To Be Or Not To Be.. Paranormal Slumber

You're dead asleep in the middle of the night. All of a sudden you jerk awake and find you are unable to move. Then you see something floating back and forth over your bed. It stays there seeming to taunt you, then it disappears as fast as it appeared.

What was it? Ghost? Spirit? Imagination?

Is your home haunted?

We hear tons of stories from people that have had paranormal encounters of waking, being unable to move and seeing shadows, ghosts, even people hearing their names called, or smelling something in the air that's not normal.  But is it truly paranormal? Usually we are quick to associate what we see with our places of residence being haunted. We let this terrorize us and let it affect our daily lives and our sleep habits.

Now if we take the time to digest what has happened and maybe do some research into it, we find that most things are indeed not paranormal. In this case yes, you may have had a close encounter with something unexplained. In this case if you aren't familiar with sleep disorders, this one is referred to as Hypnagogic Hallucinations. Now I can hear most of you now, Hypnawhatchamacallit? Yes I dare you to say it five times fast.

Hypnagogic Hallucinations is a list of hallucinations, one including sleep paralysis. While we are in Rem (when you are dreaming) sleep, our bodies are paralyzed with what we call Rem atonia. This prevents us from hurting ourselves in our sleep, but in those cases of sudden wakefulness can sometimes take a few minutes to wear off. So you will feel like you are being held down, and your mind may not be fully awake yet from your lucid dream causing you to seem like you are seeing, smelling, hearing things that are not actually present.

There are many factors that can contribute to this such as, narcolepsy, prescription medication or hallucinogenic street drugs, mental illness, sleep deprivation, exhaustion and irregular sleep schedules. So if you suffer from this regularly, it is suggested contact your physician.

Now every case fits in this category, as some will be legitimately paranormal. But I do ask you to take a moment to rationalize what's happened. If it keeps happening and you feel in danger then please call whoever can help. If this happens to be a paranormal team, you might still consider going to a physician to make sure there is not an underlying cause.

For more information, there is plenty of material on the internet. But here are some sites that might help you:

http://www.sleep.com/content/hypnagogic-hallucinations
http://neurology.health-cares.net/hypnagogic-hallucination.php
http://www.hypnagogichallucinations.com/

Be careful and Happy Hunting!