Personality of healthy young adults with sleep paralysis

Sleep paralysis occurs in normal persons. This phenomenon had been studied psychoanalytically or in terms of the deviation of the victims' personality. This present study aimed to assess the personalities of such persons by using the MMPI and the Maudsley Personality Inventory. The subjects showed a slightly higher mean T score on the MMPI Paranoia Scale than those who did not have this experience. Although this personality difference might be related to the occurrence of the phenomenon, this difference is probably too small to take a major role. It is unlikely that the subjects developed paranoic behavior through their experiences of sleep paralysis, since their experiences were very few. Some of the subjects might have only overestimated their behavior and experiences concerning delusions and hallucinations, with the result that their Paranoia scores were higher and perhaps their kanashibari experiences exaggerated.