You wake up and you can’t move.
You struggle to speak or wiggle a finger, but your body is paralyzed. Out of the corner of your eye you see something shift. You sense an evil presence, a malevolent creature that skirts just out of sight.
Terror washes over you. You try to scream but nothing comes out.
The experience lasts a few seconds, a few minutes even, but it feels like forever. Then all of a sudden your body is released and you bolt upwards, sweating and shaking.
For my entire youth and adolescence, I didn’t know what was happening. At one point, I was convinced these strange experiences could be the result of a bothersome spirit annoyed at my peaceful repose. Either that or I was going crazy.
My parents said I had an overactive imagination, and I don’t blame them. I did have a wild imagination. Embarrassed by my bouts of terror, I never said a word about them.
It wasn’t until my early 20s that I realized what was happening. These events occurred more frequently during my university years, so I took to Google to figure it out.
My search revealed I’d been experiencing isolated sleep paralysis, a type of parasomnia (defined as an undesirable event occurring during sleep) that is considered to be a benign sleep disorder.
“Sleep paralysis is a dissociative state, or a sleep-wake dissociation where an aspect of sleep somehow manifests during wakefulness,” said dream researcher Tore Nielsen in a recent phone interview. “Or you can even say vice versa. It’s an aspect of wakefulness that manifests during sleep. So, what you’re seeing is a combination of two different states. You’re seeing the conscious awareness of wakefulness — the person is perfectly aware that they’re at home in their bedroom — and then you see also this paralysis, and this paralysis is thought to be the same that occurs during REM sleep.”
Nielsen is the director of the dream and nightmare laboratory at the University of Montreal. He says sleep paralysis is not uncommon. In fact, almost 25 per cent of the population experiences it in some fashion. He says it’s possible that sleep paralysis is hereditary. It can occur when you have a disrupted sleep schedule, such as when you’re on shift work or experiencing jet lag.
Stress and sleep deprivation could also be factors, along with sleeping on your back.
Not everyone understands what sleep paralysis is, however, with some attributing the nightmarish hallucinations to modern-day supernatural phenomenon ranging from ghostly encounters to alien abductions.
Kenny MacLean, 30, has experienced sleep paralysis since he was 15 years old. When he was a young adult, it happened almost every day.
“I don’t know why, but it was like I was ashamed of it. I remember going to the doctor and wanting to say something to him, but I never did. I don’t know why, but maybe I was embarrassed about it or (he’d think) I was crazy.”
Bodily paralysis is a normal part of REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, which is when people dream. But when you mix a nightmarish dream world with bodily paralysis while in a conscious state, the result is more frightening than watching Paranormal Activity with the lights off.
The mysterious state of sleep paralysis has led to a long and fruitful folkloric history of the disorder, with nearly every culture in the world offering its own interpretation of a sleep phenomenon they couldn’t explain.
In Newfoundland, for example, it is referred to as the Old Hag, a spirit that sits on your chest.
In southwest Nigeria, it’s called to as ogun oru, attributed to demonic infiltration of the body and psyche during dreaming.
Sleep paralysis even emerges in art. In Henry Fuseli’s 1781 painting The Nightmare, the artist illustrates a demonic being crouched on top of a woman’s.
Although Nielsen says sleep paralysis is harmless for the most part, Grant MacEwan University psychology researcher Russell Powell studied some rare and extreme cases of sleep paralysis. He investigated how these waking dream images could traumatize some individuals.
“I know there were instances of people who remembered the recovered memories of sexual abuse. In some of these cases, it seemed as though some of these people had paralysis nightmares where they thought they were being attacked.”
Nielsen says while there’s no specific treatment for sleep paralysis, it helps to have a regular sleep schedule and to treat any underlying stress or anxiety issues.
He adds it is possible for people to recognize when they are experiencing a sleep paralysis episode and segue into a lucid dream.
In a lucid dream, you are aware you are dreaming and can control the imaginary world around you.
“Once you’re in this more lucid state,” suggests Nielsen, “do something — like fly.”