Ghost Stories & Paranormal Encounters

Growing up, I experienced many instances of sleep paralysis. I guess I thought it was normal, because I haven’t thought about it in a very long time. After reading about the instances here, I realized that I’ve definitely experienced sleep paralysis.

From the time I was very young, I would wake up at least once or twice a month in a state of extreme fear, unable to move. Most of the time I would wake up and even though I couldn’t open my eyes, I knew that I wasn’t alone in my room. I could feel the presence of something so evil and THERE that it’s presence was a physical thing. My heart would be beating fast and my eyes would be trying to open, but I couldn’t open them no matter how hard I tried.

Somehow, even though I couldn’t see, I could still “see” my room and the shadows that surrounded my bed. I could see something that was darker than the dark moving at the foot of my bed. And I always thought that if I couldn’t wake up SOON, then the blackness would reveal itself and I would really know what the boogeyman looked like.

And always, just at the point when I thought that my heart would freeze in fear and I would see some horrible thing, I would manage to sit up in bed with a scream locked behind my lips.

These experiences happened to me over and over in childhood. I guess they probably stopped in my late teens or early twenties. I actually still experience them now, but they are pretty rare. The last one was about 2 years ago and I snapped out of it pretty quickly.

I totally believe that the experiences are not just bad dreams. I know that the presence at the foot of my bed is real. I’m just not sure what it is. I know it’s evil and it would harm me if I didn’t wake up, it it had just a few more seconds to touch me.

Is this sleep paralysis? Or something else?

Sent in by Mary Perkins, Copyright 2011