the man over your bed staring down at you

[PPI Matt]

i am a proud dad of a 16 month old.  i am constantly looking in on him as he sleeps and he is often waking up as i change a diaper, or fix his blanket, but he goes right back to sleep.

i am willing to suggest the "man over the bed" most commonly seen during sleep paralysis (and often times seen as an alien doctor) may be repressed memories as a baby, seeing your father or mother, checking up on you in the darkened room.  can you imagine what you look like to a sleepy baby in his crib, barely awake? 

any thoughts?

[bellalaghoste]

i think the doctors right.  most of the time with children and even adults sleeping disorder.
have you collected any evidence of a man looking at your child while he was sleeping?

[PPI Matt]

maybe i wasnt clear.  the man over your bed, a common phenomenon, i am suggesting may be repressed memories of parents looking down at the "victim" as a baby (the person having the feeling that something is looking at them) while sleeping, rather than an actual entity standing over the bed, looking at the "victim".

it is so common, and is perhaps one experience shared by almost everyone on earth.  the love from their parents.  but in the dark, a person bent over (the crib) looking down, if stored in the subconscious, may be replayed as an adult, or sometimes a child.

why it is associated with sleep paralysis, i dont know, but i do know i have seen "the man" and a lot of other people have seen "the man," all over earth.

it is commonly associated with alien abduction also, or obe, which if you have ever had sleep paralasys, you can feel like you are moving, see things as they almost actually are, although you are very sluggish, and heavy.

[leslie]

I have had the sleep paralysis in my past.  There was a man directly over me, but he was wearing a black cloak, top hat (or black hat) and seemed to carry a cane of some type. I was completely paralized and could not look at anything but him. It was very scary. I was covered with fear (or paralized in fear). It almost felt like I was awake ... like an out of body experience of some sort. I will never forget that experience and never want it again.

[bellalaghoste]

Ok i get it know.  it probaly is sleep paralysis.  They say alien abductions is sleep paralysis. sorry for the spelling in a hurry.

[PPI Matt]

the last time (hopefully) that i had it, i was working at disneyland, and i was staying in a hotel during the days/evenings as i was working the third shift (midnight-8am)  i was exhausted.  it didnt help that i was watching xfiles before bed, i was paralized, and i saw him standing and looking over me.  i cant remember what it was wearing, but it was scary.  I hate sleep paralysis.  it seems to occur mostly when i am stressed, or have been getting little sleep.  carl sagan wrote in demon haunted world that sleep paralysis was most possibly to blame for most of the alien abduction reports, or obe's.  i dont have the quote, but sagan was brilliant.  i dont know what to say about the guy with the cane. that would freak me out, but then, EVERY time i have it i am freaked out.  why else would i be trying to wake myself up.
stress sucks.  the body wants to be rid of it and it wants to sleep, the brain is stressed and wants to mull things over.  a push and pull that can lead to some FUNKY dreams.

the place tracy dave ellie and i investigated last saturday at camp pendleton didnt seem haunted to me.  personal opinion, but they were seeing "the man" along with some other things.  she saw the man while in her bed, but on the landing of her stairs.  hard to say, but she COULD have nodded off for a minute.
the family was obviously going through seperation anxiety with the dad being deployed.

[PPI Glenn]

Have you ever heard of the 'Old Hag' syndrome?  People describe it the same way you have except they report seeing a old, scruffy looking woman that looks like your stereotypical witch. However, I don't think this is the same thing as OBEs.  With OBEs, people regularly report being able to see themselves in bed and I've even heard reports where they can see other people in other locations though they cannot interact with them.

[leslie]

Check out this link.

http://www.dreamsnightmares.com/sleepparalysis.html

[PPI Brian]

This is a fascinating topic. 

I have done a lot of research on this topic, and "Old Hag" syndrome has been reported for centuries by people from many different cultures. There are common variations of it, with varying degrees of paralysis and auditory, visual and tactile hallucinations, such as the "monk spirit" or "shadow person" that many people report standing over their beds at night. Studies have shown that these experiences are not paranormal in origin, but represent common psychological artifacts of the hypnagogic state between sleep and wakefulness. Everyone I know has experienced this at one level or another.

All the sleep studies I've read indicate that our brain actually "disconnects" the motor function centers during REM sleep, which is a good thing or else we would thrash around and seriously hurt ourselves. All mammals share this sleep characteristic. Ever see your dog's feet twitch when they're dreaming?   Some people with damage to certain portions of the brain have lost the ability to "disconnect" their motor function during sleep and have to be restrained to prevent them from injuring themselves.

The Old Hag and other sleep paralysis issues occur in the groggy state between sleep and wakefulness, when you're aware that you're dreaming but you're not really awake. Because you are in REM sleep at the time this occurs, your motor functions are disabled. It's similar to the common nightmare of trying to run away from someone/something but you feel like you're running in waist-deep water.  Ironically, this is the state that lucid dreamers consciously attempt to achieve. Lucid dreaming techniques are effective in breaking the cycle of helplessness that often accompanies these episodes. I'm inclined to believe that lucid dreams account for not only a majority of OBE reports but also alien abduction reports.

Here are a few links about this interesting phenomena:

http://paranormal.about.com/library/weekly/aa112000a.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_disorder
http://www.sleepnet.com/rest5/messages/247.html
http://paranormal.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://watarts.uwaterloo.ca/%7Eacheyne/S%5FP.html

Be sure to check out the Waterloo Unusual Sleep Experiences Questionaire:
http://paranormal.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://watarts.uwaterloo.ca/%7Eacheyne/S%5FP.html

[leslie]

It's interesting because I was in a 1/2 sleep 1/2 awake state. I felt as though my soul was coming out of my body (out of body experience) too. It almost felt like this man wanted to take my soul. The weird thing was, a friend of mine was the one who woke me out of this state. No joke, she attended a Christian highschool and was in prayer class and had an awful feeling about me. She asked to be dismissed from prayer class and called me. The first words out of her mouth were, "Are you o.k.?".

I don't know if it was mere coincidence, or if there really was some sort of evil presense in my room. I tend to lean towards the latter, but that is just because it was my personal experience that ties to my personal beliefs. I do find it odd that people have the same type visitor in thier dreams (i.e. "The old hag"), have the same feelings of fear and anxiety, and same state of sleep. I have heard of people seeing the man similar to the ones in my dream, but I didn't hear about it until after I experienced it, so I cannot write it off as power of suggestion.

The old man has never since visited me, but has appeared in different form twice. It was a black shadow/mass with no form. Extremely evil. Again, I had out of body type experience and a paralysis state. I NEVER want to have dreams like that again. 3 times in my life was enough.

[bellalaghoste]

old hag uh heard of a pilwiz which is a old women with a large toe that uses it to tangle mens hair when sleeping. cool huh
Check this out.wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Pilwiz - 65k   Got this info off the internet but knew about this creaturebefore I seen it on the net by playing trival persuit for kids with my niece. Crazy!!!!

[PPI Matt]

"He has found that changing sleep position can reduce the incidence of these nightmares. He also suggests getting up and physically moving around after having an episode as several can occur in one night. " - i am going to have to try that.  i dont usually get up, but fall back asleep during paralysis.  it happens all too frequently, go back to sleep, and then have the paralysis again.  what a "nightmare" (pun intended) usually im so tired, i just want to sleep, since im such a light sleeper, but i am going to try that getting up thing.

thanks for the link leslie, i got a little "lost" in that site for a bit. ill have to go back. (was reading a little about lucid dreaming), i will have to start a new topic though if i want to elaborate.

i strongly suggest anyone interested in dreams and nightmares to hit that link posted by leslie.

-m@

[johnny]

"He has found that changing sleep position can reduce the incidence of these nightmares. He also suggests getting up and physically moving around after having an episode as several can occur in one night. " - i am going to have to try that.  i dont usually get up, but fall back asleep during paralysis.  it happens all too frequently, go back to sleep, and then have the paralysis again.  what a "nightmare" (pun intended) usually im so tired, i just want to sleep, since im such a light sleeper, but i am going to try that getting up thing.

thanks for the link leslie, i got a little "lost" in that site for a bit. ill have to go back. (was reading a little about lucid dreaming), i will have to start a new topic though if i want to elaborate.

i strongly suggest anyone interested in dreams and nightmares to hit that link posted by leslie.

-m@

OK removed previous post as it was not going to help! I don't know if this can relate but I found that I had breathing problems when I sleep in a particular position, usually on my back with a pillow. Sleeping on the pillow would constrict air movement while sleeping as my head was bent forward, especially around the neck, constricting air movement.  I've been told to be aware of this and stop using a pillow and breathe through my mouth.  So I stopped using a pillow and began breathing through my mouth and sure enough sleep improved!  I had no idea a thick pillow and a mixture of bad snoring could constrict breathing and circulation while sleeping.  I now sleep without a pillow but will probably get one of those flat ergonomic ones eventually and try it out.   I completely forgot to mention this! To think you could actually suffocate the body of air from the mixture of snoring and using a pillow.. perhaps something to consider.

I have a friend who has been told by spiritual massage therapist that sleeping facing the direction north will cause bad sleep, nightmares and things like that, I'm skeptical but she seems to firmly believe it, to be taken with a grain of salt I guess but also something to think about.

[PPI Tim]

All this is interesting and I would agree with you on many factors.
However, I had someone actually see the monk standing by me watching me sleep.
This person was awake and heading for the bathroom when they saw it.
I did not sense it...that time.
I have had this happen to me several times in my life. But not recently.
I have had in the past a whole group of people sitting around me and in a blink of an eye they are gone.
I sure hope it is a sleep condition. And that is what helps me get back to sleep.
But
I'm not completely sure.
The last time this happened to me was a couple months ago.
And this is what I find strange, Most of these stories of someone standing over are of someone in black.
The monk that I saw leaving out my patio door was all in white.

Tim

[PPI Brian]

Found this article on the subject and thought it was worth sharing:

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/woman/real_life/article1614366.ece

[johnny]

Found this article on the subject and thought it was worth sharing:

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/woman/real_life/article1614366.ece

Whoa, that's an incredible experience. It must have been scary to be panicking in paralysis and feel so helpless. Good article.