It came to me as well. I ended up becoming a protagonist to one of those sleep paralysis stories I used to only read and hear about. Even though I had encountered sleep paralysis plenty of times before, this one was outright bizarre and different. Why? Because this time I wasn’t really sleeping.
If you have been reading my Dream Book, you would know how I compile my very own sleep paralysis stories in it. All of them have been personally experienced. But this one hit the ball right out the park. For the first time, I wasn’t really in a different world, but in my very own. It was one of a kind because I couldn’t budge, move and yet I was wide awake wondering out loud. Read this weird addition to my sleep paralysis stories:
Sleep Paralysis Stories: The Train Story
The same dreaded dream, that nervous arrest that haunts the world whilst their eyes are wide open, haunted me once again. Only this time I experienced sleep paralysis while awake. It felt like a limbo of reality. Our dreams exist there and yet they don’t. You are puckering your eyes and dilating it only to find nothing. World seems empty. It resounds to a resonance that dances to the tune of two worlds simultaneously. More like a gateway you are stuck into. You can’t go here, or there. You just breathe in the moment, sandwiched in between, waiting for time to pass out and resurrect you. It feels like a perennial nightmare.
I was on a train, really comfortable, and enjoying a deep slumber on my berth. It was an Upper level seat, which I prefer to any other levels since I do not like to be disturbed whilst a nap. I might have been dreaming, when suddenly I felt someone touch my feet. It wasn’t just a mere poke rather a full clench which broke my dream rhythm almost immediately. Then, soon I felt something brush against my leg, as if a huge bag was kept right next to my legs. The disturbance was enough to wake me up.
I tried to glance at my legs by lifting my head, just to make sure what or who was there at my seat. But I was surprised to find out my body was not at all complying. I swear I had felt me reaching out to see what’s near my leg, but when I opened my eyes I realized I hadn’t budged. That’s when I decided to open my eyes wide.
“What the hell?”
To my surprise, I was wide awake. And yet I couldn’t move.
Seat Pouch
My seat pouch was in my line of sight. It just sat there looking back at me. I tried to lift myself up, but realized my body had me arrested. So, I closed my eyes once again, tired as I was, I decided to let my dream hag come wake me up. Like all my previous dreams, the watchman or the old hag, the essential element of the unworldly, would often come to stop me from venturing into their world. They would wake me up with a slap or a tap. Convinced that they would be coming along anytime, I closed my eyes to go into that semi-hazy state. But minutes passed, and nothing happened.
My trance wouldn’t be broken. I reopened to confirm the pouch was in front of my eyes. Then I closed it once again. When I did, I felt as if my legs were wrapped in a plastic bag. So I fought with all my might to tear open the plastic bag away. After a scuffle that lasted for almost half a minute, I opened my eyes once again. I could feel that my legs hadn’t moved a bit, so there was no plastic bag rather a dream projection I had fought. All I could see was that pouch. So, this time I closed my eyes again and tried to exert all the pressure into suddenly waking up to sit. I swear eyes closed I had done it even, but on opening them, I hadn’t even inched a bit.
Exercise in Futility
The whole exercise of trying to wake up was becoming futile. I could hear voices of people who were sitting below me talking about doctors and politicians. I wondered if anyone would stand up and just nudge me asking me about something. Because really, I could have used an external force to break that punishing trance.
In that momentary realization I felt my right hand was intensely riveted to my chest. My body was strangely convulsed, as if I had tightly embraced myself. I decided to move my body by starting with my head. So I shut my eyes once again and with all my might took my head towards the right. But when I disclosed them, I was still staring at the pouch.
As my eyes were about to fade I saw the pouch’s threads slowly breaking. They were rolling away as if they were on fire. On realizing that I opened my eyes wide to check, but to my surprise the pouch was intact.
The Numbness
There I was, with a numb body, feeling everything around me with eyes wide open, looking at an inanimate pouch, in my own world where I could hear people talk, and waiting. All I was left with was hope, hoping someone or something would take me out of my misery any minute now.
“What is happening? Why can’t I turn around? Why am I so powerless all of a sudden?”
I was not dead and at that gave me the strength to believe that I have to sit it out. I waited, and waited. Moments passed by, but the wait was punishing. I was wondering in my head if it would have been a dream I would be exploring the unexplored and doing something at least to kill the time like my previous Sleep Paralysis dreams allowed me to. But no this was friggin reality! And I couldn’t think of any other way to pass my time. In my obscurity of judgment, I felt those threads disappear again, slowly rolling away from its joints. I dilated my eyes to see them appear intact once again.
The Final Pressure
I decided to try one more time. Being trapped and powerless was getting on my nerves. I closed my eyes, and then turned my head once again towards right, and kept it there for some time. Naturally my head hadn’t moved even a bit in reality, and I knew that. But still I waited and took deep breaths.
Then out of nowhere I felt life return to me suddenly. I was so relieved to finally turn around comfortably. Both my hands were numb. I checked to see if there was a bag at my feet. But there was nothing there. I knew it was over but I kept thinking about it until I decided to jot this down for you to read.
If you have similar sleep paralysis stories to share, please share in the comments box below. Such sleep paralysis stories might inspire or help someone to put two and two together.
I’ve had several sleep paralysis episodes. The first time was, indeed, horrifying waking up in complete darkness after a deep nap one bright afternoon, dreaming of another reality where I was sent by someone I knew in the dream to a classroom to learn the language spoken there. As hard and as many times as I could, my body would not budge upon waking though I knew that I was solidly in the body. I was scared to death and cried in darkness for what seemed like hours from sheer panic. I felt the tears roll down the sides of my face. I eventually fell asleep still crying. I woke up and sat straight up in bed relieved that the paralysis had passed. It was still afternoon, about 2hrs, I think, after falling asleep. I ran to look out of my bedroom window to make sure all the buildings were there in the right place. In the dream, I had gone outside to find the buildings were similar but placed differently with no disruption to landscape. It was just a normal place with a different setting.
The second time paralysis struck, I knew to go back to sleep and everything would be okay, so I did and everything was fine. I know now that paralysis is an in-between state at the moment everything turns black and you’re fast asleep. I think our brains sometimes does not register fast enough that we’re conscious and continues to keep us in lock-down mode so we don’t sleep walk acting out our dreams.
Thank you Queena for sharing your story. It is indeed scary but once you get a hold of it, it is no longer.