Sleep paralysis accompanied by hypnopompic ('upon awakening') hallucinations is an often-frightening manifestation of discordance between the cognitive/perceptual and motor aspects of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. Awakening sleepers become aware of an inability to move, and sometimes experience intrusion of dream mentation into waking consciousness (e.g. seeing intruders in the bedroom). In...
Sleep paralysis typically occurs as individuals awaken from rapid eye movement sleep before motor paralysis wanes. Many episodes are accompanied by tactile and visual hallucinations, often of threatening intruders in the bedroom. Pendergrast [Victims of Memory: Incest Accusations and Shattered Lives, HarperCollins, London, 1996] proposed that individuals who report repressed or recovered...