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Got a good ghost story for you guys. Although I fully understand none of it was even close to being real, this still scares me when I think about it.
So I just had my first sleep paralysis experience today and I gotta say, it was the scariest, worst experience in my life. Hope you enjoy the read

So I awoke from a dream, started to open my eyes, but something was wrong. It didn't feel like a dream but it didn't feel real either. I couldn't move, couldn't turn shuffle or anything and from the corner of my eye, I saw something staring out of my window. I thought it was my mum or dad for some strange reason as I thought it was really wierd that they were just staring out my window and so called them but there was no response at all. THEN I really freaked out, I noticed the figure was extremley tall with very long arms and if any of you know this monster, the slenderman, basically it was him and when I called his name, it laughed. My heart was starting to race and I couldn't turn my head to look at him fully. I couldnt move. Then, it was starting to teleport closer and closer to my bed, until it was sitting at the edge of my bed, his very long arms were near my legs. I was trying to call my parents but couldn't speak properly, it was like a gasp.

Damn I was shaking just writing this. Scariest moment of my life. When I broke out of it, it turned out to be that the way the curtain was shaped (by the window) just caused my mind to play tricks on me. Could not go back to sleep.

Anyone else had this experience

Damn, I have to admit, that sounds scary. I can relate a bit, because my worst nightmare - or probably part-sleep-paralysis - was a bit similar.

It started with some pretty creepy stuff - I was in my garden, and there were hollow voices coming from a pipe stuck in the ground that shouldn't be there. When I looked in, evil laughter came back. I was taking a few steps back and I realized SOMETHING was coming at me, though it wasn't visible in any normal sense, just...a haze, or smoke that formed a certain shape. I didn't want to run from my own backyard, so I took a blanket from the chairs next to me and threw it on my smoky assailant..the blanket held up in mid-air, as if there really was a physical thing beneath it. I started throwing punches at it, but got no reaction but more hollow laughter.

At that point, I decided I had enough and ran away. I wanted to get away from this thing, but my mom was still in her room in our house, upstairs! I knew I had to get her out, otherwise the shadow-thing might get her. So I raced to our house, ran up the stairs and into her room...

...and then stuff got really freaky. In her bed, there she was...but it wasn't her. Out of the corner of the eye, it looked a bit like her, but I instantly knew it was the shadow-thing, just in a different shape. I was frozen in the doorway, I couldn't get out, something was keeping me there, assaulting my mind, my vision got dimmer and dimmer...and at that point I realized that in the REAL world I was in my bed, because, subconsciously I must've tried to open my eyes with all my willpower. I got them open for a tiny glimpse of the real world, before I was pulled back into this "dream", where I KNEW the shadow-thing would rob me of my free will and sanity. At this point I was actively trying to wake up, get my eyes open, anything, but I couldn't - I was trapped in this nightmarish otherworld, that didn't really seem like a dream anymore, because it was so malevolent.

In the end, with a LOT of willpower, I got my eyes open. The worst thing, though...I was scared that this was another trap and that this was still not the real world, just another dream. So I had to check...I knew my mother was on vacation, so her room should be empty. However, I was still SO freaked out that I only dared to check her room with a knife and a hatchet in my hands, and even then my heart was pounding.

After that, I couldn't bear being in my own house, I just ran out the front door, knife still in hand, and had to walk around the neighborhood for a good half hour before I was convinced that I was awake and in the real world. That was really fethed up stuff.

Still got a B on my engineering exam later that day, though.

dayum that seems horrible, never been brought back into a nightmare, I always stay awake for a bit before going back to sleep for said reasons. Hehe I felt the terror start when I realised my parents had gone to work and so couldn't be them at my window. It felt wierd when I tried to call for them when I kind of knew they were not there. Actually I am glad I thought my parents were still in the house, knowing I was alone would have made things worse

Ah crap, you said his name...

You're in for it now conker, best outcome is that he wants you for proxy not for sustenance...



Nah, I get sleep paralysis from time to time, been plagued with downright warped and disturbing dreams since I was about 6 (not that there has ever been a traumatic event in my life, just my grip on reality is tenuous at best so it's bound to affect my dream-state). Worst was a couple of days after watching 'the fourth kind' (which I thought was a pretty good movie). Woke up during a bad dream and no word of a lie I was wide awake, watching the bedroom door open as a 'grey' alien about 6 feet tall started walking into the room, while completely paralysed the whole time.

My advice (which works for me anyway, but YMMV) is if it happens again, make a determined and concious effort to move a single limb like one arm or leg, or even just turn your head to one side. Focus on that and entirely on that, it will be quite scary but once you get the limb to move it tends to break the dream-state, it won't help much with the scary side of things, but it might snap you out of it faster.

I've had sleep paralysis, although not in many years. IIRC, it tends to be more common in people in their late teens or early 20s, and that's when I experienced it.

The first experience was scary. I even saw the dark shape that some people see during an episode. After that I learned what it was and it became much less so. Personally, I thought the episodes passed more quickly if I just relaxed and stopped trying to move. Also, try to get regular sleep. The more messed up your sleep patterns are, the more likely you are to have an episode.

I dunno if you remember the old Night Hag D&D monster, but that came from folklore that was based on the whole sleep paralysis experience.

I will try moving a limb next time lol, hopefully it wont happen again, or atleast for a while. I was too busy concentrating on getting a good look at the shadow man

I am 18 so that may be partly the reason I had it then, also it was from a quick nap after I was awoke by my parents leaving for work (checked the time after the episode and it had only been 1/2 hour), you know when you are so tired you just fall back asleep instantly, plus I was lying on my back so I probably just had a bad nap

I had this once: it felt like someone was sitting on my back and I couldn't move, not nice at all.

It is a reasonable theory for explaining many alien visit/abduction claims. I can understand how real it would seem to the person experiencing it, and if someone was particularly concerned about receiving a visit from the little grey fellas in the night then I imagine it could be rather unpleasant for them.