How a weird but common malfunction of the transition between sleeping and waking states may be responsible for terrifying experiences - from myths of demonic visitations to modern accounts of alien encounters.

2. Beyond the Wall of Sleep:
Night visitors, alien abductions and sleep paralysis.

3. Alien Abduction
• Covers a wide range of
scenarios/experiences eg:
• Betty and Barney Hill (1961)
• Travis Walton (1975) (very
atypical)
• Whitley Streiber (‘Communion’
pub 1987) (much more typical)
• Clearly not all abduction
experiences can be explained
by sleep phenomena. But...

4. There is a specific (and relatively
common) form of Abduction
experience:
Night Visitors

8. Hypnotic Regression
• Budd Hopkins, Prof John Mack
et al.
• “The problem with hypnotic regression is you get pretty
much what you expect to get. If you go into a session
expecting to recover memories of alien abduction that's
most likely what you're going to get. If you go in thinking
you're going to recover past life memories of being Mary
Queen of Scots, then that's what you'll get.” - Prof Chris French
(Goldsmiths College, London) in Niall Boyce The psychiatrist who wanted to believe, The
Lancet, vol 380, issue 9848, Sept 2012)
• If you discount (for sake of argument) what was
recalled under hypnosis, what are you left with? –
What was the original anomalous experience?...

9. Sleep Paralysis
• “Sleep paralysis is a condition in which
someone, most often lying in a supine position,
about to drop off to sleep, or just upon waking
from sleep realizes that s/he is unable to move,
or speak, or cry out. This may last a few seconds
or several moments, occasionally longer. People
frequently report feeling a ‘presence’ that is
often described as malevolent, threatening, or
evil. An intense sense of dread and terror is very
common.” – James Allan Cheyne, University of Waterloo, Canada

10. • “The presence is likely to be vaguely felt or sensed just
out of sight but thought to be watching or monitoring the
victim, often with intense interest, sometimes standing
by, or sitting on, the bed. On some occasions the presence
will seem to attack, sometimes strangling the victim while
kneeling and exerting crushing pressure on the chest.”
• “Victims also report auditory, visual, proprioceptive, and
tactile hallucinations, as well as floating sensations and
out-of-body experiences. People frequently try,
unsuccessfully, to cry out. After seconds or minutes one
feels suddenly released from the paralysis, but will be left
with a lingering anxiety” (Cheyne et al., 1996; Cheyne & Girard, 2007ab,
2009; Hishikawa, 1976; Hufford, 1982).

12. Some “fUn” Facts About SP*
• The release of hormones during REM paralyse
the body to stop it acting out the contents of the
dream. In rare cases they are still suppressing the
body’s motor functions when the sleeper has
awakened.
• In still rarer cases, the phenomenon is
accompanied by sometimes horrifying
hallucinations.
• As much as 40 per cent of the population has had
such an experience at least once.
*Facts not guaranteed to be“fUn”

13. • Occurs either when falling asleep (hypnagogic) or awakening
(hypnopompic). Either the person remains aware while the
body shuts down for REM sleep or becomes aware before the
REM cycle is complete.
• ISP (Isolated Sleep Paralysis) - may only happen once or twice
in a lifetime, usually short duration (about 1 minute).
• RISP (Recurrent Isolated Sleep Paralysis) - a chronic condition
which recurs, sometimes multiple episodes in the same night.
Tends to be longer (can last up to 1 hour) and more likely to
include out of body experiences.
• Common in those suffering from narcolepsy.
• Just as common for males as it is for females.
• Onset most common in adolescence.

14. Sleep and Dreaming
• Stage 1 - Light sleep. Lose muscle tone, causing twitches and hypnic jerks (suddenly jumping awake from a doze). H
ypnagogic hallucinations, swirling light and color patterns.
• Stage 2 - A light, dreamless sleep. Loss of nearly all muscle tone (sleep paralysis). Brainwaves slowed further, but with
brief bursts of higher activity called sleep spindles. You spend around half of all your sleep in Stage 2.
• Stage 3 - Deep sleep or Slow Wave Sleep. Hard to wake, and if do feel dopey and confused. Brainwaves slow to
slowest frequency. Mostly dreamless but, also most likely time for sleepwalking to occur.
• Stage 4 - As three but sustained Slow Wave Sleep. Replenishes energy, without this will not feel refreshed.
• REM Sleep - Or “paradoxical sleep”. The onset of dreaming. Brainwave activity returns to high frequency. Important
to healthy brain functioning, including the creation of long-term memories. Where lucid dreaming occurs.

15. Hypnogogia
• In the hypnagogic state, visions, voices, weird insights and unusual
sensations greet us as we drift out of consciousness. Faces may
appear, threatening or comical. A landscape may open up, with
distant mountains and wide, expansive vistas. Geometric forms,
jewels, diamonds and intricate patterns may dance before our
mind’s eye, not unlike those seen under the influence of certain
psychoactive substances. Splashes of colour, flares, sparks and
cloud-like forms-known as ‘entoptic lights’, ‘phosphenes’ or
eigenlicht, may drift through our drowsing consciousness,
accompanied by strange, nonsensical sentences announcing
portentous truths. We may feel we are floating, or that our body
has grown to enormous proportions, or that we have suddenly
grasped the answer to the riddle of the Universe. (Gary Lachman
FT Oct 2002)

16. A Brief History of SP Study
• 1876 - American Civil War surgeon and neurologist Silas Weir Mitchell reports “night
palsy” in which soldiers report a temporary but terrifying nocturnal paralysis.
• 1928 - The term “sleep paralysis” was coined by Samuel Wilson.
• 1960s-70s - William Dement in the US and Yasuo Hishikawa in Japan began to describe the
frightening experiences that sometimes accompanied sleep in narcolepsy patients.
• 1967 - Psychiatrist Sim Liddon notes SP with hypnagogic experiences or hallucinations
appeared to be the same phenomenon described as “the nightmare” by writers in the
18th, 19th, and early 20th century. Also draws parallels with world-wide accounts of witch,
demon, and spirit attacks during sleep.
• 1970s-1980s - Anthropological and folkloric studies of David Hufford, Robert Ness, and
others note similarities between the nocturnal “old hag” attacks of Newfoundland, as well
as accounts of spirit and ghost attacks from around the world.
• 1990s - Cheyne and colleagues began systematically recording the structure of SP
experiences and comparing them with REM-state dreaming, finding a clear match.

18. • “Although many people certainly do report elaborate narrative
scenarios of threatening intruders and violent assault, much more
common are fragmented sensations with no obvious narrative
organization.”
• “In many if not most cases, paralysis may be accompanied by no
more than a few odd sounds, perhaps buzzing or humming, or
whispering voices, or simply a strong feeling of something present
in the room.”
• “The most emotional dreams are nightmares and, particularly, the
hypnagogic nightmares accompanying sleep paralysis. When we
attempt to assess the level of fear experienced during hypnagogic
experiences accompanying SP, many people tell us that fear is
simply inadequate to describe their feelings – nothing in their
waking lives or even conventional nightmares approaches the
abject terror associated with these experiences.” - Nightmares from
the Id, James Allan Cheyne

19. Possible Explanations
• The menacing presence/intruder - The result of a hyper vigilant state created in
the midbrain. An emergency response activates in the brain when individuals wake
up paralyzed and feel vulnerable to attack. This helplessness intensifies the effects
of the threat response well above the level typical to normal dreams; this could
explain why hallucinations during sleep paralysis are so vivid.
• The incubus/suffocating attack – A combination of the above with the muscle
paralysis that removes voluntary control of breathing. Several features of REM
breathing patterns exacerbate the feeling of suffocation. Attempts at breathing
deeply fail, and give the individual a sense of resistance—which the threat-
activated vigilance system interprets as someone sitting on their chest, suffocating
them.
• Out-of-body experiences/floating - Under normal conditions, centre in the brain
coordinate things such as head and eye movement and orientation in space. In
sleep paralysis, these mechanisms—which usually coordinate body movement and
provide information on body position—activate and, because there is no actual
movement, become confused and induce a floating sensation.

20. SP in History and Mythology
• SP experiences are a likely source of the notion of nocturnal assaults by
incubi, witches, mare, spirits, and demons and is likely the original
referent for the term “nightmare“. Fuseli's famous painting entitled "The
Nightmare" (1871) for example, was clearly inspired by SP experiences
rather than by a conventional frightening dream.

21. The "Old Hag" of Newfoundland
(Firestone, 1985; Hufford, 1982; Ness, 1978).
• The "Old Hag" sits on the afflicted person's
chest while attempting to throttle them.
The Newfoundlanders’ notion of the hag
likely had its origins in the British Isles
where the notion of the hag or haegtesse is
related to that of witches. That the Old Hag
experience was also well known during
Shakespeare's time is suggested by
Mercutio's ‘Queen Mab’ speech:
• “This is the hag, when maids lie on their
backs,
• That presses them, and learns them first to
bear,
• Making them women of good carriage.”
• (Romeo and Juliet, I, 4)

22. • There is a clear SP account in the 1887 horror story Le Horla by Guy de
Maupassant.
• It tells the tale of a 19th century intellectual, in a lightly fictionalized
account of Maupassant’s own experiences, who draws on diverse cultural
resources, traditional and modern, to interpret a complex array of highly
unusual experiences.
• “I sleep—for a while—two or three hours—then a dream—no—a
nightmare seizes me in its grip, I know full well that I am lying down and
that I am asleep... I sense it and I know it... and I am also aware that
somebody is coming up to me, looking at me, running his fingers over
me, climbing on to my bed, kneeling on my chest, taking me by the
throat and squeezing... squeezing... with all its might, trying to strangle
me.
• I struggle, but I am tied down by that dreadful feeling of helplessness
that paralyzes us in our dreams. I want to cry out—but I can't. I want to
move—I can't do it. I try, making terrible, strenuous efforts, gasping for
breath, to turn on my side, to throw off this creature who is crushing me
and choking me—but I can't!
• Then, suddenly, I wake up, panic-stricken, covered in sweat. I light a
candle. I am alone.” (p. 893)

23. A Handful of Myths
• Ardat lili or Lilitu, an evil Sumerian spirit, is one of the earliest Hag-demons. She
was capable of flying, which she preferred to do at night, at which time she
frequently attacked men in their sleep. She is thought to constitute the prototype
for the Hebrew Lilith and the Roman Lamia, known for their nocturnal attacks.
• More European spirits with connotations of leaping upon people as they attempt
to sleep at night:
• Greek ephialtes (one who leaps upon), mora (the night "mare" or monster, ogre,
spirit, etc.), pnigalion (the choker) and the barychnas (the heavy breather)
• Roman incubus (one who presses or crushes)
• German mar/mare, nachtmahr, Hexendrücken (witch pressing) and Alpdruck
(elf pressure)
• Czech muera
• Polish zmora
• Russian Kikimora
• French cauchmar (trampling ogre)
• Old English maere (mab, mair, mare-hag) hagge (evil spirit or the night-mare -
also hegge, haegtesse, haehtisse, haegte)
• Old Norse mara
• Old Irish mar/more
• Newfoundland Ag Rog (Old Hag)
• Spanish pesadilla
• Roman poet Horace makes a reference a boy who claimed that if he is killed he
"will attend you as a nocturnal fury; and, a ghost, I will attack your faces with
my hooked talons, and brooding upon your restless breasts, I will deprive you
of repose by terror.“
• St Augustine was also convinced of the reality of “incubi” demons who attacked
and molested women in the night.

24. Another Handful of Myths
• In St. Lucia, West Indies, an attack of kokma comes at a time that the individual is just falling
asleep or just waking up. The sensations include pressure on the chest, inability to move, and
anxiety. The kokma is the spirit of a dead baby that haunts an area, attacking people in their
beds. They jump on the victim’s chest and clutch at the throat. The victim attempts to cry
out, or in some other way to get another’s attention, someone that might scare off the
kokma.
• In Thailand experiences referred to as Phi um (ghost covered) and phi kau (ghost possessed)
involve pressure, immobility, and something black covering the body.
• In Korea, people are afflicted by ka wi nulita ("scissors pressed"), an experience felt to be
brought on by fear.
• In the Far North one speaks of agumangia (Inupik) or ukomiarik (Yupik) in which "a soul"
tries to take possession of the paralyzed victim.
• In Laos, da chor is described as follows: "You want to listen, you can’t hear; you want to
speak, you are dumb; you want to call out, you cannot; you feel you are dying, dying; you
want to run away. You piss with fear in your sleep" (cited in Firestone, 1985, p. 61).
• Among the Hmong of Laos the nightmare spirit is referred to as dab (nightmare) tsog (evil
spirit) or tsog tsuam (evil spirit who crushes, smothers, or presses upon).

25. • “ The experience... has been regularly reported for more
than two thousand years; it has been attached to a variety
of narrative frameworks... but regardless of the framework,
the experiential features have remained basically the same.”
– Hufford, 1976
Eugène Thivier, “Le Cauchemar ”(The Nightmare) (1894)
John Anster Fitzgerald, “The Nightmare” (1857-58)

26. Prevention/Strategies
Possible causes include: Insomnia and sleep deprivation, an erratic sleep schedule, sleeping in the supine
position, stress, overuse of stimulants, physical fatigue, as well as certain medications that are used to
treat ADHD.
Sleeping in the supine position is believed to make the sleeper more vulnerable to episodes of sleep paralysis.
In this sleeping position it is possible for the soft palate to collapse and obstruct the airway. There is also a
greater amount of pressure being exerted on the lungs by gravity.
Prevention:
• DO NOT SLEEP SUPINE.
• Regular sleep schedule and good “sleep hygiene”.
• Reduce the intake of stimulants.
• Take steps to deal with stress in your life.
During SP:
• Making Small Movements: Attempting to move one's fingers or toes, or even one's tongue. Although the
major muscles are completely paralyzed the smaller muscles, especially of the eyes, fingers and toes are
less so. A number of people have been suggesting rapidly moving one's eyes back and forth as a way of
bringing a bout of SP to an end. If you are having multiple or repeated experiences at one time it may help
to get up briefly and move around before trying to sleep again as it is possible to have multiple episodes
in a single night.
• Another suggestion is to mentally project yourself moving – if your body can’t move, then let your mind –
some have reported this kind of projection possible, and it may relieve the panic caused by paralysis.

27. A Return to the Night Visitors

28. • “Clearly it is not the case that all possession, alien abduction, and similar
accounts are instances of SP. An alien abduction/possession account does
provide, however, a relatively complete and, for some, plausible and
satisfying account of that experience. Numerous descriptions of abduction
experiences in the letters to Communion author Whitley Strieber, for
example, are difficult to distinguish from experiences presented as
accounts of SP with HHEs:
• ‘I'd be in bed and very much aware of my surroundings . . . I'd hear
music, interrupted by a mechanical type of voice, but I could never
remember what was said. I'd feel the mattress depress and the springs
pressing down, and I knew someone had sat down beside me. But I was
paralyzed, and couldn't utter a sound, swallow, or move in any way. My
eyes were open, though I was always facing in the opposite direction
from where "the presence" remained. I would be there about ten
minutes, it seemed. (Strieber & Strieber, 1997, p. 84-85)’.” – Nightmares
from the Id, James Allan Cheyne

29. ~@Sweet Dreams...@~