The History of Sleep Paralysis and Nightmares

 

Our word for a bad dream is nightmare. The second half of this word comes from an old English root - mara or mare -a word that means demon. Cultures all over the world have throughout history considered certain bad dreams at night the work of demons. In almost every culture, this demon was considered to sit upon one's chest at night, in an attempt to suffocate the person and paralyze them. The person has the sensation that some unseen force is riding their chest and keeping them from breathing, so they naturally assumed it was that unseen force which everyone in the ancient world knew was around them at all times - a spirit or demon. The ancient world assumed that unexplained actions in our world were the action of the unseen forces of the air, or spirits. Some of the time it was seen as just an evil spirit trying to harm the person, but often it was also viewed as a sexual being - the incubus or sucubus, depending on the sex the spirit had taken. The male spirit is called an incubus and the female is called a sucubus. These were viewed as the source of dreams with sexual content, and even the source of unwanted pregnancies.

One of the oldest of these spirits was the Mesopotamian deity Lilitu. As early as 3000 BC she was described as an evil night spirit that tormented people in their sleep. Her powers were celebrated and feared by the ancient world. It was known that this evil spirit could attack people in their sleep. She is mentioned in the Bible by the prophet Isaiah where she seems to be associated with the owl, another night creature, and the word is usually translated owl in Isaiah 34:14 where the prophet desribes the desert waste of Edom. In the Gilgamesh epic, a poem from ancient Mespotamia, Lilit was said to have fled into the wilderness, favorite retreat for evil spirits. In the various versions of the Bible she is called a night monster, hag, or vampire. Later Jewish tradition transformed Lilith into the first wife of Adam. She refuses to take an inferior position to Adam, saying "I will not lie below you, but only on top" and says that she should be considered equal to Adam. In the end she leaves Adam and the Garden of Eden and goes out into the wilderness, refusing to return to him when the angels of God come to entreat her. After her leaving God made it up to Adam by forming Eve out of his rib. In the meantime Lilith is unleashed on mankind in their sleep and mankind is only saved from her ravages by amulets with the names of the archangels on them.