Sleep paralysis has inspired horror paintings and stories. However, scientists are now beginning to better understand why some people wake up unable to move, and why hallucinations sometimes persist.

Sleep paralysis can significantly affect your life and daily routine. As 24-year-old Victoria told the BBC, the first time this happened to her was when she was 18 years old. “I woke up and couldn’t move,” she says.

Inspiration for “Frankenstein”

“I saw a gremlin-like figure hiding behind my curtain. He jumped on my chest. I thought I was in another dimension. And the worst thing was that I couldn’t scream. It was so powerful, so real…” she says.

Scientists believe that sleep paralysis has always affected people. There are several vivid descriptions of such cases in the history of literature, and it seems that Mary Shelley was inspired by a painting depicting such an episode to write the scene in Frankenstein.

“It’s a phenomenon that we didn’t know about … but interest in it has increased over the past ten years,” says Baland Jalal, a sleep researcher at Harvard University who completed what may be the first clinical sleep trial in 2020. Possible treatments for sleep paralysis.

Demons, angels and… clones

It is noted that in the case of sleep paralysis, many people experience hallucinations of demons, ghosts, intruders or deceased relatives. They see floating body parts or clones of themselves standing next to their bed. Others see angels and then believe they had some kind of religious experience.

Researchers believe that these hallucinations may have led people to believe in witches in early modern Europe, and may also explain some modern claims of alien abductions.

Until recently, there has been debate about how people experience sleep paralysis. Relevant studies were conducted sporadically and with little consistency in terms of the methods used.

“It’s not that uncommon”

However, in 2011, clinical psychologist Brian Sharpless conducted the most extensive data analysis to date on how widespread sleep paralysis is. In particular, the analysis looked at data from 35 studies covering a fifty-year period.

In total, more than 36,000 volunteers took part in it. Sharpless found that sleep paralysis is more common than previously thought, with about 8% of adults reporting that they have experienced it at some point in their lives. This percentage is much higher among students (28%) and people with mental problems (32%). “It’s not that uncommon,” he says.

In more severe cases of sleep paralysis, even drugs such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, which are commonly used to treat depression, have been considered.

For his part, however, Baland Jalal also points to the fact that the fear of the supernatural makes people feel more threatened by sleep paralysis, and it is this anxiety that makes it more likely that they will actually experience such an event – which is an example of how interconnected the works of our mind and body.

^{Source: The Future of the BBC.}