Hello Nick, Edi, and Uglies.
I listen to the podcast often and thought you could use some intro fodder.
Here are my sleep paralysis experiences. Love to hear what you think. I have had about five so far. One of which, the fifth one, nothing really happened. I realized what was happening and eased myself out of it without much difficulty. The other four, however, were a tad difficult. I'll tell them in reverse, as they get more eventful the further back it was.
The fourth time I had sleep paralysis, I was in my barracks room. My room mate and I were sleeping. The room was rather small, so we arranged all the furniture in the middle to build a barrier for privacy. I woke up in the middle of the night and attempted to roll over.
I couldn't move.
As sudden as the realization hit me, I felt a massive wave of fear sweep over me. I struggled intensely, but my body wouldn't answer me. I remember seeing the room around me, however, it felt like my eyes were closed. The angle I was "looking" did not match the angle my head was. I should have been looking straight at the ceiling, however, the view I had was down the room towards the bathroom.
After several moments, I began to scream for my room mate. I was screaming as loud as I could for him to help me. He never came.
A few moments later, I was able to move again. I shot out of bed, and immediately began cussing him out for ignoring me when I was screaming. He was up and on his phone when I rounded the corner of the furniture wall, so I had no doubt in my mind that he should have heard me. After a few choice words from myself, he told me that I was not screaming. The only thing he heard was a long soft exhale that was longer than my usual exhales while asleep. The scream that was "as loud as I could" was barely a whisper.
The second and third time were really similar, minus one detail.
The second time was a few years earlier; I was about sixteen. I was sleeping in my bedroom in the house my mother had at the time. My bedroom was shaped kind of like a flag with a short pole. There is a small section that continues from the hallway about two feet before it rounds a corner and opens up to the right into the rest of the room. This will be important in a bit.
I was sleeping in my bed when I woke up around 2 in the morning. I opened my eyes and was looking down the hallway. I was lazily gazing for a while when I realized something was off. From how my room is shaped and where my bed was, I shouldn't be able to see the angle I was looking at. As soon as that dawned on me, my vision snapped to where it was supposed to be.
I fell asleep with my head and shoulders propped up against a pillow a bit on the headboard of my bed, so I was looking straight forward. My room wasn't pitch black with the lights off. Due to the porch light seeping under my curtains a bit, the room was a soft grayish-black where you could see the outlines of my dresser and other furniture. Looking forward and a bit to the right, was a patch of darkness, far darker than the rest of the room. It was about 3ft by 2ft in size. The edges of which seeped into the darkness of the room. It looked as if it were absorbing the light in the space it was inhabiting.
As I gazed into it, I felt intense fear. I tried to get up and run, but couldn't move. I couldn't scream, or even think. I was trapped in this feeling of fear.
After what felt like hours, it disappeared. I rushed to the lights and flipped it on. There was no sign of it. I kept the lights on for a bit calming myself down before turning them off again and going to bed. I didn't dare open my eyes.
This happened once more, marking the third time with sleep paralysis. The same thing happened however, without the impossible angles I was looking at the second time.
Finally, the very first time I experienced sleep paralysis.
I was in the same room as before. I was sleeping on my back. To my immediate left is the door to my closet. I left my closet door open that night. My head was facing the ceiling, however, my vision was looking straight at the closet. I became more and more aware that I was talking to someone.
I don't sleep walk or anything, but if I don't wake up all the way, I can have full conversations with someone and not remember a thing. This has gotten me in trouble a few times as I have turned off early alarms and went back to sleep with no memory of doing so.
I remember sleeping on a couch by my uncle's door. He told me I wished him a good day as he left for work. I remembered none of this and thought he was pulling my leg.
After a couple more accounts from various people, I began to accept I do this. I bring it up, because that is what it felt like I did here. I couldn't remember the full conversation, but I woke up just enough to become aware I was doing it and remembered what followed. I did not see who I was talking to, but it was a small child. He was asking me various questions that I was answering. We weren't talking out loud. It felt like I was talking to it in my head. I would think what I wanted to say, and would hear his response as if he were talking out loud. It didn't feel malicious, purely innocent.
After a few minuets of this, I heard another voice. An adult male scolding this kid for talking to me. He told the kid to never talk to me again. This pissed me off royally. I could feel the kid's sadness. Like he was on the verge of tears. This guy felt like a bad man. A stark contrast to the kid I was talking to.
I yelled at this guy, "Hey! He can talk to who ever he wants!".
As soon as the words left my head, I felt his attention shift from the kid to me. A sudden pressure descended upon my chest as if a heavy weight were pressing down. I couldn't move. It felt like this guy was attacking me. I started to struggle. I was fighting as hard as I could. I could feel my body twitching trying to break free.
After a while, I began to hear a low, strong barking like a big dog. At first I thought it was my dogs. However, it didn't sound like their barks. I had a male Boston terrier named Copper and a female, purebred boxer named Roxy. Copper is a small dog and couldn't make a bark like this and Roxy was a female, so her bark was higher pitched than this one. I felt it a distance away near my parents' room.
It was running to me getting closer and closer in what felt like a straight shot through the walls of the house instead of around by using the hallway. As it drew near, the pressure on my chest lifted. I could move again, however, all three presences left.
I was alone.
I went to bed, and asked my parents in the morning if they heard any barking. They told me the dogs were downstairs and quiet all night.
Hope you enjoyed the stories. Keep up the good work. I hope to hear more demon stories, those are my favorite.
(A Demon Story Episode)