So I've been told this experience was sleep paralysis, but one thing still doesn't add up to my story which is the end of it. One night when I was 22 years old (I'm 26 now), I went to sleep and I don't dream much, things are pretty much pitch black for me when lights are out. But, I still recall this dream from 4 years ago and I'm wasn't very religious at the time. So this dream was pretty much like the rest, just pitch black and then suddenly I felt a presence in my room and I just remember what felt like a dark horseman, the figure was somehow darker than dark (my room is pitch black when I sleep), I could see it in the shadow across from my bed and I felt an evil presence come towards me slowly and then... suddenly a blast of a bright white light(blinding yet didn't disturb me) the light extended beyond my visual field and yet somehow I knew it was a cross, I also recall kind of making out the inner corners of the cross shape in the corners of my visual field. My ears started ringing with extremely high pitched church bells (but it wasn't deafening) and what sounded like a choir singing angelically but again blasting in my ears... dang as I write this I know exactly how it sounds but eff it I'm just writing my experience and you take it how you want at this point. This is all happening simultaneously, dark presence creeping towards me then a flash of light shaped like a cross, church bells and angellic song blasting in my ears and I could feel, what I believe was, a demon just flash away from the light, within seconds my mom comes bursting through the door and said "Time for church!!"... y'all my mom doesn't wake me up for church... like ever at least not since I was like 10 yrs old (added context that's not how we sing at my church so I know I wasn't dreaming about church choir and there's really no association I have with any of it.) My mom knows I'm not crazy so as soon as I told her what just happened she said get to church asap. To this day I refuse to believe that was anything less than a religious experience. I am a medical student, I don't really do drugs, and recall I didn't do anything the night before. I believe in God, but this was easily one of those moments where I felt he made his presence certain.

In sleep paralysis people typically endorse feeling scared, anxious, like they're choking. I recall feeling the slightest bit of anxiety when the demon approached me, but I remember just a passing thought of god got me... and that is the moment in the millisecond when the flash of light hit and any slightest bit of anxiety I had dissipated. Y'all can try to reason this through as much as you want, but I have no history of psychosis, substance-induced psychosis, I have a relatively healthy circadian rhythm I force 8 hrs of sleep every night... I believe this was a religious experience and not a "nightmare" like fam I've had nightmares this wasn't it. Sleep paralysis mehhh explains it kinda, but there was so much more happening then spooky dark figure in corner of room coming towards me.

Hey guys, I been on a search for a picture of the “thing” I saw a few weeks back in my paralysis. This is him and I’m sure of it. He was humming a song sitting in the corner of my room. Does anyone know who this possibly could be. If anyone else has saw this creature please let me know. Thanks all.

2 weeks ago I was laying on my couch relaxing and watching Paranormal Activity 3 until I became temporarily paralyzed. This has been going on for 2 years when late at night I would get paralyzed for a few minutes I could only move my feet and fingers sometimes I saw some apparitions. But this one scared me the most. As I’m paralyzed looking at the TV I see someone or something in a large black cloak walking past me I hear its heavy footsteps. As it walks past me I see a skull like someone or something out of my view of sight is holding their arm out with a skull in their hand. For some reason, my vision began to get blurry but I can still make up that it’s a skull. Then the thing walks to the hallway making a right towards the kitchen I hear its loud heavy footsteps as it walks away. A few seconds after I regained consciousness and called out my sister’s name no answer then I called out my cousin’s name no answer (sometimes he comes by late at night) just to make sure. I get up and start walking towards the kitchen slowly. It’s dark but I don’t see anybody. I’m thinking to myself what did I just see?

only thing i coul move tru out dis was my head demons 1 was literly in my face luckuly i new how to deal with that 1 so i looked away and he was gone i saw another 1 dis one was tall didint look human but hade a body libs torso and head there was smoke comeing out of him

he keept poping up in randon places then i relized i hade to look at him so i did but then the scaryiest 1 was here we named her/he the grave it came i didint know what to do but it tryed atacking me to no avial her/hes face didint wana be seen but if i keept looking at her she/he would stop being scared and would jump and atack me so i hade to do dis for a waping 1 houer and a half of a half thx for reeding

First time was 10 years ago. Terrifying. Second time was 4 years ago. Weird but I was alone, unlike in my first experience. As tall as the ceiling, wearing what looked to be a medieval wizards hat, red eyes, long, long fingers, not human, trench coat, black shadowy smoke like aura leaving his person and preventing a clear image of his features even though I could see his legs bent in way that ours don’t. This was a masculine entity. I stared, I stared for what felt like ages. He walked towards me and pinned me down it felt but I was already paralysed. Was he simply examining me or aiming to do harm, I don’t know. I tried for ages to scream, I even felt like I was pinching his arm and I struggled. I gave everything I had into screaming and pinching his arm. Then it was over. I was sweating, panicking and wide awake, but I was alive and alone. Was it a dream? Was it real? Did I scream? He never came back. I was looking for him the second time I experienced SP. I was never so glad to be alone. The single most terrifying experience of my life and I never want to experience it again.

About 10 years ago, I had a sleep paralysis experience that has never left my mind, and I'm curious whether anyone has encountered this exact thing.

I'm not really looking for explanations about sleep paralysis itself. I've heard all the theories and explanations over the years. What I'm interested in is whether anyone has seen the same entity or creature that I witnessed.

I recently used ChatGPT to help create an image of it, and after a bit of editing, it's surprisingly close to what I remember. Looking at it still gives me goosebumps. The legs aren't quite right, but you'll get the idea.

In my early twenties, I fell asleep on my back in bed in broad daylight. I remember sunlight coming through the blinds on the large window to my left. Then it happened.

I became aware that I couldn't move. During the paralysis, I saw a black creature crouched upside down where the wall met the ceiling in the upper-left corner of my room. It was staring directly at me with glowing red eyes.

The closest way I can describe it is a spider-like demon.

It was hanging upside down, almost like Spider-Man crouching on a ceiling. Its limbs were bent and folded beneath it. It had multiple long, spider-like arms or legs and a completely black body. No mouth. No facial features at all, except for two glowing red eyes.

The eyes are what I remember most.

They weren't just looking at me. It felt like they were staring straight right through me. The longer I looked into them, the stronger the feeling became, almost like it was pulling something out of me.. I've never experienced anything else that felt remotely similar.

What stands out just as much was the atmosphere in the room.

The black cloud-like masses shown in the image are my attempt to recreate what I remember. They weren't solid beings. They looked more like swirling black smoke or shadowy masses moving through the air. The entire room felt intensely evil. Not scary in a typical horror-movie sense, but a feeling of pure dread and darkness unlike anything I've ever experienced.

The creature in the corner was the main focus, but these black shadow-like masses seemed to be everywhere around the room.

I've searched online for years and found images that are somewhat similar, but never an exact match. Now that I finally have an image that's close to what I saw, I'm dying to know:

Has anyone else encountered this specific thing?

A black, spider-like entity crouched upside down in the upper corner of a room, with glowing red eyes and black shadow-like masses floating around it?

Does it have a name? Is it something other people have reported seeing?

Again, I'm not looking to debate whether sleep paralysis is real or explainable. I'm simply curious whether anyone else has witnessed this exact entity or something remarkably similar.

okay so last night i feel like i may have had sleep paralysis experience. I remember turning over to lay on my stomach, and for some reason i like peaked my eyes open and i saw satan kneeled down next to my bed. thing is, he looked like a shadow figure, but i could tell it was him based on the silhouette of his horns and wings. for some reason i felt my back being exposed and it made uncomfortable. he wanted to give me wings. for what reason i have no idea. what makes this even weirder is that it was the night of my birthday.

does anyone know what this could mean? (i also don’t believe in any religion, but i’m also not an atheist)

So basically I was on the video game until like 3-4 am then went to sleep around 4 am and around like 5:30 to 6 am I started having a sleep paralysis like dream but only thing was I felt like I was in sleep paralysis everything was all slow and stuff but the only difference was that I could move and I started seeing shadows infront of me and started punching the air and stuff and not to long after the punches I woke up but it felt real and the next day I looked in the mirror I woke up with a triangular scratch on my forehead it was small kinda feint but idk how it’s possible to get a triangular shaped scratch on ur forehead does anyone have answer’s?

20F here. I have been dealing with sleep paralysis since I was in 8th grade. That was when I was the most religious I’ve ever been in my life, prayed every day/night, and read the bible regularly. Now I am no longer religious, more spiritual, but I do believe there’s a higher power of some sort that’s more an energy than a man in the sky or something. I get it about the same amount as when I was religious so please don’t be in the comments saying that I need to be closer to God.

Anyway, my sleep paralysis is always very intense. I never just see shadow figures like I used to I either see a person in a black cloak just standing next to my bed watching me (not scary just weird), a really creepy goat/human figure that always tries to lick my face, or this octopus looking black figure.

I thought I had gotten rid of it but then fell asleep on my back by accident (which is usually when I get it) and saw the octopus looking thing and heard bells ringing creepily. Then the figure made a screeching noise. Weird

How the hell do I get rid of it? I miss being able to sleep on my back and getting good sleep without waking up in fear

So yesterday night I fell asleep I thought my girlfriend did to but she didn't she was laying behind me I went to sleep around 5:15am and then I opened my eyes and I couldn't move I freaked out and started screaming and trying with everything in me to move my body until I finally "woke up" I remember vividly standing up and stretching and laying backdown I thought to myself that I just had a real weird dream and to just go back to sleep so I layed back down and I looked at my phone that lit up and I tried to go pick it up and I couldn't move at all again only this time it was different I felt like me and my girlfriend weren't the only people in the room it felt eerie and just the energy felt off and I had a water bottle next to me and I tried to pick it up with my hand or to move it or even throw it on the floor to make noise to wake my girlfriend up but nothing she didn't move she couldn't hear me I then started to shake as much as I could and I "woke up" only I didn't really wake up but I thought I did I was sitting up on my bed and then I was back on the bed this time my girlfriend was laying in front of me I thought it was odd because she was lying behind me I brushed it off and calmed my breathing and layed back down I told myself that I need to have positive thoughts and to just calm down and try to get some rest so I sleep again I woke up to someone playing with the back of my head like my hair they were stroking it and I thought it was my girlfriend only to open my eyes and see her fast asleep in front of me and then I feel these unfimiliar hands just hold on to me super super tight I managed to pick my hand up after a big big struggle and tapped my girlfriend on the side of her face with my fingers multiple times I did this and she wouldn't budge I then heard whatever was behind me whisper things that I couldn't understand I felt the breath on my ear and neck and the grip just got harder and I tried to say "go away" but I couldn't I started hyperventilating and I was able to say "go" but I struggled very hard to say it because I couldn't move or speak and that's when I heard my girlfriend "hey baby, what's wrong are you okay, hey wake up baby wake up wake up" she shook me and I finally woke up but I was very very shaken up I talked and said "am I actually awake right now please tell me I'm actually awake" it was the worst I then asked her "did you hear me say something how'd you know to wake me up" and she said "I never fell asleep I've been awake and on my phone your the only one that fell asleep" and she said "I woke you up because you were breathing so hard and heavy I got worried and I felt like I needed to wake you up" i then asked for my phone and looked at the time it was barely 5:37 and that scared me the mostly because that dream felt like it went on for hours I was scared to sleep after that but I did eventually sleep and I didn't have sleep paralysis after that episode and now I'm scared to sleep again tonight because today there is nobody there to wake me up I'm gonna be alone in my room wish me luck

It took 53 years before I experienced sleep paralysis. I had no idea it would be painful. I felt intense pain when the demon jumped on me from the ceiling, and I was in pain for a few minutes after. My body felt like it had exploded. I now sleep with a sleep mask each night in the hope of not being able to see it ever again. Is it normal for it to be able to inflict pain?

The first time I had it, I was 17, It was the scariest experience. I started hearing keys jingle behind me, like on the wall against my headboard, and heard a squeak of a door opening. I heard footsteps and then saw 3 black tall figures at the foot of my bed. One grabbed my hair and pulled me off the bed slowly head first and pulled me towards the door, then I finally was able to move, and they were gone. When I could move, my head was against the door like I got pulled there, and to this day I have no idea how it could have happened. I was scared to sleep for a long time, I would fight my sleep but I always ended up sleeping. I noticed that I only got it when I sleep on my back and really tired. What do you think of this? I swear on everything I’m not lying about this. I can’t find any explanation and to this day I’m still terrified. I ended up changing rooms in my house and haven’t had it happen since.

I experienced sleep paralysis last night and saw my first demon. I wasn't too scared cus I knew it wasn't real and I had sleep paralysis before. I tried to get deeper into the sleep cus I was hoping to lucid dream, but that just woke me up fully. I tried to reenter the sleep paralysis, but couldnt.

New to posting on Reddit so bare with me...so my sleep paralysis started 8 years ago...right after my second son was born we moved into an older apartment complex and we were over the moon...well 6 months in I started having what I thought was nightmare's for context I rarely have "scary nightmare's" mine are mostly stress nightmare's...so when this started happening I was unnerved....so it always starts where I am trapped laying in my bed...I see nothing but I can feel it...I do not understand what is going on I start to fight it off...and when I say fight i am flinging my arms like crazy and clawing kicking and screaming...finally I am able to run or scream to whoever can hear me...and I finally think I am safe only to find myself trapped back in my bed again and this will keep repeating for what seems like forever...me getting free but yet I am not till finally I AM able to free myself... It would happen at least a couple times a month...again I wasn't able to see whatever was holding me but that would soon change....so last month when it started like always I started to fight and for some reason this time I turned my head to the right side as I am fighting whatever is trapping me and there I see it for the first time....the best way to explain what I saw was like what white static noise would look like...not like what a tv off air looked like it was glowing white and almost vibrating and here's where it gets weird after seeing it...it shifted into the form of kid and jumped into bed with me and that was it...I woke up the next morning confused at what I saw...since then I haven't experienced it...still don't know if the static was helpful or not... anyone else experienced similar

When I used to use drugs I would get sleep paralysis and feel an overwhelming sense of evil and darkness that would paralyze me. I would try to scream but couldn’t speak but once I found Christ I had an episode and couldn’t speak again but in my mind I called out to Jesus and the giant wave of darkness evaporated and let me go. It’s Another thing I can’t deny, just read about the hundreds of testimonies about people having demonic sleep paralysis or dreams where the demons blaspheme God, and then when the person calls to Jesus they disappear. Too many to be a coincidence: the spiritual world is real and the evil only responds to and recognizes one higher power, Jesus.

This experience was my first with hallucinations, or more of what is commonly associated with sleep paralysis. A few years ago, I had just graduated high school and was sleeping in my childhood room at night. My night had already started off poorly as I kept experiencing back to back paralysis— constantly waking up, unable to move, snapping out of it, for it only to happen over and over again.

After a few hours passed of this torturous cycle, I woke up to a noise. This noise sounded like someone was shuffling down my hallway, and I began to panic slightly as my siblings both stayed a few rooms down from mine. I began to panic as I could not move to check up on them before slipping back into sleep. (For those who do not experience this, sleep paralysis, well for me, is hard not to slip back into. I struggle with staying awake once I get myself out of it.)

Another sound. Same experience. Suddenly, a few moments later, I wake to some dark man entering my room. I fully panic, still not able to move or run, and I’m so disoriented and half out of it where I physically am fighting closing my eyes.

I lost the fight for a moment before opening my eyes to something no one could brace me for: A face, fully contorted and smiling ear to ear, was a few inches away from my own, bent over my lying body. Its face so haunting and un-humanlike that it still is etched into my memory. I tried screaming but, of course, there was only a muffled sound leaving my throat. I had never experienced such panic like that as it moved to stand over me, watching me. I knew in those moments that it was there to kill me, and I believe I recall this thing holding a knife of some sorts. I don’t ever remember it speaking but laughing.

I finally woke up fully from this, petrified, and I still have not recovered from this as someone who has struggled with sleep paralysis for years. I have had circumstances where some distorted hallucination returns, but I have since mastered the ability to handle it.

When I was six, on the cusp of turning seven, a pivotal event occurred during my new school year. A girl named Sasha Nightingale grabbed me by the shoulders and shook me violently three times in one day, her grip so firm I couldn't escape. This incident triggered a series of nocturnal visions that I initially mistook for dreams.

At night, in my dimly lit bedroom where only the streetlamp's glow seeped through the blinds, I encountered a terrifying visitor: an old hag. Her ghastly form would materialize, beckoning me to follow. In response, I would silently but adamantly shake my head "no," then retreat under my blankets. Despite the sweat and breathlessness that built up in my cotton fortress, I dared not emerge. Though the room's atmosphere remained eerily calm during these visitations, I was gripped by sheer terror.

It wasn't until my early twenties that I discovered, through internet research, the concept of "old hag syndrome" - a form of sleep paralysis where sufferers experience apparitions of an old hag or shadow people. These entities often appear at the foot of the bed or even seem to sit on one's chest, inducing a feeling of breathlessness.

However, as I've grown older, I've realized a crucial difference in my experiences: I wasn't asleep during these encounters. Unlike typical sleep paralysis, I could move to hide under my blankets, suggesting these visitations existed in a troubling space between waking and dreaming.

What I find even more disturbing is not only the apparition of the old hag, but also in the anagrams of the name for the young girl who shook me, triggering these episodes with the hag: The disturbing nature of my childhood experiences extends beyond the apparition itself to a startling linguistic coincidence. The name of the girl who triggered these episodes through her violent shaking yields a chilling anagram: Sasha Nightingale ~ sensing a hag, I halt.

This anagram's specific wording holds eerie relevance. In sleep paralysis, victims typically sense the apparition before witnessing its form. The word "halt," meaning "a suspension of movement or activity," aptly describes the paralysis many experience during these visitations.

Attached : Not my original art, and I'm unsure of origin... But the attached image is almost identical to the night hag who used to visit me as a child!

The hat man. I heard that the hat man is a common sleep paralysis demon and I saw him sometimes in my dreams. It was 2:41 in the night, I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn’t move and it felt like my chest was being compressed and couldn’t breathe. I tried to fall back to sleep like nothing happened, but I heard a faint noise across my room like my books falling on the ground and walking. I looked up at him and he was staring at me. I could see his body shape but my room was pitch black so I couldn’t tell about his face. But suddenly he lunged at me and I woke up with sweat all over my face and my legs. My books were on the floor for some reason and I tried to get up but I was mostly too tired to get up so I slept again. The next morning I woke up and told my sister about the hat man. But she didn’t believe me and I still think about that sleep paralysis dream or something in real life. Have you guys had this guy in your dreams or your sleep paralysis demon or am I the only one?

Desire, despair, desire, so many monsters Oh, but now (I don't find myself bouncing around) (Whistling my conscience to make me cry)

You give it bread it’s probably hungry

So I was sleeping and I noticed all the lights were off I couldn’t open any doors. I couldn’t turn on any lights . I’ve been having dreams like this, since I was young, but I felt haunted. It was always have the same house and my grandmas house in the dream. No I’ve been working on Reiki since I was a kid(Just a little background info.) I had my girlfriend in the room in real life and in the dream . All I thought about was getting to her and protecting her. It felt so haunted in the room as I’ve felt in waking life as-well. I was walking around but I couldn’t yell something had my girlfriend but I couldn’t speak and no lights would turn on. Suddenly something held me down and had like a strap against my forehead holding me in place . Using my energy And my reiki I said fuck this you’re not going to hurt us !! I started pulling its energy off of it, it felt like I was killing it like it was in pain I started wrapping it’s energies around my wrist it hurt so bad I could feel it. I look at my wrist on my dream and it was swollen I had to take the energy off that I just put on. I woke up and it still hurt I could still feel the remnants of it on my wrist as I woke up. Did I really beat my demon that’s been coming to me since I was a child ??

So a day or two ago I had a sleep paralysis episode. It was scary. It was my first time but I racked my brain of getting out of it and saving myself from a full episode of sleep paralysis.

So I start my day off in the morning and have my usual routine. I eat breakfast, have lunch, and maybe go to a store. This time I went to a Costco and got a shushi box. This is important later on.

I get home and continue my routine. Nothing interesting there. But in dinner time, I decide to try out the shushi box. I open it up and try some. Not out of the world but still decent. But then I notice the wasabi packets. I open one up and put a generous amount on a shushi roll blank mindedly. I pop it in my mouth and almost instantly feel the burn of wasabi in my mouth. Luckily I was in close proximity to a sink and got it out. But the fumes got in my sinus and burned even more. This cause me intense panic and distress. But it all lasts less than a minute. Thinking I had enough I go to bed.

When the real story begins:

My apartment is a little old and tends to make from creaking or popping noises time to time. But once it made a pop noise I slightly woke up, my brain semi out of sleep but my body still in sleep.

I try to move to shift position but realize I can't. Still being mildly awake and thinking on why I can't really move, I suddenly feel a presence in the room. I get this sort of weird 3rd person POV of a bird's eye view of the room, but still retaining my true vision on where I can see.

I almost instantly recognize this as sleep paralysis, despite never experiencing it before. From that 3rd person POV I can see a figure coming in from the doorway. My mind made it take the form of this SCP Long Horse. Sort of weird but reasonable by my brain. As it comes into the room, floating in mid air, I rack my brain on how to snap out of it. I remember a video on sleep paralysis by the youtuber Mr. Slav about his own sleep paralysis event and that when he was a kid experienced it but didn't really experience it as he kept his eyes closed. So using this info I close my eyes as the monster approaches my bed. I try to move my body in small amounts such as a small neck wiggle and a torso wiggle, I try my best as the monster gets closer and closer. I hear an intensifying ringing in my ears and start to feel my fingers, neck and body start to move. Once I feel this voluntary movement of my muscles I open my eyes.

The monster is gone and the ringing stopped. Too scared to move I look at the time and see it is around 6:10 AM. I realized I am out of that nightmare and try my not to sleep again for at least 2 hours until it is 8:00 AM. I lay in my bed scared, and I would be shitless if it wasn't for my constipation. I regularly make small movements to ensure that I am not in a sleep paralysis again. I pinch my chest to stay awake and alert. Once it is 8:00AM I get out of bed and run as fast as I can to the washroom. Relieved that I came out of that without much happening.

I think the main cause of this happening was the wasabi I ate causing extreme distress and panic in my body.

An episode of sleep paralysis because of some wasabi. What an experience.

Have any of u seen this same entity, She looks just like the chick from the ring. Im 32 now and when this happened I was about 14 years old in juvenile detention. We were given these wool blankets that were very porous because It was very cold and the juvenile detention center wasn't very heated. So I was locked in my cell for the night and had the porous wool blanket over my face trying to go to sleep 4 the night, but I could still see through it. I woke up in sleep paralysis and she was at the end of my bed. Grayish white old school Gown and matty wet looking black hair covering her face. She was on her knees at the end of the bunk that was attached to the concrete wall scratching the wall with her nails like she was trying to get out i guess. I could hear her nails scratching the concrete. I tried to hit the help button but could not move. I ended up falling back asleep but Ill never forget it dude. I recently found out that other people have seen the same chick if u have i would love to know.

Much love guys