Sleep Paralysis...

[brewer]

This is why we need more portable snake pits.

[Pat Mustard]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_paralysis

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gY2gh51KdnQ

Sleep Paralysis (AKA Old Hag Syndrome) is a not uncommon stress and fatigue induced sleep disorder that can produce very realistic visual, auditory and tactile hallucinations.  Many features of an SP episode are common across all cultures and belief systems and can explain why belief in the supernatural persists. 

Anyone experiencing an SP hallucination might think that they have been visited or attacked by an 'evil' spirit, ghost or demon.  Like one commenter in the linked video says, it can be more frightening and terrifying than anything experienced in real life.  Although rare, I have experienced  several episodes myself in my life and can attest to the fact that they can be most unsettling.  I have twice 'seen' the Old Hag.  Other times there has been an overwhelming sense of an unseen 'evil' or malevolent presence in the room with a feeling of being cloaked in a  black shroud. It's like having a very bad dream, but while you're partially awake. 

Although I never once believed that there was anything supernatural going on, I didn't learn what the actual cause or reason was for these episodes until very many years after having experienced them.  Has anyone else here had a similar SP experience?  Once you've had an episode or two yourself, you can appreciate why some people will believe in the supernatural.  I just wanted to reassure anyone who has experienced this and does not understand what is happening, that although quite terrifying, it is otherwise benign and harmless...

I used have awful nightmares as a child, that the parents couldn't wake me up from. The only one I can remember now was a night when we were caravanning down in Cork, and I started dreaming that the walls were getting bigger and farther away. Even after I woke up I was still seeing them receding. I lay there on the floor not able to move (so I believed) screaming about the walls getting huge.

I'm not 100% sure that was sleep paralysis, but I'd be confident it was something similar.

[Autolite]

My experiences were always were something was happening in the dream and I felt the urge to stop it but couldn't move or it felt like I was moving but very slowly and accompanied by loud noise sometimes.

Auditory hallucinations are apparently a common feature of an SP episode.  I still get an auditory hallucination from time to time.  I will hear the ring of a telephone and then I'll instantly snap awake.  It's only one single, solitary ring that I hear, never more.  What's funny is that the ring is the mechanical bell sound that was made by those old rotary-dial phones when there isn't one in the room. I will sometimes still get up and check for a missed call anyway even though I know there won't be one.

Here's another SP video although it's a bit over the top IMO.  At least it gives a pretty accurate description of what an episode feels like.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CcsVF43U3M

It really bugs me though that there are those who still like to push the supernatural explanation when the medical explanation suffices. It's too bad really as it causes many folks to be needlessly frightened and overly worried unnecessarily...

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

I thought i had sleep paralysis once, but Jesus appeared and told me that it was nothing to worry about.

Boru

[Autolite]

I thought i had sleep paralysis once, but Jesus appeared and told me that it was nothing to worry about.

Jesus must think that the sun shines out of your ass!

In the second linked video there is one messed-up fella who is unable to deal with the SP episodes that he experiences.  He is examined by a Catholic demonologist who tells the poor guy that his episodes are a result of his weak faith. This kinda stuff really pisses me off...

[Aegon]

There are two forms of sleep paralysis, one that occurs as you wake and one that occurs as you fall asleep. I get the latter very frequently. Right as I drift into deep sleep where I dream, I have a nightmare. I become aware that I'm asleep, but I can't open my eyes or move my body. Since my eyes are closed I often don't have any visual hallucinations, but certainly auditory ones. I think I'm screaming at the top of my lungs in response, but I'm actually not moving at all.

before I go to sleep always prevents it from happening.

[Jackalope]

It's happened to me once - it was terrifying, very similar to abduction accounts.

I'm very glad it has not repeated.

[paulpablo]

My experiences were always were something was happening in the dream and I felt the urge to stop it but couldn't move or it felt like I was moving but very slowly and accompanied by loud noise sometimes.

Auditory hallucinations are apparently a common feature of an SP episode.  I still get an auditory hallucination from time to time.  I will hear the ring of a telephone and then I'll instantly snap awake.  It's only one single, solitary ring that I hear, never more.  What's funny is that the ring is the mechanical bell sound that was made by those old rotary-dial phones when there isn't one in the room. I will sometimes still get up and check for a missed call anyway even though I know there won't be one.

Here's another SP video although it's a bit over the top IMO.  At least it gives a pretty accurate description of what an episode feels like.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CcsVF43U3M

It really bugs me though that there are those who still like to push the supernatural explanation when the medical explanation suffices. It's too bad really as it causes many folks to be needlessly frightened and overly worried unnecessarily...

Even when I didn't know what this was and I wasn't in particular skeptical or anti religious I didn't think the experience was anything spiritual or demonic.  I just thought it was a very vivid strange dream.

I find it pretty strange they managed to drag nearly an hour long documentary out of it.

[TheRealJoeFish]

I've never had true sleep paralysis. I've experienced telescoping dreams, in which I would "wake up" only to realize I was still dreaming 10, 20, 30 times. There was a psychological terror to that, but never any physical symptoms.

[Autolite]

Even when I didn't know what this was and I wasn't in particular skeptical or anti religious I didn't think the experience was anything spiritual or demonic. I just thought it was a very vivid strange dream.

One episode I had it felt like my shoulders were being pressed down hard into my bed. It felt as if my chest was level with the mattress. My eyes were open and I could see all around and above me. High and to the right, I could see just the head of the 'Old Hag' staring down at me while she was floating above the top of my kit locker. She had wiry frizzy hair, huge black bulging eyes and a wrinkled face like the one on those dried apple carvings.

I soon snapped out of it and I assumed that I was experiencing the tail-end of a bad dream or something. I just couldn't figure out why that would happen when I had my eyes open. I knew that I was awake, at least partially...