Vagea

Slumber paralysis is a most terrifying state, wherein the brain becomes conscious while the body remains paralyzed. It is at this time that hallucinatory, often vividly horrifying, events are experienced by people: dark figures looming in the doorway, pressure feeling like weight on the chest, whispering, and maybe even calling the victim by name! The result of physical actions during dreams that normally take place in REM sleep becomes the legend of a demon sitting on one’s chest. Scientifically, it can be explained as occurring during REM sleep. Some might argue that the paralysis happens for a good physiological reason: in preventing our muscles from acting on our dreams. Stress, irregular sleeping patterns, and anxiety are contributory factors that underlie sleep paralysis. Although sleep paralysis is not harmful to one's body, its sheer vividness and horrifying reality make it one of the scariest sleep phenomena.