Basic Trope: Nocturnal supernatural presences who cause or are present during the phenomenon of sleep paralysis, often also causing nightmares and other sleep disturbances and sitting on the chest of their victims.
- Straight: Alice wakes up in the middle of the night incapable of moving herself or of speaking, with a red-staring grinning demon sitting on her chest and making her have nightmares.
- Exaggerated: The sleep demon is an reality-warping nightmare that causes this experience on Alice every single night, and makes it last several hours instead of a couple of minutes.
- Downplayed: Alice sees only a shadowy, vague figure of the demon in the other side of the bedroom out of the corner of her eye, and her paralysis lasts only a few minutes.
- Justified: The demon feeds off human fear to survive and chooses to terrify people in their dreams when they're sleeping because it is easier and less risky.
- Inverted:
- The demon is actually not a demon, but a benevolent spirit who gives Alice sweet dreams and ensures she gets a healthy sleep night.
- It is Alice who sits on the demon's chest and causes him sleep paralysis at night.
- Subverted: Alice sees a dark menacing figure next to her bed after waking up from a nightmare, but it turns out it was just her friend Bob, who was sleeping in the next room and passed by to check if she was fine after noticing she was having bad dreams.
- Double Subverted: ...But then after Bob gets out of the room and Alice goes back to sleeping, the real demon gets out of his hiding and goes back to tormenting Alice.
- Parodied:
- The demon enters Alice's room to torment her, but she is such a heavy sleeper she doesn't even notices him, much to his frustration.
- The demon gets back pain after sitting on people's chests so many times and wishes to have a vacation.
- Zig-Zagged: Sometimes Alice's sightings are said to be hypnagogic hallucinations, sometimes they are implied to be real.
- Averted: Alice's sleep paralysis isn't caused by any supernatural beings.
- Invoked:
- Alice, knowing her cases of sleep paralysis have been frequent, sleeps as a way to attract the demon so her friends will capture it.
- A spirit causes sleep paralysis on tyrant Emperor Evulz as a way to get revenge on him for his crimes.
- Exploited: A demon-hunter goes to investigate cases of people suffering from sleep paralysis and sets a magical trap in their bedrooms, knowing the demon would most likely return at night.
- Defied: Alice covers her room with protective amulets and spells and deliberately sleeps on her stomach so the demon won't be able to sit on her chest.
- Discussed: Bob comments with his friend that he thinks Alice is being plagued by creatures like Night Hags and Mares after she suffers from sleep paralysis.
- Conversed: A character comments about tales and myths from world folklore about sleep paralysis and how many cultures have their own perspective about this phenomenon, several of which envolving malevolent spirits.
- Implied: A shadowy figure is shown entering Alice's room through the window at night, and Alice in the next morning says she had a frightening experience sleeping.
- Played for Laughs: The demon is actually quite a pleasant fellow, but his attempts at communicating with Alice obliviously cause sleep paralysis on her, making him think she is ignoring him.
- Played for Drama: Alice begins to get paranoid after the frequent incidents and starts to lose her grip on reality, trying to stay awake all the the time so she won't be plagued by the demon once more.
- Played for Horror: The demon is a sadistic serial killer who takes delight in mentally torturing his victims for days until he suffoccates them to death in their sleep. Since all of the deaths happen during sleep and the victim cannot even ask for help when they're being attacked, the demon is treated as an Invincible Villain of whom no one can escape.
Back to Sleep Paralysis Creature
