Sleep Paralysis

A Recount: May 2, '07 12:44 AM

I was extraordinarily tired and sleepy after coming back from Brunei. I decided to go to bed early. It was 9.15p.m., at least two hours earlier than my customary bed time.

As usual, I could hear my ear ringing I have been suffering from tinnitus since this January.v It hardly bothers me now even though I can still hear the sound. However, my ear stopped ringing when I was in bed for almost forty minutes. I was surprised by the quietness around me but my drowsiness got the better of me. I soon drifted into sleep. I was quickly awaken when something poked me in the ribs. Although the shock made my mind alert, an unexplained languidness spread all over my body. Sounds of heavy breathing were in the air and the walls were closing in on me in the same rhythm as my pulsating heartbeat. Fear started creeping over me from the core of my heart. Could the same old creepy sensation be coming back to me again? I had almost forgotten it.

Hoping I was only hallucinating, I struggled to sit up on my elbows.  Suddenly, a dark shadow descended upon me from the ceiling. Why? The same frightening experience was back. A pair of powerful arms pushed my entire body into bed with great force. I was trying to shout but there was a lump in my throat. My whole body was seized by a smothering paralysis. I had experienced that many times in my childhood and early adulthood. The force would normally pin me to bed for seconds before lifting itself from my body and vanishing in the air. Nonetheless, it was taking a far longer period this time. I was able to catch a glimpse of it through my blurring, grainy vision . The longer the time passed, the more I could make out what the thing was. For the very first time in my life, I saw the apparition in its more complete form. It was a huge, dark hairy figure which almost covered the whole of my bedroom. I could hear something flapping behind the giant's bulky body but failed to see what it was. The horrible sight sent my body into shuddering fits. I had seen the bogeyman before. When I was seven to eight years of age, I had always dreamed of being chased by a towering man. At one point It had haunted me in my dreams for almost four days in a row.

I was able to let out some whimpers when the image of the Lord came flashing into my jarring mind. A gush of energy streamed over me and I could move my limbs. Gathering all my strength, I screamed on top of my voice and the creature loosened its grip on my shoulder.  There was some knocking on my bedroom's open door. Almost immediately, the dark shadow disintegrated into flying fragments and disappeared. What I could now see in the room was my mother. She was very shocked and worried.

Could the experience be a kind of sleep paralysis? I have no idea. I hope it will stop bothering me . I was able to resume my sleep after reciting the 'Our Father' prayer and the Rosary.