Sleep Paralysis

[lemur 6]

Did some research and the thing that is amazing to me is the number of people and sources who report that people sense an "evil presence", or a "hag", and the artists depictions of this hag are very close to what I saw (though I thought it was a old man and not a hag). Big bulging protruding eyes, spindly arms/hands/body, black leathery/pruned/wrinkled skin, big long nose (like a witch's), crazy hair.

Wonder why so many people are reporting the same mental image...

 

[mbjerkness]

I used to have that happen often, in my early twenties, It was terrifying, my doctor said it was stress related, looking back it was an extremely stressful time of my life, as I was reading your thread, feeling of terror came back, it is awful.

 

[goldenkitty45]

Well I KNOW I've done the out of body traveling cause one time I was "jumping" from roof to roof of some houses a few blocks away. I could see all what was in the backyards at the time even tho I have never been in the yards of those particular houses.

This was a section of houses walking to school. So one day after school I took a different path and went along the backs of the houses I saw in the OBE time. Sure enough I saw the things in the exact spot as I had seen it from that house's rooftop

 

[lady20]

I was diagnozed with sleep apnea several years ago and also sleep with a CPAP machine. I have never had that sleep paralysis several of you are talking about but prior to getting my machine, I was sleepwalking, putting my coat on and going clear out to the mailbox and coming back to bed. Two other times I fell down in the living room because I had sleep walked in there and then upon waking, fell because I didn't know I wasn't in bed. I was sleepy all the time before being diagnosed and never dreamed. Now, I absolutely love going to sleep because I dream, go into the deep restful kind of sleep we all need and I have never felt better. I love my machine, second to my kitties.

 

[starryeyedtiger]

I've had one episode of sleep paralysis that i can recall a few years back and it was absolutely terrifying.

It happened during the afternoon- i must have been taking a nap. I was the only one home that day and I had dreamed that i had been assaulted.....it was horrible because that's when the sleep paralysis happened- i thought i was being attacked, i remember trying to scream and trying to move and i couldn't- it was soo horribly frightening

I am soo glad it was only a dream and only a sleep paralysis issue. I haven't had once since that i can recall and i am very glad- that one time scared me soo bad.

I am soo sorry you are having issues with this right now

I hope things get better soon hon

 

[shopcat]

Wow, that is very freaky! I can understand exactly how terrified you must have been, waking up to see someone in my bedroom at night is one of my biggest fears.
I have some crazy dreams, but you have me beat with that one!
I hope you don't have that one again!

 

[carolpetunia]

Sleep paralysis is actually just a timing problem, as someone else mentioned. While you sleep, your voluntary nervous system shuts down so you won't act out your dreams. Normally, it kicks back in when you wake up... but if it's a little late in getting the "I'm awake now!" message, you get sleep paralysis.

On the other hand, if it fails to shut down (or kicks back in) while you're sleeping, you may thrash around in bed, talk in your sleep, or actually get up and sleepwalk. Some people even sleepcook, sleepclean, and apparently sleepdrive!

That's not to say that out-of-body experiences don't happen... they may. But sleep paralysis is a known medical phenomenon unrelated to OOBE.

 

[missourigrl]

How scary! I don't think I've ever had sleep paralysis, but every once in a while I'll be half awake and think that the curtains or something in my closet is a person in my room or I'll see things moving around the room. I'll sit up in bed and once I wake up I realize what's been going on. Sometimes I've been so frightened that I've jumped out of bed and flipped on the lights to see if anything's in the room. It freaks me out every time.