Dealing with Sleep Paralysis

The first time I experienced sleep paralysis I was terrified. I woke in the night, unable to move and unable to make a sound. The sensation of pins and needles was prominent through my entire body, my head included. I couldn’t open my eyes (thank god) and it was as if there was a static TV, volume up, next to my head. The name Emily was being screamed, but it was in and out of focus. I lay there panicking because, well… there was nothing else I could do.

Who was Emily? Why couldn’t I move? Am I being haunted? I was on edge about it for days. It had been so vivid and then, it began to occur more frequently.

I would often wake with pins & needles and be unable to move or make a sound. The haunting noises that I heard didn’t happen every time, but unfortunately, that didn’t make it any less terrifying. I never knew whether I was going to hear something and I would lay there terrified, just waiting for the sounds of the dead.

What made these weird episodes so scary (other than the obvious dead people screaming at me), was that I didn’t understand what was happening to me. Was it even really happening or was I just having really, really intense nightmares? Maybe there was something seriously wrong with my brain? Or, worse case… what if it was really happening and I was actually witnessing real-life paranormal activity. Because I will pass on that thank you very much.

It was the tingling sensation in my head that scared me the most. I started to catastrophise that I’d developed some kind of complex and incurable brain problem. I thought about going to talk to a DR about it but instead opted for a self-diagnosis à la Google.

Searching ‘waking and unable to move’, I was immediately faced with articles about sleep paralysis.  So, I read all about it and eagerly awaited the release of the documentary ‘The Nightmare (2015)’. Recommending this to anyone experiencing sleep paralysis, or anyone that just wants to creep themselves out.

I had a lot on my plate at the time and I was feeling very anxious. Which, was only made worse by this new, bizarre nightly feature. But, realising how many people experience sleep paralysis left me immediately reassured. I began to worry about it less and it began to happen less. I can positively correlate my anxiety to my sleep paralysis experiences. Something like moving house, or starting a new job could trigger it. Luckily, I became more familiar with my tell-tale signs and managed to gain some control over the situation.

Knowledge is King. As soon as I understood that what I was experiencing was unwanted hallucinations – albeit terrifying ones. I began to get less scared when it did happen. So I wasn’t being haunted after all! I’m sure we can all agree, that is fantastic news!

My sleep paralysis would always start with the pins and needles in my head, so I would know what was coming. I learnt that the only way out, was to fall back asleep. The sooner I fell back asleep the sooner it would be over.  So, I started concentrating on slowing my breathing down & relaxing. Now, if it happens I feel the physical effects but I rarely have the scary hallucinations. I tend to snap out of it a lot faster too.

Bodies respond to stress and anxiety in very unusual and unwanted ways. Often, we will suffer from physical ailments when our body is trying to tell us to take a step back and calm down. Maybe it will manifest as physical pain, a cold, insomnia or some creepy night time stuff I’m sure we’d all rather, just didn’t exist. We can get really worked up about it and make it worse. When we should be assessing areas in our lives that are causing stress & working to restore the balance. Obviously, if you’re worried about a symptom you’re having you should discuss it with your GP. This is just some food for thought and my personal experience.

Oftentimes, I have found that the physical signs of stress can show after the period of stress has actually ended. Like, you’ve held it together for so long, things are finally wrapping up. You think that it’s time to sit down and put your feet up, but your body has other ideas. You’ll be hit with some kind of illness or run-down feeling. Moral of the story is, don’t put your health on the backburner for anything (or anyone).

I’m going to leave you with the tale of my most recent sleep paralysis episode…

In March we were travelling around Cambodia. We made our way to the capital of Phnom Penh where we planned to visit the Killing Fields and the genocide museum. We rented an AirBnB apartment which lay very close to the genocide museum. On our first night in the apartment, in the middle of the night, I began to drift in and out of sleep. My head began to tingle and for the first time ever, I was stuck with my eyes open. This was a totally weird occurrence for me as I have never experienced visual hallucinations. In the doorway to our bedroom were 3 men, dressed in khaki green, staring at us. They weren’t moving or talking, just watching.

I remember feeling scared initially but after realising what was happening I began to relax and eventually I was able to close my eyes and fall back asleep. I was actually more freaked out about it the following day when I realised the significance of the ‘museum’ we were staying next door too.

That was 7 months ago, so fingers crossed I’ll remain chill enough to keep the nighttime visitors at bay.

Have you ever suffered from sleep paralysis? I’d be interested to hear in your experiences with it. The spookier the better!