Have you ever woken up in the middle of the night unable to move, trying to catch your breath and not knowing what’s going on? Did you hear voices or see strange things in your room as you struggled to move at least one part of your body? If so, you have probably experienced the strange phenomenon of sleep paralysis, a very common but terrifying parasomnia that causes one to be unable to move their bodies while the brain is conscious. Most people are incapable of opening their eyes, and that’s probably for the best because sleep paralysis has been known to be accompanied by strong hallucinations of dark figures entering your room, alien-like beings talking to you or a devilish cat sitting on your chest.
“The Nightmare” is a documentary film released in 2015 that tries to understand the personal experiences of eight people who suffer from this odd sleep disorder. Each of these people has come to their own conclusions about the causes of their sleep paralysis, ranging from the medical and psychological to the spiritual and demonic.
According to Alina Bradford of Live Science, sleep paralysis can be caused by sleep deprivation, sleep apnea, some medications, and narcolepsy. While in the rapid-eye movement, or REM phase of sleep, your brain works hard producing a number of intense dreams while your body is still sleeping. Sometimes the brain will wake itself up before the REM phase is complete and causes people to be awake mentally but not physically, rendering your body useless as you lie there left to perceive a dream-like world with just your eyes and ears. Usually, these dreams are filled with horrifying images that one interviewee says to be “Jungian” in nature, referring to the psychological work done by Carl Gustav Jung, who claimed that there are certain archetypes that compose the psychology of humanity. In most cases, the archetypes personified during a sleep paralysis episode lean toward the dark side of the human psyche.
However for some of the interviewees, these understanding aren’t adequate in explaining their experiences. Old folklore from around the world has given this eerie disorder some horrifying explanations, and some of those supernatural rationalizations are still convincing people that what they are experiencing is not of this world but another more mystical one. They truly believe that demons and in some cases alien beings are trying to take control of their bodies, abduct them or simply kill them while in this weak and vulnerable state of being, and rightfully so as these episodes can and do feel as real as being awake.
As this film addresses some of the darker parts of the human experience, it is only appropriate that it’s cinematography and editing pay homage to fictional horror films by creating a mood that causes the audience to feel on edge and provoking suspense and terror. “The Nightmare” does a wonderful job of doing this, using darker lighting, camera work and over-exaggerated dramatizations of the eight interviewees personal experiences reminiscent of horror films such as “Nightmare on Elm Street” and “Insidious.”
No matter what the true reason for sleep paralysis is, people around the world have and continue to experience this strange and otherworldly reality and try to rationalize and understand the causes of it.
Oh and just a fair warning: the film does address the fact that people have been known to experience sleep paralysis shortly after learning or hearing about it.
Sweet dreams.
