Entry 11 || A Paralyzing Lucid Dream

Well this one’s a first.

I’ve heard lots of stories about the horrors of experiencing sleep paralysis, which happens when you’re about to fall asleep or about to wake up. You hallucinate, hear things, and most notably, you cannot move your body at all, even the slightest. That includes your legs, arms, mouth, eyes, everything, hence its name “sleep paralysis.”

Luckily, I had mine with my eyes closed so I didn’t really get to experience the “hallucinating” part. However, my mind still got to visualize things. So yes, I was actually lucid dreaming before it happened, and I personally believe that it was because of this lucid dream that my sleep paralysis occurred.

I woke up in the middle of the night, 1:25am. Realizing the time, I groaned and tried to fall back asleep as I covered my blanket over my head (yes, I sleep with my whole body covered by my blanket from top to bottom because it’s just more comfortable for me). A couple minutes later, my brain started shifting to different thoughts. I was still awake so I was trying to take control of it, but I just couldn’t. That’s when it occurred to me that I was lucid dreaming. It was until I dreamt about falling into a mineshaft where the sleep paralysis occurred.

So there I was, falling into a mineshaft that slowly turned into an endless abyss. I started to hear this loud erratic noise that sounded more like static, as if my own ears were trying to recreate the sound of falling against strong wind. That’s when I felt my body being paralyzed.

People say that sleep paralysis feels like you’re being held or pushed down, but I disagree. For some reason, It felt like my whole body was being pulled down by a force stronger than gravity itself.

I kept falling until I finally got to move my left arm and woke up.

Of course, I had to look for answers as to what the fuck just happened to me.

From what I’ve read, sleep paralysis is caused by a disturbed REM sleep (Rapid Eye Movement— the 3rd stage of sleep wherein your whole body shuts down and paralyzes itself). At the same time, dreams occur during REM sleep.

So with this information, I can piece together that I started lucid dreaming during REM sleep, which got interrupted in some way leading to my sleep paralysis.

I’m going back to bed.