Have you ever woken up in the middle of the night terrified and been unable to move? Sleep paralysis is a phenomenon that occurs when a person wakes up from a sleep being unable to move, speak, or react. It usually occurs as a person is about to fall asleep or as they are about to wake up out of sleep, and is usually accompanied with breathing difficulties. ...
... Like clockwork, every night at 2 a.m. the house would ring out with gasps for air, cries for help, and screams. My parents, all too familiar with these frightening sounds, would brace themselves for what would be one of many sleepless nights. ...
... There's a lot to say about sleep paralysis. One the one hand, it's a very normal bodily process. One the other, it can be a terrifying sleep disorder. And on the third hand (yes, that's three hands now) it's the gateway to the lucid dream world. It covers quite the spectrum of emotions. ...
“I awake in bed … In the corner of the room there are two men. I cannot see them but I know that they are there, and what they look like. I can hear them talking. They are talking about murder. I cannot move. One of the men comes and stands directly above me … He spits, and his spit lands in the socket of my closed eye. I can feel the impact, the wetness, the trail of slime.”
Sleep disorders are a common part of the human experience. From narcolepsy to insomnia, restless legs syndrome to sleep apnea, many of us find our nights are tormented, and our days ruined as a result. But few disorders can be as routinely terrifying as sleep paralysis. I had my first experience of it at around five or six. Just as I reached the point of unconsciousness, I’d wake, aware of where I was, but unable to move.
Sleep paralysis can be a terrifying state of consciousness; not only can you not move your body, but it is often accompanied with scary hallucinations. Sleep paralysis is when the body is unable to move smoothly through the different sleep cycles and the inability to move while fully conscious. It commonly occurs during the transition between wakefulness and sleep. Sleep paralysis may result from other sleep disorders but rarely is it caused by an underlying psychiatric condition. ...