Sleep Paralysis / Tsog Tsuam
Basically, you experience sleep paralysis when your body is paralyzed but your mind is awake. I know first hand how intense and scary these experiences can be and I could basically go on and on about my personal encounters or stories. But, for anyone interested in knowing what sleep paralysis is or for anyone needing some type of explanation as to why it happens, here's my take on it.
Most of the time sleep paralysis is a psychological condition. Notice how I said "most of the time." Basically from a medical perspective, sleep paralysis happens when we awake up during REM sleep, the last stage of sleep but the deepest stage. This stage is when we experience dreams. This could happen during nights where you go to sleep very late and your brain is already very exhausted. We know from the research that in just two days (48 hours) your body starts to compensate for that lack of sleep. This means you will experience microsleeping and sometimes disorientation. Microsleep is basically that split second or that half a minute experience when you unconditionally "knock out" or fall asleep. During this time a person may experience sleep paralysis that may include hallucination or seeing things that aren't there for a split second.
Sleep paralysis could also be caused by the phenomenon known as the menacing presence intruder. This is when you are in a hyper-vigilant state that mainly occurs in your midbrain. The midbrain is responsible for motor movements (which includes muscle movements), movements of the eye, and most importantly, it is responsible for vision and auditory processing. This could explain why many sleep paralysis victims report "seeing" things that aren't there, hearing screams, screeches, or voices that shouldn't be there. This phenomenon is an emergency response that activates the brain when people wake up from feeling paralyzed, which most of the time induces or intensifies the experience. When it is induced or intensified, this could explain why hallucinations during this time is so vivid and seems so real!
Another possible explanation is known as the the incubus or suffocating attack. In simple terms this occurs when muscles are paralyzed which includes muscles of the throat and chest, constricting our ability to breath during an episode. During this time, even though our muscles are paralyzed we could be awake which we then realize we aren't able to breath normally which could exacerbate the feeling of suffocation. When breathing fails, we get a sense of resistance. Our body is designed to fight or flight, at which point when we can't breath we feel a sense of threat. If our chest isn't able to move or expand, we could temporarily interpret this as someone sitting on our chest or something heavy being placed on our chest.
Now, Hmong people call this "Tsog Tsuam." What exactly is Tsog Tsuam? A Tsog can be thought of as a wild spirit. These include spirits that live in nature, in the woods, hungry spirits, or basically evil ghosts. The term "Tsuam" is defined as being piled or something being on top. Put it together and Tsog Tsuam means "wild spirit on top." Tsog Tsuam mainly happens to people who might have gone to the forest, the woods, mountains, swimming at a lake, fishing, or anything involving being in nature. Now just because you went fishing doesn't mean you will get Tsog Tsuam. This typically happens to people who are more susceptible. These are people who's soul is easily taken or easily lost. Once we return home, a Tsog could follow us home. Tsog Tsuam only happens when we are asleep. Basically, a Tsog is trying to take your breaths away. Breaths are a symbol for being "alive" and so since a Tsog is not a physical life form, it comes and "steals" your breaths. This could explain why we feel we cant breath during an episode. Other effects include feeling "kho siab." Kho siab is a sign that your soul is weak or far away. Other effects include nightmares, night terrors and visions along with trouble sleeping. Another effect could be having a phobia or intense fear of the dark. Long lasting effects include things like depression and even the possibility of hallucination.
What should you do if you are experiencing Tsog Tsuam? First, tell someone about it, preferably an elder. Most of the time a sacred red or white string around the wrist should do the trick. In other cases maybe a shaman ritual is necessary. Hmong people believe ghosts and wild spirits are afraid of pear leaves. You could find some pear leaves and put this buy your bed or door. If you don't have pear leaves, a tree branch with leaves on it could do the trick. Another thing, Hmong people believe putting a broom by your bed will "sweep" out bad spirits. A home remedy that my family uses is cooking garlic and red peppers in oil and then wrapping that or soaking that in red cloth and tying that to your door or bed. Another thing that you could do is asking a shaman to cleanse your home. You can also do this yourself! Just get a tree branch with leaves on it and sweep every room in your house. When doing this, say aloud that you are sweeping away wild spirits, ghosts, demons, or anyone that is not your family and those who refuse to leave will be scratched and stabbed by the tree branches of Earth.
I think it's so important for Hmong people to know the basics. Especially for Hmong youth my generation and younger. I know that when I was experiencing sleep paralysis, I honestly thought it was just a normal part of sleep. I didn't know the basics and we weren't really taught these things growing up. It had gotten that bad to the point where I normalized it! One thing we should all know is that consistent sleep paralysis is not a natural phenomenon. I am not an expert and I am not a physician. Of course for extreme cases I would always recommend seeking medical help asap!
-tfl