Kanashibari state (sleep paralysis)

A rare week goes by without a canadian physicist Jean-Christophe Terrillon didn't Wake up in the middle of the night, feeling beside his bed, the presence of threatening evil. Such minutes to it it is a horror. He wants to jump, call for help, but he can't move, can't make a sound. In the ears is ringing, and my chest constricted heaviness, poor starts to choke.

"It seems like your head crushed in a Vice at any moment can burst," says the scientist.

Sometimes Jean-Christophe think he's up in the air and looks down at his body, sometimes he has a feeling that an invisible force draws him through a long tunnel leading into the unknown. Such night attacks scare even him, the scientist and the materialist who does not believe in the evil spirits haunting people. Afraid, although he knows that this ailment is called sleep paralysis and that it is the result of a disconnection between brain and body man on the verge of dream and reality.

Recently sleep paralysis has become increasingly common. It is believed that half of the inhabitants of our planet at least once in a lifetime encounter with him. Most scientists believe that this disease may explain the attacks of witches, humans, and abductions by aliens mere mortals. In each country, sleep paralysis is called differently.

In Japan, "kanashibari": it is considered that this giant devil puts his foot on the chest of a sleeping person.

In Canada - "the old witch" because paralysis is associated with an old hag sitting on the chest of a sleeping person.

The Chinese call it "GUI ya", or the pressure of the evil spirit.

The West Indies paralysis during sleep is called karma. There the cause of the nightmare - the same spirit, just a little, zaprygivayem on the chest of a sleeping man to strangle him.

In Europe sleep paralysis since ancient times been identified with the witches, which was taken sleeping and forced to fly with them on a broom.

Yes. Sleep paralysis is known since ancient times. About it it is told in the novel by Herman Melville "Moby dick", and his "Nightmare" it can even see. Henry Fuseli, artist of the XVIII century, depicting the Goblin sitting on the stomach of a sleeping woman.

"Today, however, goblins and witches no longer relevant. Modern man give a more modern and plausible explanation for the strange hallucination," says al Cheyne, Professor of psychology at Canada's University of Waterloo.

By the way, Cheyne, interviewed more than 2 thousand people emerging from sleep paralysis from a half-heard that it was very similar to alien abduction. Felt the presence of someone was heard incoherent words, the body fettered strange immobility, and the pressure on his chest was unbearable...

"Is it any wonder, says al chain, that tonight is sleep paralysis not associated with the attack of the demon, and with experiments by alien scientists."

In recent years, the number of people allegedly kidnapped by space aliens, is growing day by day. The kidnapped citizens of another planet conducted medical experiments on them, then released. These stories lead scientists to the confusion, because, on the one hand, seem to be nonsense, but on the other-are increasingly common.

So what is sleep paralysis? The unequivocal answer to this question the scientists are still there. Yes, and what we can say, if the experts can't even accurately say is sleeping or awake person in a state of sleep paralysis.

"According to the classical definition of person is awake, says Emmanuel Minot, Director of the Center for narcolepsy at the medical school of Stanford University-but our research shows that it is in REM sleep."

During REM sleep, the body almost shuts down itself, and as if disconnected from the brain. In this phase of sleep is not are even automatic reflexes, like jerking legs when tapped on the knee. This condition lasts only a few minutes. As soon as the brain and the body restore a connection between them, one gains the ability to move. However, he is absolutely sure that you do not sleep a minute.

Sometimes, sleep paralysis is inherited. Although it is harmless, some scientists believe that there is a connection between him and the mysterious deaths of some ethnic groups in South-East Asia. Strong and perfectly healthy young people die in their sleep. Sometimes they choke, their faces often distort the grimace of horror. Ordinary people sleep paralysis often happens after long flights and long periods of insomnia. Sleep paralysis is absolutely indifferent to sex and is found in people of all ages.

"I'm happy, says the physicist Jean-Christophe Terrillon that don't live in the middle Ages, because then such people like me are possessed by the devil and burned at the stake, and in the XIX--XX-th centuries was placed in a psychiatric hospital"...

Translated by «Yandex.Translator»