Disturbia

For quite sometime i have had this condition..i know, condition=ooohhh,poor you..how long have you been this way?. Anyway, nothing fancy like Ivan’s back issue with a fancy name…you know, one of those diseases you show off with. Hey guys, i have kbqdliucwcuweo9uoe. The guys stop and stare…you, you smile and wave..

I figured it was just me. There are times I’d wake up from a deep slumber, especially those I sneak away for in the afternoon ,and I’d feel strange…really,really spooky strange. I’d be fully awake but unable to move a muscle…I’ll skip the gory details. Well, huge relief a few days ago when I heard that this is actually something the doctors have a name for: Sleep paralysis. phweks! I’d begun to think some ki-nigeria-watching damsel had finally got the spells taught in the movies right…

Naturally, this eureka moment lead to moments of intimacy with wiki…ahem wikipedia. The juicy bits:

“Sleep paralysis is a feeling of being conscious but unable to move. It occurs when a person passes between stages of wakefulness and sleep. During these transitions, you may be unable to move or speak for a few seconds up to a few minutes. Some people may also feel pressure or a sense of choking.”

And it has a history:

“Over the centuries, symptoms of sleep paralysis have been described in many ways and often attributed to “evil” presences: unseen night demons in ancient times, the old hag in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, and alien abductors. Almost every culture throughout history has had stories of shadowy evil creatures that terrify helpless humans at night.”

Yes, even Shakespear believed in juuju.

What other people think of the condition:

• In African culture, isolated sleep paralysis is commonly referred to as “the witch riding your back”.
• In Vietnamese culture, sleep paralysis is referred to as “ma de”, meaning “held down by a ghost” or “bong de”, meaning “held down by a shadow”. Many people in this culture believe that a ghost has entered one’s body, causing the paralyzed state. (I actually thought this…i must be vietnamese)
• In Chinese culture, sleep paralysis is widely known as “鬼壓身/鬼压身” (pinyin: guǐ yā shēn) or “鬼壓床/鬼压床” (pinyin: guǐ yā chuáng), which literally translate into “ghost pressing on body” or “ghost pressing on bed.”
• In Iceland folk culture sleep paralysis is generally called having a “Mara”. Mara is an old Icelandic word for a mare but has taken on the meaning for a sort of a devil that sits on ones chest at night, trying to suffocate the victim.
• In Tamil and Sri Lankan Culture, this particular phenomenon is referred to as ‘Amuku Be” or ‘Amuku Pei’ meaning “the ghost that forces one down”.

The list goes on. I learnt that no matter how wierd you may think you are, you prolly aren’t alone…

Senkyu senkyu to the following people I robbed. Contrary to what you may be thinking, I didn’t write that medical jingo. I only wrote those thingi thingi’s in-between:

http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/sleep-paralysis and

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_paralysis