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a witch on your chest: facts and folklore of sleep paralysis
the terrifying feeling is surprisingly common. different cultures have described it as a visit from a ghost, hag or cat-like creature.
oct 27 2020
3 minute read
sleeping woman with a cat, 1896, by władysław Ślewiński.
public domanin/wikicommons
in some countries, it’s a ghost pushing you down. in other regions , it’s a hag, a witch, a demon, a jinn or a cat-like creature that sits on your chest as you lay in bed.
sleep paralysis is a nightmarish feeling where you can’t move or speak while you are waking up or falling asleep. according to the u.k.’s national health service, sleep paralysis can last several minutes: you’re awake, but you feel paralyzed and like someone might be in the room with you. it can even come with vivid hallucinations .
some people report feeling as though something is pushing them down, hence, centuries of folk stories about black magic, ghosts or alien abductions that have sprung up to explain the terrifying, but ultimately harmless, experience.
writing in the scientific american, baland jalal, a neuroscientist at the university of cambridge, explains it’s basically a “brain glitch” where your body wakes up while your brain is still partially in the world of rapid eye movement (rem) sleep. because your brain largely paralyzes your body during rem sleep so you don’t act out your dreams, the misfire can feel strange and discomforting, a halfway state between being awake and asleep where you are experiencing the paralysis of rem sleep alongside “wakeful consciousness” and some spillover from the dream world.
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according to stanford health care , “sleep paralysis can last from several seconds to several minutes; episodes of longer duration are typically disconcerting and may even provoke a panic response.” it has also been associated with very real trauma. there are a number of scholarly studies looking at high rates of sleep paralysis as well as anxiety attacks and post-traumatic stress disorder among cambodian refugees.
scientists say that the feeling, scary as it may sound, is actually quite common. jalal writes that about one in five people experience it at some point in their lifetime, though others have pegged it closer to about eight per cent of the general population. scientists don’t know the exact reason for the glitch, but believe it can mainly be attributed to anxiety , insomnia , narcolepsy and disrupted sleep patterns. and students appear to be especially at risk. writing in psychology today, psychologist jade wu notes that students in their teens and early 20s are four times at higher risk of experiencing it. it’s unclear if it’s an age thing, or if it’s the lifestyle of students — the booze, the all-nighters, the stress of exams — that’s to blame.
according to a 2018 report from statistics canada, bad sleep plagues many canadian adults with an estimated 25 per cent of adults dissatisfied with their sleep, and six to 10 per cent meeting the criteria for an insomnia disorder.
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of course, this is all relatively new information: for centuries, people have associated the frightening feeling with darker elements. jalal studied sleep in many different countries and found interesting parallels between the cultural traditions surrounding sleep paralysis and the severity of individuals’ experiences.
the nightmare, by henry fuseli, 1781.
public domain/wikicommons
in one of his studies, he found 50 per cent of people in egypt who had experienced sleep paralysis were more likely to believe it could be deadly. culturally, sleep paralysis had historically been attributed to a malevolent, and potential fatal jinn or genie. in denmark, sleep paralysis was often attribtued to something much more prosaic: stress. the result? egyptians were almost twice as likely to experience sleep paralysis than danes. according to jalal, “it appears that the more people fear sleep paralysis, the more they experience it, and the stronger its effects are.”
other researchers have cautioned that stigma around people’s supernatural beliefs regarding sleep paralysis can stop them from seeking medical help, and that it’s important to “sensitize the public on what sp is and how it should be approached.” scientists who studied the prevalence in cambodians have even suggested screening all refugees in general for sleep paralysis.
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health experts have developed ways to deal with the haunting experience as well. according to the national health service, a gp will try to get at an underlying condition that could be disrupting that line between being awake and rem sleep. sometimes, this involves medication commonly used to treat depression or cognitive behavioural therapy.
the bottom is that few things beat a good, long, restful sleep. there are ways to improve your bedtime habits to avoid the frightening feeling of sleep paralysis, or just get the required amount of shut-eye. wu suggests keeping a consistent sleep-wake schedule, limiting drugs and alcohol, practicing relaxation techniques and therapy.
we still don’t know everything there is to know about sleep paralysis. it all goes to show just how powerful — and mysterious — the human brain can still be.
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