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The Nightmare, by Henry Fuseli (1781) is thought to be one of the classic depictions of sleep paralysis perceived as a demonic visitation.
Normally I wouldn’t post on this kind of thing, if not for the fact that it happened to me this morning. Probably one of the most terrifying experiences of my life. I’m telling my story because if I had known about this phenomenon, I probably wouldn’t have been so frightened.
Just after 9am this morning when I lay down to watch the news, I apparently fell asleep. Not long after, I woke (or at least I thought I had) to find myself paralyzed. My eyes could move and I could see in front of me. I even looked for details, like which of my husbands shirts was hanging on the rocking chair. I could hear the Fox 10 morning newscast playing on the TV. I tried to move my head and move my body but nothing was happening. I could not speak and I could not scream. At this point I panicked and tried to focus on moving my hand toward my phone to call 911 and hope that someone would discover me and help me.
Soon after that I felt a presence in my living room and began to hear and see things/people out of the corner of my eye. I won’t get into detail since I did eventually fully awake, regaining movement and realizing everything was ok. I immediately went to google and searched paralyzed dream and came across a phenomenon called sleep paralysis, which I had never heard of. I found an abundance of recorded accounts that either matched or went above and beyond what I experienced.
I guess what I wondered most is “If this is common and happens to around 30% of people, why had I never heard of it before?”
From Wikipedia: “Sleep paralysis occurs when the brain awakes from a REM state, but the body paralysis persists. This leaves the person fully conscious but unable to move. The paralysis can last from several seconds to several minutes by which the individual may experience panic symptoms. As the correlation with REM sleep suggests, the paralysis is not entirely complete; eye movement is still possible during such episodes.
In addition, the paralysis may be accompanied by terrifying hallucinations and an acute sense of danger. Sleep paralysis is particularly frightening to the individual because of the vividness of such hallucinations. The hallucinatory element to sleep paralysis makes it more likely that someone will interpret the experience as a dream, since dream-like objects may appear in the room alongside one’s normal vision. Some scientists have proposed this condition as an explanation for alien abductions and ghostly encounters.”
From Another Site: “Statistics report that 20% to 40% of people report having had some or other version of sleep paralysis. For a third of them the experience is nothing more than a momentary fear of the possibility of paralysis followed by a swift return to normal. A substantial two thirds of those who report having experienced sleep paralysis describe episodes of hallucinations of varying degrees. In simple language the hallucinations are similar in nature, distinguished only by their association with those experienced at sleep onset and those upon waking.
Features of the hallucinations have often been postulated as an explanation for the proliferation of reports of alien abduction and demon visitation. The reason for this is the characteristic nature of the hallucination. There tends to be certain uniformly experienced features that include the “sense of a presence” that is felt to be malevolent in nature.
People who suffer from sleep paralysis often report the sense of there being someone in the room with them. They speak of a pressure or weight felt on the body, often in the vicinity of the chest area. Whatever the particular configuration of symptoms, all report a vivid level of fear. This is shared by all, even those who, on some level, recognize that the experience is not altogether real.
This vivid and horrific experience of sleep paralysis is not culture specific. It affects people across the world and literature and mythology are full of references to it. In Canada it is called “a visit from the old hag”, in Japan it is being “bound and fastened in metal”. The Mexicans use a phrase that means ” the dead getting on top” and in the southern United States it is known as “the witch riding your back”. “
EDIT: Western Culture refuses to acknowledge these occurrences and they are put off as psychotic episodes. No wonder people don’t speak openly about this. It makes me sad that this happens to people and they are made to believe they are crazy, when all along there are countless recorded accounts and there is a legit scientific explanation!
All I know is I hope it never happens to me again, but if it does I may be more relaxed knowing that it will eventually come to an end. Has this ever happened to any of you?
38 Responses to “Sleep Paralysis”
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This used to happen to me pretty regularly when I was in my early/mid-teens and it was definitely terrifying! I mentioned it during a phone conversation with a friend at the time & she said the cause was something from the other side trying to get my attention. She said she could help me & would do some sort of ritual when we got off the phone that night that would put an end to the problem (witchcraft, voodoo, prayer circles, who knows? I didn’t ask…) It’s NEVER happened to me again since the night that conversation took place 10 years ago. Never. Kind of weird!
Wow. I did read that those it does happen to, it usually occurs earlier on in age, and then diminishes as they get older. Or for some it is ISP – isolated sleep paralysis. I hope my experience was an isolated one :/
This use to happen to me in high school and every night in my early college days. Being native american it wasnt a ghost but more of a warning that someone was sending bad prayers my way and In my culture i got some ceremonies done for it. It would stop for a while then happen once in a blue moon but man were they sooo scary. Then this past school semester I did a project in psych for this and learned pretty much what u listed above. I know the explanation of why it happened in my culture but i wanted to know more of a scientific explanation and to me it was basically your brain waking before your body and then you realize your awake and its like u scare yourself into a state of paralysis. The cause of sleep paralysis was stress, not getting a full nights rest, being really worried about something and going to bed with it on your mind. So basically stress is the cause. And with this I combined my culture knowledge with what i learned in my research and looked at it as me scaring myself into it and in reality everything is ok and no black figures were really attacking me. It hasnt happen to me in a really long time but what i learned about why sleep paralysis happens somehow made it seem not so scary to face again. Hopefully not tho. But my point is maybe if you think of it in that sense you will feel a little more better about it. I hope this help and i certainly hope it DOES NOT happen again because it is hella scary!
This exact thing happened to me several times over a period of a month. Every time my husband would open the door to leave for work I would feel a “presence” come in the front door and into my room.. I would be in deep sleep but my mind alert and body completely paralyzed. I would hear a lot of swooshing air around me and pressure on my chest. It was the most frightening thing every because I couldn’t scream or move. This eventually stopped once I forced myself to be fully awake before my husband would leave for work. Very strange!!!
Wow. Thanks for sharing, Katie. I definitely felt better after reading up on the subject. Knowing that it is common made me much more relaxed about it.
Thankfully, my experience did not have visuals of “demons” or feelings of an attack like some do. I did have the feeling of panic and fear and I did at one point sense a presence though.
Pretty crazy! I’ve never even heard of it… Im always interested in things that deal with sleep and dreams and states of conciousness. After taking a couple of psych classes I determined that the “experts” dont exactly know everything about the subjects either… Must have been really terrifying though!
lol i can barely handle it when I get a charlie horse…
Cha – Hands down the most terrifying experience of my life. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. It sure is an interesting subject to read about though.
Cruz – Thanks for sharing. I’m glad you found away around it.
This happens to me at least twice a week. I told my friend about it and he said to try to look at my hands, i guess you come to realization with yourself and snap out of it. It works most of the time with me, so keep that in mind.
Karina – Thanks for the tip. I tried so hard to move my head and my hands just to reach my phone and I could not. All I could look at was what was in front of me. I could see the frame on my wall and the rocking chair with my husbands shirt draped over it. God forbid, but if this ever does happen to me again I think I will just try to relax and go fully to sleep now that I know what is happening, and that way I can wake up normally. They say this state only lasts for a few minutes at the most, but in your mind it seems much longer (like dreams). I do believe the trick is realizing it’s in between reality and a dream because at the time it just feels so real.
this happens to me all the time, its the scariest thing ever. i always here a buzzing noise and people talking and i feel like theres something either on top of me or hovering right above my bed. ive been reading about it online and i learned that its more likely to happen if youre sleeping on your back for some reason. after reading that i noticed that every time it had happened i actually had fallen asleep on my back. ever since then ive made sure not to fall asleep in that position and it hasnt happened to me since!
Katie – you are so right about scaring yourself into it. I just read this:
“A person experiencing Sleep Paralysis feels mortal fear or extreme panic, and hence, the brain generates and releases internal visual or auditory stimuli, producing hallucinations.”
Thanks for sharing Sabrina. I’m so glad that works for you because I also read that, and I too had fallen asleep on my back this morning when it happened to me.
Helpful tips I found online for anyone who experiences this:
“This malfunction may be brought on by life stressors or sleep deprivation. They also discovered a much higher incidence of sleep paralysis for those who sleep on their back. They have found that changing sleep position can reduce the incidence of these nightmares. He also suggests getting up and physically moving around after having an episode as several can occur in one night.”
damn this has happened to me a few times before but not as intense. i didn’t feel a presence and at the time i didn’t feel paralyzed it was more when i woke up i realized i had been trying to move and couldn’t. scary stuff though!
I wonder if this is ACTUALLY what’s happening when island story folk tales talk about the “pressing ghost” like in Obake files in Hawaii or similar ‘ghosts’ in filipino folklore. . . the victim always speaks of a weight on them….not being able to move or speak…..and they’re terrified.
YIKES!!!!!
YES La! I’ve been reading so much into this since yesterday morning and stories go back to mythology even. All different cultures have their own explanation behind it but the accounts are all extremely similar if not EXACTLY the same!
I’m really glad everyone is sharing their experiences. I feel like the more people know about this phenomenon and why it happens, the less terrifying the experience can be for anyone it happens to.
I’ve had this happen only once when in my teens, man was it terrifying experience! I remember not being able to move, scream, anything! I actually felt like I was suffocating because I felt so much pressure on my chest! After a few seconds or what seemed forever I was finally able to move first thing I did was scream. The parents were so scared mom said I screamed like bloody murder or someone trying to kill me. Told her what happened and she’s like “that’s the devil, pray” lol so I prayed but couldn’t fall asleep again. I’ve never had this happen to me again, and glad! Shew thanx for the 411 on this, it’s such a relief to know it was not the devil.
That always used to happened to me when would wake up really early like 5am and stay up till like 9am then fall back asleep. So weird! It’s the worst feeling ever. You could have not explained it any better Christina.
Your definitely not alone as in regards to the subject Christina! I don’t mean demons and ghost or what not LOL!
Lol! Thanks Oscar!
… and Ur welcome Lola, it really is a relief to understand it better.
This happened to me alot but it was after i got robbed at gunpoint at my crib. It happened for like 2 yrs straight almost everyday. I had the hallucinations and panic and all. Id wake up and totally just KNOW someone was in the house, even though I knew i was alone. I’d hear the door open alert, id hear the shower running, i’d try n reach for my Dity Harry (357-which i got after the incident)and could not move. Shit is very real and scary
Even worse is that I’m finding out that because this phenomenon is so controversial, it has been erased from Western Culture and is put off as a psychotic episode. How dare they! It makes me sad to know that people don’t talk about this because they are afraid they will be called psychotic! There is scientific explanation and if people knew more about it, it wouldn’t be so terrifying.
I felt left out so last night I slept on my back hoping to have an out-of-body. No luck. My mom, aunt, and great granny had these experiences. My mom actually saw herself hovering over her sleeping body. Great granny was a psychic medium in Indonesia and I guess in our culture its called “tindihan” (to be weighted down). She would actually go into trances. crazy.
The out of body and hovering experiences are much more rare and these are thought to be genetic so you may at one point experience this, but I would not wish this on anyone. It is extremely terrifying and there is no guarantee that you would have an out of body. You could be stuck in place like I was
Summer – you WOULD want to experience this! LMAO!
You are the ONLY person I know who would deliberately try to.
Great post!!! Experienced this once when I was in high school…scariest shit EVERRR! The painting of the little guy on her chest is probably the best interpretation I’ve seen!
Even though its terrifying, the fact that there’s a scientific explanation brings me some kind of solace.
All I know is that I’m never sleeping on my back ever again haha
Vanessa – Agreed! I’ve made it a point to avoid sleeping on my back ever again.
Very interesting read!!.
This has happened to me before and is one of the most frightening things I have experienced in that kind of state. When I was young in Puerto Rico my grandmother told us about the phenomenon called “the devil sitting on your chest” which can be interpreted from the pressure felt in the chest area, whatever it is that is happening is an experience which I look forward to not ever experience again, the odds? not likely!
Cheers!
Thanks for sharing Jonathan. It’s very interesting to hear different cultures interpretations of this phenomenon. Thank you all of you for sharing your stories. It has helped me so much to know that I’m not alone in experiencing this horror.
I thought I was the only one who experienced this crap….I remember it used to happen to me in my twenties ALL THE TIME. I thought it was because of my past drug use, but come to find out, it has nothing to do with that. I would tell people and they would look at me like I was crazy. I hated going to sleep at night. I remember I would always sleep with my rosary under my pillow. And when the paralysis would happen, in my head I would start saying my “Hail Mary’s” and any other quotes/sayings I could think of because I thought it was demons out to get me. Thankfully I haven’t had any episodes in a few years. Good luck Christina!
Sarrah – I’m glad it stopped for you. Many say that prayer helps. Most people who experience this start in adolescence, and it wears off by adulthood. I guess I started late :/ I really hope it’s an isolated incidence for me. I don’t know if I can go through that again. It is shown to possibly be genetic so I asked my mom if it had ever happened to her. She said no and was in horror after she heard my story. Then I asked my dad, and he said he HAS experienced this.
Thanks so much for sharing. I think the more people talk about this, the more understanding society and the medical community will be about it.
i’ve had many family members talk about this happening to them, in my culture they say its like a spirit of a woman that sits on top of them strangling them so that they can’t scream and shes so heavy she holds them down.
This has never happened to me and I hope it never does!
oh and we were also told to keep something sharp under our pillow not to necessarily pull it out and use it on someone but more as a warning to the spirit to leave us alone.
mo – I’ve heard of the old woman “old hag” or “mara”
This is the first time I’ve heard about keeping something sharp under the pillow to warn them. Has that worked for your family members? I’m glad you have never had to experience it yourself. Thank you for sharing.
This happened to me once about a year ago. I was sleeping face down on a pillow… I guess I woke up because it was hard to breathe, but then I couldn’t move at all. I thought I was going to suffocate to death! Scary shit. It probably lasted for 30 seconds, but it seemed a lot longer because of all the freaking out I was doing.
Shannon Louise – Yea I had a hard time breathing too. I guess when you are in REM sleep mode, your breathing slows down. Luckily your body is in auto breathe mode though so even though you think you are suffocating or dying, you are not.
UPDATE: This has continued for me over the past year. Not often, but once in a while I awake to find myself paralyzed. Up until last week they were mostly harmless. Just scary and I would try really hard to get out of it. Sometimes I would try to just relax and sleep so I could wake up normally. I always feel like I’m struggling to breathe. The most recent time it happened twice in one night. Only now I can sense it will happen before I go to bed. I will feel a sense of terror and get goosebumps. Then when I go to sleep it happens. Luckily since I felt it would happen, I held my husbands hand as I went to sleep. I woke up in the paralysis state and I felt a buzzing. Then someone/something began to slowly pull my braided ponytail. I focused all my energy to squeeze my husbands hand. This woke him up and he saw me and heard me struggling to breathe. He shook me and I was released from paralysis. I’m convinced that science can only explain part of why this happens. That is why Western Culture does not acknowledge this. Things that can not be explained are ignored. If a specialist ever comes by this post and reads these comments, please help me. OfficialShew@gmail.com