@alien said:
these things arent an on-going thing with you guys though
I can't comment on the night terrors but im a sufferer (maybe 'experiencer' is a better word?) of sleep paralysis.
Im 30 now and i remember my first one was about 7 or 8 years ago. Scared the poo out of me at the time but a little research and talking to a friend one day about it only to discover the same thing happens to him made me feel a lot better about it all. 8 years later im more educated on the matter and realise thats its actually a common occurance with many people. Most people dont even realise what is happening/happend to them and waive it off to a dream. I seem to get on a bit of a roll. I'll have a week where everyday i have one just as i "try" to wake up in the morning or i can go 6 months and only have one. My last one was 2 days ago. It feels like it lasts sometimes for a good 10 or 20 minutes but in reality it could be nanoseconds as your brain plays tricks on you for time.
It's basically as tigerdave said, its a state of sleep where your brain has awoken but hasn't turned off the "paralysis" of your body (your brain does this so when you dream you dont throw punches, kick, bite, fall out of bed etc etc in real life.) The first few times it happend to me i swear to Yahweh i saw images or something moving in my bedroom, i could have sworn i saw the curtain move…just a little or the door come ajar, things like this. Infact its thought that many people "seeing ghosts" etc are actually at the time suffering from sleep paralyisis. It's a total trick on the mind as its half way between a dream and a conscious state. As i am now aware of what is happening to me i simply take a few deep breaths and try to realx (the worst thing you can do is fight it, the more you fight it, the deeper you sink into it) after a few deep breaths i relax and try to go as limp as possible. It's like magic, as i do this, relax all the muscles in my legs and shoulders....BANG!! all of a sudden i can move freely and i wake up. To this day, even with knowing whats going on I still do see and feel something in my room but ive had my girlfriend watch me come out of this state a few times, so i know nothing's going on in there as she is totally awake and shes the one freaking out by the weird noises im making as i try to wake up.
If anyone's read my previous posts they'll know im one of the biggest athiests/skeptics out there. Infact i believe this is where the origin of this skepticism has steemed from. Through clear thinking, personal experience, reading, researching, talking, I dont now see a ghost or a spirit, i see logic as to why im seeing these things. There's enough research. video, scientific studies and papers out there on the subject (just google it) but having experienced all this stuff first hand i choose to go the way of rational thinking and not go off in the other direction of "seeing spirits" as other do.
