Night terrors, sleep paralysis and what it tells us.

Walking alone down a long, dimly lit corridor, old paintings hang on the walls, the floors are scattered with paper and debris. I turn to focus on one wall, instead of finding a painting, I see a television hung sideways instead. The world quickly shifts and I realize it's not the television that's sideways, it's me. My eyes are open and I'm looking across the living room, at the tv which is turned off. I'm on the couch, moaning quietly. In my head, I'm screaming, flailing trying to wake my body, but barely a twitch comes in response to the waking world. I spend a couple more hours in and out of dreams and paralysis, sometimes purposefully forcing my way back into dreamscape out of aggravation with my lifeless body.

This is very common for some, sleep paralysis, sometimes night terrors, the two are intertwined. As horrific as the above scenario may seem, it's common place in my life. I'm an insomniac, quite severe actually, when left to my own tendencies, I can stay awake for three or four days, which has a horrible toll in the body and mind. I take medication, to help me sleep, which works well, though it increases my paralysis, trying to keep me asleep.
The situation in the couch told me a great deal, and finally answered some questions. As scary as it sounded, it was just very uneasy, shaking and vertigo, and frustration with not being able to speak. Every other time I've had paralysis, it was also defined as a night terror. Science defines it as bringing back dream fragments into our world, because we are still asleep, but our eyes are open. The dreamer is paralyzed, something the body does to protect us, otherwise we'd sleep walk or roll out of bed all the time. Then according to science we re-situate these dream fragments to fit what our eyes see, causing it to look like things are standing in our room late at night.
There's the science of it. Here's the reality for anyone I know that's ever had a night terror. You may not even think you're asleep, much less had time to enter REM( the point at which science says we dream, three hours into a sleep cycle) suddenly something is sitting on your chest, or something is in the corner speaking in an unknown tongue, your frozen, can't scream, can't make it go away. There are several points I'll make here, as I've had ample time to study them, but they'll come in no particular order.
I'll start with a question I posed myself: why if these are dream fragments, are they always incredibly evil? Why do they feel external? My mind could not Imagine some o the things I've seen... Literally, I couldn't grasp it, yet according to science my mind created it. Another question begging to be answered: I'm a very active lucid dreamer, if I know this is partial dreamscape, why can't I control it? 90% of the time if I'm having a lucid dream, I can shift the world or control any dream character, so why do these fragments taunt me?
As of last night, I have had paralysis, without the night terror. I won't say it was fun, but it wasn't pure evil either, and there was a degree of control to it, despite my body being shut off. Only upon further, similar experiences can I begin to answer questions about this, I assume it'll become another dream trigger, if my eyes open and I can't wake, I'll close them and become lucid. The opposite usually works for people who don't experience lucid dreams often. If you're having a nightmare, blink quickly, soon your real eyes will open and you'll be awake.
I am going to start studying night terrors, I have read several books that had a few chapters but nothing devoted to the subject. As I believe in a mixture of science, spirituality and psychology, I'd like to find non-scientific material approaching the subject. These "dreams" do not feel like they are part of me, although they are often the post result of a nightmare, that much isn't even the case always. Sometimes I am having a perfectly peaceful, normal dream, then suddenly thrust into this horrific scene in my room. It can hurt, the weight on your chest, aching. One thing that caught my attention, they do not respond like normal dream characters, and will defy commands, that any lucid scene would change, however sometimes they respond to spiritual commands, prayer, Christian techniques, the belief that letting an entity know it has no dominion and cannot hurt you. They sometimes respond to this, possibly get more aggressive or dissipate.
There is a lot more here I could talk about, and I'll probably do a part 2, as I encounter and study more. I'm interested by the less looming paralysis, as it could be a useful tool, rather than a bad experience.
Just know, if you are haunted by these type of dreams or phenomena, you are not alone, I have them often, and I've read many case studies. Right now I'm going to search for more solid written material. Sweet dreams.