The myth “Tindihan”

In our beloved country, Indonesia, we are really common of a word “Mitos” or myth. Myth is come from a Greece :μῦθος— mythos or mite, Dutch: mythe. Myth is like old folk story or we can say as a fairytail that was happened in the past. Most of myth in Indonesia are nonsense as well as in other country in the world. There are a lot of myths in Indonesia such as do not stand under the tree at night or the ghost will drugs you or make you faint, do not whistle at night because you will call the demon and many other. Some times most of myths are myth are nonsense, indeed nonsense if we think logically. But, if we look further or analysze the myth scientifically, it can be make sense. The first myth I mention before that the person will faint is because the tree is need to breath oxygen in the night. If we stand under the tree we would hard to breath because the tree need to breath also. As a result because lack of oxygen we would faint. So, its not because the ghost or demon but rather because lack of oxygen. So, we can say that the myth is the  experienced of people in the past that did not had scientific research. And made them speculated of what they believed.

In my essay I will not talk about that myth but I will talk about one myth, that is “Tindihan’’, Tindihan is If you sleep and suddenly your conciousness wake up but you can not move your body means that there is a ghost who riding your back. This myth is very famous in Indonesia. Not only in Indonesia but also in other country. According to ancient Java, Tindihan is caused by a ghost who sitting in your body while you sleep. And according to other’s perspective in the worls are the same as what ancient Java believe. In Turkey, this myth is called as “karabasan”, people in Turkey belived that this happened because a ghost or a demon who attack a person and push the breast and take their breath while they sleeping. The perspective of this myths in other side of the world are the same.

Every  single people in the world had ever experienced Tindihan at least one or twice. Tindihan is a terrible moment or let say as the horrible moment that we or you had ever experienced. I can say that because I had ever experienced that. One I night after I just finished with my assignment I directly went to sleep at eleven in the night. I lay my body on my bed and started to sleep. When I have alreday sleeping,for no reason I just woke up at that time. My conciousness was woke up. But at that time, I hardly cannot move my body, my hand, my legs and even I cannot breath. "This cannot be real. It has to be a dream; no one goes to sleep with the ability to move only to wake up paralyzed!". When I woke up and realized that my whole body cannot move at all, something sca­ry happened. I heard the voice of a ghost. That ghost is Kuntilanak, Kuntilanak is an origin ghost in Indonesia or it’s similar to Sadako,  a ghost from Japan. With black long hair and white dress. This ghost was haunted me, she was laughing at me and she like trying to kill me.  I am totally scared at that time, I recite pray and begging to God to help me. The ghost, the voices were real. After struggle to move my body and struggle to wake up. I finally did it.

But I did not brave to continue my sleep because I am too scared that it will happen again. And I wonder how I can experience that horrible moment. When I asked my mom about that moment, she answered “you were bothered by demon, this demon sitting in your body while you sleep. So that’s why you were not able to move your body”. Is it a real ghost that bothered me? Is it a demon? Or is there any scientific reason that can explain about this myth?

The scientific explanation about “Tindihan”.

            If we analyze this myth scientifically, we can find out the logic explanation about the myth. In scientific field, this myth is called as Sleep Paralysis, the moment when you cannot move your body while you sleep. Sleep paralysis could become a horrible moment. Many scientist says that sleep paralysis occurs when a person suddenly wake up in the phase of sleeping, called as Rapid Eye Moment (REM). Usually the person in this phase is dreaming, but their muscle almost paralyze, that could be as an evolutioner adaptation which keep a person not doing any kind of acts like what their dream in their dream. In short, our mind is wake up but our body is still sleeping. What happens in Sleep Paralysis is when your body has switched into REM mode This is the mode where you dream (or sometimes don't dream) and only takes up 25% of your sleeping time. If your mind exits the REM cycle before it is complete this will cause Sleep Paralysis. During REM your body is "Shut Off" and when you  interupt REM, your body is "still asleep" and needs to take a few minutes or seconds to catch up.

            The thing which is really hard to explain is that why people who experienced sleep paralysis (Tindihan) feels that there are some metaphysics creatures who enter their room and try to threaten them. So, what kind of creatures that enter their room and press their breast until they hard to breath? According to Baland Jalal and his colleagues Vilayanur Ramachandran from UC San Diego, published at Medical Hypotheses, One of scientific explanation which is makes sense about that is hallucination. The way of a brain to handling the confusion. So, our brain will be automatically makes some imagination to handling our confusion.

“perhaps there is one part of the brain that genetically planted about the image of body. It is just like template” Jalal says.

           

            In the previous studies show the part of that brain is parietal lobes. The big part of a brain in the top part. There is a possibility during sleep paralysis, parietal lobes monitoring nerves in the brain that order to move. But it’s not detects the real movement from legs that was paralyzed at that time. It is thought to cause disruption in how the brain builds a sense of one's body image. Sightings of monstrous creatures that creep could be the impact when the brain is trying to project an image of the body itself to figure hallucinations.

Sleep paralysis is common: half of the Indonesia population  may be experience this condition at least once in their lives. The condition is likely to arise if you are is stress and have disturbed sleep cycles due to shift work, narcolepsy, sleep deprivation, jet lag, and other sleep disorders.

If It's Just a Dream - Why So Real?

If sleep paralysis is just a dream, then why does it feel so real?

Some of the effects are really real. This explanation is a very clever of waking consciousness with the dream world. It's a weird mind trick. For instance, footsteps thumping towards the bed are often a distortion of the sound of your own heartbeat, pounding in your chest to all the adrenaline. Hearing your assailant breathing unnaturally is common too, it thought to be the sound of your own gasps for breath in this panicked state.

The feeling of your body being paralyzed is real, too. Releasing yourself from the grip of the paralysis is one way to end this terrifying situation (see below). However, the perceived difficulty to breathe properly is what causes many people to imagine an entity trying to harm them (by stopping them breathing or crushing their chest). It's important to remember here that the effect is psychosomatic.

Thankfully, the evil entities are not real. But for chronic sufferers, this is not always easy to accept. People write to me describing their episodes, believing they have exactly encountered beings from another realm. Even after learning about the true nature of sleep paralysis and the gateway to lucid dreams (a technique to control our dream), some people remain convinced that this state is really a gateway to hellish dimensions.

Sleep Paralysis in Other Cultures

This is not a new condition. Sleep paralysis has existed in folklore from many different cultures for centuries - perhaps millennia.

In Japan, they call it "kanashibar". In Newfoundland, it's known as "the old hag" who visits you in the night. In China, they know it as "ghost oppression". Even artists have depicted this ghoulish night-time disorder: see The Nightmare by John Henry Fuseli.

It's no surprise that native folklore shapes the nature of sleep paralysis hallucinations. In America, it was only after flying saucers were popularized that people reported vivid alien abduction experiences, where aliens paralyzed and probed them in their bed at night.

In Mexico, more than 90% of teenagers know the phrase "a dead body climbed on top of me" to describe the nightmare entity. And in African culture, it's known as "the devil riding your back" where demons have sex with people in their sleep.

This all tells us that sleep paralysis is a common human condition, and the hallucinations can be shaped and molded based on your expectations.

How to Stop Sleep Paralysis

Researchers are learning more and more about this age-old condition. Some people has a greater predisposition to sleep disorders, and these are the ones that should avoid anything that messes with their sleep cycles, including night shift work, overtiredness, and sleep deprivation. If you have ever experiencing sleep paralysis recently, there is good news: in the majority of cases, it goes away on its own. Only a tiny fraction of the population experiences chronic episodes. So try to isolate the factors that may have caused this recent bout and stop disturbing your sleep cycles.

There are some tricks to do to stop sleep paralysis in its tracks. It depends on the severity of your condition but most people find they able to focus on a specific task. I t is justlike breaking the paralysis - to help overcome the fear.

Here are tips how to stop sleep paralysis in simple steps:

1.      First relax your body into the paralysis... don't fight it forcefully as this will create panic and increase the chance of negative hallucinations.

2.      Try to gently wiggle your fingers and toes. These tiny movements will eventually tell your brain that your body is awake and it will stop the atonia.

3.      At the same time, try to move your eyes by blinking and looking around the room. Again, the goal is to establish movement to fully awaken you.

4.      Try to move your lips and facial muscles.

5.      If your breathing feels restricted by the paralysis, remember that you have been breathing fine like this while asleep. Focus on breathing as deeply as you can and not letting panic overtake your thoughts.

6.      Keep your mental state positive and calm. Focus on relaxing thoughts - can you imagine a beach or distant location in the sun? Some people find it helps to sing in their mind as this instantly raises your positivity.

Maintain these goals for the duration of the sleep paralysis. Sometimes you will find it wears off in a few seconds. Other times it may appear to get the better of you but stay strong and focus on those tiny movements. As soon as your brain receives adequate signals that you are awake, it will shut down the REM atonia, you will be able to move your whole body again, and the hallucinations will disappear.

            Conclusion

            I can conclude that Tindihan or Sleep paralysis is not disruption from astral creature or jinn or ghost. It was proven by scientist that sleep paralysis is caused by brain activity that wakeup during sleep but your body is not ready yet. The nerves that control movement of our body is cutting off, but it is just for awhile. This nerves will automatically connected to your brain so we can control our brain again. The explanation why we heard some voices, foot steeps or even we felt like there is someone who choking our neck so that we cannot breath. It was because our brain is overcome or handling our brain confusion. That’s makes our brain create some hallucinations like there is someone who choke your neck. I do really believe that there are other creatures like demon or ghost. But, in this case the one who makes Tindihan or Sleep Paralysis is not because demon. It is just normal condition that people may be experienced.