11 Creepy Paranormal Phenomena Debunked By Science

3. Night Visitations

What’s Really Going On: Sleep Paralysis

Almost all reports of a “haunting” include a story in which the person awakes to find a figure stood at the bottom of their bed, watching them sleep. Another common trope is to feel the sensation of being “held down” by demons or even strangled by an evil force.

These experiences are all classic symptoms of a common sleep disorder known as sleep paralysis. When we enter REM sleep (the “dreaming” phase of sleep), your brain temporarily paralyses your body to ensure that you don’t act out your dreams or sleep walk. If REM sleep is disturbed then sometimes what can happen is that the brain “wakes up” before the body does and you find yourself semi-conscious but unable to move.

It is common during these episodes to hallucinate whilst you still have one foot in reality and one in the land of dreams. Many report seeing a figure either moving about the room, stood over them or even sitting on them (possibly the brain’s attempt to rationalise the paralysis), often accompanied by the sense that this presence is evil or demonic.

For hundreds of years, these symptoms have been interpreted as visitations from evil spirits, demons, and incubi. Ironically, these beliefs can actually exacerbate the condition due to the stress caused by the thought of being visited by evil demons. Once somebody who suffers from sleep paralysis is aware of the cause, the hallucinations become much less frightening and the vicious circle of stress and sleep paralysis can be broken.