What do Moby Dick, the Salem witch trials and alien abductions all have in common? They all circle back to sleep paralysis.
Less than 8 percent of the general population experiences sleep paralysis, but it is more frequent in two groups — students and psychiatric patients — according to a new study by psychologists at Penn State and the University of Pennsylvania.
Sleep paralysis is defined as “a discrete period of time during which voluntary muscle movement is inhibited, yet ocular and respiratory movements are intact,” the researchers state in the current issue of Sleep Medicine Reviews. Hallucinations may also be present in these transitions to or from sleep.
Alien abductions and incubi and succubi, as well as other demons that attack while people are asleep, are implicated as different cultural interpretations of sleep paralysis. The Salem witch trials are now thought possibly to involve the townspeople experiencing sleep paralysis. And in the 19th-century novel Moby Dick, the main character Ishmael experiences an episode of sleep paralysis in the form of a malevolent presence in the room.
Brian A. Sharpless, clinical assistant professor of psychology and assistant director of the psychological clinic at Penn State, noted that some people who experience these episodes may regularly try to avoid going to sleep because of the unpleasant sensations they experience. But other people enjoy the sensations they feel during sleep paralysis.
“I realized that there were no real sleep paralysis prevalence rates available that were based on large and diverse samples,” Sharpless said. “So I combined data from my previous study with 34 other studies in order to determine how common it was in different groups.”
He looked at a total of 35 published studies from the past 50 years to find lifetime sleep paralysis rates. These studies surveyed a total of 36,533 people. Overall he found that about one-fifth of these people experienced an episode at least once. Frequency of sleep paralysis ranged from once in a lifetime to every night.
When looking at specific groups, 28 percent of students reported experiencing sleep paralysis, while nearly 32 percent of psychiatric patients reported experiencing at least one episode. People with panic disorder were even more likely to experience sleep paralysis, and almost 35 percent of those surveyed reported experiencing these episodes. Sleep paralysis also appears to be more common in non-Caucasians.
“Sleep paralysis should be assessed more regularly and uniformly in order to determine its impact on individual functioning and better articulate its relation to other psychiatric and medical conditions,” said Sharpless.
He looked at a broad range of samples, and papers were included from many different countries.
People experience three basic types of hallucinations during sleep paralysis — the presence of an intruder, pressure on the chest sometimes accompanied by physical and/or sexual assault experiences and levitation or out-of-body experiences.
Up to this point there has been little research conducted on how to alleviate sleep paralysis or whether or not people experience episodes throughout their lives.
“I want to better understand how sleep paralysis affects people, as opposed to simply knowing that they experience it,” said Sharpless. “I want to see how it impacts their lives.” Sharpless hopes to look at relationships between sleep paralysis and post-traumatic stress disorder in the future.
This research was supported in part by the National Institute of Mental Health.
Also working on this research was Jacques P. Barber, professor of psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania.
Add me to the list. I can still remember the first time this happened, I was just 19 years old and nothing stressful was going on in my life. It scared me breathless. That night it happened 3 more times. I am now 36 and I can’t even count on both hands how many times it has happened. They have grown to be more & more realistic as time as went on. They are so real now that I could describe every touch & scent. They are sexual in nature, very much so. I have now grown to go with it, it’s not as traumatic if I don’t fight it.
I am so happy I found this article and all these comments. In my mid teens when I had this problem, while experiencing the first episode, I really truly thought I had died. I fell asleep in the class room and a the teacher for the next period came in and I heard all the chattering and so on, but couldn’t sit up. I was fully conscious of my surroundings but could not move. I started crying because I was terrified, I thought I had died. The weird thing was that I could see my tears pooling on my skirt, I could hear my friend whispering for me to sit up, but I could not move. It took the teacher literally lifting my shoulders to sit me up to get me back to normal.
From this moment I had them frequently I’ll assume no more that 2 weeks between them. I would spend what would seem like hours trying to move when I wake. For some reason it rarely happened in the morning when I would normally wake after a night’s sleep, mainly if I nap or wake in the middle of the night.
I only had the versions related to stopping breathing, paralysis and levitation, never other presences. The levitation was really bizare as i could see myself completely and also drift around the room.
I currently have this happen to me very rarely. I thought that it was merely as a result of feeling more in control during the episodes. I learnt after a few years not to fear the situation, to embrace it and realise I can’t stop this even if I wanted to. I now try to wake, find I can’t and then promptly go straight back to sleep. I haven’t had the stop breathing version, which started in early childhood, since my early teens.
The one thing I know seems to bring it on is when I’m stressed and sleep deprived.
It doesn’t really say if they studied people while it was happening to them, or if they could recreate it. This happen to me once in college. I was very stressed out at he time. I woke up in the middle of the night from something heavy sitting on my chest staring at me. I could barely breathe it was heavy. It was this black daemon creature thing. I stared to pray and it went away after a few seconds. After this thing left I could move. I got up, turned the light on, and did not sleep the rest of the night. I was really afraid of this thing re-occurring for a while, but it hasn’t happened since. This was actually one of the most intense things that ever happened to me.
I have also had the same experiences, it is the most frightening thing ever. The last time it happened was about 2 months ago, I felt someone pull the covers off, so I opened my eyes and I could not move. Then I saw a demon in the corner of the room, then it moved towards the bed and it was hovering over me. I could see it, smell it, and feel it. I tried to scream and move, but nothing happened. My baby was in the bed with me, and when I looked for him, he was gone. I was in panic mode, but could not move. When I finally woke up everything was back to normal and my son was still in bed. It has been happening for years, so have been evil and some have been of sexual nature. The one I had more recently has been so hard to forget, because it felt so real. Then I told my mom about it and the same night, she had the same experience, but for her it was that someone crawled in bed with her and was trying to crush her, she felt pressure in her chest, and when she turned to see who it was, it was a cold dark figure, she said she touched it’s hand and it felt like a skeleton. I’ve always been fascinated by dreams, and I have some of the strangest dreams out there, but when you feel and see things, or even have the feeling of levitating, it just changes you.
I started experiencing it since i was a teenager and now i am 32. its such a fearful and terrible experience,there were nights i was afraid to go to sleep and sometimes i experienced it in the afternoon while sleeping.i would be conscious of my environment but would be struggling to get up. my mother once told me that i slept with my eyes opened then i told her of the experiences i was having,she also experiences it with my sister,its just that my own experience is the worst. I started praying about it,because i saw it as a demonic attack.Now it rarely occurs and even if it does i just pray in the name of Jesus and go back to sleep without any fear!Never knew science has an explanation to it.
I also experienced this sleep paralysis several times during college. When I thought a ghost like man with hairy face and body was sleeping beside me, My mind was conscious but I can’t move and speak. I know his beside me cause the bed suddenly makes a noise that someone was leaning towards me. It really give me creeps…
With this article, it helps me to understand what that incident really was.
yea the same thing you guys described i’ve had happen to me, i was about 17-18 in my room on the floor dead asleep, when out of no where i had awoken my body lay frozen on the floor. My eyes for the life of me could not open, it was the worst feeling i had ever felt, feeling something in my room looking at me from behind while i was paralyzed, just waiting for me to awake. Finally i broke free, i remember opening my eyes in pitch black darkness & seeing IT, just staring me in the face, i literally jerked my head back away from the black figure i was so scared i jumped to my feet, & had just enough time to watch this thing go down on all fours & crawl backwards looking at me into a corner & disappear into darkness, i didn’t sleep that whole nite, morning came & i was off to school pale as paper, i am now 20 & it hasn’t happened to me since, the reason i think it happened to me was because my ma & pa were going though a personal thing that affected my sister, brother & i deeply, to this day im still not the same person either cause of what i saw or what happened to me that nite. & a couple nites before this happened i had stopped breathing in my sleep more than once has this happened to any of you?
I have had these experiences for over 20 yrs now. I am now 34 yrs old and the last time this happened to me has been a few yrs. It’s not something I would want anyone to experience. And for those who have never experienced it, it’s easy to give it a name and explain it. But for those of us that have experienced it, it’s another story.
Can they explain why if we were to go back to sleep again right after it happened, it can happen again. I prayed to God every time it happened and I could feel the pressure/presence even stronger before it went away. Can they explain why after it happens we can jump instantly out of bed…even though “our voluntary muscle movement was inhibited.”
It wasn’t until about 10 yrs ago that my older brother said “who cares let it happen.” So I laid in bed and dared it to happen to me. It happened and I let it happen. Then I egged it on and dared it to do it again and said I will not let it beat me. That night it happened to me 5 times in a row. Can science explain that… Since then I have rarely had another experience.
I am glad that others can relate to these experiences and that this article is looking into this phenomenon.
Yes, this is the best way to deal with these dreams…I did this a few times, and the exact thing happened. It kept coming back in the same night, but then stopped coming the subsequent nights. Confronting makes it less scary
I have experienced these types of dreams as well. The one I really remember was probably about 10 years ago. I was alseep on my back and felt there was something in the room. It felt evil at first, but then I could swear it was my husband’s best friend looking in my nightstand for something. I don’t know, it was strange. I felt like I was awake but couldn’t move or talk (and not for lack of trying). I have had that happen several more times since then and it’s always an evil sense. I heard someone say once that it was you. That when this happens, you woke up before you could get back into your body. I don’t know if that is true, but it made me feel better. Like there really wasn’t evil in the room with me.
I’ve been experiencing this since I was in my early teens and I’m almost 33. I remember the first time it happened it scared me so bad I sleep in my sister bed with her for a week after. All I knew is i couldn’t move or talk yet I was awake and could see everything around me with an over whelming feeling if I closed my eyes I’d never wake up. I try to fight my way out of it by moving one finger out at time and then my whole body would jerk awake I had this happen on a regular basics till I was in my early 20’s. Then it started to get freaker seeing thing including people. I had one where It felt so real a guy came in to my room but I never seen his face and I can to this day still feel the touch ( not a good touch) when I think about it even though there was no actual touching it just felt that real. The last time was an evil black smokey Presence in the room that was circling above my bed. I could go on and on about the stuff I see but the thing that always the same in the not moving and the feeling if I close my eye’s I will never wake up. I notice mine come in waves as in I will go a couple weeks with having none and then I will go a couple weeks and it will happen every night. I also have to get up and stay up for a good 20 mins or 30 mins before I try to sleep again or I will go right back in to one.
OMG!!!!! I’m glad I’m not the only one. Andrea I have experienced the same thing have the same thing and it has been happening to me since for the same amount of time. I’m 31 now and still get them. It is the most terrifying thing. I just try and ignore it now. You said you felt a guy, I felt and saw a women come into to my room and could feel her touch me, it was the oddest thing. I also couldn’t make out her face. I have also felt like I had full body levitation off the bed. I don’t understand how what you described is so close to what I experienced. I’m glad for the scientific explanation, but I feel there is more to it.
The same things happen to me. Sometimes i wake up and cant move or scream and it feels like someone or something is in the room with me and is going to get me. Mostly, i wake up and see things that are not there they get in my face or run up to me. However, I scream and move when this happens. I used to be terrified of going to sleep and waking up because of this. It started when i was younger. i am now 30 and it still occurs.
The thing that helps me is to not fight against it, but to relax and it will stop. Whenever I do that I will always start to fly and be able to control my dream until I drift off. Things that trigger sleep paralysis for me: sleeping on my back with my head propped up like on a couch arm or in a chair, taking a nap during the day will trigger one that night. I have learned to enjoy the experience and actually get excited when it happens now even though it’s still scary for the first few minutes.
I’ve managed to learn to snap out of it. It works like 90% of the time… when the whole thing is going on i stop fighting it and start saying ‘wake up wake up wake up wake up wake up’.
@ Chad, I too pray and tell myself I am in control of my body and mind and fight it. When I see or hear things I tell them go to God. This helps me. I am greatful for this article.
I can remember as a child that I was being held down by something. A friend had told me it is probably a point in my sleep when I am half awake and half asleep. Now that I am an adult I have dreams where I experience out of body, I can see myself or traveling to places I have not seen. I look at it as a adventure. My husband said some religions meditate to experience out of body….no clue.. but I know I have no anxiety, in fact I am a calm person.
I have had these expierences for the last 15 years. I am 33 now and had the last episode a few weeks ago. They used to happen all the time and were very scary at first. At some point I learned to control my fear. Sometimes they even were exciting. When they didn’t happen for a long while the fear comes right back.
The typical experience happens right when I am first falling asleep. It is like my body falls asleep, but my mind is still awake. I have had hallucinations, heard voices and have felt out of body experiences. There is always the sensation of a loud static noise, vibration, preasure, maybe even falling. I have felt evil, heard evil voices, and have seen what I thought was evil images. It has scared the crap out of me at times.
One time about 13 years ago I was sleeping on a friends couch, when I fell asleep I couldn’t move and heard a loud demonic voice say ” We are coming for you!”. I struggled to yell for help to have my buddy wake me up, but he didn’t. The next day I asked him if he heard me in my sleep. He said he heard me making noise, but didn’t think much of it. I told him that I was yelling for help.
The last time that it happened a few weeks ago, I told my wife that if she hears me struggling in my sleep to wake me up because I am screaming for help. The only thing that I have found to help is prayer. I pray for God to put a circle of protection around me. I ask for God to guide me in my sleep and I pray that the demons leave me alone. Then I am able to finally fall asleep. Having my wife close to me helps the most.
I belive that this is probably all in my mind, but my mind will play tricks on me. This is the first article that I have read that talks about what I have experienced. It is very strange and hard to explain to people. When I lived in Hawaii I told this to someone and they told me of a local story of the chocking ghost that would cause the same experience. I never believed that since it happened even off the island to me.
You’re experience is entirely identical to mine. The main thing that sticks out to me is the Demonic Voice. I do not believe it is your mind playing tricks on you though. I believe it is “demons,” spirits” whatever you want to call out. I believe they are attacking you at this point. I believe this because the times when it actually occurs to me is when I am in a low point. When my guard is down and my energy is low… they detect that and they … prey on the weakness. I do not know the “ultimate goal” but I’ve been entirely too terrified to find out. I have problems sleeping now due to my subconscious deliberately attempting to avoid that experience, and had to keep the tv on for two years to keep me… semi awake. All i can take from it as this point… is they want to feed on your energy in some form. And the only way to avoid it is to be a higher being of energy than they are… In another comment one stated that they would pray and that would solve it for them. Well that coincides with how feel. IN the past they used to call it Old Hag Syndrome. Leonardo Da Vinci even painted pictures depicting a demon hunched on a womans chest. It is definately and interesting topic but I do not believe science well ever have a definite understanding of this event; like many other prevelant functions of day to day life that we do not understand. It’s no physical It’s spiritual.
It has been happening to me since I reached my 20’s. Mostly, the episode consist of total paralysis and a highly lucid experience of all happenings in the room I’m sleeping in. My episodes have mainly been of the “Evil” presence variety, and I can’t lie I was really worried I offended God in some way. If any of you personally knew me, I’m about as secular as they come. I would consider myself more of Buddhist than anything. The correlative nature of Panic Attacks to this Sleep Paralysis seems to be a valid connection. I suffer from frequent Panic Attacks. I tried meditation and that seemed to really help with those episodes. I think exhaustion really plays a part with the Sleep Paralysis. It could even be something more than mere physical exhaustion, as anyone knows an anxiety disorder is both physically and emotionally draining. It’s possible these could be triggering events. I really am thankful for this article and the research being done. This has certainly made me feel a lot better about these events and now I have a more scientific explanation, rather than some “Dark Presence” in the room theory.
i experience that about as much as Izkik said. sometimes its at a point to where i cant breathe and fight so hard to move or make a sound and nothing happens. once my wife and i were going to bed and she practically shook the life back into me, she said that i wasnt breathing for a while, non responsive and thought i was dead. i woke up said wtf!, pulled my shirt out of the grip of her hands laid back down (cause she pulled me up to a seated position) and went back to sleep.
I have experienced the same thing many times. When I am struggling to move and can’t, I have found that I can still move my feet to wake myself up. Very strange, but it works for me.
I experience sleep paralysis at least 5 times a month… it’s horrible… there was a time when i was still in college that I had sleep paralysis every single night (even during the day if I took a nap) for over a month… I remember I was constantly scared, and I’d be scared to go to bed… and it all got so bad that I would constantly cry in desperation… I even moved to a new apartment thinking it might help…
by the way moving to a new place did help a little… but did not make it go away. I honestly thought I was going crazy… until one day I opened up to one of my friends… and she told me about sleep paralysis.
Upon reading this article, it broght back memories back when i was in high school. I have a few questions. But other then that a big relief all these years i thought something was attached to me something evil.
I have experienced these types of dreams several time. It’s always the same dream where I’m dreaming of someone suffocating me, I’m awake but unable to move my body and my face is in my pillow.
Good article. Caught my eye because I expierenced some of this last night, and do pretty frequently.