Eerie silhouette of a person behind frosted glass with hands pressed against the surface.

Sleep Paralysis- The Shadow Figure in my Room 

Have you ever been paralyzed in your sleep? What was it like?

There have been a few times in my life when my mind and eyes woke up but my body was still asleep. It’s usually a peaceful experience. My body is so relaxed that it feels almost euphoric. I got used to recognizing this state and either enjoying it while it lasted or putting all my focus on moving one of my toes or fingers to speed up the process of becoming fully awake. 

I’ve heard many stories of people having sleep paralysis and it being a terrifying experience. They usually say they immediately panic and become aware of some kind of creature in the room with them.

Since all of my experiences had been peaceful, I just couldn’t relate. I thought, maybe they are still just in a dream state so their mind is mixing dreams with reality because their eyes are open. 

But then it finally happened to me. 

It started very small and there are some things I should probably tell you about first. 

I had just moved into a new place. Everything was fine at first, but the more I was there alone I noticed this feeling like I was being watched by something.

It was enough that I would sometimes turn around or look behind my shoulder to see if someone was actually there. Of course there wasn’t but there was one time I was sure that I saw a shadow figure peaking into the window.

Maybe it was just in my minds eye. Or maybe it was just my paranoia. 

Then I started seeing shadows in the corner of my eye. Always when I was alone. I could see shadows moving across the doorway in my peripheral vision. I’m not afraid of these types of things. I just observed the activity and I wanted to see what would come of it. 

Then, one day I had fallen asleep on the couch and something strange happened. I briefly woke up and opened my eyes. Then, almost instantly, I felt the sensation of my body going back to sleep but my eyes were still open and I was still very aware and awake.

It was odd in the sense that it came with this strange sinking feeling and it happened so fast. I was able to fully wake myself up again and I went back to sleep in the normal way. 

A couple of days later was the incident. I had been sleeping in bed with my partner all night. The dog had suddenly started barking from noise the neighbor was making in the early morning and woke us both up. We quickly hushed the dog.

I had been sleeping on my back and as I lay there after the dog was quiet it happened to me again. I felt my body sink and go to sleep but my eyes and mind were still awake. I felt I had been pushed down. Something about it felt forced and not natural. 

My view of the room was the same. I heard a door open where there wasn’t one. It was out of view but then I heard someone walking in to the room. Then I saw it. A tall shadow figure. It walked into view and stopped at the end of my bed. It just looked down at me. 

Then the panic set in. I started breathing faster and looking to my partner sleeping next to me. My eyes could move but the rest of my body felt stiff and frozen.

I heard a voice coming from the shadow man. He said something like, “I am here.” He literally sounded like the demon from the movie Hellraiser.

I felt the intense need to wake up my partner. I was calling for him and trying to scream but I knew that in real life I wasn’t making a sound. I tried moving my hands and fingers but I could only contort them in a creepy looking way. 

My breathing was even heavier now. I decided to just focus my gaze on the ceiling. I knew that in real life I really was breathing quite heavy and if I just kept focusing on my breath eventually it might call the attention of my partner and then he could wake me up. 

As I stare above me, I could feel my heart beating so fast. The image of an eye began to form on the ceiling. Just then, my partner finally turned over in bed and put his arm around me. That was enough to fully wake me up.

I lay there for a minute just catching my breath and calming down. As soon as I woke up the panic and fear had left me. I immediately became both fascinated and curious as to what just happened. My mind was racing.

If I’m being completely honest, a part of me felt really excited that I finally got to experience what everyone has been talking about. 

Now I understand the difference between what I had experienced before and what a real scary sleep paralysis experience was like. I was wrong about it. It does not feel like you are just still dreaming and your mind is mixing things up. This felt like it was forced upon me by something outside of myself. 

Whatever had been watching me before is what did this to me. I just know it. I think it was slowly allowing me to become aware of it. The first time I felt my body slip into sleep on the couch was either it’s first attempt to put me in sleep paralysis or just a test. 

What is very clear to me is that thing, whatever it really is, was trying to scare me but it had to get me into this paralysis state in order to do it. Once I woke up, the fear had left. I thought that was pretty rude of it!

After a minute of regaining myself, I told my partner all about what had just happened. I wondered if maybe there was some missing time or something. Maybe I really did fall asleep and it had actually been a while later after the dog woke us up.

He confirmed to me that the dog did just bark and woke us up a few minutes ago. I was amazed then at how fast the whole incident had happened. 

He then told me that he experienced the same sort of thing when he was a kid. Down to the feeling watched and seeing shadows before the sleep paralysis took place. It almost sounds like it could be the same exact entity we encountered. But, I also know that many people have experienced things like this. 

So that gets me thinking, what was that thing and how does it have the power to do that to people? Is it some sort of demon? Can it change forms?

I’ve heard of people seeing the hat man, horned creatures, and even a succubus. Some people say they can’t breath when it happens. Others say the creature gets on top of them and chokes them. 

Also, what’s with the eye I saw on the ceiling? I recently heard about this alien ufo story where the victim describes seeing a huge eye inside of a spaceship. I guess it was scanning him in someway.

Maybe this whole thing was some kind of alien encounter. It wouldn’t be the first time I’ve had strange alien type “dreams” experiences. 

Has anyone actually ever died in sleep paralysis? If they did, would anyone ever know it? Or did they just, “peacefully pass in their sleep.” It’s pretty freaky when you think about it. 

Though I am not afraid I did take precautions. I lit my Palo Santo and told that thing, whatever it is, that it was very rude for doing that and was not welcome to ever come back.

I was using one of those ghost hunting apps as I did my cleansing. It was one of those ovilus communicators that spits out random phrases and words. I was mostly just curious if anything relevant would actually pop up. 

The very first thing that popped up was, “watching you.”

“Yeah, I know you’ve been watching me. You need to stop!” I replied to it. 

It tried to tell me it was “from here.”

“I don’t care where you’re from.” I talked back, “You need to leave if you’re going to act like that!”

Then it was asking, “Why is she here?”

I was moving the smoke of the palo Santo all around the front doorway. As I got to the bottom, the ovilus said, “lower.”

It seemed like some helpful spirit guide had showed up to guide me. Maybe that’s the she the other spirit was referring to. 

“When did it happen?” and “light” were the next things to come out. I was indeed visualizing a bright light protecting my space.

The more evil spirit seemed to return after that and got defensive. “Leave me alone” it said, “you won’t understand.”

As I ended my cleansing, the last word to come through was “guide” and “absolutely”.

Maybe those words meant nothing, but I think it’s worth noting. 

I also started sleeping with a few different kinds of crystals that are said to help protect you in your sleep and from negative energies. So far I haven’t experienced anything like that again. 

However, just a couple of nights ago, I woke up from a creepy dream that took place in the room and I felt like there was something in there again. I decided to stay awake for a while because I did not want to be vulnerable to slipping or being forced back into that sleep paralysis state. 

I do cleansings about once a week now just to keep things at bay.

So if you made it this far, I’d like to get your opinion. Have you ever had an experience similar to this? What did you see, if anything? What did if feel like? And most of all, what do you think these types of creatures are? 

– Tabitha

Feel free to comment down below. You can also send your paranormal stories to TheWeirdestProject@gmail.com

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