Sleep paralysis is like having a lucid dream but being unable to move out of the dream. To explain further, I know I am dreaming and to some extent can control what happens in the dream. However, I usually begin to feel a sense of menace pretty quickly and the dream will turn scary. At this point I cannot get out of the dream and my body is physically paralysed. I know all I have to do is move an arm or open my eyes to get out of it, but it takes a huge amount of will to do so. I usually return to a scary dream after this happens, or like you have sort of awake hallucinations. I have actually been suffering from all these phenomenon much more recently. I agree they are probably all related. I also have to be very careful with scary books/films, although sometimes I am perfectly fine. I generally manage to scare myself far more than anyone else could!

What is the sleep paralysis like? My sleeping/sleepwalking dreams are more terrifying than any awake experience, I can't read scary books or watch scary movies at all anymore. The last scary thing I read was Uncle Tom's Children by Richard Wright and every night I dreamed I was being lynched in the Jim Crow South, that was about 5 years ago when I put that book down and never picked it back up. I also have these sort of half asleep hallucinations that there are bugs or snakes all over my bed at night, and I have to turn on the light and wake myself (and my partner) all the way up before I can be sure there aren't bugs in the bed. I am sure this stuff is all related somehow, but I have never done any real research about it, except to ask around when my daughter started having night terrors, too.

I have just read the poem .. enjoyed very much.

Yeah, I guess I was lucky to be part of a family with an evil, authoritarian maternal grandmother who feverishly corrected my grammar for any sign that I was picking up my immigrant (paternal) grandmother's grammatical errors. But, keep with it, people CAN learn grammar past their toddler years, or they wouldn't bother teaching it. With spelling, I can't say that I am any better, but I do use the spellchecker to spare my audience's poor eyes.

well, not really. i do get sleep paralysis (which is terrifying) and the only strategy is try and move physically. my waking dreams; i try and stay rational - turn the lights on and read a book. like you i avoid any hallucinogens, as i know that i would react badly.

I would stay away from hallucinogens if I were you. I feel like my dreamy state of being awake and waken state of being asleep leaves me vulnerable to even light drugs (which is very cost effective, but also seems dangerous). Do you have a strategy for stopping the waking dreams when they get too frightening?

i actually suffer very little these days, but have been left with a very active imagination, particularly when it comes to all things 'horror'. i often have almost waking dreams of very scary content.

Okay, I can see how it fits better with the background info. My daughter had them from ages 2-5. It was almost like she could see into some world of torture in those long nights (they really did last 45 minutes, too). I had them, too, and I am still a sleepwalker/talker/etc., are you? Makes for an interesting sex life (see poem "I, Ann Boleyn").

"Your" so sexy with your rubards. Makes me want to taste your sweat strawberry rubards.

If you are going to leave out the apostrophe and the capital "V", why not go all the way and write "valentimes"?

Yeah, well I'm not unshaven for nothing. It had to be either a "frenzied" or "quivering" victim. The peel versus peal debate continues in my head. Peal is a loud sound or to make a loud sound, but Peel could mean both the peeling of a layer of the tires and, to "peel off" means to veer away, depart, or leave. I think that the meaning that is most relevant to my poem (though I have no idea how it is spelled in popular usage) is the loud noise that the (frenzied, quivering) narrator's tires made as she squealed out of the driveway, so I will leave it as peal for now.

I do, do all that. Most my spelling problems are because its a word, just not the word that I want. Or I get to typing to fast, not paying attention and don't see that I've typed the wrong small word. Like if I might type is and not notice. We all do that at times though. Thanks for the suggestions and whats a person have to write to get a above a 6 from you? Think I've got a five a six and a 1 from you. The one with a five everyone else gave 10's :P (not being mean or mad, just asking what you're looking for in your reading) Have a nice day and take care. I'm surr to see you around...wavewave

but raw bone does not stink, after the first cut. a few days in the sun, or hours in august, and yes, it will. but not so quickly as you would metaphor-ize, here.