Sleep Paralysis

The first time it happened I was a little girl of about seven years. I woke up in the middle of the night unable to move, unable to breathe. “So this is what it feels like to die,” I thought. Come on, breathe. Just when I thought my lungs had given up due to lack of oxygen, I found myself violently gasping for air.

The second time it happened, I was twenty. I woke up to the feeling of someone pushing down on me, holding me down towards the bed. Fuck off. Get the fuck off me. I couldn’t move. I said, fuck off. Let go. Eventually, whatever it was, did. And my body jolted into freedom.

Under European and African folklore, an "old hag" was sitting on me. According to Asian culture, a ghost was pressing down on my body. The Hmong people call this ghost the "crushing demon" – and people have often attributed it with a childlike figure sitting on their chest. Muslims associate sleep paralysis with evil jinns brought on through the curses of enemies – requiring exorcisms. Today, they are often taken for alleged alien abductions. I like to think of myself as non-superstitious, and luckily there is a logical explanation.

There are five sleep stages. The last of these is called REM (Rapid Eye Movement). As a natural part of REM, the body goes into a state of muscle paralysis. Sleep paralysis occurs when people wake up during REM – fully conscious but unable to move.

Like dreams and nightmares, they can be accompanied by hallucinations. These are known as night terrors. As you saw earlier, these lead to different cultures producing their own folktales.

Possible (physiological) causes include sleeping on your back, sleep deprivation, irregular sleeping patterns, stress, and excessive alcohol consumption.

They say most people will suffer from sleep paralysis at least once or twice in their lifetimes. Let’s hope I’ve paid my sleep paralysis dues.

The Nightmare, by Henry Fuseli (1781)

Love, Noeline
xox