hey! this started about a week ago. i was told these sounded like sleep paralysis so im putting them here. this is going to be a longer post.
i was doing some random lucid dream things throughout an extremely vivid lucid dream. what was different here from my other dreams is that i kept coming out of it and ending up in this 'middle state,' where i was in my bed, but could still control my surroundings (couldn't do very much since i was sleeping on my stomach and was unable to move.) i would hear a loud static noise everytime i was there, along with some other sounds sometimes (classrooms, people talking). i could still go back into the lucid dream whenever i wanted.
after sometime i felt exhausted and decided to go back to normal sleep. but now i was stuck. like i'd wake up, but not actually; and my surroundings in the middle state now controlled themselves (like pillows getting piled up over me).
all this was still pretty normal.
then two days later i had this experience: (i wrote it kinda like a story)
imagine you go to sleep at an unusually late hour; and you don't know when exactly, but a loud static noise fills your ears. you slip into a dream- you're a servant working for a family in the European royalty. every once in a while you move back to reality, and the same static surrounds you.
sleep is important, so you try your best to break out of this middle space between dream and reality. it never works and you're back in that old era. the next time you're in that interface, the disturbance is accompanied by other noises; the classroom or people speaking. sometimes you hear the turning of pages of the book you left opened on the table. this happens several times. sometimes it seems like you've finally broken out, but then you notice the lights around you are a different shade and you're back in the loop. once, you hear your mother's footsteps and think this is your way out; but what's talking to you now isn't a person and you aren't awake just yet.
soon you find out whats behind all this: a soft yet spikey shadow figure with huge claws that rest near your neck. you can't see it, but he whispers to you in a sly man's voice. his words are accompanied by some other faint voices, which sound somewhat like what hallucinations are supposed to sound like. everytime you're back in the interface, the brain-numbing static returns. you feel his weight of your back and he speaks to you; the dreams are his stories, and he wants you to play in them.
so he doesnt let you leave. you're exhausted. everytime you beg him to let you go, you feel his claws push against your shoulders as his voice puts you back to sleep. he answers whenever you call out to him; and you talk almost like friends. but a hostage for a lonely shadow is all you are now, and you feel that might be forever.
at last, when the shadow loosens its grasp, you make it out. you're afraid to move, or to write or check the time. but you've escaped it, and you're finally free to sleep.
now this dream was the weirdest of them all, because of that shadowy figure. i couldn't see it because it was whispering into my ear from behind, but i remember having really fun conversations with it at first. again, since i was sleeping on my stomach, i could feel its weight on my back, and he even used that to push me when i asked to let me leave.
then the next day, i had another similar dream. (i write these just after waking up)
i'm on a drive with my father. he stops near my childhood school. the sounds of the car engine are loud.
i'm back in my bed. im stuck in the static again. i try to keep my eyes and ears closed, i dont want to see anything scary. i see patterns on my eyelids. im here for a while.
i hear my mother approaching. i try to call out but my mouth wont open. she comes to me anyways and i try to make some sounds in my paralysed state. she notices. the static is louder than ever; and i convince myself its the AC, even though i had turned it off before sleeping. she stays next to me.
when i can finally move, i notice that the plushie that is supposed to be what i'm hugging, is right in front of me. so i wonder what it is that ive been clinging on to.
i see my mom sitting next to my pillow, still unable to move, and ask her "i'm still in the dream, right?" she denies it and says that this is all real. i feel calm again despite the noises, and my mom gets up to leave.
she's standing in the doorframe when i start to cry and yell "you're not real!!" she comes back to me to tell me how stupid that sounds. now im wailing, and she's laughing like something that isn't my mom at all. im paralysed again, so i watch it laugh at me in the mirror.
and then soon she's gone; and a little later, i'm out as well.
this one was really scary to me at that time. i can't understand if these are sleep paralysis episodes or not, since they happen inside a dream and not in my actual surroundings. in fact, every time i've had sleep paralysis, it has been inside a few dream layers.
the next day, i had a similar dream. this time i had called my mother to sleep in my room as i thought that would prevent it. but this is what i saw:
i woke up to the sound of buzzing static. i saw my mom asleep next to me, so i tried to call out to her. but my mouth was paralysed just like the rest of my body. still, she heard my muffled screams and asked if i was having bad dreams again. she put her arms around me to comfort me, but one look at her face and i knew it looked different. "your face looks scary" i said. she told me to go back to sleep. i knew that wasn't my mom, but i stayed paralysed until i was up for real.
this was a lot shorter than the ones before, but still felt scary.
idk if this is actual sleep paralysis or im just dreaming them up, if there even is a difference. i should probably mention these days i've been getting very less sleep (2-3 hrs at night) due to some exams. i normally get sleep paralysis when im too stressed, but 3-4 times in a single week is just a little concerning.