okay i know this is ridiculous but last night i had the WORST nightmare about being attacked by a 'ghost' and i'd swear it was real...

[AitchTwoOh]

it was one of those ones when you are being punched and touched and your hair pulled and you are shouting but make no sound. i can still feel its hands on the back of my neck now... how stupid is that, it was just a dream... but it was SO frightening that i had to wake dh up and ask him to hold onto me and put his hands on my neck and back so that it couldn't come back and get me.

and then... when i was calming down and dh had gone back to sleep i saw a burst of light move across the wall, as someone had shone a torch at it and then moved it towards the window and then it was gone. or even like a car going past with its headlights on and shining on a wall, except you couldn't get a car up our back lane and the light came from the other direction so must have come from the inside of the flat, which isn't possible at 4 o'clock in the morning.

anyway, i was really frightened so could everyone just come and tell me that it was just a bad dream and the light was my imagination, please? thanks very much.

[ScummyMummy]

bad dreams suck. But they are just bad dreams.

[AitchTwoOh]

no, why? is it good?

[nearlythree]

I can remember having a terrible nightmare and dh having to wake me up, just like you say, so real I could feel everything. It started out as quite a nice dream, too. As for the light, I agree there would have been a rational explanation for it.

I find that a bad dream can keep me in the same emotional state for some time, I think you experience the emotions in your dreams as if they are real.

[Socci]

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[morningpaper]

I agree - sleep paralysis

Terrifying and VERY real-seeming

sounds very likely

Happens to me occasionally - scary but understanding the phenomena helps a lot

[AitchTwoOh]

yes, but not often. once or twic in my life. it did definitely feel like i was paralysed. i am actually still rattled by it... which i know is stupid. tell me about sleep paralysis, socci.

[lulumama]

Aitch- i often have those sorts of dreams..and 'see things' when i wake...DH used to have to shake me awake as i was screaming in my sleep! often have very lucid dreams that are exhausting as they feel so real....HTH!!!

[Socci]

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[morningpaper]

It can be very hard to tell if you are awake or asleep

and it can sort of "leak into" dreams and likewise your dreams can "leak into" awake-ness. Your brain is sort of stuck between both awake and asleep and the distinctions are very blurred

Happens a lot on certain antidepressants

[venusinfurs]

Aitchtwooh,
I think you experienced something scary but explainable known as sleep paralysis. This is believed by some psychologists to explain why some people are adamant about alien abduction etc. I have had this happen lots of times - been CERTAIN someone is in the room, or had a terrible sensation of dread and am unable to wake up. I believe what happens is that in normal sleep, our nervous system shuts down most of the major movement in our body (basically so we don't sleepwalk or punch someone in our sleep), but sometimes there is a lapse between the brain coming round from a dream, so that you are suspended between sleep and being awake. You can't move, but you have some awareness of your real surroundings, so for eg you can actually see your own wardrobe etc. It always comes with awful terror, usually of a kind relating to being attacked. It affects a small minority of people every now and then and isn't anything at all to worry about.
I'm not a psychologist, but know a little about this from some work related research a few years back. Soon as I read about it, I thought, 'Ah....'
Hope this helps you and that you sleep well tonight. If it happens again, just think, 'OK brain, any minute now normal service will be resumed.'

[venusinfurs]

Oh Socci! So sorry, didn;t see your post.

[AitchTwoOh]

no anti-ds, but that does sound like it. it was so utterly horrible, i am actually shivering violently just thinking about it. it felt like i just couldn't get 'it' off the back of my neck... bbbrrrrr
so morningpaper, next time it happens will i be conscious enough to think 'this is just sleep paralysis' and will that help? or is it only once you've woken dh up that knwoing what it was will help?

[morningpaper]

I think it is worth giving it a lot of thought, and coming up with a strategy for the next time it happens and trying to imagine what it will be like, applying your new strategy

Perhaps think "Next time I feel someone attacking me, I will put all my energy into try to make a sound to wake DH up, and I will remember that I am JUST DREAMING and that this is just sleep paralysis."

Tell your DH to wake you if you are making sounds or seem troubled in your sleep

Happened to me several times - once I could SEE dh trying to wake me and talk to me but I couldn't make any sounds to communicate with him!!! It was AWFUL!

[Mercy]

That sounds like one scary dream H20.

What do you think, was it a dream - or something else? What's your gut reaction?

[morningpaper]

(the main thing is knowing what it is - i.e. that it is something happening in your brain, and not something "real")

[AitchTwoOh]

i suppose i so think it was a dream and the light was my stupid eyesight combined with a fertile imagination, as much as anything else it's the explanation i prefer.

i WAS trying to wake dh up, MP, that was the horrific thing. i could hear this terrible gurgling coming from my throat... bbbrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

hopefully if it happens again i'll be more aware. and hopefully if it happens again DH won't be quite so sound asleep.

[morningpaper]

yeh that happens to me - trying so hard to make a noise and nothing coming out

so annoying

[Socci]

Message withdrawn

[AitchTwoOh]

thanks all... was dreading going to sleep tonight, i'd have been mning till the laptop dropped off my knees...

[liquidclocks]

Aitch - this has happened to me on a few occasions too - utterly terrifying the first time - I thought there were 3 people standing around the bed with sharp metal instruments! But after speaking to people about it like you have here it was easier to deal with the next time it happens. For me I've actually found that it happens more when I'm completely exhausted so as long as I'm getting regular good sleep it doesn't happen. Hope that's of help, if only to know that you're definitely not alone.

[morningpaper]

yes true liquidclocks (about exhaustion)

the time I could see DH trying to wake me was after I had done a 36-hour shift fixing broken servers in a cold dark computer storage room!

[sansouci]

Sounds v. scary! Rational explanation or not, both are horrible. I've also had a dream where I've been trying to shout & not be able to get above a whisper or trying ot pick something up and have my arms drop to my sides like rubber. With especially vivid dreams, you tend to remember them all day, especially if you happen to lie down and of course, going to bed in the evening is terrifying.

On the other hand, if it was supernatural (unlikely), try saying a prayer or thinking of being surrounded by light before you go to sleep.

Good luck!

[AitchTwoOh]

funnily enough, having experienced it i would say that if i was someone who was into aliens and the like (as opposed to just hankering after han solo) then i could definitely have turned that into an 'alien abduction' and been completely convinced of it. very interesting (and fkn terrifying), again, thanks to all who posted.

[venusinfurs]

It was NOT supernatural. Put the thought right out of your head about that Aitch. I don't think it's very helpful of anyone to even vaguely suggest otherwise, frankly. I'm not being argumentative (honest) but she has an explanation and it is the right one.
I've had it once when I could see my hand in suspended animation trying to get to my lamp. Then I woke and my hand shot forward. It's so so scary, but it is very definitely a phenomenon of sleeping and the brain.