The Weeknd opened up about how his real-life experiences with sleep paralysis influenced his film Hurry Up Tomorrow.
The singer spoke to The Fader about the bad guys in his film before launching into a very personal explanation of sleep paralysis. “There are no antagonists in this film,” he said. “I think that sleep paralysis is the enemy.”
“That’s something I was really dealing with, still am to this day. Not as much as before but they’re very vivid nightmares where you’re in bed and you’re half asleep and you’re aware of your surroundings,” The Weeknd continued. “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 Weeknd also revealed how he deals with it. “I did my research on it and it’s just lack of sleep,” the singer explained. “Your brain is still awake when you’re asleep. My big medicine for it was to just turn your phone off, turn the TV off, turn all the lights off.”
Hurry Up Tomorrow — the movie, not the album — comes out on May 16 in theaters. The trailer was screened last month at the 2025 CinemaCon at Caesars Colosseum in Las Vegas, where Jenna Ortega, who appears in the film with The-Dream and Barry Keoghan, called it “hard to describe.”
“I haven’t seen a movie quite like it. It’s very soulful,” she said. “It feels more like an experience, and when you go into it with that mentality, it makes sense.”
Earlier this year, The Weeknd told us about how his carefully timed naps help him to manage his stress levels. “I’ve been fond of taking naps recently,” he said. “Astronaut naps. 26 minutes. Turn the whole world off. Turn all the lights off and put your alarm to 26 minutes exactly. No more or less. Works like magic.”
