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Running header: Sleep Paralysis

Sleep Paralysis – A Sri Lankan Perspective

Umar Mohamed Iyoob

IYUM200709

Summer 2008
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INTRODUCTION

I was in Stillwater, Oklahoma visiting with my eldest brother who had some friends there from

his days at Oklahoma State University when it happened for the very first time. I had awakened

and I felt this heavy weight on my body and another feeling that I can only describe as if

someone is lying on top of me, forcing me down (hence holding my whole body down) holding

my lips and eyelids shut. I could hear though. This lasted for about 10 seconds. During these 10

seconds all sorts of thoughts started running through my mind questioning the reality of this

phenomenon and even extended to states where I thought I must be dead! Then all of a sudden,

my eyelids opened and I could look around I could even see from my peripheral vision that my

brother was sleeping. I shouted and shouted but in vain. Within the next minute I had fully

awakened and all of a sudden jerked up into a seated position on the bed. This was one of the

most horrific and frightening experiences I have ever had.

At that time I didn’t even know what to call this episode I had experienced. I felt quite

embarrassed to talk about it in general for a reason I don’t know till today. About six months later

I started developing stress induced migraine. My father wanted me to go and see an Islamic priest

and scholar as they felt it was a trick of the devil. In the mean time I had been referred to a

neurosurgeon with regards to my migraine. When I asked him about this phenomenon that kept

happening and after many explanations he finally came out with the term ‘sleep paralysis’. I was

so relieved that I had finally found something to call my problem. The doctor also said that this

happened as a result of migraine.

I had a few isolated incidents after that, the last occurring in November 07’. I recently started

looking into it more objectively and have found interesting views on the probable scientific cause

of sleep paralysis and the publics as well as religious views on the phenomenon that I have
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experienced so many times. This is what I shall be exploring in the paper. I shall look at the

general public’s views on it, the scientific view and lastly the religious view on this phenomenon.

LITERATURE REVIEW

When a person, usually lying on his back (in a supine position), is on the verge of falling asleep

or is just waking up and is incapable of any form of movement or speech, this condition is

referred to as Sleep Paralysis. Lasting from anywhere between seconds to minutes this

phenomenon might induce mounting fear and panic in the affected individual along with various

forms of sensory hallucination that may be fantastical or horrific in nature.

The inability experienced at the onset of sleep or upon awakening, short episodes of partial or

complete skeletal paralysis, and quite frequent occurrences of hallucinations, known as

hypnagogic and hypnopompic experiences. Sleep Paralysis often brings out panic, which

increases due to the incapability to speak or shout. The Intruder, the incubus and unusual bodily

experiences are the three types of hallucinations that a person experiencing sleep paralysis may

come across. Science has a very clear cut answer to the mechanics of sleep paralysis. During

REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep, a paralysis naturally occurs in the body in order to stop an

individual from acting out one’s dreams.

‘Sleep paralysis occurs when the brain awakes from a REM state, but the bodily paralysis

persists. This leaves the person fully conscious, but unable to move.’

Throughout history there have been numerous documentations of sleep paralysis. Descriptions of

these accounts go as far back as 400 BC in a Chinese book of dreams. Since the beginning sleep
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paralysis has been associated with evil entities. The word ‘nightmare’ in the west was originally

meant for sleep paralysis.

'[Those] taken with this disease, imagine that a man of monstrous stature sitteth on them, which

with his hands violently stoppeth their mouth, that they can by no meanes cry out, and they

strive with their armes and hands to drive him away, but all in vain.'

- Ludwig Lavater, 16th-Century Swiss minister.

Sleep Paralysis has mainly been associated with stress and anxiety as induce hormone production

which in turn upsets the bodily hormonal balances thus giving rise to sleep paralysis. Post-

traumatic stress disorder (PTST), fatigue, heavy physical activity, extreme changes in physical

activity, jetlag and other stress-related conditions may bring about sleep paralysis due to the

disturbance of sleep cycles. Some researchers have also reported a link between childhood sexual

abuse and sleep paralysis. Numerous researches have also been done linking final stages of

pregnancy to sleep paralysis.

METHODOLOGY

The subjects of my research were mainly teenagers as sleep paralysis almost always starts at

adolescence since teenagers are more sleep derived than the rest. I split my research interviews

into two types. One was based on personal interviews that I took of people in Sri Lanka locally.

The other was based on Sri Lankans who have posted questions related to sleep paralysis online.

Questions on religion were administered to both groups. This way I could take local as well as

religious views.
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Of the subjects whom I interviewed personally, most of them were just normal teenagers around

me. I interviewed a total of seven subjects. All of them were in their teens. I chose them as even if

they didn’t know what sleep paralysis was, it would be easier to explain it to them rather than an

elder person as there was a big possibility that the teens would be going through it without

knowing that it actually was sleep paralysis. I had prepared a total of five research questions for

these research subjects.

I also caught Sri Lankans opinions from online question-answer sites as well as religious opinion

pieces. I searched for these specific locals as some people may not want to be noticed as different

and may even refrain from telling the truth when it came to one-on-one interviews. This is typical

of Sri Lanka’s conformist society in general where people just want to lead a general life without

being noticed much.

I faced a few problems during this process of collecting data as it was tough to find priests who

knew what sleep paralysis exactly was. And out of the few priests I did interview, all of them

came up with only one answer once I was done explaining what sleep paralysis actually was.

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

My first and biggest finding here was that a lot of people do not know what sleep paralysis

actually is and even though they might have experienced this phenomenon as early as the night

before, they wouldn’t know what it was called and hence was quite frustrating when it came to

interviews.
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From my seven research subjects, five had been sure they had experienced symptoms similar to

sleep paralysis and totally confirmed all the data that science had to offer, while the other two

were not sure that they had experienced sleep paralysis at all. Out of the five who agreed on all

the facts, two said that even though they knew there was a logical answer as to why it had

happened, they thought it was brought on by an evil presence. One of the subjects even attributed

sleep paralysis to – ‘a gift from God to tell you to be ever ready for death’.

It was from my online discussions and research that I was able to find some clear views on how

Sri Lankans felt about what they thought of sleep paralysis and religion. A Christian girl kept

stating that the more she got away from Christianity, the more her sleep paralysis kept decreasing.

I found this quite on the contrary to other specific beliefs that as long as you have God on your

side the devil can not harm you. But a person had commented on her statement stating that if one

is going away from God, the devil has done his job and will leave one alone hence decreasing

one’s sleep paralysis episodes.

Regarding how Hindus felt about it, I found a whole spiritual research foundation and a whole

paper with what an informative Hindu should know about sleep paralysis. They say ‘seekers of

God’ feel them much less than ‘non-seekers’. They attribute sleep paralysis happening in the

supine position to the least activity in one of the two main ‘kundalini’ channels. They give a three

percent reason of sleep paralysis occurrence to bodily chemical changes and a sixty percent

reason for spiritual reasons including Ghosts, Black Magic, Subtle bodies of departed ancestors,

planets, destiny, place, premise, kundalini all part of this sixty percent.
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Local Muslims in general attribute this to presence or doings of bad jinn or shaitaan (Satan).

Once educated with the scientific reason on sleep paralysis, they don’t disagree with it but at the

same time do not negate the presence of evil entities here. The rest of the general public which

consists of mainly Buddhists call this phenomenon ‘amuku be’ or ‘amuku pei’ meaning the ghost

that forces one down.

CONCLUSION

As a Sri Lankan perspective on sleep paralysis, I would like to reiterate the fact that most of the

people have experienced it, but don’t want to discuss it or just shrug it away. I believe that it is

not until that it keeps happening again and again that a person actually takes time out to go and

check into the matter. For me it was migraine that helped me come to the term ‘sleep paralysis’.

What if I didn’t have migraine? Would I be like the rest of teenage Sri Lanka that are suffering

from continuous sleep paralysis and at the same time not knowing what it is called and afraid that

I might be some kind of ‘queer’?

Non-conforming with society is one of the biggest reasons why I believe people don’t attribute

sleep paralysis to being a normal occurrence. The political and civil situation in this country is so

bad that I have no doubt that at least eh working population are overtly stressed out and suffer

from traumas enough to cause them sleep paralysis. Each one in the end comes up with his/her

own explanation with it and in total conformity with Sri Lankan culture doesn’t complain and

pass the general age during which it occurs.

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REFERENCES

1. Farlander and Mina (2006, January 26). Sleep Paralysis - BBC

Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A6092471

2. Spiritual Research into Sleep Paralysis - Spiritual Science Research Foundation. (n.d.)

Retrieved July 23,2008, from SSRF:

http://www.spiritualresearchfoundation.org/spiritualresearch/spiritualityandhealth/sleepparaly

sis/

3. Wikipedia. (n.d.). Retrieved July 22, 2008, from Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_paralysis
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APPENDIX

• One of many outlooks into reasons behind Sleep Paralysis

• Another personal account on sleep paralysis: It was exactly 10:30 pm (I looked at a digital

watch) and I went to sleep. My cousin was sleeping next to me. I was very tired after a

long day of work and play. I fell asleep immediately and next thing I know I couldn’t

move but I could see. And this time I saw a misty cloud looking “phantom” coming to me

from my cousin’s side. I was screaming in my head but no one could hear me. Believe it

or not, I was so tired I fell right back to sleep in the midst of this experience of being
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paralyzed as well as hallucinating (I guess)! Now comes the weird part – Within the same

night I was paralyzed FOUR times though I hallucinated only the first time. Each time I

shrugged it and went back to sleep as I was too tired. The fourth time however I freaked

out and waited till I was fully awake. I then sat upright and looked at the time and it was

10:35 pm! I had experienced it 4 times in five minutes and I had felt like half the night

had passed.