Talk about an unlikely romance! Carmela Tarantino is one of the seven percent of people who experience sleep paralysis, and the same sleep demon has haunted her since she was a teenager. And after years of a contentious and often terrifying series of exchanges, they finally decided to tie the knot this fall.
“Hormon has been haunting my waking dreams for years,” says Carmela. “He’s would always jump on my chest and stare at me for a while before slipping under my bed. For a decade it would strike the most profound sense of fear in me,” she smiled. “But then one day, I don’t know, something just clicked.”
After coming to grips with the reality of her sleep paralysis, Carmela decided to lean in and just get to know her demon a little better.
“I just thought, I’m going to kill him with kindness,” says Carmela. “And it turns out that we ended up having a lot in common!”
After spending several nights crouched on her chest, Carmela and Hormon learned about each other’s hopes, dreams, and even their fears.
“Hormon, for example, has a weird thing about mice,” adds Carmela. “Like, can you imagine a literal demon being scared of mice? It’s adorable. And I, obviously, was very scared of him.”
Carmela and her sleep demon got married in a quiet ceremony at 4am in her bedroom.
“We’re super in love and totally in the honeymoon period right now,” says Carmela. “I’m sure we’ll have our ups and downs, but we just have such a strong trauma bond that I don’t think will ever really go away.”
“And now that we’re married, things are better than ever.”
Carmela’s sleep demon could not be reached for comment.
