Sleep Paralysis

Today I woke up. That's what I wanted to believe but the reality was different. I was experiencing a state known as sleep paralysis.

Quote from "Sleep paralysis" wikipedia article:

"Physiologically, it is closely related to the paralysis that occurs as a natural part of REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, which is known as REM atonia. Sleep paralysis occurs when the brain awakes from a REM state, but the body paralysis persists. This leaves the person fully conscious, but unable to move. In addition, the state may be accompanied by terrifying hallucinations (hypnopompic or hypnagogic) and an acute sense of danger. Sleep paralysis is particularly frightening to the individual due to the vividness of such hallucinations."

I had such a hallucination here; next to my head near the pillow sat an elephant fetus, two times the size of a normal adult head, vivid purplish pink color and it was smiling, as if it was a statue mocking me. I could hardly breathe and I could hardly move my limbs. I had only been able to tilt my head to the side and wittness the creepy thing. I thought to myself: "Am I dreaming?" but the feeling was that of being awake, awake while being choked by terror.

Moments passed and my heart raced, I got hold of my sheet with my right hand and pulled - the smiling fetus was gone. The moment it happened I was still trying to shrug off the panic but I was definitely back to normal.

When experiencing sleep paralysis you are perceiving the world like normal but the dream world can sometimes follow through. You are half awake; awake mentally and waiting to be awake physically, it is a horrifying feeling.

I have experienced sleep paralysis a few times in my life but never accompanied with a hallucination. I spoke to my friend about it and he told me what the phenomenon was called. So if you ever experience sleep paralysis, you can just try to stay calm with the knowledge that it isn't anything alarming, the things you might see aren't real no matter how real they feel, you probably just woke up suddenly and your brain didn't adjust perfectly just yet, leaving you with these unpleasant side effects.

A real taste of the surreal.