You’re fast asleep. Suddenly, you feel this urge to wake up but you cannot because it seems like someone or something is sitting right on top of you. You try to claw your way out but nothing works, and so you keep trying until your eyes finally opens and you sit up with a fright. Right.
Perhaps you’ve heard of ‘sleep paralysis’ . Or you haven’t. Now, sleep paralysis is a temporary inability to move or speak while falling asleep or when you wake. Sounds scary, right?
There’s been so many myths and beliefs about this. Some persons say it’s purely science and nothing spiritual while others believe that it is characterized by demons( or village people π) who haunt people while they sleep. Well, everyone has their own perspectives isn’t it?
I’m going to talk based on my personal experience of sleep paralysis. No I don’t experience it anymore actually. Thank Godπͺ. Sleep paralysis can be pretty scary actually ’cause it’s like you want to wake up but you can’t…. More like there’s a someone out there holding a pillow to your face or something. I literally stopped sleeping during that period because I was afraid of going through that. I literally dreaded sleeping actually cause the whole experience was becoming frequent and very scary.
Enough of the gory stuff. How do you deal with sleep paralysis? Well, I’m a spiritual person so I prayed of course but you have to also work on your sleep habits:
1. Avoid sleeping on your back. It has been shown that sleeping on your back increases your chances of sleep paralysis. Try lying on your side(or another position apart from your back)
2. Stress actually adds to sleep paralysis experiences so try to destress or take a timeout of whatever is causing you to stress.
3. Relax. Basically relax and try to get fear out of your mind and if it helps… Talk to yourself and speak reassuring words to yourself.
4. Talk to someone. If things get worse then you need to talk to someone about this because it can adversely affect your level of productivity. Talk to your family, or a trusted friend or confidante.
Sleep paralysis can be really scary but trust me, you can get past it. I would usually meditate on these two Bible verses and they helped me a lot( Psalms 3:5& Psalms 4:8).
Do you think sleep paralysis is purely scientific or it’s spiritual?
Have you had such experiences? And how did you cope?
I’d love to hear from you. Thank you ππ
π§‘&π‘
Fae.