Last night I woke to find a young man standing at the foot of my bed. He was wearing white shorts and a white Tee shirt with a white shirt unbuttoned. He was an unclear ghostly image. He then shook my bed then ran out the door.
You could say I saw a demon (I don't believe in ghosts), you would be incorrect. You could say I had a hallucination, and you would be correct, sort of.
What this is? Sleep paralysis.
Sleep paralysis is a feeling of being conscious but unable to move. It occurs when a person passes between stages of wakefulness and sleep. During these transitions, you may be unable to move or speak for a few seconds up to a few minutes. Understand that a few seconds can seem like an extended period.
The issue is that being in REM sleep you can still dream. In that it is scary your minds builds things, scary things. Like nightmares you can see, or believe you can see.
It is not indicative of a mental illness but is a disruption in the sleep cycle. Children have these, we call them night terrors. The developing mind of a child is prone to that.
I have had these off and on throughout my life. Always associated with extreme or prolonged stress. That is a trigger, and a common one.
Of course when I fully wakened I knew what it was, still shaken though. It is unsettling.
This has happened to me three or four times in my life. Once I was fully awake (just woke from a nap in a comfortable chair), but was completely unable to move for what seemed like a minute or two.
