Sleep Paralysis: Petrifying Hallucinations, Waking Nightmares, Silent Screams

DREAM POLICE
Although SP episodes vary in intensity, they share a few key characteristics: the feeling of an invisible presence in the room, the inability to move while awake and conscious of surroundings, having hallucinations, feeling like you’ve left your body, feeling strangled, the sensations of flying, spinning, being touched, numbness, vibrating and pressure on the chest.

“People frequently try, unsuccessfully, to cry out,” reports Cheyne, who has conducted extensive research and trials on SP. “After seconds or minutes one feels suddenly released from the paralysis, but may be left with a lingering anxiety.”

Brian, 24, of Bethpage, experienced sleep paralysis for the first and only time when he was 17, the night before he had to give an oral presentation in front of his English class.

“I was always a shy kid, and public speaking was not my thing,” says Brian. “I was extremely nervous the night before I had to talk in front of the class and I couldn’t fall asleep. When I did, I woke up very nervous a few times over the course of the night, and the last time I woke up I didn’t completely wake up.”

Brian describes himself lying on his back, his eyes open and not being able to move or talk for what seemed like an eternity.

“I’m lying there and I’m awake but I can’t move,” he remembers. “And I’m freaking out ’cause I’m like trapped in my body so I try and scream, get someone to come help me but I can’t talk.”

Cheyne says that 25-30 percent of the population reports that they have had an experience like Brian’s—a mild form of sleep paralysis—at least once, and about 20-30 percent of these have had the experience on several occasions, some nightly or multiple times per night. And this is nothing new. SP dates back hundreds of years and cultures from all parts of the world have come up with spiritual explanations for the phenomenon.