For a long while now, I have dealt with sleep paralysis, it started when I was 15 and from then it just kept happening. I had heard of it before I had this issue from friends and videos I’ve watched and then one morning it just happened. For those of you, who don’t know what sleep paralysis is, it’s where you cannot move or speak whilst you’re in bed, I have also experienced waking up and seeing my surroundings during sleep paralysis. In some circumstances, you can see and feel a presence in your room.
My first experience with sleep paralysis happened as I said when I was 15 years old, I woke up suddenly and couldn’t feel my whole body and that’s when I saw this black figure on the top of my wardrobe slowly inching towards my bed, I can remember vividly that I was screaming for my dad because I heard footsteps and whistling coming up the stairs but I just kept on hearing it, I couldn’t see my dad coming up the stairs but I could hear footsteps, I looked back at the wardrobe and the dark figure was still there slowly coming down it, I remember trying to move my legs and it felt like I was moving but going nowhere, finally, I broke free and ran down the stairs and told my dad the whole thing, I said that I could sleep on the sofa for a while and so I laid down and closed my eyes, I opened them again and I found myself back in my bedroom with the black figure even closer to my bed and I was back to not being able to move, I heard footsteps coming up the stairs again, so I thought my dad was saw that I wasn’t sleeping on the sofa and came to check on me but he never came up just like the last time, at this point, I thought I was going to die, I know it sounds like I’m overreacting but in that moment I felt tired and dizzy and I honestly gave up trying to get away,
I think at one point I kept on saying the name of God, and then suddenly there was darkness as that black figure came on top of me and then I woke up and I went downstairs and I told my dad the whole thing in which he said “I know, you told me about this a while ago”
The thing with sleep paralysis is that you don’t know what’s reality and what’s a dream and that experience felt like a mixture of both. I had it was when I was on holiday in Atlanta and while I was sleeping I suddenly woke up and I couldn’t move, couldn’t speak and that time I saw this white fuzzy ball of light, which slowly morphed into a figure and the whole thing was similar to my first experience except that it was completely dark.
Unlike last time, I wasn’t in a frenzy, I knew what was happening, I did fidget and try to break free, however, I wasn’t panicking and I think that’s the most important thing to do when you’re going through something like this, and I know it’s hard because you can’t move or speak and there’s something scary coming at you, but you need to not panic and stay calm, one thing you can do while you’re in sleep paralysis that I found is closing your eyes, it could be different to others but I found out through other people who have experience sleep paralysis can close their eyes.
I get sleep paralysis every few months and the last time it happened was at the start of the year and it is the same thing with the black figure and the footsteps. This time the figures comes from the window and it’s not much of a pleasant experience but I’ve have had it so many times that I know what to do while I’m going through it.
Sleep Paralysis might be scary as it feels like this never-ending thing but find a way that’s best for you to calm yourself down, think about something that you might think would help through this process since it’s different for everyone, but once it’s over, it’s over, I’d advise that after you have had sleep paralysis is to take deep breaths and drink water and wait a while before you go to sleep, listen to music, or watch a video that will take your mind off what happened and then try and go to sleep.
