Sleep Paralysis: The Fear Between Wakefulness and Sleep

Sleep paralysis is a phenomenon that many people experience at least once in their lives. It occurs when your body temporarily paralyzes its muscles a normal part of the dream state while your mind is already conscious.

This in-between state can be terrifying. You may find yourself unable to move or speak, feeling pressure on your chest, or seeing shadowy figures in your room. Some people describe this as an attack by an entity a feeling that something is sitting on them or threatening them.

From a physical view, it’s a kind of “disconnect” your body is asleep, but your mind has woken up. But from a spiritual view, many interpret these episodes as a thinning of the barrier between the physical and the spiritual worlds. It can be a moment when you become more perceptive, more sensitive to presences normally hidden from view.

How you respond to sleep paralysis depends a lot on your beliefs. If you fear it, you may suffer more. If you learn to stay calm and view it as a temporary state a kind of doorway it can become a powerful opportunity to conquer fear, become more self-aware, or connect to your soul’s ability to navigate different dimensions of consciousness.

I have always, from when I can remember, had sleep paralysis. At least from the age of 7. My youngest memory of it was me laying on the bed, hearing the water in the bathroom running as my mom was taking a shower. I felt the bed shaking and in my mind’s eye I saw a black crow under the bed. After that I frequently started having more and more moments like this.

Sleep paralysis occurs during the transition between REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep and wakefulness.

How it Happens:

• During REM, the body enters atonia, a temporary paralysis of voluntary muscles.

• A small dysfunction in this process, when your conscious mind wakes up while your body is still in atonia, results in sleep paralysis.

• The person finds they can't move their body or speak, although their breath and eyes remain under their control.

Other Symptoms:

• ‘Hypnagogic or Hypnopompic Hallucinations’: People may see shadow figures, feel a threatening presence, or hear strange noises.

• Pressure Sensations: Some report a feeling of pressure on their chest

• Fear and Helplessness: Naturally, this experience can produce a high level of fear and panic.

Prevalence:
Studies suggest that up to 40% of people experience it at least once in their lives, and about 5% suffer from it repeatedly.
It’s more likely when a person is sleep deprived, stressed, has irregular sleep patterns, or naps on their back.

Some people those who are more spiritually sensitive or “open” are said to experience sleep paralysis more frequently.

This includes:

1. Mediums and Mystics:
Individuals who naturally operate between worlds; mediums, shamans, or people with strong psychic ability; often report frequent episodes of sleep paralysis, seeing it as a side effects of their ability to connect with the spirit realm.

2. People Undergoing Spiritual Awakening:
Those experiencing a “dark night of the soul”, a powerful transformation, or a shift in consciousness may find their nights filled with paralysis and vivid encounters. It’s sometimes described as their soul straddling dimensions; not fully anchored in the physical, yet not entirely gone into the spiritual, which makes them more susceptible.

3. Trauma Survivors:
Some traditions say that people with open energetic fields due to trauma or abuse may become more vulnerable to attack by lower energies or entities during vulnerable states, such as the moment between wakefulness and sleep.

4. Spiritual Warriors or Intercessors:
Those called to a path of deep prayer, spiritual battle, or delivering messages, sometimes called “prayer warriors”may find themselves battling oppressive presences in their sleep, reflecting the struggles taking place on a soul level.

Sleep paralysis is far from a modern phenomenon; it's a universal human experience that has been documented across numerous cultures for millennia.

• Ancient Greece and Rome: Sleep paralysis was described by philosophers and doctors and often explained in supernatural terms, as an attack by a daemon or an incubus.

• Middle Ages in Europe: The phenomenon fell under the terminology of “nightmare” from “mære” a kind of mischievous spirit believed to sit upon the sleeper’s chest and cause a feeling of pressure and paralysis.

• Scandinavian Folklore: Legends speak of the “Mara”, a creature that rides the sleeper, causing this sensation.

• In Newfoundland, Canada: It’s called the “Old Hag”, reflecting a rich oral tradition tying the phenomenon to a witch-like entity.

• Other Cultures:

  • China: It's known as (gui ya shen) — “ghost pressing on the body.”

  • Japan: It’s called Kanashibari“bound by metal” reflecting a feeling of physical immobility.

  • Nigeria: Some communities view it as an attack by “the devil” or a “witch.”

  • Egypt: It's often described as a Jinn attack, a supernatural spirit sitting on the person’s chest.

Sleep paralysis can begin at various ages, but most commonly:

• It typically starts during adolescence or young adulthood, often between ages 14 and 25.

• This timing coincides with changes in sleep patterns during puberty and young adulthood, including shifts in REM sleep cycles.

• However, it can occur at any age, including in children and older adults, though it is less common in very young children.

• For some people, it may start after a triggering event such as stress, trauma, illness, or disrupted sleep.

• In rare cases, children as young as 5 or 6 have reported sleep paralysis, but it’s often underreported or misunderstood at younger ages.

During my teen years I remember being afraid to stay asleep after my mom would leave for work because I would hear my name being called by my aunt’s voice during paralysis, even though my aunt didn't live with us at that point. It absolutely terrified me. At times I felt a presence come over me and it seemed to whisper something I couldn’t understand. Other moments it felt as if an angel was next to me, completely protecting me from whatever presence was nearby. I would feel a moment of complete fear that then switched to a moment of peace and love in an instant.

I always tell the story of the time I went through a bad breakup at 21and filled myself with anger and for the first time I saw a man kneeling on the floor trying to reach out and touch me. He had salt and pepper hair, bronze skin, and glasses. The more he tried to reach me, the more it felt as if something repelled me away from him. I felt my soul move away. Other times I felt two energies were fighting over me. I felt the energies shuffling as if in a battle over my back as i slept on my stomach. I felt as if one was trying to fight the other off me. Another time I saw a black figure sitting next to my bed in the dark the light from the bathroom in the hallway illuminated his silhouette during the trance. I don’t remember feeling completely scared but it was as if he was observing me. Now dreams are completely different ballgame, I have had my share of those scary ones as well, but these were not dreams they were during sleep paralysis trance. I could hear the tv conversation or people talking in other rooms, but I couldn’t move anything except my fingers and toes and open my eyes slightly. I couldn’t yell only groan. On one occasion my mother was next to me when I was stuck in trance and she said said it was as if she was watching me have a stroke. I wouldn’t know.

I do know that she also had a sleep paralysis episode while I was having a nightmare,at the same time in 2013. I was simultaneously dreaming that a man with a Dali style beard whispered to me, ‘My mother was dead now’. I was awoken in panic from that dream by her groaning in the other room. When I ran in to see what was going on and got her out of the paralysis, she said she had seen a woman trying to come to apparently reach out to her or my eldest daughter sleeping on her chest who was 2 at the time. This was during the height of some severe witchcraft attacks that was being sent from my daughters’ father and his other woman in the Dominican Republic. Years later I would come to see the same woman she described when I started to do my 3am prayers in 2023, when I began to break a lot of the strongholds that were mounted against me throughout those years.

She persisted this elderly woman to try to make me light candles to rituals in dreams and told me I didn’t need to pray that much (She wanted me to go back to returning the witchcraft using witchcraft to have license over me, but I was not about that life any longer). Ofcourse, I all the more began to pray even harder. The point in all this is. Sleep Paralysis is the border before you can leave your body to travel the astral realm. I can not tell you how it works as I do not think we leave every single time we dream in the same way. Sometimes we dream and we forget everything upon waking; it’s messy and illogical. OBE and astral projections; those are different. They’re vivid, coherent, purposeful journeys outside the body. They stay with you in detail afterwards, marking you, letting you know you crossed a boundary you weren’t meant to cross casually.

It was only after I turned 23 and started meditating that I started interpreting what entities were trying to tell me in trance. The first thing I understood was I was mocked and asked, “Do you want us to take you here?” Something about the phrasing of the question didn’t sit well with me and I thought to myself, “Here where?” I definitely said NO. All of this keep in mind is done telepathically.

What I noticed was the entities that came when I started meditating didn't have a male or a feminine voice. They didn't seem human. I would come out of trance normally by calling on God for help and instantly it would stop. My cats would be staring from above my closet, watching me intently, and I wondered if they saw what I was experiencing, because they looked tense.

Afterwards, after my children were born, I had experiences of sleep paralysis but they weren’t scary. They either happened when deceased relatives came to see my newborns or, on the last occasion it happened, I heard several voices praying and as I looked with my mind’s eye on the white wall, runes appeared. I thought it was so strange, as it has nothing to do with my culture and I knew nothing about them and couldn’t read whatever they were trying to show me. I heard the voices praying for me.

I noticed the scary sleep paralysis episodes happened when I lived with my mother, reflecting the energy in the house around her. As I started meditating it was more of a mocking at first, at my realization that I was beginning to be able to comprehend and interpret them. Later on they became more like visitations, not mocking or negative but protective in nature.

From a spiritual perspective, sleep paralysis isn’t just a “sleep disorder” it’s a state of consciousness that straddles two worlds. It’s a moment when your soul is no longer fully anchored in your physical body, but it hasn’t completely crossed into the spirit realm either. It’s a kind of doorway, a liminal state, where the soul finds itself temporarily separate from ordinary physical senses and more perceptive to the nonphysical side of reality.

Some people say we naturally detach from our bodies during deep sleep it's a kind of soul journey but normally we’re unaware of it. Sleep paralysis occurs when we become conscious in the in-between, when we become aware of ourselves starting to lift, shift, or separate from our physical form.

This is where the presences come into play. Sometimes, this process isn’t entirely spontaneous; it can be influenced by nearby entities, whether angelic, neutral, or oppressive, who become interested in us when we’re vulnerable.These presences may be trying to communicate, attack, observe, or protect. That’s why you felt at different points a threatening energy or a loving, protective one. The presences you see and feel are not just figments of your imagination; they are interacting with your soul and pull you out of your dreams in between the two planes of existence.

This is s why your surroundings your physical environment and your state of mind affect what you experience and what your attract. If your home is filled with negativity, conflict, or heavy emotions, it will attract lower entities, but when you raise your own vibration through meditation, prayer, faith, or simply choosing peace over fear, the presences you encounter shift in nature.

There’s a deep, hidden reality that we come close to in these moments a world filled with presences, messages, battles, and protective forces.

The key piece that many people miss when they talk about this, is the power we have to resist and to break these attacks through prayer and calling on God, especially if it is causing you distress and fear. We are not powerless in these moments. We have a defender, a warrior, a refuge we can call upon, even when we’re paralyzed and vulnerable.

This is why we need to be vigilant in protecting ourselves and our children through prayer. The Bible tells us we wrestle “not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers...” (Ephesians 6:12). We need the power of God.

Before you lay your head down at night, take a moment to pray. Say something like: “Father, I commit myself into Your hands. Send Your holy angels to guard me and my children through the night. Let no attack come near me, in Jesus’ name.” Declare Scripture over your soul, promises of peace, refuge, and restful sleep and trust that God will be your defender.

The more we align ourselves with Him, the less foothold the powers of darkness have in our lives, whether we’re asleep or awake. Your vulnerability at rest isn’t meant to be a playground for the enemy; it’s meant to be a time of peace, renewal, and rest under the shadow of the Almighty.

So tonight, when you lie down, remember: you are not powerless. There is a powerful, loving God who wants to keep you, protect you, and bring you peace, even in your most vulnerable moments. Whatever you’re battling, you’re not alone. His peace is greater, His light is stronger, and His love is more powerful than any attack you may face.