For the past two weeks I have been having this strange experience. I would fall asleep and wake up terrified. I’ll soundly have this feeling that someone is in my room; there have been a few occurrence where my bed will make a squeaking sound as if someone is climbing into my bed. I will then become complete paralyzed I am unable to move any parts of my body I can’t scream. I usually have to recite psalm from the bible. This is the part that freaks me out the most. A relative suggested I place the bible on a pillow next to me at night. Well, I did just that for 3 nights and I was fine. The fourth night I decided to not place the bible next to me. In the middle of the night I woke up in a paralyzed state, but I felt as if someone was hugging me, I didn’t feel terrified just unable to react.

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anne,
You may be experiencing 'sleep paralysis' brought on by emotional trauma {severe emotional fear from a deeper psychological source}. The bible at your side during sleep may temporarily end the paralysis due to the power of mind influenced by faith. But the the deeper source of the paralysis eventually will need to be addressed or the psychological trauma will become too strong no matter how deep your faith.

Putting this post together with your previous dream post may suggest there is a deep psychological disturbance taking place in your life. Is this the case? Are you experiencing some type of emotional trauma in your life?

Jerry

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 59 Murfreesboro, Tn

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Hi Anne,

what you describe here could be 'sleep paralysis'. It is also called the 'old hag' syndrome.
Normally, during REM-sleep the body is paralysed. Sleep paralysis means that the mind wakes up (you could say, to early) before the muscles/body does. This is why one can be aware of the paralysis of his/her body.
The name 'old hag' has been given to it by some, because of the weight one can feel on his/her chest. It can really feel like someone is sitting on your chest or like someone is pushing on it very hard.
During this sleep paralysis it's possible to see, hear, smell strange things...like there's someone else in the room. This seeing, smelling, hearing are called hypnagogic/hallucinations.

A few years ago i experienced this myself several times. At first without knowing what it was and i can agree with you that it is very frightening. What i found most frightening was when feeling totally paralysed and trying to scream as loud as possible for help..then finding out that i couldn't make any sound at all. After having read about sleep paralysis and how one can 'get out' of it it never returned.

Putting your bible on the pillow might seem to work for you. I think though that anything can be of help. Back then i read that one could try to move one of the fingers while feeling this paralysis. At first i thought:'But how am i going to remember that?' But it works. Just because you're conscious during the paralysis. I therefore think that there are several possible ways to help oneself out of this 'state'.

Further: you could take a look at your sleeping pattern or at your life...for instance: are you experiencing any stress?
Besides this they say it's also possible to 'get in a dream' from out of this sleep paralysis...into a lucid dream, because the mind is conscious at this time.

I hope this was of any help. You can google around about this, there enough information about it.

Wish you sound sleep!

Greetings Mask

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