Sleep paralysis and night terrors
Bsti breaks down an interesting article explaining sleep paralysis and night terrors which I found extremely interesting.
5 years ago when I was living in a particular house in Midrand, South Africa, I would have them every night. I didn’t have them anywhere else but this house, and it was usually always the same experience.
I’d wake up in the dead of the night with a sudden bang, my eyes burst open, I’m lying flat on my back (quite unusual in itself) and see this huge creature floating over me from head to toe. Its the blackest black you can imagine, blacker than the darkness in my room, I couldn’t see any eyes but I could feel it staring into mine, as close as 5cm away from my nose, just hovering over me. Almost touching me. Of course it absolutely terrified me - I try to move but I’d be completely paralysed. All I could do was open my mouth to a huge scream but nothing came out, just air. I’d keep trying to scream until eventually a strange muffled moan would escape, waking Pieter… who by now knew what’s happening so he’d turn on the light, and I’d be crying… feeling like I’d gone completely mad.
The same disturbance every night. Some nights I’d wake up before it’s over me, see it approaching me by the side of the bed, or just standing in the corner of the room, or floating up on the ceiling in the corner of the room… but most of the time it was lying over me. It’s the most terrifying thing I’ve ever had to face, and knowing it would come for me every night. Some nights it would happen more than once, so I’d be too afraid to fall asleep and just lie there with the lights on. I didn’t know what it was. It didn’t feel like it could be an “alien” (that never occurrred to me) and it didn’t feel like it was a projection of myself.
These episodes thankfully stopped as soon as I left that house and it hasn’t happened since.
