Sleep Paralysis: Petrifying Hallucinations, Waking Nightmares, Silent Screams

IN THE MIDNIGHT HOUR
A study by Susan Blackmore and Marcus Cox of the University of the West of England link reports of alien encounters to cases of SP. Cheyne’s studies also suggest that the hallucinations of sleep paralysis are a likely explanation of beliefs concerning alien abductions, alternate realities and otherworldly creatures.

“By my calculations, over 15 percent of ghost stories submitted to us are mistakenly describing an obvious case of SP as a ghostly account or sometimes demon possession,” reported Australian paranormal researcher and ghost hunter Rowena Gilbert in 2005. “This is further evidence that even though it is classified as ‘common’ it is in fact still a widely unrecognized condition among the general public.”

The reason sleep paralysis may explain otherworldly tales of ghosts and aliens is the common feeling shared by those who have experienced SP that there is someone in the room with them, a mysterious presence, which many times is invisible. Many report additional phenomena, such as feelings of being dragged out of bed or having the sheets pulled off them. And to some these episodes can sometimes lead to what they believe are full-blown out-of-body experiences.

Jill, 27, of Westhampton, experienced SP for the first time in her early teens, and while she has no doubt it is brought on by stress, she believes it to be an out-of-body experience, something that runs in her family—both Jill’s mother and grandmother have also had SP episodes.

“Just because something can be explained scientifically doesn’t mean it can’t have a spiritual explanation, too,” says Jill, who claims she’s had multiple out-of-body experiences throughout her life. “You can say this and that is happening in your brain, and that’s why you are experiencing what you are experiencing. But does that mean I didn’t access another reality some way in my mind? Even though my body didn’t move but I felt like I was floating around the room doesn’t mean on some plane, in my mind, I wasn’t.”

Jill squirms when she realizes what just came out of her mouth because she knows how it comes off to those who have never had the experience—crazy, deranged, off-kilter are a few adjectives she rattles off.

“It sounds unbelievable until it happens to you,” she says. “I’m not saying that people who experience SP are getting abducted by aliens or having supernatural experiences for sure…but there is a big part of your brain that isn’t even used? Who knows what we are capable of doing with our minds? I don’t think it’s fair to dismiss the possibilities.”

Jill’s SP episodes begin with a “blowing wind” in her head that gets increasingly louder and louder until her entire face is vibrating. She says her eyes are open the entire time. She can see her alarm clock, her door and she can feel her sheets against her body.

“I can hear the vibrating and see the wind,” she says. “It’s so hard to explain, it’s like all your senses explode. I see colors that I can’t name and sounds I can’t describe. You can’t just say, ‘Oh you’re stressed,’ and move on. It’s too intense to do that.”

Jill then describes seeing herself lying on her bed. She can still see her alarm clock and her door, but from a different perspective. She is above them. She is above herself.

She watches the numbers on her digital clock change and she is able to move around simply by willing it, the way you would move an arm or a leg. She doesn’t think about it, she just does it. But this only came with time, she says. The first few SP episodes she had left her “a wreck.”

“I would spend from the time I woke up and all day dreading going to sleep at night,” she says. “Then I would drink coffee until 3 a.m. until I would fall asleep from sheer exhaustion.”

Like Leah, Jill turned to the Internet.