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 Psychics believe that dreams are a way to gain access to the higher realms and often one of the quickest and easiest ways to begin communicating with your spirit guide,angels and higher-self.

Nightmares are  a distinct type of dream distinguished from other dreams by there vividness and their frightening images and/or emotional content.

There is another school of thought that believes that nightmares especially those that recur over and over again may stem from unresolved past life issues. 

It may be a past life memory that is begging to be remembered, healed or resolved.  

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I have been suffering what i call night terrors my whole life.

The night terrors started early in my childhood and have remained with me through to my adult life. Throughout my early years my night terrors occurred on a regular basis with me having a nightmare then awaking to a night terror. I would lay there terrified to move, scared to even let out a breath. I couldn’t see anything or anyone but i could sense an evil presence beside by bed. I was terrified of falling asleep at night as the night terrors did not seem dream like they appeared to me to be real.

When i think back to those early experiences of night terrors in my mind they still seem so real and not at all vivid in an respect. As when it occurred i always remained awake often for hours on end often with the sinister feeling of evil remaining with me.

For a few years in my life the night terrors disappeared but as i grew older through to my late teenage years the night terrors started again.

The first came as i climbed in to bed i had not yet went to sleep as i hadn’t even lay down. suddenly i felt a dark sinister presence with me in the room then at the foot of the bed i could see what appeared to be a dark shadowed figure, I threw myself backwards on to the pillow in sheer fright as i did this the figure was on top of my bed it the perched it’s self on top of my feet. My mouth was dry as i tried to scream out but the only sound that came was a hushed murmur. I couldn’t close my eyes it was as if my eyes where fixated on the figure, My body seemed paralyzed as the thing crawled up the bed on top of my body this happened very quickly until it was perched on top of my chest, I then felt as if i were being choked i was helpless. As quickly as it had began it was over.

About three weeks went by and i woke to find a woman with long dark tangled hair beside my bed she was screaming in my face she was that close i could smell the stench of her breath, first she was at my side then it rushed to the foot of the bed again like the time before it was pulling its self up the bed on top of me although i was yet again in a paralyzed state i could feel the pain of what felt like Long nails or claws digging in to my skin as if it were clawing its way up my body, Again it was upon my chest with the same choking sensation occurring around my throat.

Over the past seven years or so i have had around nine encounters of this phenomenon. Two of which i seemed to sense  several hours before sleep as if the presence where with me watching me. And yet again going to sleep and becoming a victim of the whole terrifying experience again. The experience of having a night terror is truly terrifying and it may be a bit hard to digest if you have not experienced it first hand.

During these ordeals i have experience being jumped on from a height e.g wardrobes, closets,

I have never understood why this happens or what makes it happen, i thought for many years that i was the only person who experienced this but i was wrong. In order to research this subject i must keep an unbiased picture one must read between the lines and connect alot of dots between science and folklore.

The scientific explanation:

The medical establishment is quite aware of this phenomenon they call it sleep paralysis or ‘ISP’ Isolated sleep paralysis. They explain this by saying that sleep paralysis occurs when the brain is in the transition between deep, dreaming sleep  known as REM rapid eye movement, and waking up. During REM dreaming sleep, the brain has been turned off most of the body’s muscle functions. so we cannot act out our dreams making us temperately paralyzed.

However the sleep experts still do not know what causes the brain to function like this or why some people experience it more than others. 

Folklore, myth or legend explanation:

From much research into this unexplained phenomenon i came across several explanations but one sounded more like the experience i had occurred through my life.

This was old hag syndrome. The explanation being of an apparition reported to resemble an ugly old woman with tangled hair, rotting teeth, mad eyes and claw like fingers. The hag is also related to the Mara (from which the word nightmare derived) a demon that likes to attack humans at night.

Victims of hag attacks claim that they awake abruptly to find they cannot move even though they can see, hear, feel and smell. There is often a feeling of great weight on there chest and a feeling of a sinister or evil presence within the room.

Old hag syndrome has been documented since ancient times. The name of the phenomenon comes from the superstitious belief that a witch i.e old hag sits or rides the chest of the victim rendering them immobile.

Recent scientific studies has also suggested that most reports occur in areas when there is little or no geomagnetic activity.

I myself am not dismissive of scientific rational explanations of things. I would like to comfort myself believing that sleep paralysis was a simple sleep disorder. But with the nature of these attacks i find it hard to believe and therefore i am still researching this subject from all angles it is perhaps needless to say that i am eager to learn more as one thing is undeniable sleep paralysis/ old hag syndrome is a strange and horrifying occurrence that leaves many questions unanswered.