You wake up and you are terrified! It is the middle of the night. You feel a terrible sense of something evil in your room. And you can’t move!

You start to panic. You can’t open your eyes, you can’t call for help and it feels like your life is in danger. The longer this goes on, the more terrified you feel. What can you do?

This experience is called Sleep Paralysis. Some say it is purely physical, but if you’ve ever experienced it, you know it doesn’t FEEL that way. It feels like something evil is about to get you and you can’t defend yourself.

I have experienced this many, many times. So I started to study my experience so I could figure out how to make it stop happening or at the very least, find a quicker way to break out of it.

Because eventually you always break out of sleep paralysis. No one falls asleep and then stays paralyzed. We all wake up and life goes on, right?

I discovered in my personal research that although I could not move, speak or break out of sleep paralysis on my own, I could control my breathing. So when I was paralyzed, I would start breathing really loudly and intensely – like huffing and puffing. That would wake up my husband. I told him when he heard that noise to wake me up. Bingo! It worked! I broke out of sleep paralysis! (Later I found another way to do this on my own.)

But it still happened and I didn’t know why. So I continued my research, looking for more answers. I learned two key things that helped me and brought great clarity to the experience.

1. Fear is a spirit and if the Spirit of Fear is not there, you don’t feel afraid. The Lord taught me this as I was trying to overcome my fear of the unseen realm. So if you wake up terrified, it is just the Spirit of Fear harassing you.
2. You aren’t actually in any danger – it’s just an illusion. I know it FEELS very real, but that’s part of why it happens. Because you keep playing by the rules of their game. Like a bully, these spirits pick on you because they get a reaction.

I changed my reaction to the experience. When I would wake up paralyzed in the middle of the night, I knew I wasn’t in danger. I would calm my emotions down and talk to Jesus. “Holy Spirit, please help me. I come out of agreement with fear. I command Fear to leave now, in the name of Jesus. I am safe. Jesus is here.” I knew I had angels watching over me to protect me from the enemy.

Then I had a very unique experience when I was in Hawaii. I came into my dorm room and I was exhausted so I laid down to take a quick nap before dinner. I woke up and heard a noise. It sounded like when someone is putting on a pair of jeans – like the sound of thick fabric rubbing against itself. At first I was annoyed, thinking it was my husband and he had woken me up. Then I realized I was paralyzed.

But I could open my eyes! I saw the side of the room I was facing – the windows glowed with sunlight. I could see the desk and the chair and everything had a golden glow – like an outline around it. I continued to hear that strange noise and it occurred to me that maybe someone was stealing my books – that sound could be books slipping into my backpack! (Textbooks are very expensive.) As I listened more closely, I could hear someone mumbling. I didn’t understand the words, but the tone was definitely negative.

I wasn’t afraid but I was alarmed. I closed my eyes and said, Jesus, please break me out of this. Then I opened my eyes and I could move! The room looked the same as before except now there was no golden outline around anything. It was just normal light in the room. I looked around and there was no one there. My husband wasn’t even home yet.

As I pondered the experience, the insight I got totally changed my perspective about sleep paralysis. I realized that what had occurred was that my inner man had been awakened by the noise I heard in the unseen realm, but my body was still asleep. That’s why I couldn’t move. Science tells us that when we fall asleep, our brain registers this and tells our body not to move so we can rest. That’s why when you dream that you are running, you don’t move your feet as though you are running. Your brain knows to de-activate your muscles’ response.

My inner man (soul or spirit or both) became aware of an intruder in my dorm room. That’s what woke me up. I heard that strange noise and the mumbled words. I think it was a dark angel and perhaps that sound was wings moving against each other. It definitely didn’t like me – I picked that up in its tone. I had recently arrived at this school so it probably came to check me out. And maybe harass me.

Because I wasn’t terrified, I was able to study the experience while it was happening. I didn’t feel threatened – I knew I wasn’t in danger.

Once I realized that sleep paralysis was simply my inner man waking up before my body did, I tried a new strategy. The next time I woke up and couldn’t move, I simply said to myself, “Wake up! Wake up!” and it worked! I was able to open my eyes, sit up and look around. No more sleep paralysis!!

And guess what? It doesn’t happen to me anymore! I no longer have fear, I no longer feel threatened and I no longer wake up paralyzed in sleep paralysis. The enemy realized I was no longer going to fall for his bullying behavior so the Spirit of Fear no longer comes to harass me in this way. Whew!

What about you? Have you ever had this experience of sleep paralysis? What helped you break out of it? If you don’t have a strategy yet, try telling yourself to wake up and see what happens. Comment below and share your experience – that’s how we learn from one another.

I am so thankful this no longer happens to me. Overcoming my fears has helped me TREMENDOUSLY when it comes to dealing with the unseen realm. When you are no longer afraid, you can learn and grow much faster in the gift of discernment. As you learn to follow the Holy Spirit’s leading, you also gain clarity. Clarity gives you confidence and the courage to act!