August 3, 2008

  • Summer Rerun: Bound in Chains

    In the previous post, I wrote I had a dream and fell out of bed. It reminded me of another dream I used to have all the time--being unable to move. I wrote about it a long time ago, back on October 31, 2003. The following is a partial edited repost.

    Kanashibari

    Have you ever dreamed of being awake but not being able to move? I have. In Japanese, its called kanashibari, or bound in chains. The first time I experienced it, I thought that I was somewhere in a parallel universe. I was in my bed and I recognized the outline of the pulled shades in my dark room, but I couldn't move. With great effort I tried to will myself, but my feet and hands wouldn't budge. I was beginning to panic. I'm paralyzed! I thought. I tried to scream but couldn't. After struggling with my body, I slowly was able to gain a modicum of control, until finally I woke up completely. At this point, I was breathing heavily. What the hell was that?!?

    I had a few more similar experiences, and I realized that it usually occured when I was exhausted or completely stressed out. I even figured out how to get myself out of it: take deep and deliberate breaths. I had discovered that the one thing I could control when I was "in chains" was my breathing. Long deep breaths that take in lots of oxygen for the brain.

    Eventually, I figured out what was happening--at least, as far as an amateur sleepologist like me is able to diagnose such an experience. I had found myself in chains as I was watching a rerun of the Mary Tyler Moore Show, suddenly unable to move my body. Huh, what the heck? I'm still watching the show, I can see what's going on, the room is the same, everything is the same! What the heck is happening? I proceeded with my unchaining regimen, taking deep breaths and finally waking up. But it struck me: I must be sleeping with my eyes open. My body is asleep and cannot move, but since my eyes are open, I am still taking in stimuli from the outside world and it gives the effect of being awake.

    Indeed, I often go to sleep with my eyes open, as my sister would gladly atttests, for she finds it creepier than hell. She realized this when she once began a conversation when I was watching TV in my sleep. My lack of response pissed her off and she was about to tell me of when I began snoring. She thought I was putting her on, but she eventualy realized that I actually was asleep. When I told her later that I vaguely remember her in the room, she told me that this was simply one more reason to label me a freak. Im sure you can tell my sister and I are close.

    Now I'm no sleep expert, so what I have just described above is definitely a layman's diagnosis. But maybe, just maybe, someone knows more about this phenomenon and can tell me something definitive.

    Query: Have you ever been in chains?

Comments (13)

  • The lot you shout is true, I imagine thus
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  • i have similar experience where i was completely conscious, but i couldn't move my limbs. and it was back in middle school when my pressure was the greatest. i always went to bed exhausted. i think stress was the cause.

  • Ah.  This really commonly mentioned in Korean culture.  I don't know if it's necessarily the culture, but it's mentioned pretty often.  It's called "Ga-wi" (가위)  in korean, and basically all the symptoms are the same, but we have a lot of supersticious people that label the happenings as evil spirits/ghosts sitting on you/laying on you/strangling you.

    I tried to look this instance up in western culture, but it doesn't seem to be such a big deal.. they refer to it as sleep paralysis..then I came across the term kanashibari too..

    I don't know, but most Koreans go crazy over it.. saying things like "I SAW A GHOST, I WAS SO SCARED, blahb lah blah" after experencing those binding "chains"

     They say a weak mental and physical state usually helps induce such occurences more..  but I asked a question pretaining to this in my psychology class one day and my teacher had never heard of it before.. but he assumed that it was sleep paralysis and that it happened during a state of sleep in which you're supposed to be dreaming and what not... (REM sleep) when your body is usually paralyzed so you don't "act out" your dreams.. but you happen to be awake during that state (or wake up) so you start expereincing odd happenings, and you'e aware of the weird surroundings and your apparent paralyzation.. when in fact you're still not fully concious..which would explain the koreans seeing weird ghosts and all those alien abduction cases that people claim x)

    HM.  Yeah.. this is all taht I know about kanashibari, or gawi.. or sleep paralysis or what not..
    I don't think it's abnormal.. cause i know friends who go through this chronically..
    the best thing is probably to just regulate your body so you're not as exhausted... I think x)

     

  • I've experienced that many times
    I am suspecting it having to do with motor nerves not "awake" when other parts of the body is awake

  • not sure how (or if) I commented on the post back then, but I can recall being in 金縛り growing up... that and I used to see things. :p

  • i've been in play handcuffs (that count?)

  • i have had kanashibari quite a few times
    first time was in bed at home, other time was in some creepy hotel room
    is it just the body stressed out, or were there really "spirits" in the room, i don't want to debate over it.  but it was soooo scary...

    and you falling asleep with eyes OPEN??  thats more scary.....

  • @tanjf - That's exactly what I was going to say. In Cantonese, that's what I know it as.

    @Onigiriman - THANK YOU, WIKI:

    In Chinese culture, sleep paralysis is known as "鬼壓身" (simplified: 鬼压身) (pinyin: guǐ yā shēn) or "鬼壓床" (simplified: 鬼压床) (pinyin: guǐ yā chuáng), which literally translate into "body pressured by a ghost" or "bed pressured by a ghost."

  • @Onigiriman -  鬼压身. couldn't find the direct translation for the 2nd chinese work. 'pressured' would not be the right word, so i just translated it as 'locking'. if we speak in cantonese dialect, it will be pronounced as 'guai jak san'. in mandarin, it will be pronounced as 'gui yak shen'.

  • @tanjf - What are the chinese characters? Please write them here for me?

  • Ooooh.... no i can't say it's happened to me, but it sure doesn't sound pleasant... or at least the "asleep" version of being in chains

  • in chinese, we literally translated it as "ghost locking the body". they always link this with supernatural activities.

    i used to experienced it alot, whether in my campus and also in my house. i won't be able to move, not able to speak, and i'm not sure i'm opening my eyes at that time or not.

    but most of the time i will feel this will happen to me a few seconds before this happened to me. meaning to say that i will awake, suddenly.

    for me, it's definitely an eerie experience coz i feel that there are something that touches/caresses me. and i have a feeling that it is a male (all the time!).

    but do you know that you can actually can escape from this fast if you forced your way to move? i tried this a couple of times. coz i wouldn't want to lose to these 'beings' (if these are caused by ghost in the 1st place. haha!).

    wow, this i the longest comment that i've ever made. i should've made it a post instead. can't help it coz i have lots of experience with this!. haha!

  • Ghost paralysis! Definitely went through that during a flu once. It was the strangest thing to know you're awake but can't do anything. I couldn't open my eyes, and I kept telling myself to just move or do something. Worst feeling in the world. It appears that your "stressed out or exhausted" qualification applies here. I was quite sick. 

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