I'm always afraid one of these days it won't be a hallucination. Eeep.

[kungfuwaynewho]

Sleep paralysis incident this weekend!  I woke up, and for the first time since I was a kid, had my eyes open.  (It was unpleasant.)  First, I heard what sounded like a cabinet door in the kitchen slam shut.  Then someone running down the hallway toward my room.  Then a light went on and off.  Then...silence.

My absolute first thought was, of course, that there was a demon.  I mean, could that have been more Paranormal Activity?  Then I figured it was my brother doing who-knows-what, but when I asked him the next day he insisted he never got out of bed.  I checked with everyone else, even though I figured no one else would be running around the house.  The only alternative was sleep paralysis.

Which is kinda weird, since I never actually felt paralyzed.  That, coupled with my second visual hallucination in my entire life (the first and previously only one being when I was five, and I woke up to a little girl's face a few inches from mine, staring at me), still has me wondering just a bit if it actually was sleep paralysis, but I can't think of what else it would be.  Brrr.  I do not need to be seeing lights go on and off in the middle of the night.  No thank you, brain.

Barring a miracle, I think we can safely say that I will not be finishing my NaScreeWriMo in November.  I will still be finishing the script, and I'll still post the pages as I go, but that ship has sailed.  Ah well.

Comments

[jerusha]

As someone with sleep issues, I can heartily sympathize. *hugs* Here's hoping that you have a peaceful night's sleep tonight.

[kungfuwaynewho.livejournal.com]

Aw, thanks. It's really not that big a deal anymore; I haven't had an incident bad enough to ruin my night's sleep in probably four or five years. At this point it's more a curiosity than anything else.

[nhpw.livejournal.com]

We need to stop swapping My Life Sucks stories. Seriously. *HUGS* I'm glad you're OK today, and here's to a good night's sleep tonight.

[kungfuwaynewho.livejournal.com]

:D Really, it's not that bad or anything; not anymore. Last night it was like, "A demon! My brother... Maybe a poltergeist. Ah well." And then I rolled over and went back to sleep.

I really only post the stories because (a) I hope they're interesting to read, because I think they're kinda weird and fun, and (b) to keep a log for myself. It actually tends to track really well with my stress level. When I'm on an even keel, I'll have an odd incident once every month or two. When I start getting stressed, it might be more like once or twice a week. The last time I had a period like that, in grad school, it actually was realizing that I was having incidents all the time that made me realize that I was stressed out, and needed to make some changes in my life. Which is kinda weird? IDK.

But yeah, it's no big. You're still in the lead on My Life Sucks, kiddo. ;)

[nhpw.livejournal.com]

They are kind of interesting to read. That was my first thought, actually... like, "Woah, that's freaky weird... and fascinating." But I didn't want you to be like - Um, no, it sucks and it's awful and how could you say such a thing? So I'm glad you said that, because now I don't have to feel bad for thinking what I did.

[kungfuwaynewho.livejournal.com]

Hee! No, no. Even the times when it was a really, really horrible incident that ruined my night's sleep and freaked me out for nights to come (someone's broken into my apartment and they're going to kill me and now they're leaning over me and they're sitting on the bed and they're tugging on my shirt collar oh God oh God I'm going to die), I still relished telling the story. Like I just did, LOL.

[hollywobbles.livejournal.com]

Creepeh. You make me very grateful to be dead to the world about 5 min after my head hits the pillow. (But yeah, they are pretty fascinating to read about!)

[kungfuwaynewho.livejournal.com]

Mmm, dead to the world 5 minutes after getting into bed. Winter! Seriously - when my room's nice and cold and I can toss some blankets on the bed, I sleep like gangbusters.

The last really scary one I had wasn't even sleep paralysis, it was a false awakening, and that was early this summer. And I still managed to fall back asleep within about ten minutes. So, no big deal.

[hollywobbles.livejournal.com]

That's how I sleep best, too -- chilly air with lots of blankets! Makes it so hard to get out of bed, but it's worth it.

What's a false awakening? You dream that you're awake but you're not? What happened this summer?

[kungfuwaynewho.livejournal.com]

A false awakening (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_awakening) is pretty much exactly what it sounds like, yeah. You dream that you wake up and do whatever, and then you actually wake up (or fake wake up again, depending on how many iterations you go through). In that Wiki entry, it differentiates between Type 1 and Type 2. Type 1 is boring; you're dreaming that you wake up and do your normal morning routine, and then you actually wake up.

Type 2 is almost like dreaming a sleep paralysis incident. There's a sense of foreboding, that something's wrong. So you might dream that you've awakened and you're going to get out of bed and start getting ready, but there's danger! danger! alarms going off.

This summer, I woke up and knew for a fact that Slender Man (http://marblehornets.wikidot.com/slender-man) was waiting for me, in the hallway, just outside my bedroom door. But there was nothing I could do, I couldn't stop, and I got out of bed and opened the door and there he was, inches away. A dream! I woke up, and felt wonderful relief. And I got out of bed and opened my bedroom door and Slender Man was standing right outside in the hallway waiting for me, and then he jumped.

And then I woke up for reals. So that was fun.

I should add that Laura and I watched only the first three Slender Man videos (the entries in that link) last December before we chickened out and quit, and I was literally terrified that night. So pathetic! But something about him, like, really freaks me out, IDKW. Even now I'm like, ffffuuuu, why am I thinking about Slender Man.

So.

[hollywobbles.livejournal.com]

So, I am pretty critical inside my head of people who ask obvious questions in comments instead of taking 30 seconds to google it themselves, and I just did that. Fail. I remember that incident! I very carefully avoided the link to Slender Man you put up at the time, if I remember correctly.

I've had that happen to me once that I can remember, but it was definitely Type 1. Very boring. There were like five iterations. It just kept going... and going....