Sleep Paralysis: Different Names Around the World, but the Same Things Seen

Sleep paralysis is medically known as "sleep paralysis". Every place has its own name for it, but when described, they are strikingly similar.

In China it is called "ghost pressing on the bed", written as "yan" in ancient books. Japan calls it "kanashibari", meaning being bound by metal. Mexico has a saying called "the dead person climbed on top". In Newfoundland, Canada, it is called "the old hag", said to be an old woman sitting on your chest. Brazil has a legend called "pisadeira", a woman with very long fingers who climbs onto the roof at night and steps on the chests of people who have eaten too much.

In 1982, a folklorist named David Hufford interviewed a large number of people in Newfoundland and wrote a book saying that the experiences these people described were highly consistent: waking up unable to move, someone in the room, a heavy chest, some hearing footsteps, some smelling a scent. He found that whether they believed in ghosts or had never heard of the term "old hag", what they described was roughly the same.

Later, sleep medicine gradually figured it out: during REM sleep, the body is naturally locked to prevent you from acting out your dreams. Occasionally the brain wakes up first but the lock hasn't released, and the person feels unable to move. In this state, the brain easily "fills in" a shadow. Some studies say that about one in ten people experience this at least once in their lifetime, with students and those with irregular sleep being more prone to it.

So these differently named things are actually the same thing. Yet people in every place still tell their own stories: an old hag, a female ghost, a woman with long fingers. In the dark, people always need to give this thing a name; once named, it gains a face.

#Dreams #网络转载 #睡眠瘫痪