Comments | celiaka: Never has this icon been more apt

celiaka

Never has this icon been more apt

Dec 10, 2007 06:39

My sleep pattern is more than a little screwed at the moment and I woke up about an hour ago and there appeared to be a girl standing right by my bed, who then aged into an old woman and hovered over me. I was frozen and couldn't move. She may have been trying to talk but there was a strange crackling noise in my ears that meant I couldn't hear. ( Read more... )

life stuff

Comments 26

andabusers December 10 2007, 07:42:44 UTC

oooooo. there's a specific phenomenon of seeing old women standing over you. can't remember what it's about exactly, but I seem to recall it's another one you get when you're having trouble breathing in the night. like that falling feeling.

celiaka December 10 2007, 08:17:09 UTC

Is it a mythic thing? Portents of doom perhaps?

burntcopper December 10 2007, 13:44:46 UTC

all tied up in the wonder that's sleep paralysis - your brain starts producing images and shapes out of the shadows. And due to the way the human brain is fixed, we start anthropomorphising and trying to see specific shapes where there are none - most often human-shaped and eyes and hands. It being a bit dark and misshapen and blurry = hunched old woman or little person.

andabusers December 10 2007, 21:09:06 UTC

Well, it was decided at some point that this woman was the same woman (rather than separate anthropomorphic hallucinations) and gave her a name (although I'd guess a different name for each culture). Some people have it so that she rides on their chest like a horse, which doesn't sound pleasant, so you're actually lucky in that respect. I vaguely remember her being equated to Baba Yaga (a Russian witch), but not totally convinced; in Polish it's Zmora. There was a documentary on TV about it a few years ago that I found fascinating. See this article.

Thread 7

narrauko December 10 2007, 09:08:56 UTC

It's sleep paralysis. And it is totally hideous and awful but on the plus side is unlikely to happen to you again. There're all sorts of stories about it but it isn't like seeing a grim or something. I'm fairly certain that her leaving is meant to be a positive thing showing your strength or something!

celiaka December 10 2007, 10:01:52 UTC

Still, I'm not entirely sure I want to sleep here tonight! Have you ever had an experience like it?

narrauko December 10 2007, 20:01:58 UTC

I've had it a couple of times. The first was by far the most scary as when i woke up I didn't know what had happened except that I felt like something genuinely evil had just tried to kill me. I didn't get it again for a long time afterwards and, while it was freaky when it was happening, afterwards it wasn't nearly as bad because I could rationalise it. When it happens tell yourself in your head to breathe through it and try really concentrating on that. Your brain will shut itself down and you wake up. You always do wake up.

henriksdal December 10 2007, 12:28:57 UTC

Incredible - are you not fascinated by awesomeness of human brain?

Meanwhile, and I've noticed this a lot on livejournals, why does ETA mean some sort of update and not Estimated Time of Arrival?

celiaka December 10 2007, 12:54:43 UTC

ETA= edited to add

henriksdal December 10 2007, 13:31:11 UTC

Ahhh.. that's totally not obvious.

burntcopper December 10 2007, 13:37:23 UTC

welcome to my childhood experiences.

I had sleep paralysis from as early as I can remember until mid-teens. Fucking scary, but unfortunately I was raised to believe in science and thus never thought to attribute it to alien abduction or to actually tell anyone.

celiaka December 10 2007, 23:09:58 UTC

You also actually stop breathing though, don't you?

burntcopper December 11 2007, 01:06:34 UTC

...apparently, according to Taz and Meg. (which combined with the fact that I don't normally move an inch if I sleep through... heh.) No-one ever used to mention the stopping breathing until I was in my twenties, so probably a much later development. (and considering me and my brother slept in same room as parents until I was four, I doubt I would've got away with not breathing) also talking in foreign languages, though considering most people say it's latin and most of these people have probably never spoken latin, I'm inclined to think it's probably glossolalia.

I thought I was completely awake during the sleep paralysis, though - always thought I was in my room, shadows/brightness going crazy, auditory hallucination/amplification, body feel going all over the place, the paralysis. Thought it was just me until I was watching a program that started on BBC2 after the thing I was watching ended and was going 'yawn. Boring' until they started describing the symptoms and I started going 'check. check. check.'

chatalaine December 11 2007, 00:40:29 UTC

Ah. Been there, experienced that. It hasn't happened to me for a long time (at least 2-3 years) but I remember it as being farking Scary. Paralysis, feeling that someone or something was in the room, unable to *wake up* and do something about it - all of that. Also, on at least one occasion, a feeling of "electricity' throughout my body that was uncomfortable, to say the least.

I did find that it didn't repeat on a regular basis, i.e. don't be afraid to go to sleep tonight. If it's going to repeat, it will be on a completely irregular basis. (From my experience, anyway).

P.S. I never stopped breathing. It's my understanding that if you do, your internal system (can't remember the proper scientific designation) will kick in and start you breathing again.