Trapped in your dream?

Were you trapped in a dream before? Did you try to wake up, but suddenly your body was immobile?

It is a nightmare. Your mind is awake but your body is still sleeping.

You can try wiggling your toes, fingers or try to make funny faces, but you just can’t wake up.

Many people have shared their terrifying experience, and for most of them it feels like they woke up dead.

Sleep paralysis is a phenomenon in which a person is either falling asleep or waking up, and has a temporary inability to move their body, speak or react.

“Most patients say the same thing to describe sleep paralysis: that it feels like you woke up dead. You know that your mind is awake and your body is not — so you’re trapped, essentially,” said Michael Breus, Ph.D., Clinical Psychologist and fellow of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.

“It is often accompanied by terrifying hallucinations, such as an intruder in the room, to which one is unable to react due to paralysis, and physical experiences, such as strong current running through the upper body. One hypothesis is that it results from disrupted REM sleep, which normally induces complete muscle atonia to prevent sleepers from acting out their dreams. Sleep paralysis has been linked to disorders such as narcolepsy, migraines, anxiety disorders, and obstructive sleep apnea; however, it can also occur in isolation,” quoted Wikipedia.

For centuries, people tried to figured out this unexplainable dream, blaming witches, religions, UFO’s and even ghosts. However, nobody could find the reason for sleep paralysis.

The first observation was made in 1664 by a Dutch physician who diagnosed a woman with “Night-mare.”

It was believed to be caused by demons or spiritual possessions until the 19th Century, when the term “sleep palsy” became known in medical texts.

There’s no definitive cause for such a thing, but depression, stress and even genes have been linked to sleep paralysis.

“Hypnagogic and hypnopompic visions and hearing a demonic voice when resistance is attempted are symptoms commonly experienced during episodes of sleep paralysis. Some scientists have proposed this condition as an explanation for reports of ghost parasites and alien visits. Some suggest that reports of extraterrestrial involvements are related to sleep paralysis rather than to temporal lobe lability. There are three main types of these visions that can be linked to pathologic neurophysiology; including the belief that there is an intruder in the room, the incubus, and vestibular motor sensations,” quoted Wikipedia.

Episodes can last from a couple minutes to hours, leading the individual to suffer a living nightmare.

I experienced sleep paralysis before, and I can tell how traumatizing it was. No matter how hard I tried to move my body, or control my movements, I felt like somebody was pushing me down, tying me and holding my arms and legs.

I felt distraught and worthless. I could hear an evil voice and a force stronger than my body, holding myself tied to the bed.

I wanted to wake up. I wanted to move, but the only thing I could do was remain still.