Abel Makkonen Tesfaye—better known as The Weeknd—is a Canadian singer, songwriter, record producer, and actor whose songs have repeatedly topped global charts. He is a four-time Grammy winner and has been nominated for an Oscar and an Emmy, not to mention numerous other awards. The artist openly discussed his experiences with sleep paralysis and how these experiences are reflected in his new film, Hurry Up Tomorrow. The plot follows a musician suffering from insomnia who meets a young woman and plunges into a whirlwind of events where the line between dreams and reality blurs. The Weeknd wrote the music for the film, and a similarly titled album is being released in parallel with the movie.
The singer admitted that sleep paralysis is still a problem for him, although it’s not as frequent as it used to be. He describes the phase state as “very vivid nightmares where you’re in bed and you’re half asleep and you’re aware of your surroundings. But, you can’t move and you’re paralyzed for almost a minute and sometimes you see a shadowy figure in the corner and you hear a voice.” The singer believes that the “enemy” in his film is sleep paralysis. By the way, the leading female role was played by Jenna Ortega, who became famous for her role as Wednesday Addams in the Netflix series Wednesday. She called the film “hard to describe” and “more like an experience” than just a film.
Complex also cites methods for dealing with sleep paralysis that the artist has developed for himself. According to Tesfaye, he conducted research and concluded that the main reason is a lack of sleep, which causes the brain to remain active when the body is asleep. The best medicine is simply turning off your phone, TV, and lights before bed. The singer has also previously mentioned that taking a 26-minute nap helps him cope with stress—you need to completely disconnect from the world and set an alarm for exactly that time, no more, no less.
The film will be released on May 16, 2025. The trailer is available on YouTube.
What do you do about sleep paralysis, if you’ve had such an experience?
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