Scientists have theorised that sleep paralysis experiences might be result in some modern accounts of alien abductions. The Iranians have a term called bakhtak, which refers to a type of jinn that sits on the sleeper’s chest. Kurds refer to mottaka, an evil spirit that suffocates people in the night. In parts of Switzerland people speak of tchutch-muton, an evil nightmare fairy that disguises itself as a black sheep. The Japanese have a term, kanashibari, in reference to being magically bound by invisible metal. Norwegian folktales include svartalfar – evil elves that shoot people with paralysing arrows before perching on their chests. Sleep paralysis researchers Brian Sharpless and Karl Dograhmji have collected 118 different terms from around the world that describe sleep paralysis-like experiences: Germans have terms for hexendrücken – witch pressing – and alpdrücken – elf pressing. Depending on the time period and cultural context, these nightmare visions can be interpreted in different ways. The text includes a taxonomy of different types of dreaming and researchers have identified E-meng (‘dreams of surprise’) as sharing many of the characteristics that are now associated with sleep paralysis.
This first reference has been traced to the Zhou Li/Chun Guan, an ancient Chinese book on sleep and dreaming. Records of incidents attributable to sleep paralysis can actually be found throughout history and across cultures with records dating back at least as far as 400 BC. The content of hallucinations can often be thematically linked to the feeling of paralysis – manifesting as visions of an intruder in the bed who is physically holding the sleeper down. Effectively, imagery from your dreams can actually intrude into your waking reality. Beyond the inability to move, these periods of wakeful paralysis are often accompanied with vivid multisensory hallucinations. The technical term that might apply here is ‘ sleep paralysis,’ a subtype of parasomnia, or sleep disturbance. Setting aside the Pokemon for a moment, let’s first consider her report of waking up, unable to move, with a crushing presence on top of her. The short, seemingly paradoxical, explanation is that she could have been awake and she could have been dreaming. Indeed, given what we now know about this mysterious neuropsychological state – and the strange sensations it can bring – one might arguably describe her experience as ‘normal’. But my first thought, as an experimental psychologist with a particular focus in anomalous perceptual experiences was, “Well, that could have happened to anybody.” Although it’s impossible to definitively explain this woman’s experience, I nevertheless felt quite confident that this late-night Pokemon assault fit neatly into our existing understanding of sleep. It rattled about the internet, and eventually surfaced on my Twitter feed.
News of the woman’s police report was quickly, and somewhat gleefully, picked up by a variety of international tabloids.
After a brief search of her home, the woman proceeded to report the assault the police. Eventually, she was able to rise, and the Pokemon vanished. Panicking, but unable to speak, she struggled with the creature while her boyfriend slumbered ignorantly beside her. Not a person in a Pokemon outfit, an actual Pokemon. She opened her eyes and reportedly saw that she was being assaulted by a real-life Pokemon character. Later that night, she was awoken by a crushing pressure. In Moscow this past summer, a woman drifted-off to sleep after playing Pokemon Go on her smartphone.
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