Cultural explanations of sleep paralysis: The spiritual phenomena

Abstract

Introduction

Sleep paralysis (SP) is relatively frequent condition, occurring either at sleep onset or sleep offset. It occurs at least once in a lifetime in 40–50% of normal subjects. During SP, the patient experiences gross motor paralysis, while the sensory system is clear. Hypnogogic and hypnopompic hallucinations are common. This experience might be interpreted as a spiritual phenomenon in several cultures, each one with different interpretations and attributions.

Objective

The authors revisit the clinical presentation of sleep paralysis and how this sleep disorder is seen from a cultural perspective.

Aims

To describe several cultural interpretations of SP.

Methods

A literature review of the theme is shortly surveyed.

Results

It is very common during an episode of SP sensing the presence of menacing intruders in one's bedroom. Supernatural accounts of this hallucinated intruder are common across cultures. It has been traditionally labeled “ghost oppression” among the Chinese. In the Abruzzo region (Italy), the supernatural interpretation of the phenomena is called the Pandafeche attack. One study found that nearly half (48%) of the participants from the general Egyptian population believed their SP to be caused by the Jinn, a spirit-like creature. In Southwest Nigeria, Ogun Oru is a traditional explanation for nocturnal neuropsychiatric disturbances. The characteristics of the ‘a dead body climbed on top of me’ phenomenon suggest that is identical to sleep paralysis and a frequent experience among Mexican adolescents.

Conclusions

Depending on the etiological interpretations of SP, which is largely culturally determined, patients react to the event in specific ways.

Disclosure of interest

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.