Powerless and Frightened

[DarkRomanticWriter]

I had woken up at about four in the morning from a night of basically normal dreams and since I had a few hours before my alarm went off, I must have fallen back asleep, but the beginning of the dream felt more like a hallucination than a dream.

So, the dream began and it was night time, very dark outside, and I was in a snowstorm. From my surroundings it looked like I was a pretty good way from society. I soon saw another guy also in the snowstorm, and then I saw bright headlights from an approaching car. The man who got out of the car looked normal except for his face, which resembled a gas mask and it looked scary.

He gave the man a bottle of something and he said, "It will help, just make sure not to fall asleep..." and when he said the, "Don't fall alseep ..." I seemed to start falling asleep and he was looking at me when he said it. Not only this, but everything started getting slower and I started falling.

Next thing I knew, I was in my room and I was floating just above the floor. I was sort of spinning but everything was slow motion, as were my attempts to speak. I was frightened by how powerless I felt at the time. Then I was in my bed and no matter how much I tried, I could not move or speak. I was powerless and losing control of my own body and mind, and was fighting for my voice and ability to move.



I soon was able to wake up but since then I have been paranoid and afraid and depressed. The guy in the mask basically said all would be ok unless I fall asleep, so I'm afraid to fall asleep and have everything go all slow motion and me feeling powerless to stop it.

Anyone have any interpretation? Or prevention from it happening again?

[Domswallow]

Hi,
Relax! Your dream was just another version of the sleep paralysis dreams most people have every so often. The dream usually happens when the sleeper is sleeping on his/her back.
The subconscious creates the dream to literally frighten the sleeper awake with the "idea" that he/she can't move and powerless to act. If you have the dream again you'll know what it is, and why it's happening.

[Eclectic Enigma]

I have found that fear actually will increase the occurance. And i was really freaked out when it first happened to me. Hardly able to sleep and when i did fall asleep it would happen. But it didnt begin this way. There is more to that but i dont want to add to the already delicate sotuation and make it worse. But being scares keeps us more "awake" (mentaly active) and therefore more able to enter the state where this occurs. It happens more when we first fall asleep because of the brainwave state. Also.... It has happened to me when I sleep on my side not just my back. I don't think that sleep paralysis is just a 'simply' explained occurance and believe there is more to it. I mean... I don't believe the subconscious creates this situation at all.... But when it occurs we are actually having a different experience that has much more depth than simply being chalked up to a creation of the subconscious.... Especially considering that this is the same state that incubus/succubus attacks generally occur in. (But everyone has their own way of understanding things)

[WritersPassion]

That may be true...but I looked in the dream dictionary and a lot of what I found corresponding to the dream was the feeling of being powerless and not in control of the situations and choices I make and that's kinda true and I've been feeling upset about it. I just hate being so frightened by the dream that I am not wanting to sleep.

[Eclectic Enigma]

Just falling to sleep or during the early hours after sleeping for a while is generally when it occurs .... I don't believe the dream dictionary can be applied to these types of 'dreams' in a sense that it is too simplified. As i said, the occurance goes deeper than this.... Dream interpretation is taken too lightly by most to begin with. But again that is my opinion. You actually obe'd and then snapped back into your body which is when you experienced the paralysis. There is a function that keeps us paralyzed more or less while we sleep but for people who sleep walk this doesn't work for them and they act out their dreams. For others, like us we become conscious yet the function is still active and that is because our brainwaves are still at another level. Things like this occuring can take us into the astral plane or the other dimension that exists in the same space as we exist in (that our 5 senses do not readily perceive). However traveling in spirit form we can observe this plane. Drifting into this plane when we are not centered within results in the experience you had. Things can still occur when this happens if you are centered, however we are able to psychicly defend ourselves more than not.



Again this is just what I have learned, along with my own thoughts and opinions... I don't know if this helps at all but Of course take what you wish from it and leave the rest.

[Domswallow]

Hi EE,

I don't think that sleep paralysis is just a 'simply' explained occurance and believe there is more to it.

There maybe more to it as stress and tiredness is a big factor in dreams. Tiredness;phisical and mental, does effect the going to sleep process, especially the first half hour.
Drem interpretation is impossible without a long study of actually watching peoply sleep. The subconscious controls the movements and waking processes during sleep. We all make many movements during sleep without the slightes idea that we moved. Without changing sleeping positions, most people would wake up with bedsores!
The idea of incubus/ succubus is based on primitive ignorance. There are simple explanations and reasons for them. The same goes for "astral projection".
Our subconscious is a very powerful entity. It takes care of about 90 percent of our life.

[WritersPassion]

I think they do happen earlier in the morning, and idk what is making the nightmares happen, be it the subconscious or something further.

But last night (night after this nightmare) before I went to bed, I would close my eyes and all I could see was that masked man. And for some reason, each time I saw him I would burst into tears and just be so frightened.

Finally I got to sleep and had normal dreams until I woke up at about the same time and went to sleep again and had like another dream relating to it.

I was in a room and there was a book and a voice reading it but not a person. My friend was there and the voice was reading to him and the book was filled with what people fear. The voice told my friend that what my friend fears the most is losing his temper (which is true), then my friend ran away. Then the voice talked to me and basically said, "You fear a lot, but you mostly fear this." then a picture of the masked man flashed and I got real scared and kept saying how I wasn't gonna be afraid.

I have no idea what it could mean.

[Eclectic Enigma]

It shows you aren't owning up to your own fears but still running from them. They (fears) no longer hold power once they are faced/embraced. Once you get used to it and see it for what it is it will not hold the same power and begin to change. But the change always begins within you.