[Noelle]

Ugh, sleep paralysis...I've had a huge problem with it all my life.

Weirdly, the hallucinations I got from it always seemed to kind of connect with what I was interested in my life at the time. When I was a little kid I remember a cartoon vulture coming out of the wall at me really menacingly. I thought he was going to kill me but then he just stared at me, then turned around and walked back into the wall, periodically staring evilly back at me.

When I was in college I got the 'dark figure' hallucination three times. The first time was in my boyfriends house. I was sleeping on the couch and it came out of the hallway. It looked like a hooded figure with bright red eyes, with two shorter shadowy friends behind him. The second time I got it it was in my house, I got the same hooded figure and then one more the same size with no eyes, and it attacked my dog and chased it around the house while I was paralyzed. The third time I was in my dorm room and it walked up to me and grabbed my arm, causing a lot of pain. I ended up pretty freaked out for a while, thinking demons were after me.

When I moved into my apartment I had a freaky ones where police burst into my room and were questioning me about my neighbors. Which, in hindsight, was pretty funny because we were having a really hard time with loud parties and my other neighbors were constantly calling the police on them.


When I read about sleep paralysis, it was a huge relief. Weirdly now when I get it, I don't hallucinate at all because I know what it is, but I still get a really panicky feeling. I have found sleeping on my stomach or side really helps, I never get it when I sleep on my stomach.