[kismetie]

I've dealt with sleep paralysis since I was like 6 or 7 years on, off and on in my life. But it wasn't until 3 years ago that I ever encountered a dark figure while experiencing sleep paralysis. It's only happened three times, but that was seriously enough. Two of them were minor and one was so intense I slept with the lights on for two days afterwards. The two lesser occasions I was lying in bed and woke up in the middle of the night and there would be a dark figure standing/hovering over me. One time I felt the pressure on my chest that many people claim to experience and it felt the figure had placed a large pillow over my head and chest area. The other time the figure grabbed hold of m wrist above my head.

But the most intense and terrifying experience I had was the first run in with the dark figure. I was asleep and woke up and for some reason my door was cracked slightly open so the light from the hallway kind of came into my room. But there in the doorway was this tall dark figure and it had glowing yellow eyes. But the weird thing was that the outline of the figure was unfocused and fuzzy like it's whole body was buzzing. I quickly realized I was in sleep paralysis when I tried to move and immediately tried to wake myself up because I had never encountered a figure before so I was freaking out. The figure then sudden rushed up on me and I felt fingers curl around my neck and begin to choke me! By this point I'm super panicky and really start trying to move some part of my body. But when I do this all of a sudden I hear all these loud and harsh whispers in my ear but I can't understand anything and the grip on my neck gets tighter the more I struggle. So I force myself to calm down as much as possible and then the whispers kind of subdue but don't completely stop and I'm no longer being choked but I can still feel firm hands wrapped around my neck. Then I feel numerous hands roaming all over my body as the whispering kind of picks up again and then I finally wake up.

 

[kismetie]

I think some people's description of sleep paralysis is very strange. Maybe there is a dark entity for some, but never for me. I've experienced sleep paralysis since I was 4-5 years old, all the way up until a few years ago. I think the last time I experienced it was in 2010. Anyhow...

Let me describe my particular experience to you. Every time, it feels more or less the same.

I'm lying in bed, and all of a sudden I feel heavy, dense. If I remember correctly (and know my memories of these events are rather phantasmagorical in nature and not the most trustworthy), this sensation has also occurred upon waking.

When sleep paralysis first gripped me at a young age I felt tinges of panic, because my conscious mind is still present, but my body is not. There is a particular and intense dissonance between the conscious mind and the unconscious body, and all control over the body is gone. You can see how this is very disturbing.

However, I started to experience sleep paralysis on a very frequent basis. I don't know why. Maybe it's the ghost of my father. Maybe it's just my brain chemistry - who knows? And very quickly, I basically got over the fear of it. I embraced it as something normal, not precisely within my control (because it was definitely not within my conscious control as far as moving my body is concerned), but not unmanageable either.

I never saw dark spectres or haunting images. The phenomena I experienced were purely physical.

After a certain time (maybe a few months or years - I cannot be certain), I learned how to either "combat" or "alleviate" the phenomenon of sleep paralysis. The first method involved mustering as much willpower as possible to "shake" my body - usually around the shoulders or the torso as a whole. This method I found very psychologically taxing - upon fully waking, I would always feel like I was involved in an epic struggle. The second method involved simply letting go of any feelings of discomfort or fear and instead of fighting against the lack of control, I would just relax and fall back asleep. I ended up pursuing option two most of the time, except in rare occasions.

The times sleep paralysis felt most terrifying is the moment between consciousness and unconsciousness. I think this is actually reminiscent of dying, and my body's natural reaction when I am actually consciously aware of my falling into unconsciousness (and the subsequent loss of control over my physical body) to "jerk myself to consciousness violently" is actually a natural reaction against the body/mind's false interpretation of death.

Just a theory, but it's better than nothing.

As you know, most of the time we fall asleep without actually realizing it. So when we do realize we're going into darkness, it can be rather frightening.

When I experience such a feeling again, I'll try to not fight it and just let go.

This was kind of how I dealt with sleep paralysis too. I've had in come and go in and out of my life since age 6 or 7. And at first I was afraid because I couldn't move my body, but it started to happen so much that I became used to it and rationalized it as me just dreaming and it became common.

I used the relaxing method and just going back to sleep a lot when I was in my first two years of high school. I was also like you as far as my sleep paralysis being purely physical, aside from the three encounters I mentioned earlier. It wasn't until then that I ever experienced a dark figure and felt myself being harmed or in some kind of immediate danger. I really haven't had sleep paralysis happen to me a lot, since maybe around April of 2013. And the last six months or so before they stopped were the strangest experiences with sleep paralysis I had ever ran into, because I began to feel vibrations travel throughout my body, starting at the base of my spine.

Now I'll get it maybe once or twice every few months and I'm fully dreaming when they happen now (as opposed to how I'd usually just be on the edge of sleep or waking up) and are usually paired with at least one false awakening. There's no dark figure anymore and all the experiences are rather short and mild now.