Sleep paralysis, sexual abuse, and space alien abduction.
Transcultural Psychiatry March 1, 2005 Richard J McNally, Susan A Clancy
Sleep paralysis, often accompanied by hallucinations upon awakening, results from a disconnect between the motor and perceptual aspects of REM sleep. Two studies are summarized: one assessed 10 individuals who reported alien abduction, linking their claims to sleep paralysis episodes where hypnopompic hallucinations were interpreted as aliens. The other found that adults with repressed, recovered, or continuous memories of childhood sexual abuse reported sleep paralysis more often than controls. Among the 31 reporting sleep paralysis, only one linked it to abuse memories, representing a 17% rate among recovered memory participants. People use culturally plausible narratives to make sense of these experiences.