Which type of sleep disorder is commonly preferred by the Hag, Incubus, or space aliens? As one who has experienced the little known disorder of Sleep Paralysis, it’s a bewildering experience of nocturnal nuisance: falling asleep or awakening in a twilight existence, unable to move, unable to “wake up”.

I first began having espisodes of sleep paralysis several years ago after waking from naps, in fact, I’ve never experienced sleep paralysis after awakening from a nightime slumber nor while falling asleep. My brain would tell me I was awake yet my body wouldn’t respond: I felt “paralysed”. I couldn’t open my eyes but I could “see” and “hear”. At times I thought I heard someone knocking on the door, the phone ringing, or voices of family members, yet I learned that these were hallucinations. I would “will” my body to wake up.

I haven’t experienced sleep paralysis for years but a recent television show about hauntings piqued my interest: a woman claimed she was visited by a ghostly hag while in the grips of sleep paralysis.

According to Medicine Net.com, Sleep Paralysis occurs due to an “ill-timed disconnection between the brain and the body”. A form of paralysis, Sleep Paralysis, occurs when one is unable to “move” when either falling asleep or waking up. SP is also a common symptom of narcolepsy, even though one can have episodes of SP without experiencing any of the other three symptoms: episodes of falling asleep or drowsiness, cataplexy, the sudden loss of muscle tone, and vivid hallucinations while falling asleep.

Again, I experienced SP only when awaking from a nap and also experienced hallucinations of the phone ringing, of someone knocking on the door or attempting to break in, or of family members having conversations while no one, except me, was at home.

The symptoms of sleep paralysis include sensations of noises, smells, levitation, paralysis, terror, and images of frightening intruders. Once considered very rare, about half of all people are now believed to experience sleep paralysis sometime during their life.

It’s all in the timing: Sleep Paralysis, or SP, occurs as we move in and out of the stage of sleep known as REM, or Rapid Eye Movement. During REM, our bodies are “disconnected from our brain”, leaving our bodies paralysed. The glitch which throws our body into SP is caused by a “premature” exit or entrance to REM. It can be ascerbated by jet lag or periods of sleepnessless and is common in teenagers, yet it wasn’t until later in life that I began to experience SP.

According to the experts, SP is harmless, lasts only a minute or two, can occur at any age, affects both sexes, and can be handed down through genetics. But Medicine Net did note that SP may have been the cause of death of otherwise healthy teens living in Southeast Asia, who died in their sleep after “fighting for breath, without thrashing around”.

The Demons in Our Dreams

According to the site, Dreams and Nightmares, cultural myths such as Incubus and the Hag have been frightening humans for thousands of years:

“The Incubus, which appears in ancient literature, is one such example. In the book Incubus by Kiessling, It was described as half man half beast, attacking in the night. The word night “mare” has been derived from the word incubus. In Greek it was ephialtes, in Latin incubus, in German mar/mare, in Old English maire, Old Norse mara, Old Irish mar/mor, and all mean “one who leaps on, oppresses or crushes.”

The Hag is another such “creature of the night”, victims believe a mishapen “hag” visits while in the grips of SP, “sitting on their victim’s chests”, with experiences reported of being “choked” or “bitten”. The Hag and Incubus have been around for a while, it seems they would have been discarded to the historical ashheap for more “modern” attacks of hallucinatory SP. Yet it seems the Hag has somehow managed to remain firmly attached to some experiencing an “attack” of SP.

I found one such “Hag” story on the site, Your Ghost Stories. A woman wrote about her husband’s experience with a “Hag” when he was ten years old:

“Afterward, I said to him “have you had any other experiences” and he said that when he was around 10 years old, he had lived in a small house with his parents and younger brother and he and his brother’s bedroom was just off the kitchen. Well he said his brother’s bed was against the wall but his was kind of facing the kitchen and his bedroom door was opened. He said how this had always scared him as the kitchen was dark to look at. Well, one night he couldn’t sleep and was laying there in his bed looking out the door, when he thought he saw something. As he looked closer, he saw an old woman’s face coming closer and closer in the dark with long dark stringy hair and red eyes. He said he looked again because he couldn’t believe it and sure enough, it was coming closer and his first thought was to get up and jump in bed with his brother. I said “well why didn’t you scream for you parents or scream out loud,” and he said because he had always heard about the “HAG” and he heard that if you were touching another person when she appeared then she couldn’t get you.”

In another “Hag” encouter from the site, Ghosts.org, a contributor related a “Hag” encounter from their childhood past: of awaking during the night to feel “fingers going through their hair”, of “sharp nails” and a “raspy breath”. The person wrote that they were “too scared” to move or scream, that eventually they managed to fall back asleep.

And yet, if these “hallucinations” are a product of our imagination, then why aren’t SP sufferers visited by more benign “visitors” such as Tinkerbell or Sesame Street’s the Cookie Monster? Why does the nasty trollop, the Hag, whose been around for centuries, continue to intrude our sleep space during SP?

Aliens From Outer Space and Sleep Paralysis

One theory floated about concerns claims of alien visitation during sleep and Sleep Paralysis hallucinations. According to the site, Committee for Skeptics, a study found “abductees of space aliens” reported “significantly more frequent sleep paralysis than either of the control groups”.

Luckily for me, during episodes of SP, I never experienced visits from space aliens or the Hag. Instead I felt frightened as I “knew” I was awake but unable to move. Along with hallucinations of someone knocking loudly on the door or attempting to break into my home, it was if I were “willing” my body to wake up but couldn’t until the episode of SP ended. What probably lasted for a minute or two seemed like an eternity. Thanks to the marvels of modern science I now know it’s merely a matter of a glitch between my brain and my body during REM.

By LBG

Image – Night Terrors
Image – The Hag
Source: The Naked Scientists, Sleep Paralysis