My first experience with sleep paralysis came when I first moved away from home and was living in a college dorm room. When I awoke one morning, I was surprised to find I could not move. Every muscle in my body was frozen in place. I was clearly awake, but I could not even open my eyes. Struggle as I might, I could not will my muscles to move. I began to concentrate on moving my toes. After what seemed like an eternity I was suddenly able to move them. That one movement freed the entire body and I was able to open my eyes and get up.
It happened frequently for a while.
One morning, it happened again, but something was different this time. In the corner of my room was a round bright light, so bright that I thought it must be the sun. Somehow, I was able to turn my head and look out the window and was surprised to find it was still the wee hours of predawn. Yet, here in my room was the brightest light I had ever seen. I laid there and closed my eyes to prevent the light from blinding me. I was unable to move, until suddenly, by once again wiggling a toe, I regained control of my body and was able to get up. The light was mysteriously gone.
I was more than a little surprised by the experience and wondered if this was a paranormal experience.
With a little research, I discovered none of this should be surprising. It does, after all, fit the classic symptoms of sleep paralysis. In fact, once I read about sleep paralysis, I accepted it as part and parcel of my experience and discounted any paranormal connections; but lately I have given it some thought.
What strikes me odd now is that episodes of sleep paralysis only happened during that period in my life, basically over a two year period, and it only occurred when I slept in that room. What strikes me as even odder is that my friend who lived down the hall was experiencing episodes of sleep paralysis during that same time period.
To my knowledge, she did not experience the light or any other unusual sights or sounds, that are often associated with sleep paralysis, but she did find herself awaking without being able to move. Her episodes were so intense that she began to stay up all night and only slept when dawn arrived or in the afternoon hours. I can still see her, shaken and frightened, as she ran down the hall to my room and sat in the chair with her blanket wrapped snugly around her, simply stating she couldn’t’t move again.
Many professionals in the field of psychology attribute sleep paralysis to claims of paranormal experiences from alien abductions to ghosts. According to MedicineNet, there is nothing paranormal about sleep paralysis. Sleep paralysis is nothing more than your body and mind getting out of sync upon awakening. The body, which normally experiences paralysis to prevent us from acting out our dreams during our sleep, simply does not return to the normal state upon waking. This state is considered an altered state where you neither awake or asleep. Lucid dreams can be part of that phenomenon and are often interpreted by the dreamer as some sort of paranormal activity.
The symptoms of sleep paralysis include “sensations of noises, smells, levitation, paralysis, terror, and images of frightening intruders.”(MedicineNet) Although sleep paralysis was once thought to be a rare occurrence, professionals believe that nearly 50% of people will experience it in their life time.
As I think back to the time when my friend and I both experienced these unusual occurrences of sleep paralysis, I wonder if it were indeed mere coincidence that we both had similar experiences during the same time frame or if there was something else involved. Did we have overactive imaginations that fed off each other’s experiences or was there some paranormal cause for our similar experiences?
Maybe it was merely a case of two young girls experiencing sleep paralysis in the same time and place, who were frightened by a perfectly normal occurrence.
Why then did it only happen for that brief period in our lives, at approximately the same time, in the same place?
How can we be so sure that the sleep paralysis causes us to have lucid dreams that are often interpreted as paranormal experiences and not that a ghosts or other paranormal experience causes us to experience what professionals term sleep paralysis?
Now, it’s up to you. What do you think? Is it a Paranormal Experience or is it Sleep Paralysis?
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