There has been a lot of talk on social media lately about sleep paralysis. It’s a topic I know only too well as I have suffered from this and night terrors since I was a child. I have thought a lot about whether or not to do a post on this topic as it is obviously something very personal and I suppose there is a little fear in me that people will just think I’m crazy. I realised that everyone pretty much thinks I’m crazy anyway and I’m always down to spend a night in an insane asylum so here’s my story!
I had always been familiar with night terrors as I suffered them as a child and I guess I never really grew out of them. Both my son’s have had night terrors in the past and as a mother it is incredibly distressing to watch your child go through one – especially when they are long. The longest one of my boys had was 45 minutes. I think it’s one of those things that is probably harder to watch as a lot people who have them wake up disorientated and can’t remember much of the terror they have been through. Thankfully it seems they have grown out of it. I really hope that they never have to experience the terror involved in a sleep paralysis episode.
I actually thought sleep paralysis and night terrors were the same thing until I came across the term a few years ago.i had chills reading it thinking thank god it’s not just me. There seems to be a scientific reasoning to it basically saying that your brain hasn’t had a chance to wake up the rest of your body. I always accepted this explanation and I guess it gave me a little comfort after an episode knowing it was a supposed common thing that happens to a lot of people.
A lot of my ‘episodes’ in the past were fairly short lasting a few seconds. I would be lying in bed, I would wake up unable to move. If this wasn’t un nerving enough there would be either a ball of light or a mist at the ceiling which would travel down straight at me getting larger and larger basically ready to consume me. As soon as it happen I would try to scream but nothing could would come out. I would keep trying and trying and usually just as the light or mist was about to consume me, I would let out a scream and I could suddenly move again and it was over. It is absolutely terrifying. I would never be able to just go back to sleep. It would take hours to actually calm down. At one point it was happening 3-4 nights in a row and there was one period where it happened every night for 2 weeks. I would lie in bed not wanting to fall asleep at night at the thought of having a night terror. I always wondered, was me lying in bed worrying about having an episode that night actually causing me to have one? I wasn’t really stressed at the time in fact I was loving and living life at this point living with my now husband, working a job which took me overseas and partying it up with my friends every weekend. Stress is thought to be a known trigger which I didn’t really have at the time, but I also realised at that point if I was over tired and went to bed earlier, I would wake up at 11 without fail after having an episode.
For a few years, I didn’t have any at all. The closest thing to a bad dream would have been the weird dreams you have when you are pregnant (seriously weird hormone induced dreams). But no night terrors and no sleep paralysis. Around 1 year ago, it all started again – with vengeance. I would be in bed and wake up with my husband distressed trying to wake me because I had been thrashing around screaming while having a night terror. I usually don’t remember much when I have a night terror (thankfully), although I do remember one recently where I was being attacked by zombies trying to claw open my stomach. I hate zombies. I don’t do Walking dead or zombie movies or anything to do with flesh eating and a lot of blood. I think it is safe to say that this one was definitely a elaborate prank on me by my brain!
It’s not until the last few months that I had even considered that some people believe it can be a paranormal thing. I suppose it’s only been in the last couple of years that I have really started researching and getting into paranormal things so it’s no surprise I hadn’t thought of it that way. Recently though due to a couple of experiences, I am now unsure.
My experiences in the past and years ago I was happy to write off as my crazy overactive brain. My experiences however have changed. There have been a lot of episodes over the last few months but the last 2 occasions in particular had me questioning if there was something more than my silly brain at play. Instead of lasting a few seconds, they were lasting longer. There was not balls of light or mist at my ceiling anymore. There was a dark shadow at my door. I would be pinned unable to move or speak. The figure would come closer and closer. It would stand over me. I could not see a face. It would then come at me and try and take the blanket off me. At this point I had enough energy to scream and it disappeared. I had a similar experience a week earlier where I heard a laugh right before I screamed. I couldn’t tell if it was male or female. The same experience was happening once a fortnight, my husband told me my screams were different. They were not just a quick shriek like in the past. He said I was screaming like I was being murdered. He asked me to consider if what I was experiencing had anything to do with my paranormal investigating because if it was I should look at giving it up. I told him no and gave the scientific jargon. The thing is, I don’t know if I believed it that time.
There are many experiences I have had which I will happily write off as my brain. There are 2 experiences where I’m just not sure. I’m not saying they were paranormal, but I’m not saying they are not either. I felt I was under attack. This is apparently a text book case of sleep paralysis. I guess what I fail to understand the more and more I look into this topic, is what is with the shadow figures? Why are we seeing shadow figures? If we wake up and our body hasn’t caught up yet, why aren’t we just waking up unable to move. Why is the brain ‘creating’ a shadow figure? Is it more a case of our brain is ‘open’ at that point so something is taking advantage of the moment?. I haven’t had one for over a month now which is a much deserved break after having them on a fortnightly basis for a year, I have however not been investigating day or night at any Haunted locations for a couple of months now as we are on a little break. Is there a connection here?
I would really love to hear from my fellow investigators on this one. Do you suffer from sleep paralysis? Is it connected with your investigating? Do you think it is our brains or do you think it’s paranormal? I’m really open to all opinions on this one!
Since writing this article almost 2 years ago, I am please to report that I have not had a single episode of sleep paralysis since. The night terrors are still happening and I do quite often wake up screaming. In fact it was as recent as last night and I woke up my poor son who was in a bed in my room because he was sick. I feel like I always will do this because I always have and I don’t know why. Do I think it is related to paranormal? Well first of all I know above I wrote that it seemed to increase when I did more investigations. Over the last 12 months, I have done an investigation almost every weekend which is a lot more than back when I wrote this article. I think can safely say now that I don’t think there is a connection between investigating and sleep paralysis When I look back however, I was very stressed and going through a lot of personal stuff at the time which I think was my main trigger. When I am then thinking about it and scared to goto sleep in case I have another episode, this is triggering it again which is why I think they were so constant. Add in sleep deprivation and you have a perfect cocktail. I have a very over active imagination and I certainly admit that, however there are some experiences not sleep paralysis but they happen in bed, that I have had which whilst can be explained by perhaps slipping in and out of a dream like state, do make me wonder sometimes. I recently went to a psychic festival and had a reading for a bit of fun. I tried to be very closed and hard to read because I wanted to see if she was the real deal or not. I must say there were a few very specific things that she was able to tell me which was somewhat impressive. She also told me that I have experiences in bed at night and that I am often writing them off when I shouldn’t be because there are people trying to tell me things. Now I know that this could all be a load of crap as well but it was just something she said out of the blue. Science tells us one explanation for these things, but then I guess there is our gut. I still don’t know whether to go with my brain or my gut. I feel like by talking about this I am going to have a sleep paralysis episode again very soon and I have jinxed myself. I will let you know how it goes!!!!
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