Saturday 5 May 2007

Sleep Paralysis?

Two things have made me think a lot about Jinns and magic etc lately. Firstly My brother will hopefully be getting married early next year so my whole family will hopefully be going to Bangladesh for the wedding and a holiday.

Each time I've been going to stay at my mums we end up staying up really late talking about weddings, Bangladesh and family history. Naturally more often than not talking about Bangladesh leads to never ending Jinn stories. I do mean NEVER ENDING!

Also I've been reading Tafsir surah Baqarah. Allah says: “They followed what the devils attributed to Solomon’s kingdom. Solomon did not disbelieve but the devils disbelieved, teaching men magic and such things as came down at Babylon to the angels Hârût and Mârût. But neither of these taught anyone (such things) without saying: ‘We are only for trial; so do not disbelieve’. They learned from them the means to sow discord between man and wife. But they could not thus harm anyone by it except by Allah’s permission. And they learned what harmed them, not what profited them, and they knew that the buyers of (magic) would have no share in the happiness of the Hereafter. And vile was the price for which they did sell their souls, if they but knew!” (Verse 102)

So i've been trying to also do some extra reading. Here is spomething VERY interesting I came across...

Question: Our daughter is having strange experiences during sleep. She complains of feeling something pressing down on her chest which paralyzes her entire body. She cannot even speak. This stops and starts throughout the night. It happens so frequently that she has become depressed and angry. We feel that this is an attack from the Jinn and we want to know what she can do about it.

Answered by the Scientific Research Committee - IslamToday.net

These symptoms should not be construed as an attack from the Jinn. This is a very common problem. It is a condition known as sleep paralysis (SP).

Sleep paralysis is defined as a condition in which someone, usually lying in a supine position, about to drop off to sleep, or just upon waking from sleep, realizes that he is unable to move, speak, or cry out. Many complain that they try to recite Âyah al-Kursî but are unable to do so. People in this condition are often beset by feelings of fear or dread and frequently try, unsuccessfully, to cry out. After seconds or minutes, they feel suddenly released from the paralysis, but may be left with a lingering sense of anxiety.

Many people experience this sensation while falling asleep or as they are waking up and it can cause them discomfort. Some people describe it to be as if they feel as if someone is sitting on their chest.

Common secondary symptoms of this condition are as follows:

* A feeling of being choked or suffocated
* A feeling of being pinned down or sat upon (particularly in the chest area)
* Auditory hallucinations, typically the sounds of footsteps and voices nearby or knocking or banging on the walls
* Visual hallucinations, typically beings or dark shadows surrounding or standing near the bed
* A frightening feeling of descending or encompassing evil or dread
* Shaking of the body or a rumbling sensation (ringing) in the ears
* A feeling of intense, suffocating evil
* A feeling of being in a dream-like state while at the same time sensing being awake

The source of this phenomenon is a natural bodily function. When you sleep, your brain shuts off the signals coming from your muscles so you do not get up and act out your dreams. This is to prevent you from injuring yourself in your sleep. For some reason, people with sleep paralysis come into consciousness before the brain returns voluntary control back to the muscles, creating a sense of feeling paralyzed. This sensation is quite uncomfortable and understandably frightening, which can lead the not wholly conscious person to experience some of the secondary symptoms of this disorder that can often be very frightening and realistic.

None of what you describe is strange, peculiar, or in the least bit exceptional. It is a benign condition. Several recent surveys suggest that between 25-30% of people have experienced at least a mild form of sleep paralysis at least once and about 20-30% of these people have experienced it on several occasions.

However, if it is a frequent problem for you that is impairing your sleep or causing you discomfort, then you should seek medical attention for it. There are actually many treatments and prescriptions for this condition.

Doctors suggest that getting on a regular sleep schedule and avoiding sleep deprivation are helpful in alleviating this condition.

And Allah knows best.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Bengali's call it something called Buba. They say it happens when you sleep facing upwards as opposed to on your right side. Most people who I know who have experienced it say its Jinn. Allah knows best.

Saabirah said...

The science bit doesn't explain why ppl experience presence of evil or see/hear things that aren't there. That's probably why they attribute this to the jinn.

Anonymous said...

These are a type of hallucination experienced by 'well' people. They are normal. If experienced on waking up, they are called hypnopompic hallucinations and if experienced on going to sleep they are called hypnogogic hallucinations.

Umm Maymoonah said...

scary. It happened to me a lot after I had maymoonah even at the hospital I thought it was postnatal It was really upsetting .

Anonymous said...

i thort i was jus imagining it! thank you for this blog, it explains a lot =)...

L said...

I've been having these episodes for a few years now, and it was always very frightening. I'd wake up in the middle of the night and be unable to go back to sleep. It was only yesterday that I searched my symptoms on google, just out of a sudden whim, and figured out it was sleep paralysis. So I was just poking around and trying to find a bit more about this - and I came across you!

Nice blog :)

Anonymous said...

it happened to me once i couldn't move but i was more fascinated then terrified. i think its jinn

Anonymous said...

I've had this happen to me since childhood, and I can say for sure this is not just a physical thing. The shadow man that appears after paralysis wears a suit and sometimes a hat. I thought this bizarre so never told anyone. It wasn't until this year, after he went a bit too far one night that i was certain it was something not of this world. I don't want to go into too much detail but what he did to me while i was put in a paralysis was something i could not have imagined from my own mind (since it was the first time for me..experiencing this). It spoke to me throughout and then waited for me to wake up and see it fully standing at the end of my bed. He was very tall, almost touching the ceiling and he wore a suit/smart coat. He then turned around and walked into the wall after staring at me for some time. He was a dark shadow darker than the night. When I googled this, I was amazed that so many people have had the same experience. How does science explain this? People of different ages,creed, relgion and sex seeing the same shadow man all over the world?
Jinn - are made of smokeless fire - a dark shadow..And i am almost 100% sure he his a jinn.

Anonymous said...

I had a very scary experience where i was waking up from my sleep, i got caught in some kind of a trance, i saw this Dark black figure standing by the right side of my bed, pretty close to me, i don't usually go through weird things likes this, ad i immediately sensed a presence in my room, i did not feel safe, i contacted a religious person who deals with these things and they confirmed infact it was a female Jinn, as the house i was staying in was my new house and i had just moved in, it had been empty for many years...i was awake both times when this happened to me, so i know it wasn't my imagination. The first time, i heard some ringing and shuffling sound and i also sensed a strong presence right next to me..before it paralyzed my left side of my body..it was such a bad experience i no longer want to live there.