Sleep Paralysis

[poliphilo]

I had one of those sleep paralysis dreams last night- and knew- even as I was having it- that I was asleep- and all I needed to do to get out of it was wake up. This didn't stop it from being uniquely awful. The experts say that sleep paralysis accounts for most experiences of incubi and succubi and witches and vampires and abducting aliens- to which I nod my head and say, "Yes, but I've never ever made the mistake of thinking one of these things was anything other than a dream." I was being attacked of course- in this instance by an evil child- a boy with whom I'd been having a peacable conversation only moments earlier. You'd think that finding yourself unable to move would be terrifying enough, but- no- you're also always under attack- and threatened with some kind of violation. I wonder why this is.

Comments

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I think you're right there.

It's weird how our brains go out of their way to give us a hard time. Do you think some kind of evolutionary imperative is being served?

[wolfshift.livejournal.com]

It's possible, I suppose. I've heard/read that one theory about the purpose of dreams is to prepare us for situations that we may encounter in the waking world. But I'm not totally convinced, because so many dreams seem surreal or random that it's hard to see how they relate to the waking world at all. I tend more toward the idea that dreams are a by-product of the mind's nightly processing of input from our waking hours--kind of like exhaust, if you will.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

If it is evolutionary I can't think why, but it does seem odd that we should scare ourselves silly for no good reason.

Sleep paralysis dreams stand apart from the sleeping brain's ordinary surreal outpourings by virtue of their intensity and their conformity to a strict procedural pattern. The imagery may vary, but the experience of not being able to move, coupled with threatened violation is always the same. Perhaps there's a physiological explanation.