Sleep paralysis can be as terrifying as any horror movie
In his new book, Monsters on the Couch: The Real Psychological Disorders Behind Your Favorite Horror Movies, psychologist Brian Sharpless devotes a full chapter to a surprisingly common human sleep experience that has been worked into so many movie plots “it now constitutes its own sub-genre of horror.”
Not full sleep, exactly, but rather a state stuck between sleep and wakefulness that follows a reliable pattern: People suddenly wake but cannot move because all major muscles are paralyzed.
The paralysis is often accompanied by the sensed presence of another, human or otherwise. The most eerie episodes involve striking hallucinations. Sharpless once hallucinated a “serpentine-necked monstrosity” lurking in the silvery moonlight seeping through the slats of his bedroom window blind.
Feeling pressure on the chest or a heavy weight on the ribs is also common. People feel as if they’re being smothered. They might also sweat, tremble or shake, but are “trapped,” unable to move their arms or legs, yell or scream. The experience can last seconds, or up to 20 minutes,
