# Sleep and Dreams > General Dream Discussion >  >  Why such an evil during SP?

## stasik50

When you are having a sleep paralysis, why is there always an "evil presence" - an old hag, a demon, or some other evil being. Why during an SP, you never have good things happen to you?

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## hellohihello

You might get some better help elsewhere in the forum, but here it goes.

Sleep Paralysis is when you exit sleep and are stuck, Rem Atonia is the natural process of your body shutting down so you do not act out in Dreams.
Since you are awake during this process, our body hallucinates as it can't move. It struggles to find out what's wrong, why can't it move ETC. This is where the imagination sets in. Oh no! Aliens! They have pinned me down. Demons! They must be attacking! I know they are, I can't move!. 

I never get the scary stuff, thankfully. I once got an evil laughter coming from afar, normally my ear just beeps.

This is just me though, there could be something deeper then this but I doubt it.

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## Chewnie91

Ya its mostly just hallucinations and whatnot =P then again there is the talk of the "night stalkers" or the evil beings that walk around on the border of reality and sleep and intervien with people's sleep.

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## panta-rei

Being paralyzed is frightening... Is it too much of a jump to say since you are unnerved, you think up things even more frightening?

For instance, say you are in a dark, creeky basement. An unsettling place. If your imagination is quite active, you can dredge up some frightening thoughts.

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## Catbus

> Is it too much of a jump to say since you are unnerved, you think up things even more frightening?



Definitely not. I know that during sleep paralysis nothing bad will happen to me, but that doesn't stop it from being hella scary from time to time.

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## The Cusp

> Sleep Paralysis is when you exit sleep and are stuck, Rem Atonia is the natural process of your body shutting down so you do not act out in Dreams.
> Since you are awake during this process, our body hallucinates as it can't move. It struggles to find out what's wrong, why can't it move ETC. This is where the imagination sets in. Oh no! Aliens! They have pinned me down. Demons! They must be attacking! I know they are, I can't move!.



What he said.  I like to call it Desperate Rationalization.  The mind needs to find a reason.  If you're going to blame it on an external source, anything that prevents you from moving just can't have good intentions, so you perceive it as evil.

Of course that doesn't explain the evil presences in my room when I wake up and don't have SP...

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## killguta

From my one and only SP I can tell that it's not that much of a scary experience, I would even call it fun ^_^. I just heard a *BEEP* noise and got a little spooked that I was paralyzed. The fun thing was the feeling when you would want to move, but your hands would "bounce" back to to your "body". If you ever encounter an "evil" "being" in a SP just try to act neutral against it, like it's not even there. Also you should repeat "It's just my mind pulling tricks on me" and don't get scared. It's a thing that happens every night, just that you aren't awake when it does  :smiley:  . It's *NOT* scary if you want it to *not* _BE_ scary!

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## Mawds

Yeh basically you're naturally frightened when you wake up in a dark room and can't move... this then manifests in your mind with the connection of fear that you are already feeling... also your mind is in a state that can hallucinate which is a bad combination lol.

The best thing to do is close your eyes, take deep breaths and remember that you're only having SP, somtimes when I do this I tend to drift off to sleep and if your lucky you'll have a Lucid dream!!

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## dreaman

I also heard that a being in your room would just stand there, in your room. They say he is there so you won't be able to cross the "bridge" or the "otherside". So he is kinda like a guardian. ::banana::

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## Saturnine

I also experience that "evil" presence during sleep paralysis...which is why I DREAD having an episode.

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## BigFan

> I also heard that a being in your room would just stand there, in your room. They say he is there so you won't be able to cross the "bridge" or the "otherside". So he is kinda like a guardian.







> I also experience that "evil" presence during sleep paralysis...which is why I DREAD having an episode.



Guys, think about it for a sec. If you are scared during SP, your hallucinations will work on your expectations, so, if you still believe that it's some evil demon, alien, etc.... then you'll likely hallucinate it. I've never had a full SP before, but, I know for a fact that when I do, I'll keep repeating to myself that its only SP and there is nothing to be scared of  :smiley:

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## Souperman22

In my one incident that seemed like SP or at least close, I didn't hear/feel any demon/alien/etc. I just heard footsteps, whispers, and someone opening a coke can. I suppose I might not have gone deep enough in.

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## Pelvis

Don't feel too safe tho during a paralysis...real abducting aliens exist...

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## BigFan

> Don't feel too safe tho during a paralysis...*real abducting aliens* exist...



lol at bolded part, evidence?  :tongue2:

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## no-Name

> lol at bolded part, evidence?



Stay on topic...




> When you are having a sleep paralysis, why is there always an "evil presence" - an old hag, a demon, or some other evil being. Why during an SP, you never have good things happen to you?



I say, because we have imaginations, they spin verything quickly out of control.
I imagine my brains logic to be quick to jump to conclusion, as such "I hear a noise, must be a voice! A voice from a monster! A demon from hell here to take my soul!  ::shock:: " 
While very much a dramatization, it's an example.

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## BigFan

> Stay on topic...



umm, I didn't really go off topic, because, some people due believe that something happens to them during SP and its not the mind playing tricks  ::D:

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## Advantageous Noodle

> *From my one and only SP I can tell that it's not that much of a scary experience, I would even call it fun ^_^.* I just heard a *BEEP* noise and got a little spooked that I was paralyzed. The fun thing was the feeling when you would want to move, but your hands would "bounce" back to to your "body". If you ever encounter an "evil" "being" in a SP just try to act neutral against it, like it's not even there. Also you should repeat "It's just my mind pulling tricks on me" and don't get scared. It's a thing that happens every night, just that you aren't awake when it does  . It's *NOT* scary if you want it to *not* _BE_ scary!



Since it's only occurred for you once, you wouldn't really know all that much about it, would you? Be careful judging your one and only experience to be rule, as you may find a nasty surprise next time. But you are still right about the bouncy thing. It feels really cool.

Regular sleep paralysis for me is not _that_ scary yet. It's just a feeling of not being able to move anything and when I struggle there is a huge vibration in my head, like a dozen cell phones vibrating in my brain.

However what I like to call "Dream paralysis" is what I find terrifying. It's a combination of false awakening with lucid dream with being in sleep paralysis. That NEVER ends well.

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## Yume.no.ato

Im not sure. 

Honestly even though I always know that I'm just in sleep paralysis, 
(Because I have a chronic SP problem that only got worse since I started practicing LDing -_-) It still gives me bad hallucinations sometimes. 

In fact, the hallucinations only started after I started trying to practice LD. 
I used to get SP all the time by accident, and the only hallucination would be I'd find it harder to breathe, and honestly that's probably cause my face was in the pillow and I couldn't move it. I'd get it sometimes like twice a night, it was ridiculous. Now after learning about LD, I get it like 3~4 times and its insanely frequent unless I just smoked a doob or something. And the hallucinations are more terrifying. Annnd the majority of this happens when I'm not trying to LD at all. 

For instance, last time I hallucinated a bunch of demonic voices were yelling in my ear, like 5 of 'em. At the same time, someone was snaking their hand around my waist like they were trying to hug me and I pretty much shit ten bricks. Even though I know 100% that its a hallucination, it bugs me anyway. I'm getting better at changing the hallucination but sometimes I don have the mental strength to because I'm too busy trying to free my body ;_; 


I hate SP.

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## stasik50

Thanks for all your replies, they were all helpful  :smiley:

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## Hullaballoo

I've had a couple of SP only so I'm not an expert (although I used to have a recurring nightmare that shared a lot of characteristics with what you people are describing). The first time, my eyes were open and I hallucinated that I was lying at the bottom of the sea (as if my room had sunk) by a treasure chest and there were little fish swimming by. I remember thinking, "this is pretty awesome" and wanting to reach out but being paralized then went back to sleep. The second time was being in complete darkness and feeling something was alive in the room and being a bit worried. 

Honestly, I hope that's as bad as it will ever get  :smiley:

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## Seachmall

> Of course that doesn't explain the evil presences in my room when I wake up and don't have SP...



They call it a "wife", scary things :Eek: 

OT,
I don't think threads like these help, people read them and expect to hear evil beings as a result (I found that a problem with controlling LDs too, I was expecting things to be difficult and thus they were). Maybe we should start an initiative to inform those new to LDing that during SP they will experience the moans of sexy women! It'd make the process a whole lot more fun ::lol::

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## Mawds

It seems that my SP cycle has come round again, over the past few days I've had various false awakenings and very low form LD's... the other night I had a pretty horrible SP.

I was falling into SP and I heard a noise like a fly was in the room buzzing round my head and as it landed on my chest the noise changed to a very high pitched drome (the usual noise) As this noise changed i felt and thought to myself that it was like an alien tracker had locked onto me and now had me under paralysis which got my heart racing more than ever!

I tryed to calm myself and use the roll out technique to get out of my body.. I was then standing next to my leather chair in my room (dreaming), the room was still dark but there was a light in the centre of my vision, I then looked at myself in bed and once again there was a central light.. I then realised that this light was because my eyes where open in bed and the moon light comming thru the window was actually what i was seeing.

I kept drifting into/hallucintaing images of various things but no propper LD, this SP felt like it lasted nearly 30 mins and I kept mysellf up till nearly 6 oclock in the morning watching flims because I was scared to go back to bed!!

I also admit.. I HATE SP!!

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## Arutad

SP being always scary is a gross exaggeration.

I am a living proof of that, and I mean a real proof. Certainly had SPs that weren't in the least scary. Especially back in time when I didn't know how they're called and that they're supposed to be scary. I was paralyzed, worried over inability to move and desperately trying to do it, but not scared. Sometimes during such occurences I felt great pressure that others describe as "an old hag", but was not scared of it. I can swear that to you sincerely.

Truth is, if you get scared once, you associate this fear with similar experiences and drag it into them automatically. No matter how psychologically contrived it sounds, it's the only explanation why I personally started to have scary SPs only after I became scared once, and had no scary ones prior to that. For me that's proof, no matter what people say about SP being "chemically" scary, hinting that it's inevitable. People who say this either never experienced it, or got scared the first time and then never had non-scary SPs.

The only other possibility is that it's me who's wrong here, it's possible if I confuse SP with something else. I tend to have "astral projections", and maybe, just maybe I'm wrong about where SP starts\ends and "astral-starting" sensations. But I doubt it, because of having felt "pressure", visions, a freezing sensation, and all such things that are associated with SP. Besides, SP mostly happens after the LD gets ended, and astral-starting sensations mostly happen before.

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## rockit2themoon

> However what I like to call "Dream paralysis" is what I find terrifying. It's a combination of false awakening with lucid dream with being in sleep paralysis. That NEVER ends well.



Ugh, I second this!   My worse SP experiences were like this, and it honestly made me question what was real and what wasn't.  I haven't had one in awhile now and I try to avoid discussing it in case it happens.....erg.

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## Arutad

> I try to avoid discussing it in case it happens



But you just did  :tongue2:

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## andrei

If you are sure that Demons are just an imagination of your brain then put some solt under your pillow and your brain will be sure that it is protected from demons. Try to trick your brain too if it trys to trick you.

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## Mzzkc

> If you are sure that Demons are just an imagination of your brain then put some solt under your pillow and your brain will be sure that it is protected from demons. Try to trick your brain too if it trys to trick you.



I don't think it works that way. . .

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## ttsky

so every one seems to experience this? any one knows why this happens? 

 usually when i get SP i just close my eyes and breath till i fall asleep again. but worst SP i panicked, i had a really funny hallucination of a friend;s face hanging in mid air in my room at first, so i kept looking at it but then i felt some thing touching me on my shoulder, my bed sheet was moving, and some white thing came into my room i try to scream and it came near me and put his hand around my throat  ::shock::  i woke up at that moment  thankfully  :Sad:

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## Saturnine

I saw zombies crowding around me once...I about 7 years old, and had a fever. They were just lookin at me though...didn't try to eat me *I dont' think* lol

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## forsakendreams

I've only experienced an SP once in my life over 2 decades ago and I think and it was the most interesting hallucination I ever had. I think I was about 11 or 12 and I had just fallen asleep after reading some fantasy novel that had a bunch of undead horses on the cover art. 

Well, I somehow woke up to find myself paralyzed in bed, but in the hallucination/dream I was sort of buried in these open graves in about 4 feet of water. It was nighttime in my dream and I could clearly see am army of undead horses with skeletal soldiers galloping over my little plot of grave. I could see my bedroom ceiling and walls through my hallucinated images and when I realized I could breath fine in my underwater grave I knew I was having some sort of strange dream. To my side I could glimpse my brother sleeping in his bed on the other side of the room. I think I may have tried to call out to him, but of course I couldn't. 

Interestingly I wasn't scared, didn't feel any "evil presences" (I didn't find the undead horses evil, they were actually pretty cool I thought, especially since they somehow managed to not fall into any of the many open graves underwater), no weights, etc. Just the odd sensation of not being able to move and breathing underwater. I think I could also hear my parents speaking in the other room but I remember thinking it must have been an auditory hallucination or something since they should have been in bed. 

The whole thing maybe lasted 5 minutes or longer and I think my family were also lying in other open graves around me but i couldn't move to see them. 

In the end I fell back asleep and woke up the next day thinking it was the most interesting and cool experience. This was years before I discovered lucid dreaming books at the library, or knew what sleep paralysis was. I still find SP a fascinating phenomenon, but unfortunately I haven't really experienced anything like what I did as a kid again.

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## Over9001

Actually I've had a non-evil SP.  I was lying there and I saw a boat floating across my wall, my wall is white and I saw the boat make ripples.  It wasn't scary at all.  I've also seen grey aliens standing at my side and large heads screaming at me.  These used to scare me as a kid, but now that I know what they are I just tell myself its nothing to worry or be scared about and they go away.

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## Arutad

> Actually I've had a non-evil SP.  I was lying there and I saw a boat floating across my wall, my wall is white and I saw the boat make ripples.  It wasn't scary at all.



Did you feel paralyzed at that moment?





> I've also seen grey aliens standing at my side and large heads screaming at me.



Ouch!  ::D:

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## Over9001

@Arutad

Yes to the question about the boat.  I've been having sleep paralysis since I was about 4 or 5.  I can remember my first one my eyes were open and I looked at my mom across the room on another bed, somehow I had a toy or something I think in my hands and I managed to move my hands.  I threw (more like shotput) the toy up and it landed on my moms face.  She thought I did it on purpose and hit me for it.

As for the aliens it happened only once.  I was like 13.  There were two of them.  It was day time I think and it scared me very much.  The screaming heads were often from when I was like 7 till 10 or so.  After a while I taught myself not to be scared and just let them scream all they want.  It eventually went away.

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## mjstopgun

well, on the question of why often times there is great fear associated with SP, this is what i've been able to gather from various sources. 
When we are falling asleep, the fear center of our brains is particularly active (this makes sense, since when we are sleeping- and especially when we are in SP- we are particularly vulnerable to outside threats). During SP, it is common for HI to start, so our minds are getting sensory data from the real world and the dream world. Our mind doesn't really know what to make of everything, so it invents something. Also, there is a tendency for the human mind to experience Pareidolia, which is a psycological phenomena where the mind attempts to take random sensory data and form a familar pattern out of it. This explains why we can see shapes in clouds or hear voices in white noise, its just our brains trying to make patterns out of random stimuli. This could be why many of the HI you experience is attributed to ghosts or demons. 
Anyways, I hope that this helps!

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## Over9001

I was about 4 when I had eye surgery to correct my crossed eyes I had.  Afterward they had to seal my eyes shut for some days I think though I managed to open them before I should've.  I'm wondering if having surgery at such a young age played a part in this.

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## Arutad

> @Arutad
> 
> Yes to the question about the boat.  I've been having sleep paralysis since I was about 4 or 5.  I can remember my first one my eyes were open and I looked at my mom across the room on another bed, somehow I had a toy or something I think in my hands and I managed to move my hands.  I threw (more like shotput) the toy up and it landed on my moms face.  She thought I did it on purpose and hit me for it.



This is very strange that you managed to move your hands during SP.

Maybe it was not SP then. I can report moving my body during SP, too, but I'm still unsure that it was SP. Or maybe I dreamed about having moved it, there was nobody to check.

In your case, did you mom remember that you threw a toy at her face, after the experience? She ever mentioned it after that? Forgive my doubts, but usually it's considered to be impossible to move during SP, only eyes and lungs are supposed to be able to move as far as I know.





> As for the aliens it happened only once.  I was like 13.  There were two of them.  It was day time I think and it scared me very much.  The screaming heads were often from when I was like 7 till 10 or so.  After a while I taught myself not to be scared and just let them scream all they want.  It eventually went away.



You could start writing horror books  ::shock::

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## Over9001

@Arutad

I just asked her and she doesn't remember.  I'm not sure what it was, but I couldn't move my body until I eventually forced myself to do so.  I remember just lying on the bed unable to move, but I was looking at my mom and she said something I don't remember.  I think I forced myself out of it and ended up throwing a toy at her face unintentionally.  This happened all the time when I was just a kid.  My eyes would be open with no dreaming, but I couldn't move so I would tell myself to move my hands or feet.  This sometimes took several minutes.  It was easier to move my feet than my hands, but once I moved them I would exit the paralysis.  Other times, but fewer I would have this happen with dreams mostly the screaming heads.  They would make the loudest roars ever.

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## Arutad

Thanx for actually asking her if she remembers, I like such a serious attitude!  :smiley:  Unfortunately, if it happened in your childhood, then she might as well forgotten that, and it doesn't mean that it never happened.





> My eyes would be open with no dreaming, but I couldn't move so I would tell myself to move my hands or feet.  This sometimes took several minutes.  It was easier to move my feet than my hands, but once I moved them I would exit the paralysis.



Exactly what used to happen to me... I could move my hands, trying desperately to exit that state, and would eventually succeed. No fear during such states too, only puzzlement why I can't move normally and attempts to sit up on the bed.

But technically you aren't supposed to move so much during SP. And you're supposed to fear!

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## JamesLD

youve got to realize its all in your head and none of these things will actually hurt you.
you have nothing to fear but fear itself.

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