The Incubus
The Nightmare, John Henry Fuseli
During the witchhunt craze of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, people had some really messed up ideas on how human reproduction occurred. One way was for a demon to steal a man’s seed and impregnate a helpless woman during her sleep. The monster that stole the precious sperm was called a succubus, and the monster that implanted the sperm was called an incubus.
The incubus would sit on top of your chest while you slept, making it impossible for you to move if you woke. (Sort of like being molested by a possessed sexsomniac.)
But before you condemn medieval people as crazed horndogs trying to attack innocent women, there is a scientific basis for believing in such monsters.
The condition is called sleep paralysis, and as someone who has experienced it…I would prefer the demon spawn. During sleep paralysis, you are fully awake but cannot move or cry for help. It feels like you have had a stroke.
But although it is terrifying, sleep paralysis is harmless. Most sleep experts attribute it to being caught between REM (rapid eye movement) and NREM (non-rapid eye movement) sleep. Either way, before sleep stages were understood, we can see how our ancestors would have thought it was a demon sitting on your chest. (Although adding the sex part seems gratuitous.)
written by Carlyn Beccia
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