My Sleep Paralysis Experience

I don’t normally share super personal stuff on my blog, but today I’ve made an exemption. Let me share with you guys a frightening experience I encountered yesterday afternoon.

The weekend was quite a hectic one for me—Saturday, I had an important errand to run early in the morning before heading to fashion makeup class at 10am, then watching Kung Paano Ako Naging Leading Lady in the evening. I got home past 11pm, so come Sunday, after running more errands both for work and for the blog, and giving Booboo a bath, I decided to take a nap and catch up on sleep. This was around 2pm.

It was a deep and quiet sleep—the kind with no dreams. Subconsciously, I knew that Booboo was in the same room as me also sleeping. I even remember waking up a couple of times to check on him. I don’t remember at what point it started, but I suddenly had a blurry dream of locking all the doors and windows in our house, and closing the curtains—as if something was out to get me. And then the dream shifted to me sleeping exactly where I was, and it was at that point that I knew I was dreaming but I couldn’t wake up.

At first, I tried to move my arm but I couldn’t. I also noticed that I suddenly had a hard time breathing, as if something was sitting on my chest. My first instinct was to think that I was experiencing a bangungot, so I tried to fight it off by moving my fingers and toes. I don’t normally believe in these things, but I was desperate that time and I couldn’t think of anything else.

Image Credit: Wikipedia feat. The Nightmare Henry Fuseli

The moment I truly woke up was when I felt a light tapping on my fingers, and I’m pretty sure it was Booboo trying to lick me. I got so scared, I jolted up and fought any sleepy feeling I had because I didn’t want to go back to sleep. It was one of the scariest and most confusing experiences I’ve ever had, and I think what makes it extra frightening is how real it felt and how I still remember every detail.

The Cupcake assured me it was because I was tired, that’s why I experienced what is normally called sleep paralysis. I got curious and started reading more about it, and in a way, it made me feel better. It’s actually a very common condition, linked to lack of sleep, sleep schedule that changes, mental conditions such as stress or bipolar disorder, sleeping on the back, narcolepsy or nighttime leg cramps, use of certain medications such as those for ADHD, and substance abuse (Source: WebMD).

It makes a lot of sense, especially because I’ve been under a lot of stress lately and because I do lack sleep. A few of my friends reading this would probably tease me that it’s because I’m also bipolar. Haha! But anyway, I just wanted to share this story because I shouldn’t be scared of any evil beings or aliens after me. There’s a scientific and more sensible explanation behind it.

Have any of you ever experienced sleep paralysis? Share your stories in the comments!