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Episode 45: Nightmares & Sleep Paralysis
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Welcome back Witches! This week's episode will take a look at Nightmares & Sleep Paralysis! We're going to discuss the science, the the supernatural, and ways to help prevent them from occurring. So get in losers, and let's gain some knowledge on Nightmares and Sleep Paralysis.
We would be forever thankful if you left our podcast a 5-Star review. If you really loved the show and want more Get in Loser content, check out our Supercast & Buy Me a Coffee links below. You can also find us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @GetinWitches, on TikTok @weredoingwitchcraft or email us at weredoingwitchcraft@gmail.com. You can support our show through our
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Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio- The Witch
- Hershner, Shelley MD & Morse, Anne M. DO (2020). What is Sleep Paralysis? AASM Sleep Education. https://sleepeducation.org/sleep-disorders/sleep-paralysis/
- Newsom, Rob (2022). Sleep Demon. Sleep Foundation. https://www.sleepfoundation.org/parasomnias/sleep-demon#:~:text=When%20sleep%20paralysis%20is%20accompanied,%2C%20or%20vestibular%2Dmotor%20hallucinations.
- Suni, Eric & Singh, Abhinav, Dr. (2022). Nightmares. Sleep Foundation. https://www.sleepfoundation.org/nightmares
- Davis, Owen. The Nightmare Experience, Sleep Paralysis, and Witchcraft Accusations. (2010). chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://uhra.herts.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/2299/2342/103471.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=n
- Farooq M, Anjum F. Sleep Paralysis. [Updated 2022 Sep 5]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2022 Jan-. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK562322/
- Roybel, Beth. Sleep Paralysis. (2022). WebMD. https://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/sleep-paralysis
- Stanborough, Rebecca Joy. Understanding ‘Old Hag’ Syndrome: What it Means When You’re Paralyzed in Your Sleep. (2020) Healthline. https://www.healthline.com/health/sleep/old-hag-syndrome
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Transcript
Welcome and Podcast Introduction
00:00:00
Speaker
Do you feel drawn to learn more about witchcraft and the occult, but feel lost in where to start? Then welcome to Get In Loser, We're Doing Witchcraft, a podcast all about what it means to be a witch and where to get started on your journey. Join us as we navigate through various witchy topics and share what we have learned about the craft.
Focus on Sleep Paralysis and Nightmares
00:00:17
Speaker
So get in witches as we learn more about sleep paralysis and nightmares.
Celebrating New Subscribers and Merch Update
00:00:56
Speaker
So we have a new podcast subscriber. Oh my god. Podcast bae. Podcast bae. We love you.
00:01:06
Speaker
and we can't stand you. We have a new merch store. We know that some of you have ordered merch before and we haven't gotten any complaints from any of you, but I know Sam and I were not happy with the product and the printing of our merch.
00:01:36
Speaker
Prior, so now we have a new merch store. The link has been updated in our link tree and on anywhere that we post our merch. But it is through bonfire, so you could also search us on the bonfire website. Just look up, get in loser, we're doing witchcraft. We only have a couple of our designs in there because it takes a little bit of time to get it all transferred over. So we are working on that and I will update as we get new designs put in there.
00:02:04
Speaker
For now, we have two designs and it's on bonfire so you guys can buy it or look at it or whatever you want to do. There's a lot more color options. The products themselves are better quality, like better materials. So hopefully everyone will be happy with them. I know Sam and I have used bonfire before.
00:02:24
Speaker
Sam is actually wearing a sweatshirt from one of our previous brunch groups that we used to have and they're great quality, they last forever. Yeah, this is from what, 2017 or 2018? Somewhere around there, yeah. And it's still going strong. I wear this all the time too and it's amazing. Same. I love my brunch sweatshirt and I have a tank top too that still looks like
00:02:51
Speaker
Perfectly fine. Like it still looks like when I first got it. It hasn't like worn off or anything. Yeah. Yeah, and it's so soft Yeah, it's and the sizing I like the sizing too because you know sometimes whenever you order from like any stores or whatever you'll get like a t-shirt and like the sizing will be completely off or it'll not from be if you size up and like No, everything that I've bought from them has been awesome. I
00:03:16
Speaker
I do know to our previous merch store, I think only went up to a two X and bonfire. It depends on the item because some of the, um, some of the cuts can't be done for some reason all the way up to five X, but some of them can. And they do like sell them from extra small all the way up to five X. So that's nice because it's more inclusive. Absolutely. Yeah. And just the fact too, I mean, like, like Tiffany was saying, like we want to make sure like anything that we put our name behind,
00:03:46
Speaker
is like the best quality.
Nightmares: Causes and Cultural Interpretations
00:03:48
Speaker
And so the fact that like, you know, we gave our other merch store multiple chances to try and fix the issue, like, yeah, at
00:04:00
Speaker
some point we just couldn't do it anymore. So we hope you guys like this like our new merch store on bonfire and I hope you guys check us out and if you guys have any I mean like Tiffany said no one has really told us that they weren't happy with the previous merch store but if you have
00:04:18
Speaker
received product that you know have our logos and stuff on it and the design was not there or like the quality wasn't there let us know because I mean we can't do anything about it if we don't know so yeah so we I mean we did send several emails several strongly worded emails regarding our own merchandise and I know for me I know I am a little more pickier when it comes to something that we're putting our logo on or
00:04:46
Speaker
you know, that's like our brand rather than just like something I go buy from the store. So I'm, you know, I was pretty picky with some of it, but there are some of them we got with holes, some of them we got with the logo like melted down the front. So like if you got that, let us know if you didn't reach out on your own because they do, I don't know what their window is, but I know they have like a make it right policy. So if you got something that was not great quality, make sure you make them make it right. You know, like,
00:05:16
Speaker
we would hate for you to spend your money and not be happy with a product. And that's why we made the switch because we spent our own money and weren't happy with the product, so.
00:05:27
Speaker
But yeah, but yeah, so check us out on bonfire. I'm really excited about it. And I love the crop tees. Yes. So cute. And those like that sea foam color. Yes. I'm like, gorgeous. I need to buy something in it. Because if they ship APO, then that's a game changer. If not, we can always reach out to and see if they can adjust that. Yes. But yeah,
00:05:56
Speaker
Hope that, anyway, let's get into the episode. So what are we talking about today? Nightmares and sleep paralysis.
00:06:06
Speaker
This episode, I feel like even just researching it is a little bit different from most of the other episodes that we've, our topics that we've covered. Because I mean, while we do cover some, we have some ties to the occult and metaphysical and just witchcraft in general for the most part. A lot of the research that I found wasn't necessarily, it was more psychology related or just physiological.
00:06:34
Speaker
physiological with the brain, like things like that. So it was really cool. It's like scientific studies or surveys and stuff like that, which I absolutely love. That's part of what I went to school for. I had to take a course on how to do these research projects and how to do these surveys and analysis. And it was just, it made my heart happy. I love when I get to, we get to talk about these things
00:07:04
Speaker
on the podcast that also have like that science background to them.
00:07:08
Speaker
Yes. I love it. I love it so much. Me too. Well, let's start out with nightmares before we jump into some of the more spooky shit. So nightmares, according to the sleep foundation, nightmares are disturbing dream content that wake you up from sleep. They include both like vivid dreams that may be threatening, upsetting, bizarre, or otherwise bothersome. And they often occur during REM sleep. So usually
00:07:35
Speaker
nightmares occur during the second half of the night when we spend more time and REM sleep and it's normal to be acutely aware of what happened in the nightmare and nightmares themselves can leave a person feeling upset or anxious. I mean you might have physical symptoms of a nightmare like changes in heart rate or sweating whenever you wake up and there's an actual nightmare disorder and so that includes when someone has frequent nightmares that interfere with their sleep
00:08:04
Speaker
mood and or daytime functions. And this just reminds me of Freddy Krueger or Stranger Things season four. So if you want a great example of a nightmare disorder, that would be a really good one. Historically, nightmares had long been blamed on witches throughout much of Europe, even though there's no direct etymological link with the various terms of nightmares and witchcraft itself.
00:08:34
Speaker
This is partially because those that were experiencing them sought out explanations for what they considered a terrifying event. And as we all know, those things that could not be explained in history always pointed a finger at the witch, though we know today that the accused were not witches, nor were they practicing witchcraft.
00:08:52
Speaker
So no different here. Somebody had a nightmare, and they're like, Susie next door is a witch, and she maybe had nightmares. Of course. Yeah. This is something interesting that I found. I found a really cool paper that linked witchcraft, the supernatural in general, and ghosts to nightmares and sleep paralysis. And they said the mare element of nightmare in English drives from the same route as Germanic mar and Old Norse mara.
00:09:22
Speaker
who was a malicious entity, usually female, who would lay on people's chests at night, suffocating them and bringing them nightmares. And honestly, like to me, that just sounded like a nightmare in and of itself. While many of these stories have been forgotten, this entity still remains in the term nightmare. As with sleep paralysis, many cultures translation
00:09:48
Speaker
for their word for nightmares, deal with squeezing, pressure, riding, the sense of having a weight upon you, and witches, unfortunately. In Thailand, the word for nightmare means ghost covered, and in China, the experience has been attributed to oppression by ghosts for the last 2,000 years.
00:10:10
Speaker
In a handful of European societies, nightmares have been attributed to spirits of the dead. And in Poland, they're tied to the straga or dead people's souls. And then Germanic lore also ties fairies to being responsible for nightmares.
00:10:26
Speaker
But this is not one that we often see in today's reasoning. You'll see a lot of nightmares tied to witches, entities, ghosts. And I think we talk a little bit more about that in the sleep paralysis portion. But fairies is not one that I see come up very often. Yeah, I've never seen that either. But it's interesting. And it just goes to show it surpasses all cultures. Yeah.
00:10:52
Speaker
I mean, the lore behind it, like why we have it and stuff, it's just so interesting. And it's interesting to see like what other cultures, their explanations are for nightmares and sleep paralysis.
Scientific Examination of Nightmares
00:11:03
Speaker
It's just pretty cool.
00:11:04
Speaker
Yeah, so something I fell down a rabbit hole for a little while when I was looking at the Mar and Mara, that malicious entity. And one of the depictions of, I believe this was the Germanic Mar version, they had just this giant black cat wearing this floral dress that would go around and
00:11:30
Speaker
lay on people's chests and suffocate them and that people would have nightmares while it was happening. I probably looked at the research of this far too long, way longer than I needed to.
00:11:44
Speaker
We kept joking about, oh, we're both behind on our notes. This is why I kept falling down these crazy rabbit holes of things that different cultures historically have tied to nightmares or sleep paralysis. But also, a black cat in a floral dress sounds adorable. I would not play with that. Precious. Well, they made it look very demonic in the artwork. It had the giant joker smile. Was it bulging muscles?
00:12:12
Speaker
It's just like pressing the people down into their beds, smiling all crazy off to the side. Maybe that would be a little bit like enough. I mean, honestly, it was a nightmare. But also I'd be like, Kitty. Oh, hi there. I'm going to maybe be my friend.
00:12:37
Speaker
Ah. So nightmares and bad dreams are normal occurrences. You know, like we mentioned, they span all cultures. And basically, everybody has them. But nightmare disorder only affects roughly like two to 8% of adults. So it's not something that's very common as like for the nightmare disorder. Nightmares are more common, though, in children and occur most often between the ages of three to six years old,
00:13:01
Speaker
And while nightmares affect everyone, women are more likely to report having nightmares, which I thought that was interesting because I feel like, especially in my relationship with my husband, he has a lot more nightmares than I do.
00:13:17
Speaker
Like with just dreaming in general, and this is something that we talked extensively about in our dreams episode, there is still no explanation as to why we have nightmares. It could be like a way for
Factors and Treatments for Nightmares
00:13:28
Speaker
the body to emotionally respond to fear and trauma. But like with everything dream related, more research is needed on this because really no one knows why we have this happen. Because I mean, you could have a nightmare that relates to some sort of fear or something terrible that happened to you that day or
00:13:46
Speaker
something that's happened within your childhood. But then you could also have one that's totally fucking bizarre, like clowns are chasing you with a knife. I mean, there really is no reason why we have these. Nobody really understands it. Or you can be a weirdo like me and have just the most strange bizarre nightmares that don't even involve you. Yes, yeah. It's great. It's great. Everything's great.
00:14:16
Speaker
So sleep terrors or night terrors, as they're sometimes referred to, are another phenomenon that happen whenever we sleep.
00:14:25
Speaker
And I think it's interesting to compare them to nightmares and what they actually are. So like I said, nightmares happen during REM sleep while sleep terrors, they happen during non REM sleep. Sleep terrors don't involve full waking. Usually in sleep terrors, the person remains mostly asleep and is hard to wake up. People with sleep terrors usually don't even have an awareness of the episode and they may not even remember
00:14:52
Speaker
what happened to them while they were sleeping. But nightmares, like I said, they're a lot more common in the second half of the night while sleep terrors are more common in the first half. And I think that's really interesting because like, you know, they say like with dreaming and stuff, usually that happens during REM sleep. So yeah, I mean, I
00:15:11
Speaker
think that just sleep terrors in general, it's weird to see that differentiation between dreams and nightmares because it's completely different. It happens during non-REM sleep. Right. That is weird. Yeah. That is really weird.
00:15:27
Speaker
So as far as causes for nightmares, usually a lot of the stuff can be linked back to the same thing. So stress and anxiety and traumatic situations can all increase your chances of having nightmares. Mental health conditions like PTSD, depression, general anxiety disorder, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia are also
00:15:50
Speaker
likely culprits of having a lot of nightmares. Certain drugs and medications that affect the nervous system can also affect you and your ability to have frequent nightmares. And then with that withdrawal from some medications like
00:16:07
Speaker
For instance, there are some medications that suppress REM sleep, so withdrawing from them can also lead to an increase of nightmares, sleep deprivation, and insomnia. So if you have a period of insufficient sleep, you can experience something known as REM rebound, and this can trigger nightmares. And this also reminds me of what happened in Stranger Things and Freddy Krueger, because these kids were not sleeping. And so whenever they would sleep, it was just an immediate nightmare.
00:16:36
Speaker
But yeah. And then if you have a personal history of nightmares, so if as a kid you suffered from nightmares a lot, then your chances of having them into adulthood is also increased. And genetics. So obviously, more needs to be understood about how genetics factor into nightmares. However, there is some evidence linking genetic risk factors for mental health conditions that could be tied to an increased likelihood of nightmares, which I thought is
00:17:03
Speaker
pretty interesting. But again, more research needs to be done on this. But nightmares can be affected by waking activity. There's not always, but sometimes this can be the case. Nightmares can be connected to things that happen while you're awake. And the best example of this, it comes with PTSD. So often people who have PTSD will have flashback imagery that is directly linked to their traumatic events causing nightmares.
00:17:31
Speaker
And as far as treatment for nightmares and nightmare disorder, the best treatment is of course going to be psychotherapy and especially CBT or cognitive behavioral therapy. And they even have a specific cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia. It's called CBT-I.
00:17:51
Speaker
And with this, they do things like image rehearsal therapy, lucid dreaming therapy, exposure and desensitization therapy, hypnosis and progressive deep muscle relaxation. And all of these things can be helpful if you do suffer from frequent nightmares or you have nightmare disorder. There are also medications that like prescription medications, not like over the counter things that can help.
00:18:17
Speaker
And usually these are medications that affect the nervous system such as anti-anxiety, anti-depression, and anti-psychotic medications. So, but if you're looking for ways to kind of treat your nightmares or hopefully, you know, I mean, say if you don't have them as frequently as someone who has like a nightmare disorder and you're wanting to do something at home before you reach out to a psychotherapist or ask for medications or something,
00:18:43
Speaker
do what we mentioned in our sleep episodes. So establishing proper sleep hygiene, not drinking alcohol or caffeine before bed, creating a sleep journal, reducing screen time before bed, practicing mindfulness and meditation, breath work, all of these things you can do at home to try and lessen
00:19:02
Speaker
your chances of having nightmares. But again, if you need something outside of like if any of these things aren't working, or you're having like the worst sleep ever, you're having insomnia because of your nightmares, please seek like actual help for this because there's only so much breath work can do before you need to see a therapist. So yeah, well, and like something that I learned when I was working as a substance abuse counselor, like a lot of people don't understand that caffeine has like
00:19:32
Speaker
a huge window, right? So if you look at the half-life of your caffeine, whatever your caffeine choice is, whether it's a cup of coffee, an espresso, or an energy drink, it has a half-life that tells you that by this time, you'll have run through half the amount of caffeine in your body. So if you're drinking caffeine later in the day and then having trouble sleeping, try not doing
00:19:59
Speaker
Or if it's like you notice that your sleep is disturbed, you're not sleeping well, or you're having nightmares, or sleep paralysis, which we're about to go into, try cutting out some of these things to see if it helps. Obviously, if you need medical attention for it, if it's messing with you emotionally, those types of things, of course, seek out medical attention.
00:20:22
Speaker
If you want to start working on some things at home, like Sam said, try cutting some of these things out to see how it affects your sleep. So. Absolutely.
Introducing Sleep Paralysis and Historical Context
00:20:32
Speaker
So now we're going to talk about the fun one.
00:20:35
Speaker
or the terrifying one, however you look at it. Research-wise, it was fun. We're going to talk about sleep paralysis. So according to WebMD, over the centuries, symptoms of sleep paralysis have been described in many ways and are often attributed to a quote unquote evil presence. This presence has morphed from unseen night demons in ancient times
00:20:59
Speaker
the old hag in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and alien abductions, just to name a few. And almost every culture throughout history has had stories of a shadowy, evil creature that terrifies helpless humans at night. I wanted to include this because I was like, let me see what WebMD has to say about it. I'm sure it's going to say.
00:21:20
Speaker
death, imminent death, which it always says, right? I'm pretty sure this is the first WebMD article in history that doesn't link something to imminent death or cancer. Wow. I'm not going to die because I have sleep paralysis. Exactly. Yeah.
00:21:37
Speaker
So, seeing an evil presence is medically deduced to auditory or visual hallucinations that will often cause significant distress. Sleep paralysis was once blamed on witchcraft, of course it was, and during witch hunts, some were accused of witchcraft as a result of other people's sleep paralysis experience, as were nightmares like we discussed before.
00:22:02
Speaker
Thanks to folklore, sleep paralysis is sometimes referred to as, quote unquote, the old hag syndrome, which is the term traditionally used in Canada, apparently for sleep paralysis. And it refers to the feeling of a, and again, quote unquote, witch-like creature being perched on the person's chest.
00:22:25
Speaker
In Japan, some believe that sleep paralysis is caused by evil spirits. And the traditional term is kanashi bari, which translates to to tie with an iron rope. And it stems from the belief in the magical powers of a Buddhist god. In St. Lucia, the term is kokuma, and it's attributed to the spirit of a dead baby that jumps on the sleeper's chest and chokes them, which sounds
00:22:54
Speaker
No, it's terrible. The worst thing in horror movies or like haunted houses, anything is the children and baby versions of things. No, thank you. There's like several other variations with not enough time to cover them. I found so many cool versions of this, but I was like, we'll be here for hours.
00:23:22
Speaker
I think I have some listed down below too. So we're just going to make our listeners suffer through a few more. It's fine. You guys are welcome. They're so interesting. Four out of every 10 people are thought to have experienced sleep paralysis. And it's believed to be more prominent in teenage years with initial symptoms showing up in childhood or adolescence. But you can experience it at any age, and it can even run in your family.
Causes and Experiences of Sleep Paralysis
00:23:51
Speaker
but there wasn't a whole lot of research to back up why. A scientific study on sleep paralysis stated that an estimated 7.6% of the population experiences sleep paralysis with males having the condition at a slightly lower frequency than females. Another survey that I came across that was conducted on sleep paralysis showed results that amongst a variety of populations around the world,
00:24:18
Speaker
20 to 45% of people experienced at least one sleep paralysis episode within their lifetime. Sleep paralysis has been a topic of discussion for more than 2000 years. And during the second century AD, an influential Greek physician named Galen
00:24:35
Speaker
links sleep paralysis to being the result of gastric disturbances. And this was believed to be its cause up until the 20th century. So all of that time, every time someone experienced sleep paralysis, they're like, it's just gastrointestinal issues. No big deal. I thought that was hilarious. To this day, there's no established direct causation between sleep paralysis and a specific risk factor.
00:25:05
Speaker
but there's a few commonalities. So some of these common factors that can be linked to sleep paralysis are lack of sleep, changes in your sleep schedule, so like if you're somebody that's a rotating shift worker.
00:25:17
Speaker
or even having jet lag. Yeah. I was going to say if you work like long periods of like night shifts too, that can really like jock up your circadian rhythm and cause a lot of sleep issues. Mental health, like specifically stress, anxiety, exposure to traumatic events and bipolar disorder will be like heavy reasonings for sleep paralysis. If you have any of those, if you sleep on your back, narcolepsy, restless leg syndrome,
00:25:45
Speaker
leg cramps, certain medications, and especially ADHD medications apparently, and of course substance abuse. It's also been attributed to being a symptom of migraines, sleep apnea, and even hypertension.
00:26:00
Speaker
So basically everything. Yeah. And when you add onto this too, like it can also be brought upon from like chronic pain, idiopathic hypersomnia, which is excessive tiredness with no underlying cause, which sounds absolutely terrible. Like I couldn't imagine having this.
00:26:20
Speaker
Yeah. And also from like Guillain-Barre syndrome, eye diseases, dementia, Parkinson's disease, lesions on the brain, like any of these things. And whenever I was reading about this and I and I came across dementia specifically, I'm just like, how terrible would that be to have dementia and sleep paralysis? Because already you're having a hard time communicating. You don't know maybe or recognize the people around you. And then you're having this like
00:26:49
Speaker
terrifying experience at night too. That just broke my heart. Well, and it's like, you know that like, if that does happen, it's like that meme that floats around where they're like, okay, Grandma, you know, like, yeah, they're like, I'm having sleep demons. And they're like, yeah, okay, Grandma, let's tuck you into bed. Right. And it's like, I actually know she actually is. Yeah, there's actual issues going on.
00:27:12
Speaker
It's so sad. Sleep paralysis is also known as REM parasomnia. Just a little bit about this, parasomnia involves an undesired event that occurs while you are either falling asleep, during asleep, or when you're waking up. REM parasomnia happens during a transition into or out of REM sleep,
00:27:30
Speaker
which is when sleep paralysis occurs. I wanted to include this because whenever you're researching the differences between nightmares and night terrors and sleep paralysis and all these things, it's good to know when this stuff happens. And it makes sense when you think about it because your brain causes your muscles to relax and be still during REM sleep. This is called REM atonia because your body keeps you from essentially acting out your dreams. But when this happens while you're falling asleep or waking up,
00:28:00
Speaker
When sleep paralysis occurs and this is why it's so fucking scary because the symptoms are often reported of You being unable to speak or move. I mean you can still breathe on your own, but then you could also have hallucinations Usually sleep paralysis episodes happen for a few seconds or minutes and it usually will end on its own or when someone else wakes you up but during those seconds or minutes like It's terrifying
00:28:25
Speaker
Yeah. Even some of the research that I came across talked about some of the symptoms of it being that you obviously don't have control of your lens. You're not able to speak. But some people reported feeling like they were choking or just not able to breathe. So could you imagine just waking up? You're not able to move. You can see, but you can't talk. And then on top of that, you're like, I also can't breathe. Right. It's just terrifying. Yeah.
00:28:55
Speaker
So just to kind of piggyback on what Sam was talking about, sleep paralysis can happen at one of two times during sleep. So first it can happen as you're falling asleep, and this stage is known as the hypnagogic or pre-dormital sleep paralysis. So at this stage, as you're falling asleep and your body's relaxing, you should start to become less aware of your body and your environment.
00:29:20
Speaker
you stay aware while you're falling asleep you'll be conscious while your body is unable to move and you're unable to speak like we were saying. The second time that it can happen is as you're waking up and this stage is known as hypnopompic or post-dormital sleep paralysis. So while sleeping your body moves between cycles of REM and non-REM sleep
00:29:43
Speaker
which we, you know, have already discussed. But if you become conscious before the end of your REM cycle, then you're going to be aware, but again, won't be able to move or speak. So REM sleep is also when your dreams and nightmares occur, like we talked about earlier. The occurrence of sleep paralysis leads to intense fear and apprehension.
00:30:03
Speaker
which makes sense considering you're conscious without any use of any part of your body. So during an episode of sleep paralysis, a person cannot actually be forced into moving their body out of the paralysis state. And in the vast majority, like Sam said, it passes pretty quickly naturally. Basically what's happening is you're experiencing that feeling of being conscious, but not being able to move. And just as I said before, in a scientific sense,
00:30:32
Speaker
This happens when a person passes between the stages of wakefulness and sleep. So like I was saying before, some people feel pressure or might feel like they're choking in an episode of sleep paralysis. And because of this, many cultures and folk names for sleep paralysis center around this feeling. So for example, the Hungarian name, and I know I'm going to butcher this, and I know we have
00:30:57
Speaker
Hungarian listeners, so I apologize, but I did sit on YouTube forever trying to get this down last night. So the Hungarian name is Bósorkáin nyomá, which translates to, which is pressure. In Estonia, it's lupináža.
00:31:16
Speaker
I couldn't find a pronunciation that actually said it, just ways that spelled it out differently. So again, who knows? Hopefully I'm close, but who knows? And that one means the one who presses on your bones, which sounds so terrifying.
00:31:35
Speaker
And then in other translations, their words for sleep paralysis mean which written hag ridden, hag road. And this one made me laugh, but hag righted.
00:31:50
Speaker
which we've talked about, like, I think this was in our, if you are a Supercast member, when we read New World Witchery, we talked about hag writing quite a bit. It was in the book multiple times. But so this is just kind of like,
00:32:07
Speaker
building on that, I guess, I was reading all of this just laughing because A, it was all making sense because we've already like read and learned about it. But then like the different versions like written, wrote, and write it. It's like whoever was like, coining these phrases, they couldn't remember the like the best grammatical way to say like hag wrote or hag write it or hag written. And so they're like, um, I don't know, it could be hag writing. It could be hag wrote.
00:32:37
Speaker
But then you have that one outliner that was like, I don't remember, witch written? Yeah. And it was something like that. It was so close. A witch. A wizard. I don't know.
Managing Sleep Paralysis
00:32:49
Speaker
This will work. Sorry for making everyone sit through my whack-ass pronunciations, but I did try my best, as I always say. Yes. They were beautiful. How can you decrease the chances of having sleep paralysis? The first and easiest thing you can do is learn about sleep paralysis. This podcast episode, step number one, you're already there. Check.
00:33:17
Speaker
Then, you know, go to the resources that we have linked in the show notes, do your own Google search, whatever you want to do, but just learning about it can help you decrease your chances of having it, which is pretty cool. And then also getting seven to nine hours per night of sleep on a regular basis regularly. That sounds like a dream. Right. But please strive for that. Try really hard.
00:33:42
Speaker
Yes. And then to go along with this, regulate your stress levels, do box breathing. We've discussed this multiple times on the podcast in multiple different episodes that I didn't even listen here. But I mean, obviously we talked about in our sleep episode, I think we talked about in meditation. There's a lot of different episodes that we've talked about box breathing. And I've also listed a video in our resources for this episode to guide you through box breathing if you're curious.
00:34:09
Speaker
Also, see a therapist. We're going to have an entire episode about this in the future, but just as a brief disclaimer, witchcraft is not a stand-in for mental health treatment. No, it's not. I mean, yes. There are amazing aspects of witchcraft that can better your life, your mood, your self-confidence, your drive, et cetera. I mean, it's wonderful.
00:34:32
Speaker
But if you're having trouble managing your stress, you're struggling with your mental health, please seek professional help. Don't ignore your fear or anxiety. Process your emotions safely with a professional. Yes.
00:34:46
Speaker
Yeah, so I'll get off of my soapbox about that because we're going to have a whole episode about this in the future. But yeah, see you therapist. And if you have a mental health diagnosis like BPD, treatment for your BPD can be managed by your psychiatrist. And you may need to change your meds if you're noticing an increase in sleep paralysis episodes. And if you have narcolepsy, discuss this with your sleep doctor to work on a treatment plan.
00:35:13
Speaker
Same with the whole ADHD thing, like I didn't know ADHD meds were like...
00:35:19
Speaker
a driving factor for a lot of nightmare and sleep paralysis issues, but it came up so many times. So if you are somebody with ADHD and you're managing your ADHD with a medication, but you're also not sleeping or you're experiencing a lot of nightmares or sleep paralysis, that could be a sign that maybe your body is not handling these two situations well, and you might need to change your medication. So again, see a therapist, see your doctor.
00:35:48
Speaker
and talk to them about these issues. Something important too is to make sure that your sleeping space is clean, that it's comfortable, that it's dark and temperate. You want it to be somewhere that's like a sanctuary, somebody that you, not somebody, somewhere that you want to go and sleep. Reduce your light exposure in the evening and try to use nightlights for late night bathroom trips. Make sure that you're getting good daylight exposure every day and then avoid heavy meals late at night.
00:36:17
Speaker
or eating them within two hours of going to bed. Like eating late or heavy at night can affect your sleep. Also with that too, one thing I've noticed as I've gotten older is my need for it to be dark. Like whenever I was younger, I could literally sleep. It didn't matter. And I can still fall asleep if I'm on the couch or something. It doesn't matter if it's daytime.
00:36:40
Speaker
what's going on around me, I can fall asleep anywhere. But staying asleep, I've noticed as I've gotten older, it's harder to do unless I have a sleeping mask. It has to be super dark. And then also, one thing that I will say that I forgot to put on this list is
00:36:57
Speaker
As you were saying Tiffany, like making your room like a sanctuary for you. This goes with your bed too. Do not do anything in your bed besides like reading, sleeping, naughty things that you do in bed.
00:37:12
Speaker
Don't work in bed. Don't do anything that's stressful. Don't bring that to your bed because that is going to keep you awake at night. I am so guilty of doing that, but I don't do it at night. Sometimes in the mornings, if I'm just comfortable and snuggly and nice and warm and I don't want to get out of bed yet, I will do my emails.
00:37:32
Speaker
before I get out of bed, but don't do it at night for sure. And if it is a stressful, like if you have a very stressful job or just like work people that stress you out, don't bring that to your bedroom. No.
Hallucinations During Sleep Paralysis
00:37:46
Speaker
I am fortunate and I love my job and I love everyone I work with because it's only one person. My job is not one of those that I'm like, ugh. Something else that I think we need to talk about with sleep paralysis is the hallucination portion of it.
00:38:05
Speaker
how it's sometimes called sleep demons, which you creepy. So many people who've experienced sleep paralysis also know having seen a figure in the room looking at them. And that's kind of like at the beginning, I talked about how WebMD use the term like quote unquote, an evil presence, often associated with sleep paralysis. Where this gets really creepy to me is that many people experience the same or very similar hallucinations in terms of
00:38:33
Speaker
what or who is in the room with them during a sleep paralysis episode. And there's no real explanation for this. Like they just all see the same thing. What I'm trying to, what is it? It's like the, there's like a hat man.
00:38:47
Speaker
That's often seen that there's like a shadow dude and stuff. Yeah. Yeah. There's like a handful of different entities, I guess you could say, but everybody has seen the same ones, which that just creeps me out and also kind of blows my mind. Um, sleep paralysis will often accompany other sleep disorders as well. Like.
00:39:10
Speaker
So, if you're somebody that has narcolepsy, you could experience sleep paralysis at a higher rate than someone who doesn't, but this isn't always the case. Sometimes sleep paralysis just happens. And again, there are some commonalities and some reasons that might cause it, but there's no real known factor for what exactly causes sleep paralysis.
00:39:34
Speaker
To date, there's no direct treatment plan for sleep paralysis during an active episode, but most treatments target the underlying problems that we've been talking about that they believe are linked to the sleep paralysis. So things like anxiety, stress, poor sleep hygiene, BPD, those sorts of things. They'll target those and treat those in hopes that by treating those, you're lessening the chances of sleep paralysis.
00:40:00
Speaker
Sleep paralysis is generally deemed normal medically and scientifically. But again, like we said earlier, if you have recurring sleep paralysis and you're experiencing problems because of it, you may want to schedule an appointment with your primary care provider to address any underlying issues. Some of those concerns could be having anxious feelings about
00:40:21
Speaker
your sleep paralysis or just feeling really anxious about going to sleep in general, feeling extremely tired throughout the day after experiencing sleep paralysis to the point that it's affecting your day-to-day life, or sleep paralysis is causing you just not to be able to sleep at all. These hallucinations that happen during sleep paralysis, like Tiffany said, they're very common. Upwards of 75 percent of those who suffer from sleep paralysis
00:40:47
Speaker
will have a sleep paralysis hallucination, which is bonkers to me. Like how common it is. Like that is just crazy. And usually these hallucinations will consist of hearing, seeing, sensing, or feeling something in your bedroom with you. So there's a lot of hypotheses on what these hallucinations are the result of. So it could be like dreamlike sensations continuing into the waking life.
00:41:15
Speaker
But to me, that doesn't explain why people have similar if not the same sleep demon though, because you know, not everybody experiences the same dreams. Yeah, why would they see the same sleep demon? Like, it doesn't mean it's that part about sleep paralysis is just so creepy to me. Like, yeah, there's got to be some link. Exactly. Yeah, there has to be. I mean, there's different so they've they've kind of
00:41:43
Speaker
created different categories for different types of hallucinations. So there's one called the intruder hallucination, which is seeing or sensing something threatening in your bedroom, like a dangerous person or a menacing presence. The incubus hallucination, which feels like the person is suffocating or that something is pressing on their chest, which we've talked about a lot. And this often occurs with the intruder hallucination.
00:42:09
Speaker
And then vestibular or motor hallucinations involves imagined sensations in the body, including movement, out of body experiences, or feelings of bliss. And I feel like this is probably a very rare one because I hardly ever hear of anybody's experiences with sleep paralysis where they felt bliss.
00:42:25
Speaker
Yeah. They're like, I've had the best sleep paralysis. It was wonderful. I have literally never heard that. Yeah. I always hear, I had sleep paralysis and there was a fucking demon. Right. Yeah. And it was terrible. It was the worst time ever. Yeah. 10 out of 10, do not recommend. Absolutely.
00:42:46
Speaker
Scientists have studied the role hormones, mirror neurons, changes in breathing, and the survival centers of the brain play in an effort to further explain sleep paralysis. So for instance serotonin. Serotonin suppresses REM sleep when we are waking up. So this contributes to an increased awareness of our surroundings
00:43:04
Speaker
And during sleep paralysis, serotonin is released when a person is stuck in REM sleep. So you're basically like overly aware of the situation that is around you. And I hate that. Yeah, I hate everything about that. Because it would make you feel more like scared because you know, whenever you're trying to be super alert in like a dark space and you make yourself see things that aren't there, that could contribute to that. But I do that for myself all the time.
00:43:33
Speaker
And then brain disturbances or malfunctions in the parts of the brain responsible for creating an image of the body may explain the creepy sleep demons that many people report during episodes of sleep paralysis hallucinations. Again, I'm not 100% buying that though, because like we said, everybody keeps having like the same demon.
00:43:53
Speaker
It's creepy. It's creepy. It is creepy. And then for the fight or flight response, when a person is suffering from sleep paralysis and realizes that they can't move their arms and legs, that fear and panic that they have may escalate their sense of dread and exacerbate the hallucinations further because they really want to fight or flight, but they can't because they're stuck. I just, none of it sounds good. No.
00:44:20
Speaker
So just a little bit more about sleep paralysis throughout history and cultures. So in Mesopotamia in 2400 B.C., they described the Lilleto.
00:44:32
Speaker
I could be saying any of these wrong. And we do our best. Yeah. This was a female demon incorporating concepts of the incubus, succubus, and the nightmare that we've already discussed on this episode. In Brazil, the Pisidaria was an old woman who lies in wait on roofs and walks on the chest of those who sleep on their backs with a full stomach. So I guess with a full stomach.
00:45:02
Speaker
like eat your fill at dinner and you're back and I guess you'll be fine. Again, comes back to we talked about this. This is one of the things like don't eat late at night. Don't eat a heavy meal right before bed. And then in Egypt, the gen, this is a supernatural creature associated with witchcraft, of course, madness and nightmares. And Egyptians believe that sleep paralysis is just attributed to the gen. In Cambodia, I know I'm saying this wrong.
00:45:32
Speaker
Kamok sangat. Sangat. I don't know. I have no clue how to say this. This is a supernatural being pushing down on the sleeper's chest or neck. And hallucinations include a ghost dispatched by a sorcerer, a demon wanting to cause fear, or a person who died during the Cambodian genocide, which is kind of sad.
Dreams vs. Sleep Paralysis Hallucinations
00:45:53
Speaker
That is really sad.
00:45:54
Speaker
Yeah, so just as kind of wrapping this all up and summing up the differences between dreams versus the hallucinations that you see with sleep paralysis, there are several differences between dreams and hallucinations that are seen with sleep paralysis. So for one, the first thing is awareness. Dreamers are often unaware that they're asleep.
00:46:17
Speaker
But with sleep paralysis, you are aware. You know that you're awake and you can't move and there's something in your room. Also the setting. In hallucinations, they take place in the person's actual real life sleeping environment. Dreams, you could be anywhere and see something terrible happening. And then as far as emotions, hallucinations often involve fear 90% of the time as opposed to only in 30% of dreams.
00:46:46
Speaker
And then for recall, nightmare hallucinations are often vividly remembered. So if you are experiencing sleep paralysis, you're going to vividly remember what happened to you. But if you're just having a bad dream, you may not remember it at all. Yeah. And which we've talked about that in the dreams and lucid dreaming episode, where as time passes after you wake up,
00:47:10
Speaker
Like I think it was in the first 10 minutes you forget like 60% of what you dreamed. So if you're not remembering it, it's more likely sleep paralysis or nightmare hallucination. But yeah, so that's it. That's what we have for sleep paralysis and nightmares.
Conclusion and Listener Engagement
00:47:29
Speaker
So I'm curious to know, I mean, cause I've never experienced sleep paralysis. I've experienced sleep paralysis. Yeah. I've never, thank God, like knock on wood. I never want to experience that cause it sounds terrible.
00:47:39
Speaker
It is. But my daughter, my oldest daughter experiences sleep paralysis, not often, but she's had it a few times and it started when we moved to England. Every time she tells me about it, I'm just like, Jesus Christ. Yeah. I've experienced it twice in my life that I didn't remember. I feel like I would remember if I experienced it when I was a kid too.
00:48:01
Speaker
And it was while I was an adult and it is a terrifying. Yeah. So I really hope that none of our listeners have experienced sleep paralysis, but if you have anyone to talk about it, like we would love to know. Yeah. Yeah. You can email us, you can get on our socials, message us. We love hearing all the stories. We do.
00:48:32
Speaker
That's it for this episode of Get In Loser, We're Doing Witchcraft. You can find our source material for this episode linked in the show notes. If you loved this episode, we would be forever thankful if you leave us a five-star review on wherever you listen to your podcasts. If you really love the show and want more Get In Loser content,
00:48:48
Speaker
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00:49:14
Speaker
Check us out next week for our episode all about oracle cards. Until then, blessed be with you.