Sleep Paralysis

If you are not familiar with sleep paralysis, check out this wikipedia article about it, it is very informative.

In short, sleep paralysis occurs when your mind awakens from REM sleep and your body stays paralyzed. Its something that happens to me and I used to consider it a problem. I don't consider it a problem any more because I discovered that most of the time I experience it when I fall asleep on my back, so I try to sleep on my side.

The other night, however, I accidentally fell asleep on my back and sure enough I woke up in the middle of the night unable to move. Even though I have been through it many times before, it never fails to scare the shit out of me. I was completely aware that I was awake, but sounds from my dream were still going on and it sounded like they were in the room. I tried to call for Veronica, because paralysis can be immediately stopped by someone touching you. I struggled to get the words out, but to no avail, then suddenly my body snapped out of it.

The scared feeling always leaves me immediately and I almost feel dumb for being scared. I then realized something happened that I have never thought about before: Veronica had woken up and witnessed my paralysis. I had never thought about what it might look like to see someone struggling to wake up their body.

I looked at her and told her that i had just had paralysis and she told me that she suspected that was what was happening. She said that my lips were quivering as if I were deathly cold and I had a whimper in my voice. I told her that was me trying to say her name so that she would wake me up and she told me that she was afraid that waking me up would freak me out. I told her that if she ever saw me that way again that I would appreciate it if she would shake me awake.

Hearing her description of what I looked like made me want to see if I can get a video recording of it sometime. I can usually bet on it happening if I just sleep on my back, especially if its a mid day nap. There are a lot of people in the paranormal world that might be interested in seeing a video like this. Many people think its a supernatural event, because of the auditory and sometimes visual sensations that occur.

I have personally never seen anything, but I have heard things before. One time I heard a low devilish growl while I was frozen there. It was freaky, but I don't believe it was anything more than dream noise, but man it sounded so real, like my ears had really heard it.

Maybe over my holiday break I will look into taking a nap on my back with a camera rolling and purposely freak myself out in the name of science.