sensed demonic entities that would anchor her to her. bed.
Van Diemerbroeck called this phenomenon ‘Incubus‘ or the ‘Nightmare’, and although doctors of the time rarely, if at all, attributed this phenomenon to witches or demons, it is easy to see how sleep paralysis gained momentum as a supernatural experience.
Before science could provide a reasonable explanation for sleep paralysis, it was believed that the experience was attributed to spirits, even demons, and it’s easy to understand why. If you woke up at night, especially in the 17th century, and found yourself paralyzed as you saw someone or something lying on top of you, your first conclusion would be to think it was the work of something sinister.
“The devil lay on her and held her” – Sleep paralysis, as the Dutch physician Isbrand Van Diemerbroeck described it in 1661.
The phenomenon of sleep paralysis has captivated our minds and imaginations for centuries and has even inspired some wonderfully dark art; Henry Fuseli painted ‘The Nightmare’ in 1781, which has become a famous interpretation of sleep paralysis. The painting shows a deeply sleeping woman in an awkward position, as Incubus, or ‘Mara’, also called a goblin or Succubus (the female version of an Incubus), crouches on her chest as a black horse peers through crimson curtains.
The horse in the image is an important character, as contemporary folklore associates horses with nightmares and disturbing night visions, as witches and witches would ride them to reach their sleeping victims; the term ‘Hagridden’ was once used to describe someone plagued by nightmares.
Demons, ghosts and witches – Oh my!
Almost every culture in the world has its own knowledge of sleep paralysis, and while they all carry the same theme of being immobilized at night, each culture has its own specific and terrifying creature that causes such an experience:
- In Brazilian folklore, an old crone with long fingernails who shelters on the rooftops at dusk waits for her victim to fall asleep with her stomach up before trampling on his or her chest; this ‘old crone’ is often called ‘Pisadeira’.
- In Japanese culture, a vengeful spirit called ‘Kanashibari’, which translates to ‘connected with metal’, suffocates its enemies while they sleep. Interestingly, for academic papers, English-speaking researchers will use Kanashibari instead of sleep paralysis to describe the phenomenon.
- Mexican folklore has a saying: ‘Se me subio el muerto’, which means ‘a corpse climbed on top of me’, as they believe that sleep paralysis is caused by the spirit of the deceased lying on top of the sleeper, causing him or her to be paralyzed .
- Icelandic folklore describes sleep paralysis as having a ‘mara’, a goblin or succubus (female) sitting on the chest of sleeping victims and causing nightmares.
According to the Goldsmiths University of London website, it is estimated that 30% of today’s population will experience (or have had) sleep paralysis at least once in their lives, and a shocking 24% of these people will experience sleep paralysis on a monthly basis. It also concluded that 38% of the population still does not understand sleep paralysis, attributing it to serious medical conditions, the supernatural and even alien abduction.
When I had my first experience many years ago, it was truly terrifying. If not being able to move isn’t scary enough, seeing a creature looming over you only increases your fear. For a long time I was told it was nothing but a nightmare.
Still, I knew this couldn’t be the case when I was awake, and this reinforced my belief that it was an alien experience, but imagine how terrifying it would have been 200 years ago to experience sleep paralysis.
It is not surprising that people believed witches or demons were responsible; all I had to do to explain my experience was do a little research. But then all they had to do was continue with the experience itself.
There may be psychology to support this, but one thing is certain: sleep paralysis does not discriminate; it doesn’t matter where or who you are in the world or what you believe; Sleep paralysis may be happening to you, maybe even tonight.
Sleep well.
Do you suffer from sleep paralysis? Tell us about it in the comments below!
