Imagine waking up suddenly in the middle of the night, you are fully aware of your surroundings but no matter how much you will it, you can’t bring yourself to move; you feel paralysed. In some cases, you may wake up to a strong feeling that there’s a presence in the room, something meant to harm or threaten you. In these scenarios, you are usually filled with terror, only finding respite in falling back to sleep. This is called sleep paralysis or sleep hallucinations (some people also refer to them as sleep demons).
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Sleep paralysis
According to the Sleep Foundation, about 20% of people occasionally have an episode of sleep paralysis. Of these episodes, 75% of people who had them experienced hallucinations in which they hear, see, feel or sense something in their bedroom. Thankfully, apart from leaving you shaken for a while, sleep hallucinations or demons are not harmful; they’re simply the results of disrupted sleep.
As with many strange occurrences, sleepers who experience sleep hallucinations typically turn to the internet to find answers. Analysing the over 500 monthly Google searches for the term ‘sleep paralysis demon’, the team at Mattress Online came up with a list of the 10 most common occurrences:
- Old hag
- Man
- Hat man
- Shadows
- Electrical buzzing
Others include; hearing voices, witch, spiders, electric shock feeling and demon on chest.
True-crime and sleep paralysis
Stories of sleep hallucinations have been interpreted variedly through the lens of culture and time over the years. They have (naturally) found their way into popular culture and traditions like Halloween and horror movies.
According to a dream interpreter, Inbaal Honigman who was interviewed by Mattress Online, watching true-crime documentaries especially just before bed, could make you more susceptible to having an episode of sleep paralysis.
Arguably, the recent overconsumption of true-crime content by viewers presents more of a risk, as the perception of violent criminals hiding in plain sight in our midst, could cause a much more heightened sense of anxiety than a trick-or-treating child in a plastic mask.
Just as Halloween and horror movie imagery has become less jarring to most people over time, if you dedicatedly watch true-crime content long enough, its impact on your sleep may eventually lose its potency.
Sources used:
Mattress Online: AI Brings ‘Sleep Demons’ to Life
Sleep Foundation: Sleep Demon
Cleveland Clinic: What You Should Know About Sleep Paralysis and ‘Sleep Demons’
