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Sleep Paralysis & Night Hag Experience

Have you ever experienced the 'Night-Hag' phenomenon?

  • Many times

    Votes: 5 41.7%
  • Just once

    Votes: 1 8.3%
  • Never

    Votes: 3 25.0%
  • Not sure

    Votes: 3 25.0%

  • Total voters
    12
A

Anonymous

Guest
Night Terrors

Anyone want to discuss or offer an explanation of the phenom known as "Night Terrors"? That feeling that something is terribly wrong and you need to wake up right now , but your body feels like its trapped in molasses? My sisters get these all the time, one sister says she has the distinct feeling of something sitting on her chest. When I experience these, I have the urge to scream, but I can make no noise at all. I never see anything in my room, but I have heard that some people see people, aliens, dark shapes, etc. This doesn't happen to me as often as it does to my sisters, but when it does, it's very unsettling.
 
I've experienced this once... I woke up and couldn't move at all. I also felt what could have been interpreted as a weight on my chest. Because I'd read about it before, and knew it was a type of sleep disorder thingy, I wasn't scared... though if I'd never heard of it I'm sure I'd have been blimmin' terrified!

Weird thing was I woke up flat on my back and I usually sleep on my side... significant?

The theory I've read for it is that when you're asleep and dreaming, your body "locks", to stop you acting out your dreams in real life. Sometimes, however, you wake up before your body "unlocks". It's like the opposite of sleepwalking, where your body "unlocks" before you've woken up.

The experience is also equated with the incubus and succubus of legend, lusty demons who came in the night and had their wicked way with people, who woke up parylised and remained powerless while their ghostly attackers got their rocks off. Needless to say I experienced nowt like that when I had it!
 
What your sister is experiencing sounds like a classic case of being 'hag-ridden'. Can't remember the details but there was bloke in Newfoundland who did the definitive research on people's experiences of this. I think his name may have been David Hufford.

'Normal' sleep paralysis/night terrrors are, as evilsprout suggests, caused by a failure of the usual operation of the brain/body interface on leaving the dream state. Sometimes whats happening is that old chestnut of dreaming that you've woken up while still asleep.

As sprout says, when you dream there is a mechanism which stops you from acting out the actions in the dream. I remember seeing some very disturbing footage of cats that had been experimented on to remove this and who did 'act out' their dreams. If this mechanism does not switch off when you awake, you get the feeling of paralysis.

There's quite a body of opinion that sees this phenomena as the explantion behind tales of folk being 'abducted' from their beds, or otherwise interfered with by 'aliens'.

I had a friend who suffered from night terrors, and he said that despite having researched and understood the phenomenon, it was still absolutely terrifying when it happened, so I sympthise with anyone similarly afflicted.
 
I get these occasionally and they're just as you describe, unable to move away from some indescribable terror, you can feel yourself trying desperately to scream, but no sound comes out. I always thought it was a VERY BAD nightmare rather than any other phenomenon.

Carole
 
Sounds like a case of the brain going haywire, not an unusual thing in my case. Or my sisters. HA Thanks for the info.
 
This is actually really common and it has a very simple explanation.
when you dream, your body goes into a state of paralysis to stop you acting out your dreams and hurting yourself.
Sometimes when you wake up your body is still paralysed for a while and you cant move.
As well you may experience a feeling of something sitting on you or someone in your room. its called a hypnogic hallucination (i think)
What it means is that you are still sort of asleep and bits of your dreams are interfering with you being- awake-ness.
Or something.
My Dad is doing a physcology degree, and I read bits of his course text so I can proff his essays for him, if anyone is wondering.
 
Glad there's a rational explanation for it - it still feels horrible when you're experiencing it, though. I think the worst bit is where you're trying to scream - you feel you have to scream or you'll die - and no sound comes out.:eek:
carole
 
Night terrors and sleepwalking

Do you have a problem with sleepwalking? I ask because when I complained to my psychiatrist that I had been sleepwalking more of late, he asked if I had experienced night terrors, and said that they tend to occur to the same people. I haven't been able to find much of any kind of information on either, but I haven't put much effort into my search, either.

-Virginia
 
I've suffered with these for many years, as has each generation of my mother's family! Thing is, after the paralysis moment, the actual illusion doesn't always end for me; I have been found running my face under the tap 'so they don't get my eyes' before now.

And no, before anyone says anything, it isn't a screen memory. Just an over active imagination and an unspecified genetic trait. Not a grey in sight, I assure you.
 
I experienced the 'Night Terror' only once. I remember (this happened around 5-6 years ago) seeing a dark shadowy figure 'float' into my room and advance towards me. I had an overwelming feeling of terror as this thing came upon me and I experienced a crushing sensation on my chest with total paralysis - I could not move and I felt that this 'thing' was actually entering my body! Crazy but that was what it felt like at the time.
 
Zzzzzzz...

I've have these experiences, too, along with a lot of other people, it seems. Out of the many times it's occured, it's only once happened when I wasn't sleeping on my back (I think this might have something to do with reduced blood flow to the brain). At first I found it a bit alarming, but now I find it quite enjoyable, just lying there and waiting to see what happens next. Some people have this when they're falling asleep (hypnogogic hallucinations), but all mine have been as I wake up (hypnopompic), especially if I lie in. The only exception to this is that about 1 time in every 10 I hear an incredibly loud whistling in my ears that's really uncomfortable, and when this happens I have to really try to wake up.

The last one I had was more funny than anything - I heard two people come into my house, walk up the stairs and stand by my bed, and although I couldn't turn my head and look at them I could see the edges of their clothing. They talked about me in strange voices, saying things like, 'Turn your head away' and 'Don't look at me', then started poking me with rolled-up magazines. It was so real that my only concern was that it was actually happening!

Now I've got used to sleep paralysis I can use it almost at will to enter lucid dream states or OOB dreams, which again, can be a real laugh if you're in the mood :eek:
 
What if . . . . . . . ?

OK, I know all the modern explanations concerning this phenomenon.

What if it really is incubi/ succubi/ old hags/ people with rolled up magazines sitting on us? That really would be worth a thread of its own!
 
Re: What if . . . . . . . ?

spudboy said:
What if it really is incubi/ succubi/ old hags/ people with rolled up magazines sitting on us?

I guess I'd have to ask them to leave...
 
Night Terrors

You can find my own experience of this, along with some reassuring replies, under Night Visitor in the It Happened To Me section. I'm pretty relieved to find that it has a fairly rational explaination, and it wasn't a ghost/demon/vampire thingy after all! Mind you, it only ever happened in that particular house, at that particular time, and I've not been troubled since. Oops, time for bed...:eek:
 
I suffer from 'sleep paralysis' on a horribly regular basis. If you get it upon waking the hallucinations are called 'hypnogogic' and if you get it upon falling asleep (as I do) they're called 'hypnopompic'. Apparently, what I'm doing is going into REM sleep immediately so that my body is paralysed while I'm still fairly conscious. Brainwave patterns show that REM sleep and consciousness are quite similar. It's only in deep sleep that the brainwave patterns change to something longer and more rhythmic.

About 3yrs ago I was having sleep paralysis when I became aware of an evil old woman in the room. She was gliding silently across the floor towards me and I knew that if she reached me I'd be dead. If I could have moved at that point I'd have leapt through the window. It really is terrifying. Well, by one of those wondrous coincidences, I learned shortly afterwards about the 'night-hag'. Wierd.

Incidentally, I'm definitely awake when this happens because both my son and my ex have heard me trying to scream. All it takes is for someone to touch you and you snap out of it.

Saw a doc about it once. Her recommendation was to drink Horlicks before bed. No, it doesn't work.
 
Donna Black said:
...If you get it upon waking the hallucinations are called 'hypnogogic' and if you get it upon falling asleep (as I do) they're called 'hypnopompic'.

It's the other way around, actually... ;)
 
Donna Black said:
I suffer from 'sleep paralysis' on a horribly regular basis...

Have you tried sleeping on your side? I only get it when I sleep on my back. Having said that, I sleep on my back deliberately sometimes just for a laugh :blah:
 
I don't suffer from what you have described above - once I'm asleep that's it! - but I do dream vividly and can remember all my dreams in glorious technicolour and full surround sound. In fact, if I particularly like a dream but the alarm clock has gone off too soon (as always), I can usually pick it up where I left off the next night. I've never met anyone else who does this - but I bet I'm about to!
 
Hi Mr Bingo,

Whoops! I did wonder if I had it the right way round. Should've checked.

Yes, I've tried sleeping in all sorts of positions and nothing seems to work. Sometimes it's started while I'm lying on my back. It wears off so I roll on to my side and it starts again. I moved house last May and, strangely, I've only had it a coupla times since then. You know what'll happen now, don't you? Haven't had it for ages and three will come along in a row tonight!

Donna



Hi Meanderer (hope I got that right)

That kind of dreaming is quite enviable! Well, only if it's a good dream. Unfortunately, I always have nightmares, sometimes recurring and - yes- if I wake up the nightmare continues when I fall asleep again. Last night for instance I dreamt I was on death-row about to be electrocuted wondering what I could have done that was so awful. I woke up, had a drink of water (and a roll-up, to be honest) went back to sleep and proceeded to have a string of visitors come to my cell to say their last goodbyes!

I expect most of us have had that falling sensation upon nodding off where we awake with a big jolt. I had heard that if one 'hits the ground' during this episode, the shock would cause real death. Well, to scotch that one (in case others have heard it too) I was having this falling sensation and, in a split second, thought "Oh it's ok, I'll wake up anytime now" when suddenly there was an impact. I'd hit the ground.
 
Mr. Bingo said:
I only get it when I sleep on my back. Having said that, I sleep on my back deliberately sometimes just for a laugh

Hey, I do that too.
I find that the worst bit is the high-pitched noise, so it's like my head's in a vice and someone's drilling my teeth.
Maybe my on/off conjuring attempts have summoned a particularly sadistic incubus/succubus.
 
Hi dead flag,

I get the high pitched noise too; sometimes it starts off as a buzzing noise getting higher and louder until it's unbearable. I'm also aware that my teeth are clenching so tightly I'm afraid they might break. My grandad, who suffers from it too, suggests trying to tickle the roof of your mouth with your tongue. I don't know about you, but my tongue is also paralysed at the time.

Incidentally, my sister is a somnambulist which is the opposite of sleep paralysis really, isn't it?
 
I've suffered from these night terrors and hypnogogic states since I was about 14. They're frightening a lot of the time, but sometimes they are quite interesting as well, entertaining even. For instance, I've lain in bed and watched a whole parade of weird people/creatures pass in a parade through my bedroom; other times, the wall opposite has disappeared and I've viewed all kinds of alien and exotic landscapes. I've also had the noises described - high-pitched buzzing and scratching noises. I think these noises may actually be magnified body sounds - blood going through viens, ligaments moving, the sort of sounds that are normally inaudible.
When these experiences first started, I also had the experience of lying in bed, wide awake, and feeling parts of my body swell or shrink - apparently this particular experience can also occur during a severe migraine attack.
I've read lots of 'alien abduction' accounts, and they nearly all have the same elements as the night terror experience.
 
Meanderer said:
...if I particularly like a dream but the alarm clock has gone off too soon (as always), I can usually pick it up where I left off the next night. I've never met anyone else who does this - but I bet I'm about to!

Sorry to be predictable... I used to be able to go back to the same dream after a short period awake - if I'd got up for a drink or something - but only once did I manage it the next night. My dreams used to be consistently more vivid than they are now, but they're still entertaining. I've committed to paper (& PC) about 500 dreams in total, both because I like to look back and read them & also 'cos it's good practice being that I'm set on becoming a writer (and believe me, I need all the practice I can get).

I particularly like lucid dreams, where you know you're dreaming and you can examine and change your environment just like you're taking part in a video game - only 100X better!
 
I've kept a dream diary for over 10yrs now, mainly to see if any of them are predictive at all. However, considering that each person has, on average, two dreams a night it would be more wierd if people didn't have predictive dreams occasionally. Saying that, I have in my diary a dream about the band 'Bucks Fizz' whom I have never been interested in (was anyone?). In the dream I was watching them on stage when a large black dog fell from the ceiling and ripped one of the chaps head off. A year later, if anyone recalls, they were involved in some kind of traffic accident where one of the chaps did indeed receive serious head injuries. I have no idea why I might dream about them. I also tend to dream about big 'plane crashes about a week before they occur. Seeing as how I'm a bit of a plane anorak this might not be so unusual.

Lucid dreaming isn't terribly common, as far as I know. Personally I've only achieved it once. I was having a terrible nightmare (as usual) about finding someone I loved dead in a hole in some woods. I consciously thought "I'm not having this." and the body turned into someone I didn't like so much.

I'm interested in why we dream. Are they messages from our 'higher' selves, or are they simply brain excrement? I'd be interested to know what everyone thinks.
 
Donna Black said:
I'm interested in why we dream. Are they messages from our 'higher' selves, or are they simply brain excrement? I'd be interested to know what everyone thinks.

All the ones that I get to remember can easily be explained as a combination of recent (usually) thoughts and worries. It's very rare that anything crops up in a dream that hasn't been stalking through my waking thoughts with big sharp, pointy teeths.
 
I had a premonition-like dream just last night, as it happens. I dreamed that I was in a car that was being driven by my mother. She kept turning round in her seat and at one point - to my horror :eek: - the car swerved and nearly left the road. This lunchtime (not dreaming now) my mate gave me a lift to the garage. We got behind a tractor and the guy driving the tractor was waving people past him - the only trouble was he was twisted right round on his seat and as we pulled out to go past, his grip on the wheel must have slipped because the tractor wobbled and swerved towards the grass verge.

You'd think premonitions would be more useful...
 
Yes, I've often thought that why, if dreams are meant to be important messages, they're veiled in symbolism and metaphor. You'd think that our supposed higher selves would be more direct. Just give it to me straight! I can handle it! Why does it have to be in brain-code?

The problem is that so many people have the same recurring symbolism. I think we've all had the being-caught-naked-in-public dream, or the teeth-falling-out dream, or the running-in-slow-motion dream. What's all that about? Is it culturally related, I wonder? Do tribal folk in the rainforests ever have the naked in public dream?

So many questions...
 
Donna Black....

I reckon from experience, that night paralysis is quite common amongst night workers, your acount gives me the chills, (I've been there!!!).

I've also heard & tried to wake colleges in the same situation, they could hear me but could not move.
 
Donna Black said:
Do tribal folk in the rainforests ever have the naked in public dream?

They have the "dressed in public" dream. They dream they're wearing suits and ties and wake up really embarrassed...
 
Hi David,

Yup, you could be right there. I don't sleep particularly regularly as such, sometimes in the day, sometimes through the night, and occasionally not at all. However, when I do eventually fall asleep I am as dead. The paralysis bit is the only problem I have, otherwise I can sleep on a washing line.


Now, Mr Bingo, I've only be posting here for a few days but I feel quite safe in saying "How did I know you were going to say that?"
 
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