According to modern medical explanations, during sleep, the brain goes into a state of rest. The cycles of deep and light sleep alternate. When the brain is in a light sleep state, people dream; during deep sleep, they are unconscious, experiencing a calmness as if submerged in the depths of a dark ocean.
Under normal circumstances, people wake up from light sleep, but sometimes they wake up from deep sleep. In such cases, the part of the brain responsible for receiving information wakes up, while the part responsible for movement remains in a sleep state. At this point, although awake, a person cannot move—they can only blink and breathe, and may even struggle to bite their tongue to wake themselves up, but to no avail. In this half-awake, half-asleep state, the brain is prone to hallucinations, also known as nightmares. These nightmares can result from both external physical stimuli and internal psychological trauma.
Externally, nightmares often occur when something covers the nose or mouth while sleeping or when an arm is pressed against the chest. Since nightmares create hallucinations, it is easy for people to believe them to be real. However, for a nightmare to form a story, two conditions must be met: first, there must be a process or plot; second, there must be tangible evidence.
In "The Ghost Bite," from the woman "lifting the curtain and entering" to "floating away," the story is deliberately made suspenseful—initially, she seemed to have come for the wife, but later, she turned her attention to the old man. The detailed descriptions of the woman’s appearance, attire, and especially the specific, extraordinary act of biting the ghost during the old man’s resistance are vividly portrayed. The story ends with the mention of blood evidence: “It was like rain leaking from the roof, soaking the pillow. When he bent down to smell it, the stench was unbearable... Even days later, there was still a lingering foul odor in his mouth.”
Because the scene is described in such a detailed and lifelike manner, the nightmare becomes not just a story, but a tale with a rich literary flavor.
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