It was an unusual feeling on such an ordinary day. I was about sixteen years old when it first happened, not knowing this experience would change my life forever. I sense a presence in the room while still trying to figure out if I was asleep or not. I had a long day and just a little nap was all that I needed to continue, but so much more was in store for me once I closed my eyes. I heard noises of little kids talking outside my house, sounded like they were playing jump rope or some sort of hand game. I try to open my eyes to see the little kids playing because it seemed like they were having such a good time. It seems very hard to open my eyes, but in my mind I feel like they’re open, but then again nothing is happening. I know I am extremely tired so I lay there and then my eye starts to tingle. I try to move my arm to rub my eye, but it …show more content…
The original definition is a morbid oppression in the night, resembling the pressure of weight upon the breast. The term “Hag Ridden”, comes from one who looks sleep deprived meaning that the person looks exhausted and tired. Victims of sleep paralysis feel very sluggish on the following day, depending on how long the sleep paralysis took place the night before. When the night falls, the hag is free to leave to wander unseen, underground, or through the air. The hag is invisible, but her presence is warm to the touch and feels could like raw meat. When the hag chooses her victim, she will choose a horse and never a mule. Just like she “rides” the horse, she rides her victim as well. The hag sits on the sleeping person’s chest, weighing the victim down attempting to choke or smother the sleeper. The victim struggles in order to be fully awake, as the hag “swallows” the voice on the one who is sleeping. This is why not even the sleeper themselves can hear themselves when they are trying to call for
Why do we have sleep paralysis? Almost everyone has at least one episode in their lifetime. Sleep paralysis is one of the scariest, mysterious, things anyone can experience. It has you up the rest of the time wondering why it happened, or why you couldn’t do a thing at the moment you were having it. It is also known as rapid eye movement (REM). It is where you’re awake but your body is not. 5-60% of people have sleep paralysis.
I was bouncing up and down in my car seat my seat belt trying to keep a hold of me. I was so excited to finally get to go to six flags. As we pulled up to get into the parking lot, they wind rushed through my hair, I stuck my head out the window to get a better view of six flags. The rides going back in forth and the people eagerly waiting in line to get in. we pulled up to a parking. The car came to a stopped, everyone jolted forward and then back in their seats. I opened the door stepping out and letting the rest of the people come out. The door slammed behind me and echoed through the parking lot. We made our way getting closer and closer to the amusement park, my older cousins were walking behind me and the young ones who were running across the street playing, my uncle screamed at them to not play in the street.
A couple years back when my mother had back surgery, I would always help her up, which I seemed pretty good at, because she would always say, “Whenever you help me I can never feel it. You are really good at this.” At that time it had gone in one ear and out the other. That’s not until two years ago when my grandmother was really sick, so we had to stay days with her because she couldn’t be by herself. She was sleeping the whole day, so something just told me to wake her up. After I woke her up, she sat up for a few minutes. My family gave her some medicine and then her eyes started rolling behind her head, and she was unresponsive. At that time I rushed and called 911. The whole time I felt as if I was in a daze. At that
Sleep paralysis is a common condition with a prevalence of 5-62%, although most affected people have single or infrequent episodes (Dahlitz). Occasionally sleep paralysis is found to run in a family, and it can be associated with other disorders of hypersomnia, such as sleep apnea (Becker 81). Narcolepsy has also been linked with sleep paralysis; both are thought to be REM sleep disorders (Siegel). Gender and race do not seem to be a factor of risk for this disorder. The episodes of sleep paralysis seem to range from ages 5-35 (Dahlitz). The use of anxiolytic medicines, psychiatric disorders and high anxiety can also contribute to sleep paralysis (Larkin).
I woke with a start. My eyes sprung open, but I could not see anything. It was pitch black. My eyes began to adjust and I heard very loud, unfamiliar voices. They were yelling at my parents. I don’t know exactly what they were saying, but we were in trouble. My mother started to cry, and there was
Fortunately I didn’t, but this did happen to me: as I was closing my eyes, I started hearing these really weird popping sounds. Like, click-click-click. Over and over again – and they actually got louder! Okay, there was nothing – nothing – in the room that might have did that. No fan, no heating, no AC, no television, clock, watch, whatever! It was the most basic hotel room ever. And the clicks sounded as if something was floating above me! Like circling above me, like a swarm of bees or something. I was scared sh*tless, but I just tried to go to sleep. And never opened my eyes until the morning, when the bright sun shone in the room. Going to breakfast, I saw the bullet holes left in the ceiling by Billy the Kid and other saloon fighters, and heard the stories told by the kitchen staff about plates and silverware that would randomly fall to the ground and break, and the flickering lights, and other freaky things which I forgot.
The next morning when I woke up, I felt strange like if something have given me more life. Later that day at the park, my friend and I were playing football against another team but it was different. We were faster and stronger and powerful so we decided to use that energy we were feeling so we could win. Once I got home, I saw my dad stuck under the car and tried picking
The study was performed and executed as a cross-sectional questionnaire, consisting of six parts. Each of the six parts was designed to target different aspects of sleep routines and personality constructs. In a sample of 606 students, 61.4% reported to have experienced intense or extremely intense fear during an episode of sleep paralysis. It was also discovered that 37% of SP sufferers experience episodes several times a year. The article provides further analysis of the data, demonstrating that Spearman’s rank correlation indicates significant positive association between higher scores on the STAI test for anxiety and the DES-T test for dissociative experiences with more frequent sleep paralysis episodes. This report contains ethos and logos, as the writers included quantitative data paired with visuals, analysis for correlation ranks with the data produced, and demonstrates obvious replicability valid results. Researchers at any university or facility could utilize the six tests used by Lišková et. al and measure occurrence and predictive factors of sleep paralysis in any sample population. Of the 606 students, only two individuals reported nightly episodes of sleep paralysis, representing only 0.330% of the sample
My life was flashing before my eyes, I was realizing what was happening death was coming. Cold and stillness filled the room while the feeling of death started to overtake my body it was a different feeling but it had to come. My limbs felt heavy and I thought real slow everything was slowing down. Just then something odd happened like nothing I ever thought some sound came into the room an annoying buzzing creature.
Sleep paralysis goes by many different names, and one famously known name for it is Old Hag Syndrome. For some people who have had episodes of sleep paralysis, they might have experienced an inanimate being known as the old hag. The hag has been said to sit on your chest while you are frozen, crushing your chest and making it hard to breathe until the episode is over and you are able to move. “In Newfoundland sleep paralysis has been called an attack of ‘Old Hag’” (Heffron, Thomas). In a paper by N C. Ness, multiple people had reported of seeing the same old hag on their chests while being paralyzed, and by the description of each of their encounters, researches were able to trace back the old hag to the clinical condition, sleep paralysis.
Sleep paralysis episodes typically occur during transitions from wakefulness to sleep (the hypnagogic state) or from sleep to wakefulness (the hypnopomipc state) (Cheyne, 2002). Abnormalities in this transition may allow sleep and waking processes to overlap. (Cheyne, Newby-Clark & Rueffer, 1999). Sleep paralysis experiences are not always nightmarish and do not always elicit fear (Sherwood, 2002). Most episodes, however, incorporate imagery or sensations, which cause fear. Images of threatening human or human like figures such as ghosts and demons are particularly common (Powell & Nielsen, 1998). People experiencing sleep paralysis report a subjective feeling of
I went to bed as usual that night it was dark and windy outside I fell asleep
Fear comes in all shapes and forms, be it a natural disaster, paranormal event, or a dangerous situation, it never fails to give us chills. When i was younger, i had a very scary event happen to me. It was a rainy and windy night and I was facetiming a friend, and she had just told me that there was a man looking into my front door windows, and when i looked up i saw that there was indeed a man in the window. I ran to my mom’s room, she called the sheriff and after they looked around and came back to us, they showed us a picture. The picture was of an outline of a pair of shoes (on our driveway) that were completely dry, even when rain poured on them.
I felt as if I was paralyzed, I felt that if I moved it would be real. I just had this blank look on my face. I had no reaction at first and I wanted to deny it, all of it. I kept saying to myself, no it is a lie, they made a mistake. To my complete horror I was wrong.
Night terrors, nightmares, and sleepwalking are all cases that fall into sleep disorders called parasomnias. Parasomnias are disruptive sleep disorders that can occur during arousal from either rapid eye movement or even non-rapid eye movement. Children from the age’s four to twelve of ages experience night terrors.