Just took a bit of a funny turn, please read :(

[Neversleepingagain]

I know it’s the middle of the night and there’s probably nobody here, but I just had a bit of a strange episode / funny turn and it’s really shaken me up.

I don’t usually suffer with terrors, nightmares or any other problems but I’ve just had the most terrifying experience and I’m shaking like a leaf now. I fell asleep (only 15 minutes ago!) and had a very normal dream about being at Uni with my friends and being in a boring lecture. Then suddenly I was driving home down the motorway and there was a ghost bus ahead of me and I had the most horrible feeling about it. Just a normal nightmare/scary dream so far, but then I had a bit of a funny turn and it’s left me completely shaken.

I sort of woke up- I could see my room and the photos and posters on the wall, and I ‘saw’ a black shadowy figure aswell moving across my room and had the most sickening and petrified feeling I’ve ever experienced. To be honest I’m not certain I even woke up at all or if I was just ‘seeing’ my room in a dream. It felt dream-like and fuzzy. I tried to wake up or get up to scream for my parents but I felt a really weird feeling on my body- it was like a really, really extreme cold shiver and it honestly felt like my whole body seized up. Ive had sleep paralysis once as a child but this felt so different- it was as if I had touched a plug and my body was jolted and seized. My head felt as if it was a static tv and I could hear staticy sounds and it completely froze me and couldn’t shout for help. It felt like forever but was probably 2 seconds max! I had to try so hard to wiggle my toes and fingers and then eventually the seized feeling passed. Again, I don’t know if I was half awake or if it was a dream- I then somehow woke myself up and screamed the house down for my parents.

I’ve had a cup of tea and calmed down and I don’t feel unwell, but it was the worst experience I’ve ever had. I’m sure it was just a particularly realistic nightmare but I’ve never felt my body seize / freeze like that, and combined with ‘seeing’ (dreaming) of some black shadow in my room, i had the most awful feeling of dread and fear- I seriously thought I was going to die. My head sounded like what a static tv or radio would sound like and when I woke up properly it took a few minutes for the ringing in my ears to quieten down and for my heart to stop pounding.

I don’t believe in ghosts and all (but equally I’m very easily frightened and I know I will scare myself silly) so I know the ‘shadow’ part was just a scary dream, but I’m absolutely terrified to sleep now and I’ve never had anything happen like this before. (Please don’t tell me it’s a ghost because I seriously will never ever sleep again, I’m a massive wimp and too easily scared)

Just posting because 1. I’m too scared to sleep again (at the age of 24!), 2. In case anyone else has experienced this or knows of what the heck happened? I’ve never felt my body seize up as extremely as that and I’ve never had static sounds in my head and it’s really, really shaken me.

Hi, I'm just sending some love xx it's horrible when scary things happen in the middle of the night. Just keep telling yourself it's passed now, you're going to be ok. Get cosy and try to sleep x it'll be morning before you know it and it'll feel much better then

I've also just woken from a horrible dream. I know I shouldn't be reading my phone but I also don't want to fall asleep and it start again 🤣

It sounds like classic sleep paralysis:

www.verywellhealth.com/symptoms-of-sleep-paralysis-3014781#:~:text=Similarly%2C%20the%20auditory%20(hearing),loud%20buzzing%20or%20static%20noise.

Hi @MondayMoan - go get a drink and watch some funny telly. It'll be alright again soon x

Hiya I never really post but I couldn't read and run.

Typing with one eye open here.
So excuse the lack of everything.
Our bodies are funny things and it could be a number of weird and wonderful things, but I doubt very much, it's a ghost.

Our mind plays lots of tricks when we're tired and are in a dream like state and there are lots of different explanations.
Paranormal wouldn't be one of them.
If you went to your dr it's not likely he puts it down to that is it?.

Besides you have your parents next door and anything you need they will be with you in a shot

I have had lots of strange things happen when I'm asleep but as I said our body is a strange thing and especially when we float between sleep and awake.

Try and get some sleep.
All feels better when it's light out.

Definitely sounds like sleep paralysis to me.

Aww bless you, sounds like a horrible experience. You've done the best thing though with having a cup of tea to calm you down.

I've experienced similar with awake/ dream state and it really makes you feel horrible. You were dreaming though 🥰

My episodes like that were always when I was overworked and overtired, I would have the same upsetting recurring dream just at the point when I was going into a deep sleep.

If I was you tonight I'd play some tunes quietly through my headphones to remember nice times and hopefully drift off to sleep with them 🙂

Thank you so much 💕

it was honestly the worst experience I’ve ever had. I don’t even know if I was dreaming or sort of half awake, but whatever it was it was awful. I felt my body seize up and at one point my back suddenly arched but I couldn’t control anything, and then I was frozen and I couldn’t move at all. I seriously thought I was dying or something.

the staticy feeling was so weird- it was like I could hear fuzzy staticy sounds and I think I could sort of hear voices and other sounds too but it was crazy. Then when I woke up it was like my ears and the back of my head were ringing and buzzing so loudly and I was basically holding my head and screaming for it to stop.

I’m actually lucky that my parents are home and when I finally woke up I screamed the house down (it’ll be a miracle if the neighbours don’t call the police after that, it wad so loud😬🤣) and we had a cup of tea and chatted for a while and I felt so much better so I told her to go back to bed and I’d be fine but I definitely won’t be sleeping again after tonight.

I’ll just spend tonight binge watching Netflix- I’m working tomorrow so not the best timing but I can cope with being tired for one day and I’ll sleep properly tomorrow night when I’m less scared.

thanks everyone x

Sleep paralysis. I get it when I’m stressed. The staticky/grinding sound is particularly horrid.

Anything stressful going on in your life at the moment?

I’ve had that before.. its sleep paralysis. X. With me it comes with an absolutely exhausted /shattered feeling, as if i’ve woken up accidentally before my alarm and am just about to roll over and go back to sleep, Except I know I need to wake up, and have to wake up, and should wake up, but my body and mind are like dead weights and my chest is falling in on itself. Other times there’s a literal static TV noise, I’ve heard a baby crying and I’ve heard a piercing ringing. I always keep my eyes closed. It’s your mind crossing over from sleep into wake but it gets a bit confused on the way there, which is why your chest will feel heavy and you’ll only be able to take shallow breaths - your diaphragm hasn’t woken up yet. You’ll have hallucinations because your mind hasn’t properly switched off the dreaming part yet. Just try to wiggle your fingers or toes and you’ll be able to wake yourself up. X

Sometimes I get it if I sleep too much. Absolutely ruins my lay ins and it doesn’t stop until I get up 😖

💐 🤗. Sounds grim OP but ghosts it definitely is not. I secretly read romance novels on my kindle at times I’m afraid in the night. And I leave the light on.

Well, I learned something tonight. OP I'm glad you have people home with you. Who knew this was a thing? Honestly just reading your post has scared me so actually experiencing it must have been horrible 😳.

It sounds terrifying. I hope you feel better soon op.

I had this once just after I started taking antidepressants. I woke up (or thought I did) soon after falling asleep, and for a few seconds I felt really disconnected from the room, like there was a veil between me and the rest of the world. I tried to cry out but only a tiny sound came out and I seriously thought I must be dying too. Absolutely horrifying.

You poor thing. Hope you're back asleep peacefully now.

It’s defo sleep paralysis - I’ve had it but just once, awful awful experience

When you dream your body is paralysed by your brain so you don’t act out the dream. It sounds as if that bit was still switched on for a couple of second after you woke up.,

Definitely sleep paralysis! I recently had an episode and it was awful could see the room and have a newborn baby to! And I couldn’t protect her or myself and was trying to scream and shout but nothing! I couldn’t breath when I woke up! it absolutely terrified me to the point I was in tears and I’m 29!

I’ve had night terrors and sleep paralysis since I was a kid.. stress and exhaustion definitely contribute.

I always pop a lamp on so there’s some sort of light on. Cup of tea, bit of TikTok or crappy tv until I fall back to sleep.

Totally sympathise with you ❤️

Hope you’re ok it’s so scary! I’ve got sleep paralysis so many times. The scariest time was when I lived in a nunnery in France and there was a hooded guy walked up to me from the foot of the bed. Anyway I survived the tale and have a couple of bits of info/ thoughts that might help you calm down💕

I had it once when I was next to my boyfriend and I remember I couldn’t move but I couldn’t tell him. I think I must have been buried into his neck because I remember thinking if I snuffle like a rabbit he might wake up. In the morning I asked him if anything weird had happened and he was like yeah you opened your eyes for like a millisecond then snuffled . So I think you probably are asleep but just open your eyes for a microsecond and clock the room.

I’ve also caught myself out because it used to happen so much to me if there were unfamiliar objects etc I’d “wake up” for real and be like hang on that fan wasn’t there when I thought someone was sat on my bed etc etc.

Also sorry final thought! It started happening to my man before she died (RIP) so I was like shit we as a family have a portal into another dimension. Anyway turned out she actually had issues with toxins in her liver that were causing it and I was like ohhhh mine always got worse when I was drunk or had a lot of sugar so there’s that scientific nugget.

Hops you’re ok it’s so scary and feels so real in the moment. I mean it may be real we don’t know.

Sending so so much love and hope you get some rest xxx

Nan 👵🏻 not man, my man is still very much here xxx

www.healthline.com/health/sleep/old-hag-syndrome

this used to happen to me a lot when the second night after I was drinking heavily and also now if I'm very stressed, lucid dreaming & sleep paralysis - it is utterly terrifying and one of the reasons I stopped drinking.

look at the link - different cultures assign meanings according to their folklore.

I am up as in the US so not bedtime yet.
Classic sleep paralysis so do not worry at all. These are well known phenomena- does not make them any less scary though when they happen- the figure in the room is classic and I have had it many times. Now I know what it is I say-Oh it is you again you creepy fecker you can feck right off I am going back to sleep because you can't hurt me, I made you up. It works every time- totally disempowers'it'. They can be unsettling I know- are you stressed out or worried? Going through a transition? Studying for an important exam? That is when I get these episodes. It is all ok-nothing weird happened, your brain created it. Hope you feel better now.

Definitely sleep paralysis. I get this regularly, probably a couple of times a month. The static noise is horrible. I don’t always get the hallucinations with it but when I do it’s always a shadowy figure that is threatening.
I’ve learnt that to get out of it I have to concentrate on being able to move just one tiny part of my body. I do my little finger on my right hand. It focuses the brain and wakes me up.
it’s a horrible thing to experience.