During a recent class I was taking on Public Speaking, the subject of the paranormal was brought up.  One of my classmates brought up an experience he had where he awoke to a goblin looking woman on top of him, he felt as if he was being pushed down on his chest and had a hard time catching breath.  I told him it sounded like it could be “Old Hag Syndrome.”

                I thought this would be a great topic for a little article to help inform others what this is!

                Old Hag Syndrome, which is also known as “Night Hag” or “Sleep Paralysis” is not in of itself a paranormal event.  The “Victim” will complain of lying in bed and awaking to see a frightening character such as the goblin as mentioned earlier, or commonly an alien, and that they felt as if they could not move or that they were in fact being pressed on the chest, causing shortness of breath.  These events which can be repeated multiple times, most commonly would occur while awaking or less commonly while falling asleep.

                This syndrome has been blamed on many cases of reported alien abductions because the “victim” believes the event to be real even when fully awake. 

                So what is happening?  Well without getting too technical with big words, and for ease of understanding, the “victim” is still in a dream state while they are awakening or falling to sleep.  When you sleep, your brain will drift off into “dreamland” or more commonly the REM (Rapid Eye Movement) stage of sleep.  The dream stage occurs at this time.  Now while a person sleeps and dreams, they can dream of all sorts of things, such as being chased or in a fight, etc, but it only occurs in the dream.  The person’s body will still lie on the bed sleeping while these dreams occur (unless sleepwalking which is a whole other story!).  Sometimes when the body begins to awaken, the person can still be in this “dream state” and they can witness what they interpret a horrifying or scary event, just like if you had a nightmare.  The person’s body will not move, because it’s still in sleep mode, they may feel restrained; feel like they are being choked, etc. 

                Now, is this harmful?  Most studies you find say no, this is just a form of a sleep disorder, and generally only lasts a few seconds but can last over a minute. 

                A lot of people have experienced this!  Have you ever felt yourself “falling” in bed when going to sleep and you try to “catch” yourself? 

                Now this is not to discredit anyone’s claims that they have been “attacked” by a paranormal force, just a suggestion into what may have happened.

                For more information, there are many web sites and literature out there on the subject! 

                As always, be safe!

 Some additional links!

http://www.stanford.edu/~dement/paralysis.html