Sleep paralysis in adolescents: the 'a dead body climbed on top of me' phenomenon in Mexico.
Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences August 1, 2009 Alejandro Jiménez-Genchi, Víctor M Avila-Rodríguez, Frida Sánchez-Rojas et al.
Sleep paralysis, known colloquially in Mexico as 'a dead body climbed on top of me,' is a common experience among adolescents. In a survey of 322 Mexican high school students, 92.5% had heard the folk expression and 27.6% had experienced the phenomenon. The prevalence of sleep paralysis was 25.5%, with 22% reporting hypnagogic or hypnopompic hallucinations. Most (61%) had two or more lifetime episodes, with an average onset age of 12.5 years. Episodes typically included both paralysis and hallucinations (72%), while 20.2% involved only paralysis and 7.8% only hallucinations. Sleepiness scores did not differ between those who had experienced sleep paralysis and those who had not.