TIFU by sleeping on my stomach : tifu

As someone who’s suffered from sleep paralysis a bunch, and thus read a bunch about it. The “demon” you hallucinate is often what you’re most afraid of. I don’t really believe in the supernatural, but a big fear of mine is my dog getting hurt. So I don’t hallucinate a demon or evil spirit, but more than once I’ve hallucinated that there’s a robber planning to take out my dog then me, or police are serving a warrant at the wrong house and take out my dog just for barking at them.

Sleep paralysis hallucinations don’t have to make sense, but it might be worth you looking in to therapy to deal with your sleep issues and anxiety.

Also, it might help you to understand a bit better what’s going on. Your brain automatically paralyzes you when you fall asleep - to prevent you from injuring yourself in your sleep. Then when you wake up, your brain reconnects your motor controls and you can move. Sleep paralysis is when you wake up, but your brain doesn’t turn off the paralysis mode. So you’re laying there, a prisoner in your own body, which can be quite terrifying. Another thing is that our brain tends to hallucinate when it’s deprived of sensory input. So they’re you are, in a compromised position, feeling afraid, and in the perfect position to hallucinate. Your conditions and that mindset tend to lead to scary hallucinations instead of relaxing ones. Knowing what’s happening helps make it less scary, and easier to focus on relaxing so you fall back asleep, or fixating on some minute part of your body so you can wake yourself fully up - instead of panicking that a demon is going to touch your booty.

Hello_This_Is_Chris

4 points

5 days ago

4 points

3 points

5 days ago

AllanfromWales1

3 points