Inuit Interpretations of Sleep Paralysis

Dados Bibliográficos

ID2394527
AutoresSharmistha Law (0000-0002-1918-8782, University of Toronto), Samuel Law, L J Kirmayer (0000-0002-6228-1739, McGill University)
Ano2005
Volume42
Fascículo1
Páginas93-112
Data de publicação2005-03-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoTranscultural Psychiatry (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1363-4615 • E-ISSN: 1461-7471
EditoraSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/1363461505050712
PMID15881270
OpenAlexW1593283618
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas6
Referências citadas19

Traditional and contemporary Inuit concepts of sleep paralysis were investigated through interviews with elders and young people in Iqaluit, Baffin Island. Sleep paralysis was readily recognized by most respondents and termed uqumangirniq (in the Baffin region) or aqtuqsinniq (Kivalliq region). Traditional interpretations of uqumangirniq referred to a shamanistic cosmology in which the individual's soul was vulnerable during sleep and dreaming. Sleep paralysis could result from attack by shamans or malevolent spirits. Understanding the experience as a manifestation of supernatural power, beyond one's control, served to reinforce the experiential reality and presence of the spirit world. For contemporary youth, sleep paralysis was interpreted in terms of multiple frameworks that incorporated personal, medical, mystical, traditional/shamanistic, and Christian views, reflecting the dynamic social changes taking place in this region

Cognition · Epistemology · Paralysis · Psychiatry · Sleep disorder · Sleep paralysis · Sociology · Soul · Neuroscience of respiration and sleep · Philosophy · Psychology · Sleep and related disorders · Sleep and Wakefulness Research