So what the hell is it? Some Indonesians believe sleep paralysis is the work of jin—spirits or ghosts named in the Quran as one of God's smartest creations. Jin aren't always malevolent, but they are spirits and that still makes them pretty damn frightening if you ask me.Four years ago Mirella Pandjaitan, 22, experienced sleep paralysis for the first time in her life. She immediately thought of evil spirits."I was horrified," Mirella told me. "I couldn't tell if it was real or a nightmare. I couldn't move. I freaked out. Back then I didn't think it was sleep paralysis because I wasn't familiar with the term. I thought a bad spirit had tried to bother me because I too have experienced waking up [to see a ghost]. I couldn't go back to sleep.""I was horrified. I couldn't tell if it was real or a nightmare. I couldn't move. I freaked out." —Mirella Pandjaitan
Knowing I wasn't alone was a bit of a relief, but it wasn't much. I needed to get to the bottom of this to figure out if I will ever get the chance to have a good night's sleep this Ramadan. So I got in touch with Andreas Prasadja, the country's only sleep disorder specialist. He explained that disorders like sleep paralysis can get worse when you're fasting."People who are fasting experience a shift in their biological clock, they're lacking sleep," he told me. "And in extreme cases, sleep deprivation could trigger sleep paralysis."I met Andreas at Mitra Hospital in Kemayoran, Central Jakarta, where he runs a sleep disorder clinic. I went through my experiences with him. Andreas nodded then told me what was behind my nightly ghost visits.When we're in the REM, or rapid eye movement, phase of sleep, we're most at-risk for suffering from sleep paralysis. It occurs when there is an overlap between REM sleep and wakeful brainwaves, Andreas explained."There are two characteristics of sleep paralysis," he told me. "The first is you experience hallucinations, you can see some sort of creature, but the form this creature takes really depends in your cultural background. That's why different people in different parts of the world see different things.""You experience hallucinations, you can see some sort of creature, but the form this creature takes really depends in your cultural background. That's why different people in different parts of the world see different things." —Andreas Prasadja
Of course, SUNDS and rep-repan aren't the same thing. It's just a common problem and it's best to ignore it when it happens to you, Andreas told me."It can't harm us when it's happening, but it does have bad implications," he said. "I mean, [sleep paralysis] is a sign that someone's extremely sleep deprived. So if you're driving car or motorcycle under that condition, it could be fatal, no?"The Hmong men were likely terrified when it happened to them. So Andreas' advice? Stay calm and go back to sleep."Just don't fight it, it's exhausting," he said. "Just go back to sleep. Everything is OK, even though it seems and feels terrifying.""In Indonesia we believe in the unseen world. We never said that the unseen is separate from our lives, so we take it as fact that something that can happen at any moment." —Risa Permandeli