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It’s somewhat astonishing when you consider what sleep paralysis looks like at different points in history and geography. The phenomenon itself hardly varies. People wake up in the middle of the night fully conscious they are awake, but they can’t move. They have a pressure on their chest as if something is lying on it. They feel a presence in the room. Sometimes they even hear or see things that are, to all appearances, completely real. You just turn on the part of the same whether you’re in Europe hundreds of years ago or living in a modern city today, and you’re fine. What differs is the way people describe it.

Different cultures have different narratives, different names, different significances to the experience. Beliefs don’t merely provide a post-hoc label for what is happening. They literally influence what people think they are seeing, how they think they are feeling, and what they think they are remembering later. The contemporary examples are really fascinating too. Even in cultures that we know about REM sleep and the  science around it, these beliefs have not disappeared. They have only evolved. Instead of witches and demons, there are now stories of shadow people at the foot of the bed, intruders in the room, or aliens. Movies and TV and stories online give people images to put themselves in line with what they’re feeling. A teenager watching horror movies late at night might wake up and see a dark shape at the room’s corner.

Conclusion

Centuries ago, someone would have called it a night hag, but the sensation is pretty much identical. This reveals something important about the human mind. The biological portion – how the brain skews consciousness and muscle control – is the same for everyone. But the interpretation of the experience is derived from culture, upbringing, and belief. People who believe in spirits tend to have more vivid and terrifying episodes.

Those who know the science are less frightened, and recall the experience differently. Sleep paralysis isn’t just a quirk of the brain. It expresses the fears, narratives, and social attitudes that we harbor. A momentary malfunction of the brain can snowball into a fully flesh-and-blood experience that feels entirely real and deeply personal.

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