this post was submitted on 30 May 2025
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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

That’s actually not an uncommon experience when you have sleep paralysis. Normally when you sleep your body paralyzes itself so you don’t hurt yourself when you’re unconscious. The paralysis ends when you wake up but sometimes you can partway regain consciousness while the paralysis is still in effect. And for some fucking reason when that happens we tend to hallucinate a tall dark figure leaning over us. A “sleep paralysis demon”. So between being asleep, paralyzed awake, and awake, plus the dream/hallucination it feels very real.

I’ve had it once or twice and the last time I remember it the figure would raise a fist over his head and bring it down onto my chest, but stop just short of actually hitting me. He did it a few times seemingly testing the effectiveness of my paralysis. Then I woke up. It was utterly terrifying. Back then I would set my clothes and shoes out for the next day on a chair next to my bed. I noticed the next morning the shoes had been kicked over towards the bed like some had been standing next to it. But I couldn’t remember exactly how they were set out the night before… still creeped me the fuck out for a while.