Apr 25, 2023 03:34 PM
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20230...your-sleep
EXCERPT: . . . The most dramatic and memorable episodes of sleep paralysis are normally those that come with vivid hallucinations. Usually these nocturnal visions are a source of fear, but scientists also think they can tell us fascinating things about the human brain.
When you enter sleep paralysis, your brain's motor cortex starts sending signals to the body, telling it to move. But the muscles are paralysed, and so the brain does not get any feedback signals in return. "There's an incongruence … the self is broken up, degraded," says Jalal. As a result, the brain "fills in the gap", and creates its own explanation for why the muscles cannot move. That's why so many hallucinations involve a creature sitting on your chest or holding your body down.
It reinforces the idea, popular among evolutionary scientists, of the human brain as a "storytelling machine". We struggle to accept the fact that much of the world is random, and so our brain devises dramatic narratives in an effort to find meaning in the mundane.
Christopher French, head of the anomalistic psychology research unit at Goldsmiths, University of London, has spent more than a decade speaking to people across the world who have experienced these hallucinations, and recording what they saw. "There are common themes, but there's also a huge amount of idiosyncrasy, variability," French says.
Some hallucinations are difficult to explain – and even downright bizarre. Over the years French has recorded sightings of a sinister-looking black cat, and a man being strangled by plants. But others are far more common and seem to be heavily influenced by culture. In Canada's Newfoundland, it's common to see an "Old Hag" sitting on your chest. Mexicans report a "dead man" lying on their chest, whilst St Lucians speak of "kokma", the souls of unbaptised children, strangling them in their sleep. Turks describe the "Karabasan" – a mysterious, ghostly creature. Italians often hallucinate witches.
It strengthens the idea of humans as overwhelmingly social animals, influenced heavily by culture and expectations... (MORE - missing details)
EXCERPT: . . . The most dramatic and memorable episodes of sleep paralysis are normally those that come with vivid hallucinations. Usually these nocturnal visions are a source of fear, but scientists also think they can tell us fascinating things about the human brain.
When you enter sleep paralysis, your brain's motor cortex starts sending signals to the body, telling it to move. But the muscles are paralysed, and so the brain does not get any feedback signals in return. "There's an incongruence … the self is broken up, degraded," says Jalal. As a result, the brain "fills in the gap", and creates its own explanation for why the muscles cannot move. That's why so many hallucinations involve a creature sitting on your chest or holding your body down.
It reinforces the idea, popular among evolutionary scientists, of the human brain as a "storytelling machine". We struggle to accept the fact that much of the world is random, and so our brain devises dramatic narratives in an effort to find meaning in the mundane.
Christopher French, head of the anomalistic psychology research unit at Goldsmiths, University of London, has spent more than a decade speaking to people across the world who have experienced these hallucinations, and recording what they saw. "There are common themes, but there's also a huge amount of idiosyncrasy, variability," French says.
Some hallucinations are difficult to explain – and even downright bizarre. Over the years French has recorded sightings of a sinister-looking black cat, and a man being strangled by plants. But others are far more common and seem to be heavily influenced by culture. In Canada's Newfoundland, it's common to see an "Old Hag" sitting on your chest. Mexicans report a "dead man" lying on their chest, whilst St Lucians speak of "kokma", the souls of unbaptised children, strangling them in their sleep. Turks describe the "Karabasan" – a mysterious, ghostly creature. Italians often hallucinate witches.
It strengthens the idea of humans as overwhelmingly social animals, influenced heavily by culture and expectations... (MORE - missing details)