Blog #3 Research Question and Scholarly Sources (Draft)

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Regarding my topic of sleep paralysis, I came up with some research questions:


  • How has the role of societal factors impacted hallucinations that stem from sleep paralysis and how do descriptions differ throughout different cultures? Why is there a pattern of people having very similar experiences depending on their location? 


  • How has the phenomenon of sleep paralysis “evolved” over time and how do descriptions of encounters differ from now to back then?


  • Is it practical to view the whole phenomenon of sleep paralysis only through scientific paradigms such as a biological or even psychological one? Is it possible that some cases could actually be a supernatural manifestation?


  • If sleep paralysis is not necessarily a scary experience for everyone, why do we commonly hear more about bizarre and horrific encounters?




Works Cited

Hufford, David. The Terror That Comes in the Night : an Experience-Centered Study of Supernatural Assault Traditions . University of Pennsylvania Press, 1982.


  Olry, Régis, and Duane E. Haines. “Kanashibari (金縛り): A Ghost’s Business.” Journal of the History of the Neurosciences, vol. 23, no. 2, Routledge, 2014, pp. 192–97, doi:10.1080/0964704X.2013.862132.


Pearce, J. M. “Early Descriptions of Sleep Paralysis.” Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, vol. 56, no. 12, BRITISH MED JOURNAL PUBL GROUP, 1993, pp. 1302–1302, doi:10.1136/jnnp.56.12.1302.


Sharpless, Brian A., and Karl Doghramji. “The History of Sleep Paralysis in Folklore and Myth.” Sleep Paralysis, Oxford University Press, 2015, doi:10.1093/med/9780199313808.003.0003. 

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