Monday 13th October 2014/ 11:30am
Personal Diary – Experienced Sleep Paralysis for a few seconds I think…
Experienced sleep paralysis again just now, coming back from a weird dream about my mum and brother, in the dram I went back into my room to just be with myself and do some uni work, right then I realised and became aware that I wasn’t up getting on woth my day but I was actually dreaming.
Then suddenly I start to feel half awake but not totally, I’m stuck and paralyzed and my head felt like it was spinning as if it was trying to adjust to the transition between being awake and sleeping I could only look in one direction and then I saw what looked to be a pile of clothes in my old washing basket only when i felt to let go and look for longer I saw something blink at me. Immediately after that I closed my eyes, I felt so secure once I closed them and could see nothing but could feel my own breath and heart beating.
I wanted to shake or snap out of my paralysed state, after the first four times of struggle to wake up I started to panic it usually took four or five times but this times was different it took exceedingly longer and I could feel myself slightly going into shock whenever I struggle I’ve noticed that I start to struggle to grasp any air and I start to fear for my life. So at that point I decided to slow down and relax and soon after I opened my eyes again and I woke up to my normal self.
Sleep paralysis
When the body is paralyzed at the point sleep and awakening, this could be due to unhealthy living or an unknown evil phenomenon
Relevant bibliography
‘Sleep paralysis’ Shelly R. Adler
Shelly’s journal explains two sides of sleep paralysis one which is the myth of an evil nocturnal being come to visit you in your dreams and press the life out of you, and another todays beliefs that it is just a state of consciousness between sleep and wakefulness in which you may experience vivid of freighting nightmares.
Shelly R. Adler’s research focuses on how nightmare attacks have been experienced and defined throughout history.
I understand this book commits to reason within the subject of ‘sleep paralysis’ but it also investigates the chances of an unnatural element that can’t be explained realistically, This idea intrigues me because there is so much unexplained occurrences in the world that seem to have no apparent reason for happening but I think it all comes down to the way in which we interpret the world and whether you believe that there is a higher reason to all these sort of catastrophes.
I personally find the theory of a paranormal entity with an evil presences quite engaging, because it is so unknown to me and what we don’t understand we seek to learn more about if we can, ideas come into my mind about what this evil phenomenon and where it comes from. I like to think that when we dream we fall into another space of existence not bound to earth or anywhere else, that being said wherever this existence may be within it’s space this unknown phenomenon roams talking from personal experience I myself sometimes fall into sleep paralysis where I a not awake but I know I’m not dreaming just somewhere in the middle and in this state it is said that the evil phenomenon spawns staring you dead in the eye while it hovers over you and lays over chest sucking the life from you as it does.
Then again this theory is unlikely and abnormal, there is always an explanation for anything sleep paralysis could just be biology of the body acting out due to sleep deprivation. Sleep paralysis does cause you to hallucinate and even sometimes experience nightmares, my theory before about how dreaming is a state in which you fall into another plain of existence where the world around you is vivid and incredibly unrealistic and waking up abruptly from this dream can cause sleep paralysis in which I would say your stuck between two plain of existence being awake but also paralyzed in your sleep and in this state you still see and feel things that don’t entirely make sense or can even remotely be real.
What I took back from the journal was the mere fact that also this reason and evidence to the contrary fall upon those of us who to choose to believe this particular side of the argument between real and not real, we will never truly know what it is that takes hold of us when we experience such moments in our life or whether it is simple chucked up to a natural cause of the body.
‘The nightmare experience, sleep paralysis and witchcraft accusations’ Owen Davies
We go into the more paranormal and frightening side of the subject ‘sleep paralysis’ with this journal talking about witch trial records and other early modern writings on witchcraft that claimed in various European societies people complained about being physically oppresses at night by witches and other supernatural beings, English authors termed the experience the ‘mare’ or ‘nightmare’ now in our modern society from the 20’s it has been deemed manifestations of sleep paralysis.
Superstition and paranoia seem to surround this book I believe, personally I took back some very chilling ideas about what sleep paralysis could really be an idea or witchcraft being cast on people undergoing that state of wakefulness and paralysis, how freighting it must have been to feel the presence of an horrific being surrounding you as you lay there helpless unable to move or even do anything while your life was put into question on whether you would live to see morning or not.
So many women were killed in early modern times because of towns people stating that were oppressed by witches manifesting in there sleep and causing them torment, due to these accusation any women or child who was accused of being a witch or having being associated with a witch was put to death buy fire or drowning, drowning by water was a test to see if the accused were actually witches or innocent but of course it could never fully be proven because the woman died from drowning. This was known as a witch trial at the time, first the accused would stand before court to be judged by jurors and citizens alike always being found guilty either way they were sentenced to death by water of fire and sometimes hanging.
The journal explains that witches weren’t the only unknown phenomenon’s that went bump in the night to frighten and sometimes kill towns people, demons were also thought to me roaming around in early modern times invading peoples dreams and causing sleep paralysis. These evil beings could physically torture people in their dreams though it was just a dream somehow it was made to be real when they woke up, sometimes it would be through sucking the life out of it’s victim and causing them harm in the dream by tormenting them.
Though survivors somehow would find their way out of sleep paralysis, it was said that victims would sometimes break out of there paralysis and wake up not much is mentioned on how for every individual it was a different experience. Town people stated that it was almost as if they were being possessed by the evil phenomenon as if it was trying to hijack the victims body.
Though witches it seemed were the only ones to blame as they were very popular amongst early modern culture, when superstition and paranoia was high among towns people and in the process a lot of women were sentenced to death for even being suspected of being a witch or acting out of the ordinary.
The terror that comes in the night ‘David J. Hufford
The terror that comes in the night Hufford writes about the ‘mare’ short for nightmare that comes in the night in the form of a witch invading bedrooms and presses the vital force out of it’s scared victims.
The book talks of an absolute creature of the night a ‘witch’ that frightens men and women in their dreams ‘hufford’ always seems to be pointing at witches in the book revealing them as they main culprit for inducing sleep paralysis in it’s victims though this dates back to early modern times and I agree with that in a sense that during such times when man was not as advanced in intellect back then as we are witches were very popular among town people and almost everyone one was accused of being a witch.
Though ‘hufford’ reiterates that such experiences are still happening now in our modern society across the world a percentage of people are still having nightmares that share an equal experience in Germany and the Philippines, though all sorts of reasons and beliefs are being put into perspective though were are so far in time no clear explanations seems to be presented, which is quite funny seeing as early modern societies seemed to have been putting all there fingers and what they believed to be the reason and it makes me wonder if they were correct or not seeing as no case was fully proven in that time so who we do we blame or what reason do we fall upon now.
Reading more the book does to fully emphasize whether or not witches were to blame for the nightmares towns people suffered back then, though it was thought witches tormented both men and women it was men who often imagined a witch to be his tormentor. I’ve only known sleep paralysis to be a state in which I could not move or speak and my vision of my surrounding was always where I laid my head to sleep most times it would be a bit burry and still as if I was still in a dream and at this point I felt something unexplainable but almost as if it was a presence but then I would just wake up from it as if I would just shake it off and break through to the real world. However this is only my experience and ‘hufford’ explains that whether it was in early modern times or now the experience of going through sleep paralysis or a ‘mare’ would start of with a disturbing rustling sound as the victim would open his or her eyes to see the familiar surroundings of the world around them, but then perceives an evil presence trying to sit up but they cannot realizing they are paralyzed and in this moment he experiences the visual perception of a witch hovering down on him pressing down on his chest whether this is a hallucination or not cannot be told.
Bibliographies
‘The Mystery Chronicles, chapter 25 – Alien Abduction As Sleep-Related Phenomena’ by Joe Nickell
Published September 2010
Published by University Press of Kentucky
– Investigatating the possibility of sleep paralysis and beings from another world both having a part to play as whole, which in way falls down to reason as to why suffer sleep paralysis at times all though the idea is still rather a bit superstitious.
‘Body, Self and Society, Chapter 5 – The Body as a community Forum: Spirit Possession and Social Repossession’
by Anne E. Becker
Published
Published by
– More of a sort of spiritual involvement with sleep paralysis, if you was a believer then this book would make a whole lot of sense to you as it has an idea that when you are paralyzed between that moment of sleep and wakefulness your body is actually being possessed in those moments.
‘At Borders Of Sleep’
by Peter Schwenger
Published by University of Minnesota Press
Published
– Peter Schwenger looks into the liminal states between waking and sleeping, I like the idea of waking and sleeping being two faces of the same coin and what the transition may be between the two.
‘The Awakened ones’ Phenomenology of Visionary Experience
by Gananath Obeyesekere
Published by Columbia University Press
Published June 2014
– This gives me ideas of a process of phycology where the practitioner uses dreams to grasp a better comprehension of said spiritual phenomenon’s inside of him.
‘Sleep Paralysis: A Guide to Hypnagogic Visions and Visitors of the Night’
By Ryan Hurd
Publishing Press Hyena Press
– Explains in details the symptoms and causes of sleep paralysis (sp) and how to fight it if you suffer from sleep paralysis. It also goes into the origin story of sleep paralysis and paranormal side as in an unknown phenomenon that visits you in this dream like state.
‘Restless Nights’
By Peretz Lavie
Published July 2003
Publishing House ‘Yale University Press’
– Talks about sleep disorders and the many symptoms that come along with it, people who suffer from abnormal sleep patterns such as waking up in the middle of the night and being up for hours (Sleep deprivation) can result in people sleeping during the day at inappropriate times and suffer sleep paralysis.
RCA graduate student Carla Mackinnon
Throughout summer 2012, two or three times a week, I would wake up unable to move, deeply afraid and convinced there was someone or something in the room with me. Sometimes I would see or hear people around the bed or feel cats padding over the blanket. One time I woke up and saw a giant spider hovering over me! This strange phenomenon is called sleep paralysis, and I decided to make a film about it. This experimental docu-horror was supported by a Wellcome Trust Arts Award and made as part of an MA in Animation at Royal College of Art.
Sleep Paralysis 28/10/14 – 8:30 to 9:00 – Fuuuuuccckk Meeeee!
Had it again just now. time is half 8 in the morning and my heart is pumping and I feel like I’m recovering from shock… This time I was defiantly paralysed but i was still dreaming too and I knew this but I was still dreaming too and I knew this but I just couldn’t for the life of me wake up from it almost as if the dream was taking control of me and not me of it.
I was coming back from a nightmare or something of a nightmare and as soon as I thought I was awake instantly I realised I wasn’t I could see my room or at least the corner of it as i was facedown in my pillow only being able to see things from the edge of my eyes and not being able to move my arms or legs at all I feel as though I could move my fingers though.
That’s when I saw… it…. from the edge of my eye could barely make it out but it was defiantly a shadowy figure stuck to the ceiling
Mani601 ‘Sleep Paralysis’ Research Project Assignment 3
Two Case Studies & Reflect
Hypnogogia by Louis Wilde
A short film by a young graduate student from RCA who happens to go through hypnogogia or as some would call it ‘Sleep Paralysis’ so this short film of hers is based on her short experience with sleep paralysis and what almost seems like her personal thoughts with this encounter.
Louise gives the viewer insight into her own little world, when going under that paralytic state and in this world it seems her reality bends and is manipulated through the visuals presented of a her distorted face and body, the frame by frame images of random faces that seem to appear out of blank space and short animation of a chalky looking figure that seems to be crying out desperately.
Two main techniques with the film Hypnogogia by Louise Wilde that caught my eye and really elaborated the theme of the film in order to express and make clear what it was all about and what we should take back from it. From the beginning of the film I could already tell the techniques and theme involved with this film were gong to be mind boggling and manipulative.
Round the start of film you see the actor only the images that we see are repetitive and rippling in terms of motion and expression almost as if her motions are being face forwarded my a TV remote, I like to think this is one of her key elements to expressing ‘hypnogogia’ that effect that makes it look unnatural and put into question what it is that we are looking at but of course there is no way to comprehend it because it doesn’t make sense.
This was done through istopmotion using continuous frames and working frame by frame with each image of her face and body in different positions to portray what looks like it could be multiple versions of herself causing different expressions and rippling out of control and also with the different white images in proportion to each other falling down and rotating in blank space more examples of frame by frame istopmotion a very unique way of portraying the unknown for the life of me I couldn’t really understand what it meant for me but clearly for the animator it was a personal response from her experience in this nightmarish ordeal.
a very effective means to give the film a theme of supernatural and otherworldliness, on top of this the multiple images of herself seem slightly distorted giving of waves of motion or even blurs between each frame image
‘Stop-motion Animation: Frame by Frame Film-making with Puppets and Models By Barry Purves – in live action, a moving object leaves trailing blur on a frame of film pg 20 (continuous movement)’.
Also in a bit of animation within the film where you see an animated figure with chalky, dark texture expressing pain and fearfulness throughout the animation slightly it has been drawn in a distorted way at times the mouth looks like it is manipulated getting wider and then smaller the body is constantly changing shape and looks almost unnatural and manipulative.
‘A distortion mesh that is used to control the pixels of a layer so that they can be distorted chapter 7 pg 251 (the distort effects) The After Effects Illusionist: All the Effects in One Complete Guide
By Chad Perkins’.
With my practical experiments to sleep paralysis I constantly practice frame by frame continuous line drawing to portray figures and movement, visually the animations seems like it has more life that way constantly something going on within each frame as we go along. Like the distorted, rippling effect of the character in the short film ‘hypnogogia constantly moving within each frame I like this idea and so chose to try and use that some effect with my drawing in flash.
Also taking back from hypnogogia that element or theme of portraying something that doesn’t make sense or at least unnatural and questions your thought on the notion I’ve attempted to experiment with that element and mess with narration of my practical animation to make it seem more un realistic and more mysterious in terms of your understanding.
Sleep Paralysis by Brian Braganza
Lonely woman preps for bed, the signs in her room suggest she recently lost someone very close to her hear judging by the picture of her and a loved on happily together. She goes to bed, naturally unsuspecting anything paranormal that is about to occur through her sleep like state.
We go into the paranormal and demonic side of ‘sleep paralysis’ with this short film, I suspect that the star of this film the innocent looking girl who goes to sleep may not seem as innocent as she looks and that maybe she has some personal demons that she is fighting hence the demonic figure that comes for her in her dreams. I feel she has some history from the beginning of the film when she was prepping for bed and we see a picture of her and maybe what seems to be someone of great emotional value to her, beyond this I can’t no for sure but seeing her sleep alone tells me that maybe the two ended on terms that seem to haunt her.
My film on Sleep Paralysis will not have any sort of direction like this feature film does ‘Sleep Paralysis’ by Brian Braganza, instantly when watching this short feature film I get that sense of cause from the woman in the film as if there is something behind that innocence of her and herself.
Then there’s the scene where she slowly gets ready for bed she takes of her jewellery slowly and the camera’s angle sort of fades to a picture of her and a man which shows clear signs of intimacy and love but we see her sleep alone which suggest that this might have been something she lost and somehow she feels herself being haunted by it.
Some cases of sleep paralysis are caused by post traumatic stress in people who may have experienced violence or great loss in their lives and in this way sleep paralysis is the minds way of handling that stress, just like the woman in this film is handling the stress of being a lonely widow and may be in mourning.
‘Panic disorder, post traumatic stress disorder and general stress greatly increase the rate of sleep paralysis chapter 3 pg 69 Sleep Paralysis: Night-mares, Nocebos, and the Mind-body Connection
By Shelley R. Adler’
The theme and technique of the antagonist in the film is quite a scary one, the antagonist being the demon that creeps into the room places himself on the woman’s chest and tries to press the life out of her.
With any film there always has to be a protagonist (the woman) and an antagonist (the demon) pushing back and forth, this gives the film a sense of struggle, the antagonist being a character of pure evil and that gives the story a melodramatic feel for this film the antagonist really gives of an impact of fear and hopelessness from when he appears to when he disappears the moments all seem to be in his control and that really gets the viewer thinking and over exaggerating what the outcome might be.
‘A character who is pure evil is not only harder for readers to believe in but may also give the story a melodramatic feel pg 22 chapter (bringing out the bad guy) Creating the Character: Dialogue and Characterization
By Valerie Bodden’.
Another technique that for me personally I would say brought out the fear in me, was the frightful sound foreshadowing the actions of the woman being consumes and taken by the demon.
Slowly you start to fee that sense terror that is enhanced by the slow and creeping sound of the music being played in the background, while the woman is stuck in blank space almost as if she’s frozen or acts as if she feels a chill if fear crawling in her skin the demon is foreshadowed by the creepy music as it itself creeps towards the woman and climbs on top if her pressing down hard on her chest the music starts to get louder and more intense this gives you the expectation that something terrible is about to happen and very soon.
‘Foreshadowing sets up expectation’s in the audience pg 86 section 5 visual foreshadowing’.
I like the idea of a protagonist struggling against an antagonist in the film, for me it tells me that these two elements are fighting each other it’s not very clear what the outcome will be.
Although with my visual experiments the antagonist isn’t exactly a person but a thing that is struggling and even winning against the protagonist being the victim of the nightmare (antagonist) these nightmares come in the form of red I’ve used this colour not to sure to what extent maybe it’s the idea of an old saying ‘red is the devils favourite colour’ and so I use that colour to portray the nightmarish experiences of sleep paralysis.
Mani601 - Sleep Paralysis 