Sleep Paralysis
How sleep paralysis affects you.
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In my opinion this is a very awkward disorder that no one really understands. Apart from the scientific studies that have been conducted, there is no other real explanation for this phenomenon.
Dealing with it, becomes a whole new challenge, as there is no cure.
I have suffered from this since the age of 10 and am 23 years old now. It still happens, sometimes four times a night for months in a row, or once or twice every couple of months.
Many people seem to have the same sleeping disorder and are often laughed at by Doctors or other people just like it was with me. It is difficult to even explain the whole process without sounding like a drug addict.
Normally it starts off with weird visualizations as you lie in bed, which do not make any sense. This also varies from person to person.
This is what gives away the occurrence which is about to happen. I usually imagine wild animals walking through my garden, or lions through my house, burglars etc and I have no control over it. This is accompanied by a light buzzing sound where I know “here it comes”.
At this stage I usually feel how I enter this trance and it locks me in completely. I cannot move, I struggle to breathe, I hear terrifying sounds and have hallucinations of all kinds of things which make me want to get out of it as quickly as possible.
For most people this is the part where they freak out. The worst you can do is to try and fight against it, as it will seem impossible to succeed.
The best way to go about it, is to relax and rather see where this short journey takes you…and you will find it is easier to deal with it. Rather than using your survival instinct, just take things as they come and you will be amazed how easy it is to get out of it.
By doing this, I managed to experience it differently, such as falling from the sky, or travelling in an almost space like environment. There are many opinions on this topic and I have absolutely no clue what it is. Religious people might think they are visiting Jesus, spiritualists might believe it’s their higher self, others think they are astral travelling, or some see it as the spiritual world or even in a negative perspective. There is a wide range of beliefs however there is still no clear answer of what the causes are.
Personally I also have no understanding of what it is. I have been at numerous doctors, psychologists, spiritualists and no one really knew the answer. Except that there were blaming things like stress, family etc. which I do not believe. Even when there is no stress a person can experience this.
My advice for people is to just relax and see what you can do with rather than fighting it and maybe you will come to an understanding of how it works and why it happens. Maybe one day it will make sense.
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berrynice | May 29, 2009 | Reply
Sounds like a scary condition. I think if I suffered from this I would be afriad of going to sleep. Great article, very informative and I learnt something from it (I had never heard of this before.)