ItâÂÂs dark. You canâÂÂt speak. You canâÂÂt move. You can see. You can hear. It doesnâÂÂt feel like a dream, but you know it is. ItâÂÂs sleep paralysis.
Sleep paralysis is, as the name suggests, paralysis during sleep. When a person has sleep paralysis, he is fully aware of his surroundings and is likely to encounter real-like hallucinations. Such hallucinations include ghosts, demons, or just loud terrible sounds. A person may also experience excessive panic and anxiety during or after the sleep paralysis.
Sleep paralysis is mainly caused by lack of sleep, irregular napping intervals, or stress. But people have different explanations for it. Some people theorize that sleep paralysis is an out of body experience, or when the soul is temporarily disconnected with the body. Others believe that the ghostly encounters are the way ghosts can communicate with humans.
Cultures also have their different perspectives. Koreans call sleep paralysis, ê°ÂìÂÂ, or in English, scissor. They believe that scissor is when a ghost sits on top of the person sleeping.
Sleep paralysis isnâÂÂt the most pleasant experience a person can have. I have them frequently over the summer although not so much this summer. I have different types of sleep paralysis, but hallucinations prove to be the worst. I am usually lying down on my bed, unable to move. I can see my room, but I know that my eyes are closed. Paralysis is scary enough. But when I hear this terrible scream and see a face that twisted with its mouth stretched in front of your face, itâÂÂs worse.
When you get sleep paralysis a lot, you know and feel when you are about to have one. And when you have one, you can fall into another one again, multiple times. I donâÂÂt know if there are ways to get out of sleep paralysis, but I do know that when you scream hard and loud enough, kick and move around, someone near you can wake you up. If thereâÂÂs no one in your room, then you have to wait and hope for the best that the paralysis is almost over.