Nightmares, Night Terrors & Sleep Paralysis: When Sleep Goes Wrong

What if the thing sitting on your chest in the middle of the night… wasn’t a demon?

For centuries, terrifying nighttime experiences were blamed on witches, demons, spirits, and creatures that supposedly climbed onto your chest and suffocated you. But what if these stories were actually attempts to explain something happening inside the sleeping brain?

In this episode of The Cadaver’s Lessons, we explore the strange world of nightmares, night terrors, and sleep paralysis—what they are, how they differ, and what happens physiologically when sleep and wakefulness collide.

We travel from ancient Sumerian and Greek beliefs to the medieval incubus, the Old Hag, Jinn, Kanashibari, and other cultural explanations for sleep paralysis. Then we follow the evolution of sleep science through the discovery of EEGs, REM sleep, and our modern understanding of parasomnias.

We’ll also break down:

• Why nightmares usually happen during REM sleep
• Why night terrors can look terrifying but are often forgotten by the person experiencing them
• How REM atonia can leave you awake but temporarily unable to move
• Why sleep deprivation, stress, shift work, and irregular sleep schedules can trigger sleep paralysis
• When these experiences become a medical disorder
• How nightmares are treated, including imagery rehearsal therapy
• Why you generally shouldn't try to wake someone during a night terror

And in our Ethics Autopsy, we ask some uncomfortable questions: What happens when a medical symptom becomes a moral judgment? And when medicine encounters a culturally specific explanation for a real physiological experience, should we correct the belief—or respect it?

Because maybe humanity hasn't stopped believing in demons.

Maybe we just gave them medical names.

Class is in session.

• Cox AM. J R Soc Med. 2015;6(7):2054270415598091.
• Vernon A. Demons or Nightmares? A History of Night Terrors. 2024.
• de Sá JFR, Mota-Rolim SA. Front Psychol. 2016;7:1294.
• Cleveland Clinic. Parasomnias. 2025.
• Faccini J, Del-Monte J. Front Psychiatry. 2024;15:1461495.
• Medscape. Parasomnias. Accessed September 6, 2026.
• Leung AKC, et al. Curr Pediatr Rev. 2020;16(3):176-182.
• Schulz H, Salzarulo P. J Clin Sleep Med. 2016;12(7):1041-1052.
• Silber MH. Sleep. 2024;47(1).
• Bhalerao V, et al. Cureus. 2024;16(7).
• Mythfolks. Sleep Paralysis Folklore. Accessed September 6, 2026.
• Wellcome Collection. Sleep Paralysis: A Brief History of Fear, Treatment and Artistic Creativity. 2016.
• Brown C. Smithsonian Magazine. 2003.
• Weir K. Monitor on Psychology. 2024;55(7).
• Medscape. Nightmare Disorder. Accessed September 6, 2026.
• Shumway KR, et al. StatPearls. StatPearls Publishing. 2026.
• Medscape. Sleep Paralysis. Accessed September 6, 2026.

🔗 Check out all our links, sources, and socials:https://linktr.ee/thecadaverslessons

At the height of America’s tuberculosis epidemic, thousands were sent to Waverly Hills Sanatorium in Louisville, Kentucky. Patients faced isolation, experimental treatments, and the constant fear of death. But Waverly Hills has another story—one filled with ghosts, legends, a notorious body chute, Room 502, and the mysterious child known as Timmy. What really happened inside America’s most haunted hospital?

📚 References

1. Waverly Hills Sanatorium. Waverly Hills Sanatorium. Wikipedia. Accessed September 3, 2026. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waverly_Hills_Sanatorium
2. Kentucky Historic Institutions. WHS: Patient Death Index. Accessed September 3, 2026. Kentucky Historic Institutions — Waverly Hills Patient Death Index
3. Waverly Hills Sanatorium. About Us. Accessed September 3, 2026. Waverly Hills Sanatorium — About Us
4. Kentucky Historic Institutions. Waverly Hills Sanatorium. Accessed September 3, 2026. Kentucky Historic Institutions — Waverly Hills Sanatorium
5. Frazier Kentucky History Museum. Independent Spirits, a Brief History of Waverly Hills Sanatorium, Composer Rachel Grimes’s Film “Along the Way Forth,” and More. Published October 18, 2021. Accessed September 3, 2026. Frazier Kentucky History Museum — Waverly Hills Sanatorium
6. US Ghost Adventures. Hauntings of Waverly Hills Sanatorium. Published December 30, 2024. Accessed September 3, 2026. US Ghost Adventures — Hauntings of Waverly Hills Sanatorium
7. Rhoden G. Meet one of the few living patients from Waverly Hills Sanatorium's segregated ward. Louisville Public Media. Published March 2, 2026. Accessed September 3, 2026. Louisville Public Media — Waverly Hills' Segregated Ward
8. Fanelli F. A Study of Forty-Three Patients Who Left Waverly Hills Sanatorium Against the Doctor's Advice During the Period September 1 Through December 31, 1942. University of Louisville; 1944. Master's thesis. University of Louisville Electronic Theses and Dissertations
9. Adams MQ. Louisville's Dark Tourist: Liminality, Legend, and the Macabre. University of Louisville; 2020. Master's thesis. Paper 4255. doi:10.18297/etd/4255. University of Louisville Electronic Theses and Dissertations

🔗 Check out all our links, sources, and socials:https://linktr.ee/thecadaverslessons

TB gets weird in Part 2.

We’re diving into the disastrous history of tuberculin, the evolution of the TB skin test, and some truly brutal treatments—including collapsed lungs, rib removal, and Lucite balls stuffed into the chest.

Then we follow TB into the modern era: X-rays, the BCG vaccine, antibiotics, drug resistance, diagnosis, treatment, and why curing TB can still take six months.

And in this episode’s Ethics Autopsy, we ask:

How much evidence is enough before we intentionally hurt a patient to try to save them?

From questionable cures to evidence-based medicine, this is the story of how we learned to fight one of humanity’s oldest killers.

🎧 Listen now—and prepare to never look at a TB skin test the same way.

📚 References

1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Clinical overview of tuberculosis disease. Updated April 17, 2025. CDC Tuberculosis Clinical Overview
2. Croix M. Extrapulmonary tuberculosis (TB). Merck Manual Professional Edition. Updated February 2026. Merck Manual: Extrapulmonary Tuberculosis
3. [Author(s)]. History of tuberculosis. Part 2—the sanatoria and the discoveries of the tubercle bacillus. J Mil Veterans Health. Journal of Military and Veterans' Health
4. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. History of World TB Day. CDC: History of World TB Day
5. [Author(s)]. Miliary tuberculosis. StatPearls. StatPearls Publishing. NCBI Bookshelf: Miliary Tuberculosis
6. Tuberculous spondylitis (Pott disease). StatPearls [Internet]. StatPearls Publishing; NCBI Bookshelf: Tuberculous Spondylitis