I have heard a lot of scary experiences around sleep paralysis and never thought I would experience it; but I did and it wasn’t exactly what I expected.
What Is Sleep Paralysis And What Cause Them?
According to Sleep Foundation, sleep paralysis is “a temporary loss of muscle control just after falling asleep or before waking up”. It’s rather fascinating as the causes are uncertain and people have different experiences. It’s mentioned that people experiencing jet lag or shift work may be at a higher risk. That being said, my experience happened after more than a week of not sleeping well, I was exhausted from work, and in the middle of moving from one country to another. These could have been the causes for my experience.
My Experience With Sleep Paralysis
It was a night I could not sleep at all, I was awake at 2 and 3 am, exhausted but could not sleep. I was falling asleep and waking up constantly. So this one time I thought I had woken up again, but I could not move. I looked around my room and saw a figure of a person near the door. It was a dark figure that made me a bit freaked out. I quickly realized I could not speak either. I thought about looking at my phone to see the time, but as guessed, I could not do that. At this point I avoided the corner where the person stood. Then I became aware of what was happening. I told myself “I don’t have the time for this, I want to sleep”. Which I find rather funny. I believe this lasted for about 5 minutes and I fell sleep and slept till the morning.
Lucid Dreaming: Being aware in your dreams
This leads to my other experiences with lucid dreaming. Simply put, lucid dreaming is a state of dreaming when you’re aware of what’s going on and often you can control your dream. I have always had this “ability” and when I was younger, I truly believed it’s normal. I have countless stories of times I have realized I’m dreaming and then take control of the dream. For example, I often become conscious during bad dreams and have the ability to say “I want to wake up now” – and I do wake up. I believe this is the reason my sleep paralysis didn’t scare me; I have been used to these things.
Many might wonder; how do I do that? Well that’s a great question as I have had lucid dreams from a young age. Besides, it’s often bad dreams when my dreams turn into a lucid dream. I believe this is due to the ability to have a reality check; I know things in bad dreams don’t make sense. I often notice major differences such as looking at a phone screen or the mirror; these things are far from reality in dreams so I become aware of it.
I will leave it to this now, I wanted to document my sleep paralysis experience, while exploring the topic. As mentioned, I have countless stories around lucid dreaming and this is such a fascinating topic that I might explore more for those who might not ever experience lucid dreaming.