A NIGHTMARE ON ME STREET - PART 1Six Hypnagogic Hallucinations and One Guy Who Peed on His Gran
ILLUSTRATIONS BY J. PENRY
Hypnagogia: It’s the phenomenon of experiencing very real and quite often terrifying dreamlike sensations while falling asleep or waking up. The horrible thing about this is that it goes hand in hand with sleep paralysis, meaning you are trapped and unable to move while having the worst time of your life. Also horrible is that you think you’re awake while the scary stuff is happening to you. In fact, Wes Craven based the whole idea of A Nightmare on Elm Street on it.
Sufferers of hypnagogia, or “the wide-awake nightmare,” often complain of having dark figures standing over them, of visitations by aliens, or of feeling somebody pushing down on their chest while they lie paralyzed, unable to wake up until they finally force out a terrified scream that sounds like “Wuh wuh WUH WUH WAAAAAAGHHOOOOOFFF!!!”
We spoke to seven regular hypnagogia sufferers and this is what they told us. We’re praying that this condition is not contagious, the way nightmares sometimes are, because if it is, we—not to mention our roommates and loved ones—are all now totally fucked.
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PORTAL TO THE DEAD
About five years ago I was drinking heavily and doing about two grams of cocaine a night. My substance-abuse problems really took off at about the same time my aunt and my grandmother passed away in front of my eyes in close proximity.
Early one morning I got home from partying all night, drinking whiskey, and doing cocaine. I’d passed out in all my clothes on my bed (again) and was woken at 8 AM by the light coming through the crack in the curtains in my room. I remember not being able to move and hearing a voice outside my bedroom door asking me if I wanted a cup of tea. To my horror, it was my dead grandmother’s voice, and at that moment of realization, my nose was filled with the smell of her house, a mixture of Mr. Sheen polish and boiled cabbage. Things got worse when my door handle started going up and down and Grandma started barging into the door, making it rattle against the frame. I was totally paralyzed. It was like the end scene of Suspiria, when Suzy Bannion’s dead best friend walks through the door in the head witch’s bedroom. It was like a portal of the dead was opening into my room and it was really fucking scary. I remember breathing about three breaths a second and feeling extremely cold. Then, to top it all off, an invisible hand started to scrawl the word “PIG” in blood on my bedroom wall.
This set me off and I let out a bloodcurdling scream. I woke trembling and covered in sweat. I hope the neighbors didn’t hear it. After that I resolved to put the blow aside for at least three days.
ANDY CAPPER |
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NOSEBLEEDING INDIAN
I’ve always been fascinated by the topic of sleep paralysis. The last time it happened I was awake in my bed but totally unable to move. I saw a guy with his face painted. He looked kind of like a Native American with a headdress. I was paralyzed in my bed and he was standing over me. The more I looked at him, the more the red paint on his face appeared to be turning into blood. It was pretty scary.
When I finally forced myself to wake up I saw that my nose was bleeding.
KEVIN FIELDS
CANCER FUNERAL
Two years ago this girl from my hometown died of cancer. I wasn’t around for the funeral, but apparently it was incredibly disturbing—her mother broke down as |
| the girl’s coffin was lowered into the grave, her father was literally tearing his clothes in grief, and her two older brothers were in hysterics. |
 Hearing about it, I began to feel incredibly guilty about not going to the funeral, not calling the girl in her final days, not having done anything to help the family. For days I would replay what I imagined the funeral to be like, until one afternoon I guess I became emotionally and physically exhausted. It was around 4 PM, and suddenly, replaying the funeral once again, I had to lie down. I began to think of the funeral again, but for some reason it was much, much more real, and the scene that played out was somehow above me, as if I were in the bottom of the grave. Above, I could see my mother going berserk as she looked down at me and I could hear the distinct wail of my father as he broke down in grief. “This is fucking ridiculous, I’m not dead, that girl is,” I thought, but my incredulity at the situation quickly turned to panic, since I couldn’t remove myself from the grave. I kept on trying to get their attention, but they were too busy freaking out to notice me. I tried to alert them for what seemed like hours but it was totally useless, and finally I began to cry out of frustration. When I felt a tear on my cheek I suddenly snapped out of it and was back in my room.
CINDY McCULLOUGH
TO BE CONTINUED:
A NIGHTMARE ON ME STREET | 1 | 2 |
 Anonymous, on Jul 6, 2008 wrote:
I have had this happen about 6 times and its always the grim reaper without the sycthe standing at the foot of my bed and I keep thinking I have to scream or move or I’ll die but I cant and then I start breathing hard then I can start moving | | |
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