I watched this documentary called the Nightmare during the weekend. The film was about people talking about their experience with sleep paralysis. When somebody is in a sleep paralysis the person can’t move their body, they try really hard to move but just can’t. It is a terrifying thing to go through you can see terrifying black figures voices everyone has a different experience. Truthfully the film got me a little paranoid to sleep because I felt that I was going to become temporarily paralyzed in my sleep that night. There was a story with one of the people that his girlfriend had sleep paralysis, that same night it was his first experience having and episode with sleep paralysis. This was frightening to me because how when the girlfriend told him about it he then had it as well. Was it because he then started to think about it too much and researched about it that it brought out this interest in his mind then it happened or was it bound to happen? Some of the “dreams” they would have are so intense it felt like the dark shadows are touching them and hurting them. A girl had a episode where it started out with a noise. A loud noise that sounded like “spirits or demons screaming at you” then she could sense a presence standing over here as she played in her bed. Again she felt the really sound noise it felt as though it was right in her ear. She could sense that what the figure was wearing was red. “Every centimeter of her body feels like a ton” this means to me that you can’t move at all like as if there were a bunch of bricks on you. She tried to look at the face “trying to move and I want to see it and I am straining to look up, I could barely move my head.” She had gotten rid of the presence by saying Jesus a multiple times she said it felt like a “victory”. For other people it’s not that easy to get out of their sleep paralysis. To some people it can feel like their in their episode for hours but it would actually only be for 2 mins.
Thank you for making me aware of this documentary. The sleep paralysis phenomenon has become of interest to me ever since I experienced it for myself this past summer. Immediately after reading your post I had gone over to YouTube to watch the trailer. I’ve never seen a documentary film of this kind, a horror documentary, how interesting.
To my relief, I must say, my sleep paralysis experience wasn’t as intense as the subjects of “The Nightmare” describe theirs. I didn’t see anything funny (probably because I kept my eyes shut during the whole episode); I didn’t hear any whispers but, equally frightening, I heard a stentorian noise in my ears, ringing, a vibration of a sort, like I was sleeping under a church clock tower bell; I also didn’t feel like there was a presence beside me, at least not exactly: my entire bed began to shake as if a major earthquake hit, my blanket started to flap like a kite on a windy day, and 100 fans were blowing in my face. Or so it seemed. It lasted a few seconds, and then, poof!
I am curious about this genre of documentary film. From what I can tell from the trailer, it is essentially a horror film, too. Obviously, the film is full of reenactments to recreate the subjects’ experiences, which makes the film entertaining by adding these fictional elements. How would the film look like, for example, if it only consisted of interviews with the subjects ( not to say the accounts they give wouldn’t be scary)? It likely would not turn out as compelling, which is probably why these kinds of documentaries usually contain these fictional, acted scenes.
Thanks again for bringing this film to light. It is a noteworthy documentary exploring a remarkable psychological phenomenon that is, for some odd reason, disregarded by the medical community.
I love the topic of this documentary because I have had first hand experiences of sleep paralysis. It is a truly horrifying experience, especially when you have them every night. Sometimes you feel so tired and wish you could fall asleep but you’re terrified of closing your eyes because you know what’s coming. I actually made a visit to my doctor because of this issue and he assured me everything was fine and that my schedule was so busy and had to make time to relax. That helped. Apparently, the reason sleep paralysis happens is because when you’re extremely exhausted and close your eyes, your brain is awake but your body is asleep, therefore, your brain becomes over active and you start seeing things. I was re-assured that it’s not a psychological problem, just a matter of being aware of the amount of energy your using daily.
A friend of mine also told me a story about his mothers theory on why people get sleep paralysis: when you lay on your back it’s an invitation for the devil to sit on your chest, hence why you can’t breathe during those episodes.
I’m sure this is not a reason but once I stopped sleeping on my back my episodes stopped.
This was a great documentary topic and I look forward to watching it later on.