Locked in Sleep, a personal experience

Abstract

I have had for some years I can’t count, a daily terrible night experience, and so disturbing that I feared the night when it fell and released its curtain down. I knew that on sleeping it would visit me and would horrify me, causing extreme distress. It’s like witnessing death; I can’t talk, I can’t shout for help or scream or cry out. I can’t move, I can’t open my eyes, despite struggling hard. I just feel impending doom on my chest squeezing me very hard, where I can’t breathe in fully, along with hearing buzzing and hissing sounds loudly for a few seconds, maybe minutes and then it releases as I am brought back to life, to reality, reborn as a spell lets go and passes away after a great struggle. I never knew what it was until I heard about sleep paralysis and narcolepsy. So, I wanted to dig deep to find out why and what triggers this scary nocturnal phenomenon. Keywords: sleep paralysis, myths, dream, muscle atonia, REM sleep, sleep disorder, narcolepsy.