Sleep is one of those universal human experiences. No matter what people tell you, it's a biological necessity (even folk with genetic mutations reducing their sleep requirements need a few hours.) Slipping into the realm of dreams can lead to strange experiences though, perhaps explaining why there's so much folklore around sleep. Let's take a look at...
- Gods of Sleep and Dreaming
- The Egyptian Book of Dream Interpretation
- The Nightmare-Eating Baku
- The Mirror and the Bed
- Do Cats Steal the Breath of Sleeping Children?
- Hatsuyume, the Dream of a New Year
- The Origin of Dream Catchers
- The Many, Many Faces of Sleep Paralysis
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| Sleep is a universal human experience... (Jp Valery) |
Gods of Sleep and Dreaming
Many cultures throughout the ages have featured gods of sleep and dreaming, and some of the most obvious come from the Greco-Roman pantheon.
The god Hypnos (Somnus in Rome) dwelt in the darkness of the underworld when he was not following his mother Nyx across the night sky. His residence was a shadowy cave near the River Lethe (sometimes fitted with a couch of ivory on which he could lounge) surrounded by poppies.
Depicted as a handsome young man with wings on his shoulders or brow, Hypnos brought sleep and dreams... a talent he occasionally misused. In one instance, he sent Zeus to sleep at the behest of Hera (giving her the opportunity to shipwreck Hercules) only for an enraged Zeus to wake and attempt to beat him senseless - Hypnos only escaped by fleeing to his mother Nyx (a primordial force that Zeus did not want to cross!)
The Oneiroi (dream-spirits) of Greece were said to be the sons of Nyx, Erebus or Hypnos depending on the tale. The most well known of these is probably Morpheus (thanks to Neil Gaiman's "The Sandman" if nothing else.) His name means shaper or molder - representing how he would craft the dreams of mortals. The spirit Epiales was sometimes considered one of the Oneiroi as well - though his dreams were better described as nightmares.
Ancient Mesopotamia had gods of sleep as well, specifically Mamu, Sisig and Zagar. Zagar (there are a number of variant spellings, including Zangara and Anzagar) is referenced as the god of dreams and as a beneficent protective spirit in the Sumerian Self-praise of Shulgi and Lugalbanda in the Mountain Cave. In the later text, Zangara appears as a bull in the protagonist's dreams, bellowing that he should wrestle and capture a wild bull of the mountains before sacrificing it (along with goats) to the gods. He also grants the protagonist the strength to perform these feats.
Mamu (or Mamud) is also a dream goddess, and one that had an impressive temple-palace built in Imgur-Ellil (modern day Balawat.) She's also referenced in the remains of Sippar (Tell Abu Habbah in modern Iraq.) She was the daughter of Shamash (or Utu) the Sun god but could also be represented as a male. Sisig (or Zaqīqu) was the brother of Mamu and also a dream god. The ancient Assyrian book Iškar Zaqīqu deals with dream interpretation and takes its name from the deity.
A darker take on dream deities comes from Basque mythology, specifically the god Inguma. This entity appears in houses and grasps the throat of a sleeper, making it hard for them to breathe... and in some Basque regions, Inguma will inflict nightmares as well. It's traditional to recite magic short formulas before sleeping to ward off Inguma's attention - these generally consist of telling the Inguma that you are not afraid, while also invoking the protect of angels, saints and other religious personages.
The Hindu god Vishnu is also heavily associated with sleep and dreaming, since the universe is said to be a result of his rest. The story goes that Vishnu rested on the body of a giant serpent, which in turn floated upon a primordial ocean. A lotus flower grew from his naval, opening to reveal Brahma... who then set to work creating the physical world.
The Egyptian Book of Dream Interpretation
Have you ever had a weird dream and wondered what it meant? Then you have something in common with the ancient Egyptians, who (being practical people) actually made a reference book for dream divination!
The papyrus in question was found at Deir el-Medina (Thebes) and is thought to date back to the reign of Ramesses II between 1279-1213 BCE. The layout is formulaic - a description of a dream, followed by if it is a good or bad omen and finally an interpretation of what the dream foretells. To give you an example, one entry reads "if a man sees himself in a dream with his bed catching fire - bad - it means driving away his wife."
To be frank, many modern diagnostic manuals could benefit from such a clear layout!
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| The baku is said to have an uncanny resemblance ot a tapir... (Jeffrey Hamilton) |
The Nightmare-Eating Baku
The Japanese baku actually evolved from a chimeric creature (a "mo") found in of Chinese mythology. That may explain why this creature has such a strange appearance - the body of a bear, head or trunk of an elephant, eyes of a rhino, legs of a tiger and tail of an ox. They actually have something of a resemblance to the tapir, which is also known as a baku to the Japanese. Some stories even claim that the Baku was put together from spare parts after the rest of the animals had been made!
Earlier folklore painted the baku as consuming metals such as copper an iron, but at some point its diet shifted to the bad dreams experienced by humans. Anywhere a baku took up residence, humans were said to experience better sleep... but there was a slight risk. A baku could be a bit too zealous and scoop up your dreams as well as nightmares, leaving you without any volition or hopes.
Baku were used as a protective symbol, embroidered on to pillows and bedclothes in the hope of invoking their guardianship (and even if you lacked such a symbol, you could simply say aloud that you wanted a baku to eat the nightmare that'd just woken you up.) Their images can also be found carved into the pillars and columns of Japanese temples - the Nikkō Tōshō-gū Shrine features seventy-eight baku carvings!
The Mirror and the Bed
Ever wondered if you should have a mirror near your bed? Practitioners of Feng shui say both yes and no.
One school of thought is that the mirror represents the element of water, meaning that it can collect and bounce negative or disruptive energy back towards your bed - a situation, they claim, that could induce nightmares. In these cases, the advice is to position the mirror so that it faces a piece of art or a nature (i.e. a plant.)
Another school of thought suggests that placing a mirror in your bedroom could help improve your field of view (especially if the bed isn't in a central, commanding position.) Doing so could help you feel more in control (and might help out if you're ever visited by ninjas, I guess.
Other folklore suggests that mirrors can act as a "gateway" to another realm, one from which negative influences can reach a sleeping human.
Curiously, staring into a mirror in a dimly lit area can do funny things to the human brain. The Troxler Effect is a psychological phenomenon in which the brain quickly starts ignoring the "boring" parts of an image. If you stare into a mirror long enough, you might find your reflection becoming warped and distorted... and if you sat in bed, staring blearily staring at a mirror in the half light, you might soon find a monster leering back at you!
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| Cats were said to suck the breath from sleeping children... (Tatyana Eremina) |
Do Cats Steal the Breath of Sleeping Children?
There's an old superstition that cats may, if left alone with a sleeping baby, suck the very breath from their bodies.
There's actually a story that a Jury in Plymouth, England convicted a cat of infanticide in 1791. Sources claim that the story was published in the Annual Register - but I have to say, I was unable to find find it in the text. On the other hand, it wouldn't be the only time animals have been put on trial!
In 1902 the Loveland Reporter (Vol 22, No 48) carried a story about a child suffocated by a cat. The victim was the offspring of the Gustave Browns, and was supposedly slain by the cat sucking its breath. The paper reiterates an old theory that cats may be enticed by the scent or taste of milk in a child's mouth, accidentally asphyxiating them while attempting to get at the liquid.
To reassure any cat-afficionados, it's highly unlikely that a cat would intentionally asphyxiate a baby. Leaving a cat alone with an infant probably poses similar risks as leaving a soft-toy or blanket - simple bad luck could result in the child being smothered, leaving the feline to catch the blame.
The idea of cats stealing breath is oddly similar to the legend of the cat-sith, a Celtic cat-like fairy or witch said to steal the souls of the dying and recently dead!
Hatsuyume, the Dream of a New Year
Hatsuyume is, to put it simply, the first dream of a new year. A form of oneiromancy (dream divination) one can look for messages in the dream - usually in the form of symbols representing your upcoming fortunes.
One such symbol is a vision of Mount Fuji. Rather than representing ascent to a position of command or authority as you might expect, Fuji is used as a homonym for buji or safety. In contrast, the word for a hawk (taka) can also mean high... which means a dream of one represents advancement.
The strangest one perhaps is an aubergine or eggplant. The Japanese word for this vegetable is nasu or nasubi, while nasu can also mean achieve or accomplish!
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| Dream catchers have spread far beyond the Ojibwe... (Jaron Nix) |
The Origin of Dream Catchers
You've probably seen a dream catcher before - a hoop with a net or web woven across it (often with feathers beads and other items decorating them) suspended in the air.
Dream catchers originated with the Ojibwe, who have a story about these charms: The spirit Asibikaashi (the Spider Woman) looked after the babies of the Ojibwe, spinning a protective web on the boards of their cradles. When the Ojibwe began to spread out across North America, this spirit struggled to reach every cradle... so the women of the Ojibwe pitched in, creating dream catchers from willow hoops strung with plants or sinew to make an imitation web.
The dream catcher is said to work like a filter, straining out bad dreams before they can reach a human mind. The trapped bad dreams would perish in the morning sunlight!
The Many, Many Faces of Sleep Paralysis
Paralysis is a natural part of human sleep, preventing us from thrashing about when in the throes of a dream. You may have heard of REM (rapid eye movement) sleep? That's when most dreams occur, and a temporary paralysis is all that's stopping us moving around as much as our eyes.
The problem comes when our biology gets things a bit wrong and leaves us paralyzed, despite being at least partially awake. The result is a helpless, panicky state where something (in reality, our paralyzed bodies) is holding us down. Even worse, sleep paralysis is associated with shallower breaths, fueling the sensation that something is making it harder to breathe.
The partially-awake (and quite possibly hallucinating) human brain races to find an explanation, with the obvious one being that we're being held down by an attacker. Fragments of dreams, partially remembered stories and a storm of chemicals get translated into half-formed figures that serve as the antagonist.
Many, many cultures have folklore pointing out a culprit for these episodes - here's just some of them:
- Alp: A German spirit that could enter a room through a crack or keyhole before sitting on a victims chest and giving them nightmares. Some stories claim they could be commanded and set upon specific victims!
- Batíbat: A tree-dwelling spirit from the Philippines that will follow the wood of its home should it be cut down - then sit on the chest of those closest to the stolen wood. It resembles a rotund old woman.
- Epiales: Sometimes called "melas oneiros" or the Black Dream, this Greek spirit may have been a son of the goddess Nyx and seems to have behaved like an incubus. His name is derived from "epiallô" or "to lay upon."
- Kanashibari: The Japanese term for sleep paralysis, blamed on everything from tsukimono (possession by an animal spirit) to a ghost sitting on the chest or the magic of a human priest or sorcerer.
- Kana Tevoro: A particularly nasty take applied to both sleep paralysis and sudden unexplained nocturnal death syndrome in Fiji, "kana tevoro" translates as being eaten by a demon (often interpreted as a dead relative.)
- Karabasan: A Turkish folk creature, warded off by recitations from the Quaran.
- Mare: The root of the word nightmare, a mare (spellings vary wildly) was a European spirit that sat upon a sleeper's chest and inflicted terrible dreams even as it pressed on the victim.
- Pesanta: A Catalonian creature in the form of black cat or dog that crawls on the chests of sleepers to crush and inflict bad dreams.
- Phi Am: A ghost from Thailand that sleeps on a sleeper's chest.
- Pisadeira: A long-fingernailed crone from Brazilian folklore that descends from rooftops to trample those sleeping face up with a full belly.
- Vrykolakas: These vampire-like Greek undead sat on their victims to crush and asphyxiate them.