While it might not be the most comforting image, have you ever wondered what sleep paralysis actually looks like?
Well, sometimes you might need to be careful what you wish for because an AI has created a visual representation and it’s pretty terrifying.
DALL·E is a text-to-image artificial intelligence developed by OpenAI using deep learning methodologies to generate digital images from natural language descriptions.
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Users can type in a description and the AI will do the work to turn it into an image.
When the program was asked to create an image of what ‘sleep paralysis feels like’, it shared a horrifying depiction of demon-like creatures surrounding a person in their bed.
The creatures appear to be screaming in the image with glowing eyes and sharp teeth.
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Sleep paralysis is a condition which causes a brief loss of muscle control, usually just after falling asleep or before waking up.
During sleep paralysis, people can experience hallucinations which include sensing danger or feeling suffocated.
It can feel like there are shadow-people or demons in the room when you’re experiencing the condition but the effects are harmless and temporary.
If you’ve never had sleep paralysis you might have difficulty imagining what it looks like, but the DALL·E AI has put that curiosity to bed - no pun intended.
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Creating the sinister looking image, the AI also wrote: “Here’s an image capturing the surreal and intense experience of sleep paralysis, emphasizing the immobility and fear often felt during these moments.”
This isn’t the first time AI has shown us a visual depiction like this.
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Earlier this year, an account on X, formerly Twitter, caused a stir when they asked an artificially intelligent program to generate a video of hell.
The scary results show hands reaching up to grab a body being pushed downwards.
The 18-second clip goes on to show a face screaming, followed by a distorted face, which then keeps getting overlapped with more hands.
Of course, people on X had thoughts about it.
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One user wrote: “Definitely don’t want to go there.”
Another person joked: “Many already experience this ‘Hell’ every morning going to work by public transit.”
A third person agreed by adding: “Hell is indeed Paris' metro.”
A fourth commented: “Damn that s*** is claustrophobic as hell... wait, it is hell.”
And a fifth user joked: “Of course, for an AI, Hell is having to draw nothing but hands.”