Sleep paralysis. Maybe you’ve heard of it, maybe you haven’t. It has been around ever since the middle ages, but we still don’t know much about it. What is it? You might be wondering. Well, in short, it is a parasomnia (an undesired event associated with sleep) that many people (including the writer of this article) suffer from. It sounds pretty serious, but for me at least, it is mostly just annoying and inconvenient.

So, what happens?

Basically, what happens is that you wake up in the middle of the night completely paralyzed. For some people, it can even be accompanied by hallucinations, which can be terrifying. These hallucinations can range from completely harmless (though still scary) visions of random shapes around your room, to actually feeling something touching or attacking you. The most common hallucinations are usually just plain, simple, demons. These look different depending on the people who have the hallucinations, and some people don’t even see a distinct “shape” but just have the feeling of a creature being present. Your awareness and senses are intact, so you are completely aware of everything that is happening. After a while, most people tend to kind of get “used” to what is happening and they will know exactly what is going on: they are just hallucinating. For some people, however, especially when they haven’t been dealing with this for some time it can feel completely real and terrifying. People usually stay paralyzed for no longer than a few second/minutes, though it can definitely feel like a lot longer. It is completely harmless and not dangerous, though there is a big chance it will make it hard to fall back asleep.

What causes it?

When you fall asleep, your body voluntarily “paralyzes” itself to prevent you from hurting yourself in your sleep. Sleep paralysis will disrupt the REM (rapid eye movement) sleep cycle, which is the part of the sleep that your brain is most active. At this point, your consciousness is awake, but your body is still asleep. The areas of the brain that detect threats are in a heightened state and overly sensitive.

How can you stop it?

This is where science can’t really help us anymore. Though there has been research done on this subject, it was mostly focused on finding out what actually happens during these episodes. Since it is not really harmful or threatening scientists haven’t made it a big priority to find out how to stop it. This means there isn’t a “cure” (yet).

Could it just be demons?

The creatures that are hallucinated are often described as “sleep-demons”. It has terrorized people for thousands of years and was believed to be actual demons up until a century ago. In the middle ages it was often believed that people were being visited by evil spirits, or sometimes even the devil himself. Even today, many societies still believe these instances are of supernatural nature. In Newfoundland, for example, people believe in the “Old Hag” who sits on the sleeper's chest and tries to suffocate them. In Japan, some people believe in “kanashibari”, which is a type of nocturnal spiritual attack. Cultures all over the world have their own explanations behind these events.

Has this article opened your eyes on that one time a demon visited you in your sleep? Now you know there is a scientific explanation behind it you can rest assured. Though some people also believe other explanations. Whether you think it is science or demons, is up to you.