Childhood "Night terrors" .. anyone else?

I'm not sure if this is in the right forum or not but here goes..

So growing up I always had horrible vivid Night terrors. From as early as I can remember up until was about 14 or so... then I just kind of grew out of them. Now i had nightmares almost every night. My mother started sending me to therapy around 7 or so when my parents divorced and that was the many topics we talked about. My mother was always unconvinced that they had anythign to do with the divorce since they had been going on for years prior.

WHile there were many different types of nightmares there were a few recurring ones that were always either exactly the same or very similar, and i was always Lucid in them. Now other than these night terrors as a child I have never experienced Lucid dreaming to my knowledge. That is, i am never aware that I am in a nightmare. However, as a child i remember very distintly knowing i was having a nightmare, and even physically telling myself over and over again that it was just a dream and that i would wake up. The thing is... I never really "woke up". For instance I had one reccurring dream where i was waiting to fall asleep and i would start to feel something on the bed. I would look over to either side and see some type of hand ( always reminded me of the gremlins hands from the movie lol) slowly sliding down the bed. Feeling left and right. I never saw anything other than a hand, and i never "let" it touch me. I would always throw the covers over my head (because everyone knows monsters cant get under the covers!) and start screaming for my mother until she came and got me. BUt thats just it... in the "dream" i would be screaming for her, and would continue screaming until she came into the room - cut on the light- and pulled the blanket off my face. She always found me wide awake. And i always started screaming while i was having the "dream"

That's kind of what has bothered me, was that it always felt SO REAL to me. Were these hallucinations?

One "dream" in particular still to this day puzzles not only me but my mother as well, and is the reason for me writing this thread.

I remember i was laying in my bed in the middle of summer. I was about 5 or 6 It was hot as hell, we didnt have AC so the window was wide open and i remember it being very muggy. It was always so muggy.My bedroom was on the 2nd story of our house which was located outside of a small town in rural virginia. No close neighbors. I remember that i woke up because of the heat and being all sweaty. Ive never been able to sleep much less tolerate the heat in any way. I remember pulling the blanket up to uncover my feet because they were starting to sweat. Then all of the sudden i heard very heavey breathing.I turn over and there is this huge.... "Gorilla". (This is the term i have always used to describe it, though in retrospect it doesnt seem remotely close to a Gorilla) I remember that it was either solid black or very dark. It was covered in Fur. Its head seemed only a few inches from the ceiling and the ceilings inthat house wee 8ft. It was very stocky/thick and it had no neck. I remember seeing it, seeing its hands move, and then i got up - started screaming- and ran. The room wasn't pitch black there had to have been either a full moon or something because i remember very distinctly the bright bluish/white light coming through the open window and that was how i could see it. I ran to the bathroom, screaming again for my mom, i remember slamming the door shut and just screaming. My mom came in and then i black out. Now talking to my mom over the years she claims that she remembers waking up hearing me scream again and arguing with my dad about who was going to come get me that time- and iguess she drew short straw. She said she got up and came to the bathroom and had to push the door open because i moved the magazine rack in front of it ( i dont remember that ) she said that i was sitting on the toilet white as a ghost rocking back and forth with my knees in my chest, and my arms around my knees. She said that she picked me up and immediately passed out in her arms.

this night is kinda of "folklore" in my family, and a lot of people tease me because over the years i have always maintained- as i did that night- that it was NOT a dream. Just like all the other times. I remember that my mother was so concerned about how adamant i was that she made my father check the whole house for an "intruder". By the end of the night everyone in the house was awake and turning on lights just to suffice my childhood mind but it wouldnt work. I refused to go back to sleep alone, and refused to sleep in that room for some time because i "knew" there was something there.

It has always bugged me that i was so awake and aware during these episodes. I guess my point is.... does this sound familiar at all to anyone? anyone else ever had something similar? I know rationally this and all of the other "dreams" were just that, that IS the only logical solution... but i am interested in anyone elses opinion..

a reply to: itswhatev

You're not alone.

I experienced pretty scary stuff in my childhood, too.

Now I have mild premonition, I don't talk much about it but I just really, really want you to know that science DID NOT answered everything.

a reply to: itswhatev

I used to have these 2 horrific nightmares when I was somewhere between 8 and 12.

One was about the concrete floor at the bottom of our basement stairs. In the dream I was 110% sure there was a body buried at the base of the stairs.

The other was about a chair; usually had it when I had a fever. That's it; a chair, one of the ones in our house; an old chair with wooden legs held together with wire. For whatever reason it would freak me out big time. It was like I could feel it inside me or maybe it was me inside of it...

Have never had them since. Hope me posting this doesn't bring them back......

a reply to: swanne

But it did, mostly.
Hypnagogia

You should take a good close look at all the nasty horror imagery that children are exposed to!
Most people dont notice it because its become a part of every day life.
Take a real close look at some of the disney stuff! Even Winnie the poo is full of horrific imagery that infects a childs mind! I say "infect" because naturally a human would NEVER see such imagery, and therefore have no reason for such things as night terrors.

Got a young child? Be very careful about what there exposed to, keep then safe from such imagery and they wont have any need to be frightened at bed time.

a reply to: itswhatev

Im convinced that you have experienced demonic attacks. Every now and then, demons still attack me at night...to the point that I may have come close to death by strangulation a time or two (or at least it felt that way). When it gets really bad, something wakes my wife up to wake me up. I rarely see whats attacking me, but I can feel its knees on my chest and its claws around my throat.

If you believe that Jesus died for our sins, then prayer in Jesus' name will send the demons running when it happens. The problem that I have noticed now is that the demons are "guiding" my dreams now so that I am unaware that I am being attacked. The challenge is recongizing the attack when its happening, and remembering to pray. When Im in a dream state, its not always easy for me to break the lucidity barrier.

Well, the above poster covered the religious dogma so let's return to reality.

A possibility that you may wish to consider is that your mind has blocked access to a very traumatic event in your early childhood and no, your parents may not know what it is. Or maybe they do.

Do some research on the term 'Repressed Memories.'

P

I appreciate all of the replies. While i understand that a "waking dream" is technically what i was experiencing i guess... I have always been convinced that there was another explanation. I dont know if i was visited by "aliens", "demons", "something paranormal" or what... but that in addition to other strange things that happened to me and my family for a long time have me convinced that there was something else going on. I guess i was just wondering/hoping in a way that someone else had a similar experience to my "Gorilla"...

a reply to: pheonix358

One of my many therapists was convinced (due to other issues ive had throughout life) that i was sexually abused as a child and was repressing the memories, and that this "dark figure" was in fact my mind's representation of the abuser. To my knowledge the alleged abuse never happened... and honestly if it did i wouldn't want to remember. But if that were the case why have i never seen or had another experience with this same figure. i would think if it were in fact a repressed piece of my psyche that it would have continued to pop up throughout my life?

originally posted by: itswhatev
a reply to: pheonix358

One of my many therapists was convinced (due to other issues ive had throughout life) that i was sexually abused as a child and was repressing the memories, and that this "dark figure" was in fact my mind's representation of the abuser. To my knowledge the alleged abuse never happened... and honestly if it did i wouldn't want to remember. But if that were the case why have i never seen or had another experience with this same figure. i would think if it were in fact a repressed piece of my psyche that it would have continued to pop up throughout my life?

Repression, refers to the suppression of an event held within our long term memory center. It is repressed only from conscious thought. The sub conscious is another deal entirely and is not at all logical. It will work on your problems in seemingly insane ways.

It does not have to be sexual in nature. Too many therapists take this road too easily.

You may have seen something that horrified you. My youngest saw my middle son slice the head off a rat. His psych did not like that one bit. My middle son considered he had killed a rodent with a fine stroke.

My youngest suddenly got the idea that life was fleeting. It can be something that you would now just go yuck, but that traumatized your younger self.

P

a reply to: itswhatev

I read a book, "Exovaticana" by Tom Horn that gave some details on paranormal/ demonic events. Many of those events involved tall hairy black beings. Some claim to have found traces of hair left after the attacks. The only reason I believe those stories, is because they all sound so similar coming from all parts of the world. Your story only corroborates Tom Horns arguments.

Ive never seen my attacker(s), but my wife has. She says it looks like a dead old witch. Oddly, my grandmother, halfbrother and best friend all struggle with similary happenings.

a reply to: BELIEVERpriest

Hmm that's interesting. While my logical mind is more inclined to believe as Pheonix358 posted that it is some type of repressed memory of "something". I have always toyed with the idea that it isnt something that can be that easily explained.

I remember watching a program probably about 5 years ago about children in asia i believe who were all being visited by the same " thing". In this program it was geared toward alien abductions i believe, which i dont know that i really whole heartedly believe... But what struck me is the children all drew pictures of a tall, dark, hairy-looking beast that looked surprisingly like what i saw. My mother has pictures that she got me to draw of what i "saw" after the incident that looked almost identical to what the children were drawing. Now given that the description of a "tall dark foreboding figure" is not a very specific one i imagine that that it could be a coincidence- or even that childrens minds all work in a similar way when trying to explain something they cant... but that has always stuck with me.

I will have to look up this Tom Horn, Thanks!

a reply to: itswhatev

I cant speak for your case, but my experiences are definitely not psychological in nature. My wife has seen demons attack me on two occasions before waking up to wake me up from what I knew where paralysis episodes. My grandmother (my mom's side) sees demons trying to attack my grandfather in his sleep. You can use the genetic argument for my grandmother and I, but what about my wife and grandfather. Furthermore, my half-brother is from my dad's side, and he struggles with old hag syndrom too. Then my best friend has all kinds of stranger things happening.

There is no shared psychosis here, no shared genetic factors. The truth is that there is an entire unseen world around us. We only see it during sleep, death (or near death), and under extreme psychoactive circumstances.

a reply to: itswhatev

I was just thinking about my childhood night terrors when my youngest child had one over the weekend.

I remember when I was a little kid having terrible nightmares but not being able to articulate what the nightmare was. As I got older, I started having sleep paralysis episodes. I started wondering if there is a connection between childhood night terrors and sleep paralysis. Sleep paralysis is horrifically scary as an adult, it must be much worse when it happens to a child.

So, I don't want to add more and change this into a SP thread. I just wonder what the relationshipis between the two.

a reply to: itswhatev

I'm 29 years old and I've had the same night terror since I was 6-7 years old... When I was that age I remember watching a show called Twin Peaks with my mom. For those who aren't familiar with that show there was a character named Leland Palmer who had this strange/weird split personality named Bob. Bob was the reason why I rarely got good sleep as a child, and still deal with dreams today (but not at frequent)... What's odd, is that I can remember these dreams quite vividly, which leads me to thinking about them a lot.

A typical dream goes something like this... I will be around family in my old childhood house. Before you know it I would find myself alone (where family seems to just disappear, but not before my eyes, they just aren't there). Quickly I will feel that a "Bob" dream is coming on, which at that point I've tried to wake myself up (kinda Freddy Kreuger like). I will be alone, I will sense Bob being around. Then the power goes out... I go down to my laundry room to get a flash light. Once I turn it on (pointing out from me) the light shines right on Bob's face right in front of me.. Terrifying when you are in the dream.... I know it likely doesn't sound like much, but as a child, having dreams like this was terrifying and I constantly (3-5 times a week growing up) I would wake my parents up screaming in my room from these dreams....

Crazy how something from your childhood can be carried on to your adult life like that...

What's even stranger is that when I have these dreams today, I'm never a 29 year old grown man, but that little boy who was always scared...

Those sound like "genetic memories". A memory of some event so terrible it got passed down through DNA.

Two of my dreams were in the top floor Victorian apartment in a terraced street.

One time I dreamt of something like a spinning key flying round and round our lamp - it seemed to have a golden glow and was casting a shadow from the light socket cable onto the ceiling. When dad came through to put the light on, I was standing on the bed, and it just seemed to fly off straight towards the wall which had shelves. Days later, we found a June bug on the top shelf. I guess the glow might have come from the reflection of the street light.

Another time, I dreamed of an injured air man in the attic above my room. Next day, Dad's gone up into that space to look at his boxes, and he's found a injured bird that flew into the open skylight.

a reply to: BELIEVERpriest

The "old witch" may be the "old hag" that has been seen by people during/after sleep paralysis episodes. I saw "her" once.

Google "old hag" and "sleep paralysis" weird how common the story is across cultures.

a reply to: PrinceRupertsDog

Yeah, what is even weirder, is that Ive never seen the old hag, just felt it. It was my wife that saw it attack me. My wife found herself standing next to our bed, out side of her body when she saw the old hag jump on me. She said a little girl had awoken her from her body so that she could wake me from the attack. The whole thing still freaks me put a little. We dont practice astral projection or lucid dreaming, these things just happen to us. I thinks its related to my research in the biblical angelic conflict.

a reply to: BELIEVERpriest

That's really weird!

When I was a little kid, I also saw shadow people. I was 4 or 5. I just thought they were people visiting from heaven. I thought I could see them watching me as I fell asleep. Coming and going.

I didn't know what shadow people were until one day when I googled it, wondering if other people ever saw them.

While i do appreciate everyone's personal experience, I would like to focus more specifically on these "waking dreams". While i have never experience sleep paralysis, having read up on this " old hag/witch" I do not believe that to be the same thing i saw. I also had complete control of my body during this "episode/encounter"

My night terrors always occurred in whatever room/environment i was already in. Normally my bedroom/bed. There was no dream-like qualities to it other than what ever the protagonist at that current time was. I was always lucid and aware of my surroundings. I suppose it could have been an in-between state of being asleep and then awakened, Hypnagogia as ItCameFromOuterSpace mentioned but even to this day it seems real.

To this day i can not sleep with my feet uncovered. i am 27 years old. this happened when i was about 6, and still these feelings are so strong that i irrationally go out of my way to prevent the same situation from ever happening. I know that it couldnt have been " real " .... logically.... but it left such an impression on my mind that 20 years later i still think about it, and remember the way it looked as if it were yesterday.