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Sleep Paralysis

Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
Has anyone had it?!!

I had it last night and it was - and still is - the most terrifying experience in my whole life :nervous:

I guess what happened, was that I woke up around 5 or so in the morning. SUDDENLY woke up, as in something touched me or made a noise that made me open my eyes.

What i see when i open my eyes is a black figure kindve hovering over me, with its head about a foot above my face and its 'body' sitting on my chest. I couldnt move, scream, cry, or make ANY movement whatsoever. I TRIED to scream, but all that came out was a kindve whimper noise.
I closed my eyes hoping that when i opened them the figure would be gone, but when I opened them again the 'head' (or whatever the hell it was) had moved and it was only a couple of inches from my face. Ive never been so bloody terrified in my life :crying: Its not that i got feel it breathing on me or anything (that would just be ridiculous?!!) but i felt its presence, if thats what ud call it and it was horrible.

I closed my eyes again and made a concious effort not to open them again until i was pretty sure it was gone. I lay there for about 10 minutes with this pressure on my chest and arms (though saying that, i wasnt able to move my legs either when i tried) until eventually the pressure gradually eased off and finally went away. When i opened my eyes the THING was gone. Ive spent the rest of the morning watching (HAPPY!) movies with my bedroom lights on full blast because i was too scared to go back to sleep :(

Ive never had anything like this happen before, and i cant think of anything thats happened in my life recently (mood changes etc) that could have caused me to have this so randomly.
I dont particularly believe in ghosts or anything like that, so im not saying that what i saw WAS ONE, but.. i cant for the life of me understand what it was!! I hope it all wasnt in my imagination!!

So yeah, has anyone else had an experience remotely like this? I watched a programme on it once and people were saying theyve had similar experiences, but i didnt really take it seriously because i thought it would never happen to me :P

Comments

  • **helen****helen** Deactivated Posts: 9,235 Supreme Poster
    Hey, big hugs to you!

    I've experienced exactly what you've described about three times and it's really scary and so I'm really glad you've been able to get it all off your chest! :)

    Like you, I'm not convinced it necessarily relates to anything sinister or full-on going on in people's lives, but some of the factors that have occured to me that may be related are:
    • Niggling stresses that cause unease
    • Extreme tiredness
    • An over-active imagination

    I guess on the up-side, this is a rare occurence - as I say, it's happened to me three times in 28 years and I'm aware it may happen again, but at the same time, although for that time of feeling paralysed it feels horrible - it isn't real and just telling people about it afterwards helps.

    I hope you're feeling a little better and if you have anymore insights on it then it would be cool to hear them. :)
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    My sister has had this and says it's scary. Sounds awful. :(
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    The rational explanation goes something like this:

    when you go to sleep, your brain mostly disconnects from the body, so you don't thrash about too much while you're dreaming - quite a lot of people have a single big twitch as they fall asleep and this happens - sometimes enough to wake them back up, and this twitch is believed to also be the cause of dreams of falling/flying.

    Sometimes, you come awake without the process undoing, so you can't move. when you find you're unable to move, no matter how hard you try, your mind comes up with the explanation that something is stopping you, and given the relaxed state of your body, your limbs tend to be arranged by gravity, so the mind decides that something is pressing down on you. At this point, the mind often decides it's been buried alive, but sometimes it decides upon an external agent - your "thing"

    I'm assuming your room was very dark, so your eyes will have been doing their usual pattern recognition work (absolutely fascinating stuff) with no useful information, and your mind will have taken this input and turned it into the thing you saw. Your mind will since then have been collecting as much supporting evidence for it's snap judgement
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    YES i've had it. i know absolutely how you feel. i've only had it once thank goodness. i was in the house alone and sleeping in my double bed. i woke up because i heard the door open to the bedroom and i was instantly scared as i was meant to be alone. i tried to move to see who it was but it was dark and my whoooole body was just trapped! i couldnt even move my head. oh gosh it was horrible.

    then the figure (a bit like yours) lifted up the cover of the bed, and got in next to me! i could hear it breathing and it went on for what seemed like forever until i managed to close my eyes for long enough.

    i had nightmares about it for a few days afterwards but its never happened again, thank goodness.

    hope you're okay, just remember its our brains playing dirty dirty tricks on us, not a ghost!xx
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
  • **helen****helen** Deactivated Posts: 9,235 Supreme Poster
    jamelia wrote: »

    Nice find :) - this bit's good:
    If you are one of those people, possibly suffering in silence because of fear of being ridiculed or even being treated for a psychiatric disorder, please be reassured. You are not the victim of nocturnal attack by spirits or attempted abduction by aliens. Neither are you at greater risk than the general population of serious psychopathology.

    Also, this bit really rings true:
    Sufferers can be just as terrified by the experience even if the episode does not involve any ostensibly paranormal content, sometimes experiencing their unwanted intruder as a burglar, a murderer or a rapist. Even sufferers who are well-informed about sleep paralysis and do not experience the more florid symptoms described above still experience intense fear unlike anything they experience in waking life.

    Weirdness.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I've had this. It was very scary.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Sounds horrid. Hope you sleep well tonight.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    This sounds awful, never had it happen to me and hope I never do!
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    thanks for all the responses!!
    Its so good to hear its happened to other people here and not just me!!

    Its only happened this once and im 22, so hopefully i wont get it again for a loong time!!
    I guess ive been a bit stressed lately in regards to not having a job and being skint.. but ive had other times when ive been in worse emotional states and nothing like this has happened, so i hope this is just a one off!

    I spoke to a friend yesterday about it and was amazed to find that he gets them regularly - about once a year apparently - similar to mine but in his case the figure always stands at the end of the bed. Was good to talk to him and kinda 'de-stress'!! That way i went to bed last night without being scared it would happen again :)
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Glad to hear you slept well last night then! :)
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