Articles from South Jersey Paranormal Research

Imagine lying in bed, covers pulled up; pillow comfortably resting under your head. You're ready for some well deserved sleep. Suddenly, you awake, but something is wrong. You can't move. You try and try, but you are paralyzed! You try to scream for help, but nothing comes out. You may be feeling a crushing pressure on your chest, as though someone or something is sitting on you. You're now feeling panicked and helpless. Then, just as suddenly as it started, it’s gone. This all sounds like something you would see in a scary movie, but it is something all too real. Some people believed this to be the work of something paranormal and, in fact, many people report having felt a presence of some kind in the room while this is happening. This is a condition called sleep paralysis.

Sleep paralysis is defined as a period of inability to perform voluntary movements, either at the onset of sleep, or immediately upon awakening. Paralysis is normal when a person is asleep. The body secretes hormones that relax certain muscles and prevent you from acting out your dreams. If this did not happen, you would be dangerous to not only yourself, but anybody you may share your bed with. The process of awakening is not something people usually think about; we just wake up, but it is a complex process. When the body is waking from sleep, many physiological changes take place, such as the reversal of paralysis. Sleep paralysis takes place when the relaxing hormone does not completely wear off before a person wakes up. Even though they are conscious, they are still paralyzed. In many cases of sleep paralysis, hallucinations may occur in the form of auditory and visual disturbances. During auditory hallucinations, which are more common than visual ones, people have described hearing very loud rushing or roaring noises. Sometimes these noises coincide with bodily sensations, such as tingling or numbness. There have also been reports of people having out of body experiences during this phenomenon. Eventually, the hormones wear off, the paralysis subsides, and normal functions resume.

One can see how someone might attribute sleep paralysis to something paranormal or other worldly entities. Throughout time, there have been reports of nightly visitors torturing their victims in bed. This is more commonly referred to as the "incubus" or "Old Hag". These attacks show all the signs of sleep paralysis. Some of the symptoms of sleep paralysis include:

Inability to voluntarily move your body; feeling paralyzed.
Feeling pressure on your chest or neck, as if someone is sitting on you or choking you.
Auditory and visual hallucinations. In most cases it's auditory; visual hallucinations are rare, but can occur.
Out of body experience during paralysis.
Sense of fear and dread; feeling as if you’re not alone.

Some of the most common causes of sleep paralysis are stress and anxiety, sleeping on your back, depression, bipolar disorder and disrupted sleep patterns. Sleep paralysis is also common for people suffering from narcolepsy (a condition that causes someone to fall asleep involuntarily). Sleep paralysis is also known to be hereditary. If you awake with any of these symptoms, here are a few things you can try: Try to “will” yourself to move a finger or make a sound; the concentration this takes can be enough to snap you out of it. Try to scream; the sound will at least make someone else aware that you are in distress. If all else fails, simply go with the flow and relax and it will soon pass.