Afraid to Sleep.... Sleep Paralysis From Bad To Worse

by Anna
(California)

Sleep Paralysis has happened to me for many years & had always been mild and infrequent, but now it has become frequent & more & more frightening. As a child I had the same dream or paralysis where I would wake up & I could not move or scream & I would try to get a blanket off me that felt as though I was being smothered. I would try & try and no matter how hard I tried the blanket seemed to have no end, & I always felt that I needed to get it off, not just because I could not breathe, but I felt there was someone in my room & I wanted to see who/what it was because I felt I was in extreme danger.

Now, my episodes have been coming frequently, most nights, sometimes multiple times in the night. Since I have had so many episodes, I will write about my last 2, since they were the most recent, and crazy as well as lengthy.

Friday night, I was laying on the couch, my husband laying across from me on the other couch & we were watching a movie. It was getting late so I turned away from the television & decided to sleep. I always know when SP happens because I awake but I am unable to move or scream, no matter how hard I try.

Anyways, this time I awoke, and I was fully aware of where I was, still on the couch I fell asleep on, however, I could hear the TV & the movie that we were watching was no longer on. I could only open my eyes, and I looked around me. I could hear the TV & it was something about ghosts, I could see my husband laying asleep on the other couch. A great fear took over my body, & I felt there was someone standing behind me. I saw a shadow of a man with a knife on the living room wall. I started to panic & scream for my husband to wake me up. I could tell, I was whimpering, because I could actually hear it. I saw my husband wake up & look at me. I tried as hard as I could to wake up & then I did. When I woke up he was looking right at me just as he was in my dream & I looked at the TV & the Travel Channel was on, I asked my husband what the last segment was, & it was exactly, word for word what I could recall from my sleep.

Night 2. Husband was out of town & I went to sleep in my room. I awoke in sleep paralysis once again, & as always very frightened. All of a sudden I felt my arms being pulled away from my body. Then (I thought I was awake) & all of a sudden I was standing downstairs at my sisters house - 500 miles away. I ran to her bedroom and began to tell her I was freaked out, but she did not respond. After a few minutes I realized I was still dreaming & then instantly was back in my home in bed under SP. I opened my eyes & saw a black shadow laying on top of the pillow in the corner of my eye. Scared, for whatever reason - I looked over at the shadow to confront it, & it was some type of animal...black furry like a cat & it jumped on me & began to attack me.

Within seconds I awoke & did no go back to sleep that night. The strangest part I would have to say was that I talked to my sister the next day & she said something woke her up in the middle of the night & she had goosebumps & was very afraid.

I know, this may have been an OBE & many people say to embrace this....I want this gone! I am very scared & just want to know if there is a way to make this go away for good. I have tried sleeping on my side since I read that on your back seems to trigger these episodes. Any suggestions/comments would be helpful.