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.

wow, this thread is kinda terrifying! I cant imagine how scary it must be to experience this sort of thing.
I used to get sleep paralysis alot but it was literally just the paralysis part....no weird dreams or hallucinations. Just me trying to wake up!LOL

I don't know if this counts as a sleep demon,but about once a month,I think I hear someone shouting out my name just as I'm dropping off to sleep. Really spooks me.

I have woke up in the night loads of times and seen things floating around the room. My eyes are open and I'm awake and there's sometimes a spider on the ceiling coming down on its web at me and sometimes there's a tooth brush floating around the room. It flies all over, above the wardrobe and everywhere. It's so strange because it's actually there, I'm not asleep/ dreaming. It isn't an actual toothbrush but an image of one. Sometimes I have screamed and sit up and it slowly disappears after a minute but still stays whilst I'm awake freaking out.

Thanks so much for your replies

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!
Yes, yes the long hair, long fingernails and generally evil presence is "the old hag" she's tried to strangle me more than once.

I don't know if this counts as a sleep demon,but about once a month,I think I hear someone shouting out my name just as I'm dropping off to sleep. Really spooks me

This is common in nurses who do night shifts and sleep in the hospital, they'll hear a patient calling out their name but then realise they just dreamt it.
I think for it to be considered a "demon" it will very much depend on the voice.
A normal human voice- not a demon.
A terrifying, unearthly, inhumane deafeningly loud voice - probably a demon.

I'm researching night shift nurses at present, actually 😊
I'm asking them about not just sleep demons but ghosts and other paranormal experiences. It's really interesting.

This is really interesting, because "the spider" is a common sleep demon presence. So that is very much something I could include as an archetype in my collective.
The toothbrush however is totally novel 🤣 very unique 😆

(I just edited a small typo)
(If I'm going to do writing I should probably get better at checking myself)

JohnTheRevelator · Today 17:52

Sorry I don't know if you'll come back to this or not, but if you could describe the voice please...

It's all very interesting (and frightening)

I work with people with psychosis, who obviously can experience auditory, visual, olfactory, gustatory and tactile hallucinations. This also blows my mind similarly, how it is so, so real.

I've had night terrors, though I've always been able to move. One was a man-sized spider. Upon waking, I saw it and was convinced it was hiding under the bed. Another was a man in a hat grinning at me.

DH had the old crone sitting on your chest.. mine was, I would be in a hospital, I couldn't get out, I would find a door,it led into another room,it kept on like this,till I was going down a corridor which was getting smaller and smaller until I was trapped, then I woke up. I used to think I was awake, but then realised things in the room weren't actually like the really were. Yes,it's designed to stop you moving and Hurting yourself. I worked nights,yup nursing in a hospital, I couldn't sleep in the day, I could feel I was going to have one, because I instantly went to sleep, I could sometimes fight it,if I was really tired I could have 3 or 4 in a row, then I got up. I looked it up,it said concentrate on moving something, I chose a finger,to wake yourself up. I reckon this is what people are actually going through when they believe they have been visited by aliens.

Is a pig a sleep demon? I just had a thought, I went on holiday with my uncle and he was shook up in the hotel room one morning and said he had seen a pig charging all over the room and thought it was real.

im going to have to name change after this, beginning to sound very unhinged pigs and toothbrushes 🤣

Ive had what I think would be described as night terrors. Often dreaming many many spiders in the room and over my pillow l, I try to move them (I hate spiders). My husband now knows just to say its fine, you are dreaming there is nothing there. The fear stays with me even though its not real.

Yep had it last night actually, it’s been a while. Usually the empty silhouettes. Also get tactile hallucinations…

I see a variety of figures, usually stood next to my bed leaning over me. It's terrifying. I'm normally aware it's happening but am unable to realise that it's not real. I usually remember the next day. I also see animals-have seen rodents, spiders, pigs.
The figures are so real that I have sometime wondered if they are in fact ghosts.

I've had this a few times, though not for years.....sorta wish I hadn't read this thread so late though 🙈

First time was when I was about 8, I could feel 2 men walking on my feet at the end of the bed - they were chatting but seemed oblivious to me being there. It didn't seem 'evil' though, just weird.

Another time I had the hag sitting on my chest which was truly terrifying, i was trying to scream and could see my DH sleeping next to me but nothing would come out, I could feel tears rolling down my face though. I really feel for anyone who has that hallucination regularly. I was scared to go to sleep for months after.

A few years ago I 'woke' to a faceless figure having sex with me, again I couldn't move. This one put me in a weird mood all weekend, I really felt like I'd been violated and was embarrassed by it....brains are so weird!

What is the link with back sleeping? I'm normally a side sleeper but each time I've had an experience I've been on my back - does anyone know if there's a physical reason for it? When I'm still awake and laid on my back I don't feel like I can breathe as well as I can on my side, like it's more effort - sometimes if I dose off like that I'll wake up moments later gasping...just wondering if a dip in oxygen causes the hallucinations?

No don't go anonymous 😆 there's nothing "unhinged" that I can see

A pig, possibly. Usually an animal demon of any kind is sort of scruffy/hairy or with horns or antlers.
If it's totally black like a shadow with no features apart from the scruffy or horned silhouette, then yes a pig could be a demon if it fits that description.

My demon dogs are small and annoying little terriers that have woken me up by tickling the back of my neck before flying out of the room.
They come into the room by a sort of "door" to the left that doesn't exist in waking life.

A few years ago I 'woke' to a faceless figure having sex with me, again I couldn't move. This one put me in a weird mood all weekend, I really felt like I'd been violated and was embarrassed by it....brains are so weird!

I've heard about "the rapist" demon before... I spoke to someone else who described this exact experience. I'm so sorry that happened to you.

Not for a while but I did used to experience this a lot. I vividly remember a demon with claws pulling me by my ankles and placing me on the ceiling one time years ago when I took a stressed day time nap.

Don't ever sleep on your back.
If you feel it taking over, just tell yourself in your head firmly that it isn't real and to let you go.

Mine are less frequent now in my 50's. Probably have 2-3 a year.
Last one started with a thud on the bed (left side!) and I just thought the cat had got in and jumped on my bed.
Then the heavy presence on my chest. The horrible old man/devil appears.
It pulls me around the bed, grabs my ankles and yanks me down to the end of the bed to rape me. Utterly terrifying.
I have sleep paralysis too (on its own- where I'm willing myself to move/wake but I can't. My eyes are open but I can't wake)
Another one I have is where the demon is inside my body. I can't wake up I can see it moving under my skin- hands stretch the skin on my stomach and I can't wake up feel it churning around inside me.

Wondering how much any of you watch horror films or are into the paranormal? Or read horror fiction? All the things that people have described on the thread are the usual horror tropes. Except the toothbrush 😆.

I haven’t had this for years. I realised it only happened when I fell asleep on my back so I’m a firm side sleeper now!

I have episodes of sleep paralysis a couple of times a year, usually when I am stressed or not sleeping well. I've never had the experience of seeing or hearing someone in the room, but I often wake to feel someone slowly pulling my duvet off, or sitting on the end of my bed patting my legs, accompanied with a feeling of absolute terror. I can't move and I can't scream.
I can sort of recognise what's happening now and get myself out of it by concentrating on wiggling my toes. It's still a really horrible experience though.

Sleeping on my back causes mine, a big shadow comes into the room and looms. I also have the thing where I think I’ve woken up last time I was sleeping in the spare room, I „woke up „ walked into my bedroom where my husband was asleep pulled back the blankets and it was some horrible monster. If I ambush having a nightmare whilst led on my back I can scream myself awake.

I think the looming shadow is probably a result of trauma as when I was a child a man broke into our holiday apartment and I woke up and he was at the bottom of my bed.

Nope never watch or read anything scary. Death in paradise is as scary as it gets . Everything finds its way into my dreams though.

My theory is that horror films, in particular "The Ring" are based on night demon visions.

Rather than it being "you've seen a demon in a film therefore you've gone and dreamt about it"
It's more like -
Loads of people have had similar visions at night and are familiar with them, so let's make a horror film about them.

I'm going to need to interview the director of "the ring" now aren't I - I would bet my house the writer was visited by the old hag.

Another one I have is where the demon is inside my body. I can't wake up I can see it moving under my skin- hands stretch the skin on my stomach and I can't wake up feel it churning around inside me.

😲😳

This is very personal, but I've experienced similar myself. The demon left my body by coming out of my mouth... Do you remember how it left your body?