Sleep paralysis/ sleep demons

[SleepDemons]

Have you experienced sleep demons? (Sleep paralysis with hallucinations).
They visit you during that half asleep/ half awake state. Sometimes just as you're drifting off, sometimes as you're awakening.

Tell me about your experiences.

I've had all the visitors. The "old hag" who sits on your chest, the "dog demon" who's a scruffy little hound who comes into the bedroom through a little door in the wall.
I've had the "Slender Man" who is tall and thin and looms over your bed.
They are typically shadow beings with no features, just a dark empty silhouette. They occasionally speak, mine certainly do.

I also suffer PTSD. I believe the conditions are closely related.

The last sleep demon I experienced was a voice in the room with no visual element.
It was a voice calling my name that woke me up. The bastard voice was very frightening and pulled me out of my sleep much to my distress.

Sometimes the night time hallucinations coincide with stressful days but I also get them even if I've had a good day!

I'm interested to hear your sleep paralysis experiences.

I sleep on my side and at regular intervals over the years I have had the sensation of someone lying behind me and hugging me. At first it feels quite nice but then progressively gets tighter and then I start to get scared as I can't move or do anything about it.

What I hate the most is having a nightmare, then thinking I've woken up but instead I've gone into another one. Sometimes I can have up to 6 nightmares in a row. I have this (probably irrational) fear that if I was ever in a coma, it would just be dream after dream and no escape. That really scares me.

Only once, three years ago. I was sleeping facing inwards towards my husband which I don’t usually do. I saw a very dark figure get off the bed and start walking around the edge, I remember thinking oh he’s going to the bathroom and then oh he’s not reached the door yet but could feel him getting nearer I thought he’s coming to my side to say bye it must be morning. All of sudden whatever it was began choking my neck from behind and pushing me down into the bed. My eyes were open, staring straight at my sleeping husband next to me while still being choked and pushed with such force down into the mattress. I couldn’t scream or move a single muscle. It was over, it would have been bad enough but I’d clearly watched this thing move around the bedroom before getting to me, I don’t think I’ve ever been more terrified in my life. I’m not woo and I don’t freak out easily but this made me scared to sleep for so long. I made it 36 years without and I hope it never happens again.

Yes, I was sleeping on my back propped up with a couple of cushions.

I have also suffered from sleep paralysis. I finally worked out that if I had too much sleep this would trigger it. So I would wake up on a weekend morning having already had a decent nights sleep but I would drift back off to sleep again so I could have a lie in. Then it would happen. They used to terrify me so much I haven’t ever, ever slept in late again and I haven’t had one since and I’m not prepared to put my theory to the test!

I experience sleep paralysis 2 to 3 times a week.
Some nights it is easier not to sleep.

It is always based around the mental/physical/sexual abuse I received from my family for all of my childhood.

Mine normally start with a feeling of a "presence" in the room and then it will move around the room until it attacks me - by this point I cannot move, I cannot speak. I have also wet myself on numerous occasions. I try desperately to wiggle my fingers and toes to try to bring myself out of it. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't.

GP not interested but has just recently accepted that I may need to go to a sleep clinic - this was after my counselor wrote to them.

The only respite I get from this is that another GP at the practice will prescribe my a week course of a sleeping tablet, but they will only do this approximately 3 to 4 times a year. I do get a full week of no attacks whilst taking it.

I have also found that I can sleep during the day as long as DP is around. Most nights I read, craft, I've even been known to redecorate rooms in the night hours.

I won't lie. Living with this can be soul destroying and I am sending you all loads of love and hugs.

I have another 10 sessions with this counselor and then I have to wait for trauma therapy.

I have had sleep paralysis and the hallucinations on waking since I was a teenager. They tend to come when I am stressed or worried about something but they can also suddenly occur out of the blue. Like others I see a shadowy figure in my bedroom, which is sometimes looking down at me from the side of my bed, but sometimes sits on the bed and leans over me. I've also had the sensation of someone pressing down on my chest.

Recently I've experienced the sounds of one or more people breaking into my house and running around. It is very realistic and I am convinced at the time that they are going to come into my bedroom and rape/murder me. It's terrifying and I don't seem to be able to reason with myself at the time and tell myself that it is not real. I usually sleep on my side so I don't think it is triggered by me sleeping on my back. I often try to scream or cry out, but no sound comes out. I did wake up once during an episode to the sound of me croaking out a weird scream, but that was unusual. I also once punched a boyfriend sleeping next to me as I thought he was an intruder.

Dobbyatemysocks
I experience sleep paralysis 2 to 3 times a week.
Some nights it is easier not to sleep
It is always based around the mental/physical/sexual abuse I received from my family for all of my childhood.

I'm so sorry you experience SP so regularly, it's so stressful. It's brave of you to say where your distress is based, I believe the sleep problem can be linked to PTSD (but isn't always).

Have you ever had therapy for the source of trauma rather than just sleep therapy alone?

I've had trauma therapy, and have found the SP is not so frequent.

This might be a stupid question, but my my SP demons always come in from my left side, eg the left far corner of the room, or the left of my bed if I'm facing upward to the ceiling, then they move towards me from there or go around to the right -

Is this a common occurrence?

I've never thought of it before but that would lend weight to it being an evil force rather than just a night terror, as in superstition right signifies Heaven and left all things hell and wicked. That's why on stage the villains always enters stage left.

And now I’m afraid in my bed. They do come only from the left, damn.

It’s deeply irresponsible of you to peddle the nonsense idea that sleep paralysis is anything other than a frightening but entirely natural glitch in he body’s sleep mechanism.

Agreed. Way to terrify people who are already experiencing something frightening. Sleep paralysis and hypnogogic hallucinations are a known and studied phenomenon. There is no proof of ghosts/evil spirits.

In fact I'd say this works the other way. That some people that think they've experienced a supernatural force have probably been having sleep paralysis and hallucinating.

Oh wow I’ve found my people. Happens to me 2-3 times per week. Usually see small animals, rats, mice but sometime shadows of figures leaning over me. It’s terrifying at the time but I’m always sort of aware it’s not real but at the same unable to process that it’s not real. And I can’t move. Always from the left side (I sleep on the left of the bed If yours looking from the pillow end down). Not had any childhood trauma. When I come round from it it’s usually by throwing myself out of the bed, sitting up suddenly or hurling myself into my husband which then disturbs him. Sometimes I’ll shout or scream. It seems so very real but at the same time I know it’s not. Really strange.

I get sleep paralysis too and have had the exact same experiences! I woke up once to find a humongous figure in the doorway of my bedroom, he was so tall he was crouched over. He was evil. I also feel someone sitting on my chest and it can feel hard to breathe. Terrifying! I've had someone walking around the bed and someone calling my name.

I'm curious as to why we all experience the same hallucinations too.

I've had sleep paralysis since my early 20s now, I'm now late 20s. It comes and goes. How do people get out of it? I try wiggling my fingers and toes and telling myself this isn't real etc, but it rarely helps!

@StrangePaintName I'm not peddling anything - if you read my post below you will see that I have experienced this. I posted as part of a discussion where others including yourself mentioned the supernatural, and the OP talks about the vision always appearing from the left.

@wickwood I made my room as light as possible for years, curtains always open and slept with the light on as that seemed to curb the amount of episodes.

Apparently having a night light on, window open or soft low sounds/music playing can indeed prevent sleep paralysis hallucinations.

I must admit I have been sleeping with a night light on again since reading this thread, hoping that having it on my mind doesn't bring them back again!

I get sleep paralysis a lot, but fortunately I rarely get the demons now. I used to have one dark figure who'd stand at the end of my bed, but when I understood what was going on, I gave him a name, told myself he was there to protect me during the paralysis episodes, and asked him if he could please be less scary, and he turned up the next time wearing white gloves 😂I don't think I've seen him since. My worst ever experience was a hallucination that the house was on fire - I could hear the flames crackling up the stairs, slowly getting closer, but I couldn't move at all for ages. Horrendous.

The brain is an amazing thing. Laughing at your demon trying to be less frightening by putting a pair of gloves on 🤣

I’ve had sleep paralysis on and off all my life.

I’ve only ever experienced a sleep demon once though and it was right in that drifting sleep stage where you can suddenly jump.

had my back turned to the edge of the bed, I literally felt/saw this black demon shape crawl up the side of the bed and grab my back, I was terrified and slept with the light on for the rest of the night.

I dont believe it was anything more than a sleep hallucination though. I’ve never had it since

My experience of these have been varied, luckily not for a long time. I've literally felt someone turning over next to me in bed while I'm lay there frozen. Can sense the duvet shuffling and bed moving. A common occurrence was 'waking up' - seeing around my bedroom but can feel my eyelids are shut and my body unable to move! Once when I was knackered I went downstairs and drifted off in the armchair (lamp on) I sensed/saw a little demon guy in the corner then horrifyingly he shuffled over and snuggled next to me... I remember I could smell stale fags and sweat, it was awful.

I've felt the duvet being pulled off me from the bottom of the bed but at the same time could tell it was still on me. I could not move at all but was just hyper aware of a dark energy/presence in my room.

The dark heavy shadowy figures seem to be common in most SP experiences. I really feel for people having these all the time.

I've never thought to convince my brain to make the demon visitor be more kind and protect me or anything like that! I guess I'm not that inventive!

Hi everyone

I'm reviving this thread

It's the New Year, and this is a topic I'm very interested in and personally invested in because I had another sleep visitor not too long ago.

I'm considering starting a research project/writing a book. It's something I've thought about before- but what with having a real job and being a mum, it's not high up on my list.

If anyone wants to post here about their more recent experiences please do.

What gets me is that they feel so real. They literally do seem like real beings but beings from a different "world" . ... And why different people seem to experience the same type of demon

My more recent visitor was again just a voice, but the voice is so familiar a dark sort of beastly but robotic deep deafeningly loud sound that puts fear deep into your soul. I haven't had a physical/visible presence in a year or two now.

@SleepDemons

Hi, the voice sounds terrifying. I posted on this thread as I often had sleep paralysis, however since I've been pregnant and had my baby (hes now 3 months old) I've only had one or two sleep paralysis moments, I asummed I'd have had more due to sleep deprivation, napping etc but thankfully I haven't.

Funnily enough, my mum had an experience recently and she is still terrified. She woke up, was half sat up, when a lady was beside her bed, she was terrified, she could see the dog lying on the floor and she was convinced this lady had killed the dog and would kill her and my dad. She describes that she had dark hair and a long face, I think probably the old hag. Since then, she tells me she doesn't open her eyes when she wakes up in the night in case she isn't fully awake and she sees something else!