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Last sleep cycle, I was politely tapped awake at 3:24 am by the tall, dark, and brooding silhouette. I was paralyzed. I could not move while my puny mortal mind pounded: "Twitch little finger, twitch! "
Impasse...
But suddenly, alas, hearing a little creak in the floorboards, my Mr. Shadow Man turned and split-- noodling back into the shadows of the wall. I then happily resumed dreaming about "butterflies and sausages"[0].
I could not forget what I had seen this morning and was so nervous I had to write it down. Was it real? Or was I in a dream within a dream, probably within another dream? And I had probably just woken up after dying at level 2...
Inception was a far less scary answer, until I remembered a long-suppressed childhood memory of seeing a dark shadowy figure at the foot of the stairs, wearing a hat. I saw it with my sleepover friend. He can corroborate. But we were kids back then, so could it be our incredible imagination? and there were a couple other times when I had waken up on a cleanly made up bed in the middle of almost-darkness when I had clearly remembered snuggling under the covers. And there was a blurry white blob floating in front of me. I have no idea how I reacted to that. Those experiences left me with room for a belief of the supernatural, but the long time period with no occurances between the latter bed story and the yesterday's event, along with college experiences in general, left me with a nice skepticism. I was always hoping ignorance was bliss, but not when you know something else entirely is standing right next to you...
Everything's always a bit more scary when you mix a little fact into it: According to a Penn State sleep study, "31.9% of psychiatric patients experienced at least one episode of sleep paralysis. Of the psychiatric patients with panic disorder, 34.6% reported lifetime sleep paralysis." These are usually accompanied by terrifying hallucinations.
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This phenom is popular enough that there exists theories that these events are caused by "Shadow People/Men". Scientists think these are either mere hallucinations, results of the body's reaction to drugs and the such, or the result of disruption of REM (vivid dreaming) sleep during which you get muscle atonia (temporary paralysis) for your own safety. On the other hand, another group of people believe in the existence of Shadow People. Just look at how many websites and online forums involve the Shadow People!
Modern theories are nebulous, attributing Shadow People to anything from time travelers observing us in a shadowy state to astral projections, and to spiritual entities. Some claim the shadows "jump on their chest and choke them"[1]. And some vividly describe them as dark human silhouettes that flicker in and out of the peripheral. Even scarier, the Shadow Guys are being blamed for the Sudden Unexplained Nocturnal Death Syndrome (SUNDS). The C-listed movie, "The Shadow People" puts forth this argument to a mere 30% freshness (rottentomatoes.com). Researchers from Baylor College of Medicine in Texas trace most actual cases to southeast Asia, but unfortunately, the patients cannot comment on these allegations at this time [2].
Chad Stambaugh, a really retired US Marine intrigued by shadow stuff and the suddenly majoring in CS, claims he has caught evidence of Shadow People in photos. To our dismay, the Google search for "Chad Stambaugh Shadow People" only pulls up pictures of Chad Stambaugh. His actual website briefly mentions Shadow People and then goes on to pull up more pictures of Chad Stambaugh. He has a nice head of hair.
The interweb's Shadow People search results only turn up sites dedicated to pet frogs and black cats, and a wiki here and there. It is difficult to trust self-proclaimed witch-herbalists. The search returns few solid leads and we are left to wonder if it is only our imagination. None of the drawings look even close to my Shadow Man, but I'm sure I will find more answers the next time I mix horror movie+Nicolas Cage. I'll be sure to have my Google Glass on "eye-twitch mode" ready next time.
;]
References:
[0]Some episode from "The Simpsons"
[1]"Shadow People & the "Hat Man"". Coast to Coast AM. 2008-03-07. Retrieved 2013-04-25.
[2] "Genetic and biophysical basis of sudden unexplained nocturnal death syndrome (SUNDS), a disease allelic to Brugada syndrome." Department of Pediatrics (Cardiology), Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA. Hum Mol Genet. 2002 Feb 1;11(3):337-45.
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