Sleep paralysis and the science behind it.

It's the middle of the night and you are having a nice sleep after a long, exhausting day and suddenly you feel a heavy weight on your chest, you can't move your hands or your legs. You open your eyes and see a ghostly figure sitting on your chest or standing beside you, you try to call for help but you can't move your mouth either. You are scared and wondering what you are going through. Well that was a sleep paralysis you just experienced. 

Most of us have experienced this kind of incident in our lives because 4 out of 10 people have confessed to experiencing the night-hag. So the night-hag or the old-had is a situation in which the victim feels the same things as a sleep paralysis, that is why it is commonly associated with sleep paralysis. This demon can be either visible or invisible to the victim. The best depiction of this is in Henry Fuseli's painting "The Nightmare". 

Henry Fuseli, The Nightmare, 1781

Here you can see a demon sitting on its victims chest and paralysing them. If you look closely Fuseli named this painting "The Nightmare" not something around sleep paralysis because in the 1700s sleep paralysis was majorly called nightmares. Well in different areas of the world this phenomenon is seen differently, somewhere it is associated with bad luck and somewhere it is considered to be a visit by dead relatives. 

In Nordic folklore which means Denmark and the areas near it is considered to be a supernatural state in which a creature called Mare sits on someone's chest and shows them nightmares. After some time two more demons were introduced in this legend which are Incubi and Succubi. Both of these target the opposite gender as their victims which means Incubi targets females and Succubi targets males in their dreams and tries to engage in physical activities with them. 

If we talk about Canada and South Carolina, there the legend of a witch called Hag is famous for the incidents regarding sleep paralysis. This witch is so powerful that it can leave its physical body and sit on the chest of its victims and choke them at midnight. The victim feels an invisible weio on their chest and starts to panic. This phenomenon is also known as "The Old Hag". 

In Fiji it is associated with "Kana Tevoro" which roughly translates to 'being eaten by demons'. This legend suggests that a dead relative, who has some undone work, visits the victim at midnight. This demon sits right next to its victims and if the victim wakes up he/she is supposed to call the name of the dead relative and use abusive language to fend off this demon. 

In Turkey sleep paralysis is mostly associated with "Karabasan" which is recognised as a Jin or sin throughout the whole country. This demonic creature attacks its victims in the midnight when they are in deep sleep. To get away from this demon, the victim has to call for help from "Allah" by reading "AL-FALAQ" or "AL-NAS" from the Quran. This demon wears a large hat and if someone manages to removes its hat, it will become their slave forever. 

Coming to Thailand, they believe that sleep paralysis is a discomfort which is caused by a ghost named "Phiam". This ghost is so popular in Thailand that its stories can be found in Thai comics. People also believe that this ghost not only chocks its victims but also leaves several brushes that can be found in the victim's body the next day. 

But in China, their beliefs about sleep paralysis are a little bit funny. They believe mice come in the middle of the midnight to steal human's breath. This gives them extra strength and life expectancy. These mice sit near the nose of the victim and steal their breath. Some also believe this can even give them the strength to become humans at night. 

Other areas in Asia like in Kashmir, sleep paralysis is explained as a did by a creature from their mythology, called "Pasikdhar" or "Saya". It is believed that Saya attacks those houses that are not clean or don't have warships. It also attacks those people who are involved in satanic activities, directly or indirectly. 

In Pakistan, sleep paralysis is directly associated with "Shaitan". They believe this is a result of black magic done by enemies. To stay safe women and children wear an amulet, which protects them from those black magics. 

Coming to Buddhism, these types of activities are caused by "Maron", who is a demonic king who tried to seduce and break Lord Buddha's meditation by changing into women. 

So up until now we can see that sleep paralysis is believed to be demonic activity all over the world. But in the eyes of science sleep paralysis is a normal thing that can happen to anyone. When a person is in really deep sleep sometimes his/her eyes starts to move randomly which is called "rapid eye movement". In this state the brain is most active and it loses control of the body this results to the person not able to breathe properly and feeling weight on their chest. The brain stats to panic and our subconscious mind shows us those demonic creatures and shadows. This is usually caused by anxiety, lack of proper sleep, depression etc. All things considered this is a prime example of how our brain can mess us up so easily.