Sleep Paralysis

SLEEP PARALYSIS:
Sleep paralysis is something I've suffered with over the past couple of years and so I've decided to write a piece for this blog. I can honestly say it is one of the most frightening things I have experienced, and unfortunately I'm one of the unlucky few that it seems to happen to on quite a regular basis. Most people will only experience it once or twice in their lifetime, but to be fair, even that is one or two times too many.
Scientist have a few different reasons as to what sleep paralysis is, but to me not all of it makes sense. Scientist say, it's simply that you have woken from a dream. Your mind is awake but your body is still asleep (paralysed). I just wonder why it's always bad dreams that we awake from and how is it that most of us  from all corners of the world share the same experiences IE, shadow people, the evil old lady, screaming in only one ear (I've spoken to other sufferers and read many testimonials and these seem to be the most common of experiences).
How is it we all feel that malevolent presence in the room, that feeling is so strong that it stays for hours even when the episode has stopped. I'm not trying to say that sleep paralysis is demons, ghosts etc.,(many people around the world do however). What I am saying is sleep paralysis seems to be something that is not fully understood and needs to be researched a lot more than it has. Many people are told that the cure is to get more sleep, as sleep deprivation is said to be one of the causes. The problem is that, that's usually easier said than done because an episode of sleep paralysis usually leaves you in fear of going to sleep in case it happens again. A catch 22 situation!

MY STORY:
The  first time I had sleep paralysis was soon after the birth of my son. I guess maybe it was brought on from lack of sleep, which of course all new mums experience. I had gone to sleep lying on my back as I usually do, and I was awoken by the feeling somebody was pushing me down into the bed. I didn't only feel as if I was paralysed but I felt a heavy wieght on top of my chest that was pushing my shoulders down. Soon after that I felt something brush my leg and then I felt and saw a man trying to pull me from my bed, this probably only lasted a few seconds but it felt like forever. The man then disappeared but I had a sense he was near and then the next minute I heard a really loud scream in my right ear.
When the episode had stopped I began to call friends but I was also having a panic attack as a result of being so frightened. One of my friends called an ambulance and when a paramedic arrived at my house I told him I had just been haunted, I was very upset and knew he wouldn't believe me but I stressed to him it was not a dream, it was actually happening in my room. After calming me down, he began to tell me about sleep paralysis....
I spent the following days researching sleep paralysis and in most cases you're only likely to experience it once or twice in your life, so that was a great relief to me....

2 weeks later, it happened again. This time much worse. I can't even bring myself to describe what I had hallucinated that night but it involved a man, a knife and my new born son.
I have suffered sleep paralysis many times since them nights with most times being really bad hallucinations involving mostly my children. As at the time I can actually see and hear what is happening, I go through the same fear and emotions as you would in real life if you had seen your children being hurt, or seeing your child dead! I know.. It sounds dramatic, and unless you've suffered sleep paralysis, you probably think I'm over-reacting, but I can assure you, if anything, I'm playing it down.
The best way for anyone reading this that has not suffered sleep paralysis, to relate, is to imagine being in bed at night and you wake up to hear an intruder in your house. You're alone in your house and you can hear footsteps coming up the stairs. The fear and the adrenaline is building, you try to move to grab an object, or to hide, call the police, but your body is paralysed. At this point loads of thoughts must be running through your head.. who's there? what will they do to me? how can I stop them if I can't move?
...frightening right?
 Well take that a step further and imagine it goes all the way... Someone IS in your room, someone IS doing things to you and there's nothing you can do to stop it. You try and convince yourself its not real but how can it not be when you're awake and can see them and feel the things they are doing.
Even when the episode is over, the fear and the confusion is still there. The extremely strong feeling you're in danger and the feeling someone is in your room, does not go away until you fall asleep. I'm sure most of us have had that feeling that something is stood behind you, well that's what it's like. You lay there in complete fear that at any second, something will jump out at you.
I usually retreat under the covers and play on my mobile to try and distract myself. Mostly I will type 'sleep paralysis' into Twitter search and read what others that have tweeted about their experiences that night. Here are some of a few I read last night...

• the fact that I'm so stressed is making me go through sleep paralysis every night, and it's the scariest thing I've EVER experienced. 
• Sleep paralysis hurts me. 
• Well the "Dark Hooded Figure" is a spirit that causes sleep paralysis and it grabs you and you can't move, it's like a demon in your room!
• I fear sleep because of sleep paralysis and Hypnopompic Hallucinations . Its honestly the reason I don't sleep much . I can't stand it .
•  I swear to god sleep paralysis is going to be how I die.
• Anyone ever had sleep paralysis, its NASTY and a bit crazy also. sooo back to feeling like crap.
• Sleep paralysis is probably one of the creepiest things that can happen to you while you sleep 
• My sleep paralysis has been bothering me a lot more lately. Makes me not even wanna go to sleep anymore. I hate it:/  
• had the worst sleep paralysis last night. i can normally wake myself up but i could actually feel someone holding me down by the shoulders:(
• Predormital sleep paralysis feels like dying.
• I  had sleep paralysis last night. I thought I was haunted by a ghost lol.

SYMPTOMS:

The inability to move or speak (you may try to scream, or to move to stop whats happening around you but it is physically impossible).
The feeling of pressure on your chest (it often feels like someone is sitting on you, pushing you hard into the bed).
The feeling of suffocation (you often feel like you're being suffocated and in some cases this can often lead to a panic attack).
Hallucinations (you may see or feel things in your room. You may see/feel people doing things to you or other people that share a room with you).
A strong sense of danger (in almost every case of sleep paralysis you're a left with a great sense of danger. An evil presence in your room, and this feeling is often very hard to shake).
Visual and audio fears (sometimes your greatest fears will be played out in front of you, and often you may hear things, usually screaming).
In my personal experience with sleep paralysis, I have experienced all of the above symptoms, usually at the same time.

CAUSES:
Sleeping on your back
Increased stress
Sudden environmental or lifestyle changes
A lucid dream that immediately precedes the episode
Lack of sleep

AN EXPLANATION...
sleep paralysis can sometimes be accompanied by terrifying hallucinations and a very strong sense of danger.
Sleep paralysis is extremely frightening  because of the vividness of such hallucinations. In some cases dream-like objects may appear in the room alongside the persons normal vision, or even realistic objects/people.
Some scientists have used this condition to explain reports of alien abductions and ghostly encounters.

WHAT SCIENTIST SAY:
Physiologically, sleep paralysis is closely related to REM atonia, the paralysis that occurs as a natural part of REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. Sleep paralysis occurs either when falling asleep, or when awakening. When it occurs upon falling asleep, the person remains aware while the body shuts down for REM sleep, and it is called hypnagogic or predormital sleep paralysis. When it occurs upon awakening, the person becomes aware before the REM cycle is complete, and it is called hypnopompic or postdormital. The paralysis can last from several seconds to several minutes, with some rare cases being hours, "by which the individual may experience panic symptoms".  As the correlation with REM sleep suggests, the paralysis is not entirely complete; use of EOG traces shows that eye movement is still possible during such episodes. When there is an absence of narcolepsy, sleep paralysis is referred to as isolated sleep paralysis (ISP).
In addition, the paralysis may be accompanied by terrifying hallucinations (hypnopompic or hypnagogic) and an acute sense of danger. Sleep paralysis is particularly frightening to the individual because of the vividness of such hallucinations. Via Wikipedia

WHAT FOLKLORE SAYS:
The original definition of sleep paralysis was codified by Samuel Johnson in his A Dictionary of the English Language as "nightmare", a term that evolved into our modern definition. Such sleep paralysis was widely considered to be the work of demons and more specifically incubi, which were thought to sit on the chests of sleepers. In Old English the name for these beings was mare or mære (from a proto-Germanic *marōn, cf. Old Norse mara), hence comes the mare part in nightmare.
In Finnish and Swedish folklore, sleep paralysis is caused by a mare, a supernatural creature related to incubi and succubi.
Folk belief in Newfoundland, South Carolina and Georgia describe the negative figure of the hag who leaves her physical body at night, and sits on the chest of her victim.
In Nigeria, "ISP appears to be far more common and recurrent among people of African descent than among whites or Nigerian Africans",^[6] and is often referred to within African communities as "the Devil on your back.
In Turkey, and in many Islamic beliefs, sleep paralysis is called karabasan, and is similar to other stories of demonic visitation during sleep. Via Wikipedia

ARTIST IMPRESSIONS OF SLEEP PARALYSIS: