March 06, 2010

• Yes, definitely. I used to get that feeling of something horribly evil, sitting on my chest, trying to suck the life out of me. I always felt like I had to use all my mental strength to get it off of me - that if I didn't fight it off, I would die. It was terrifying. This went on periodically for years. Probably every 8 months-1 year. And it would happen in clusters - I would fight it off, wake up, and then after I calmed down, go back to sleep, whereupon it would happen again. And again. And sometimes several nights in a row. Then it stopped. I haven't had one in years and years. I wonder if it has anything to do with me discovering all my various allergies, and eliminating so many allergens from my diet. In simpler terms, I wonder if it's because I don't do dairy any more? Or soy? or something else.
• I've gotten it one way and another every now and then for years. The first time I can remember I guess I was 14 or so. Mostly I manage to wake myself from a really bad dream but I can't move and I know if I go back to sleep without moving I'll go right back to the same dream/place, so I struggle until I can move. Had one or two instances of waking up convinced there was something horrible in the room with me, and being unable to move; that was worse than the usual. Just knowing what's going on helped a lot. Sleeping on my back seems to make it more likely; I'm almost always asleep on my back when it happens.
• Oh, now that you mention it, dilettante, I was always sleeping on my back, too. Which I rarely did, back then. Now I sleep on my back all the time, and as a result, I really do end up with a crushing weight on my chest (my rather solidly compact kitty cats), and yet I never have this any more.
• It's rather common when people sleep when they are overtired. It's happened to me a few times, sometimes accompanied by false awakenings (where I thought I was getting up but was in a dream). I can't recall it happening in the past 10 years, so I wouldn't worry much about it.
• Oh, yah, roly says, don't worry about it. Oh SURE! Trouble is, when it happens, it's extremely unsettling. I think it's just inner stress being released by the subconscious, but still, it's nasty for the releasee. My husband used to have it and wake up in a cold sweat. Thank heaven, not anymore. I've only had it once, while sleeping on my back, after a stressful day of traveling in the car. We arrived at late Grandmother's and stopped to stay the night. About midnight, I had my first, and so far only, (I hope!) sleep paralysis dream. I was in a horrible fire that was burning the house with my children and husband inside. I could hear there screaming, but I was trapped and mute. I just lay there on the floor and couldn't move. When a beam fell toward me, I managed to scream. I sat straight up shrieking fit to wake the dead. It woke Grandmother, and 'bout gave her a heart attack! Fortunately, my husband had experience with them, and managed to get me calmed down enough to sleep, albeit fitfully. The ghastliness of that dream was still with me most of the next day, and still gives me a frisson. Ugh.
• I've had two vivid experiences with this. 1 - Sleeping in my bed at my parents' house, I was maybe in high school or it was early during college. I woke up suddenly in the middle of the night to see a tall dark figure looming over me. It was a man in a fedora and a long coat. I saw no details, only the blackest shape (blacker than the dark room). I looked up into its eyes (not that I could see them, but I looked where the eyes would have been) and I knew it could see me looking back up at it. The sheer terror I felt at that moment cannot be described. This accompanied by the fact that I could not move or scream or anything made this one of the worst experiences I've ever had. As I stared up at it, it eventually dissolved into the dark of the room, and I could start to move. It took me a long time to get to sleep after that one. 2 - Same room, this time my sister was asleep in the bed on the other side of the room. It was also several years after that first one. I awoke to see a tiny man - midget-sized, but proportioned normally. He was wearing a robber's mask, a wool hat and a striped wool sweater (like the one that Freddy wore in those "Nightmare on Elm Street" movies). He was crouched in the upper left corner of my room (kinda half on the wall and half on the ceiling) looking around. I got the feeling he was up to no good, but didn't feel particularly threatened, just disturbed. In fact, I was more scared that he'd do something to my sister sleeping below him. But I couldn't move or yell or do anything to warn her. Once again, this one dissipated into nothing.