to the op, that stuff got me cracking up. I can just imagine the reaction of a novice saying that stuff for the first time. sleep paralysis may seem a common thing in Asian cultures, but I still don't believe all the stuff about our diet being the cause of it. very healthy people (Asian or non-Asian) get it too. put it simply, many westerners get sleep paralysis that they don't care to bring up or they may say it's some other stuff and so on. I've had sleep paralysis before, too; although it's more of a fight out of it using pure physical strength rather than lack of concentration (or use of the mind, which is kind of already in a compromised state). anything goes I guess. the human psyche + sleep = dreams = sleep paralysis = nightmares = hallucinations . the mind, when in the sleep state, clocks in at a rate/frequency subpar, below marginal (in terms of aptitude and magnitude in contingency with normal wake cycle conscience patterns, even) idleness that thoughts rely on networks, which the mind have to fall back on as memory stored in these [neural] networks, where (quite fragile in the sleep state may be altered or induced in many experimental ways, even), relativity, according to that particular person's life experiences, imaginations, and attitudes draws out those types of figures. just food for thoughts.