Hallucinatory sleep paralysis


A more terrifying sister to the common sleep paralysis is the hallucinatory sleep paralysis also known as the hypnagogic sleep paralysis and the Hag phenomena.


There are three major differences between Hallucinatory Sleep Paralysis (HSP) and CSP.

Characteristics of sleep paralysis


1 Whereas CSP is common and universal HSP is rare and seems to be geographically episodic.


2 CSP is of raletively short duration where HSP can last as long as seven or eight minutes.


3 The major difference of course is that CSP maybe unsettling for the sleeper but the HSP is accompanied by a nightmarish hallucination.



There is evidence that HSP seems to affect an area (e.g. a village) much like an epidemic. A region that has had no HSPs reported may all of a sudden be innundated by sleepers suffering from HSP. Though this is relatively new research it seems regions stay infected for upwards to three years, with the most common being only a few months. There is of yet no explanation for this.



HSP also seems to run in families, but a hereditary connection is still to be found. A great deal of research is currently being conducted in Canada and Europe.



The most striking difference between HSP and CSP are the horrifying hallucinations that accompany the paralysis. The source of the hallucination has often been attributed to the hypnagogic state (the state between wakefulness and sleep.) An individual usually awakens either because they hear something or they feel something. The thing to remember is this occurs outside of a dream sequence/plot. The individual is wide awake yet paralysed like in CSP. Moments after the person is awoke they are startled by a terrifying visual hallucination. Almost inevitably, this hallucination takes on a stereotypical form. It is usually a vision of a small malevolent creature that straddles the victim. The creature then either compresses the chest or attemps to strangulate the victim. Most victims report that the creature is actively trying to kill them.



The visual hallucination has been variously interpreted throughout time and in different cultures as being: indigestion ("hippocrites" for the Hellenic Greeks), guilt for the Romans and the Egyptians, witchcraft for the Mexicans and Yoruba people, demons for Medieval Europe, djinn for the Arabs, vampires for Europeans, Hag for the Irish and Scottish, spectral foxes for the Japanese, cats for the Chinese, ancestral ghosts for South-East Asians, etc. Despite the various interpretations, the descriptions of the hallucinations are remarkably similar. There are hudreds of folk remedies to avoid HSP. But the most common is to not sleep on your back. Almost all attacks have been reported by people sleeping on their backs.



HSP like CSP appears to be physically harmless though there's current research looking at the connection between HSP and Sudden Unexplained Nocturnal Death Syndrome or SUNDS.

Mery maybe give that machine another go. It's always worth a second shot. I hope something helps. There's nothing worse then not getting rest consistently like that.


Jenn love the new siggy!!

"Into the Unknown." www.Castle of Haunts