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The one in the room
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Most of you did not write to me about the not moving, you wrote about the sense that somebody was standing there, and that shows up so reliably that it has its own name in the literature.
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Every country has a version of the figure, sitting on the chest or standing in the doorway, and the names go back centuries, which tells you people have been comparing notes on this for a very long time.
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Whether the figure means anything about your life, I would not push, since the body is doing something so specific here that the mind may simply be filling a gap with the oldest picture it has.
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What people want to know is what to do while it is going on, so here is what has worked for the ones who wrote in.
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While it lasts
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Stop trying to move your arms and legs, because the big muscles are the ones still switched off, while your eyes and your breathing were never part of the deal.
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Breathe out slowly, move your eyes about, then try one finger or one toe, since the small movements tend to come back first and one of them is usually enough to end the whole thing.
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If it comes weekly, or if it has got you dreading bed, that is worth saying to a doctor rather than to me, because there are sleep conditions it travels with and they are treatable.
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✦ WRITE BACK
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Two things frighten people here, the not moving and the sense of somebody in the room, and I would like to know which is worse for you.
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TELL ME WHICH ONE
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It has not happened to me since I left that room, which I would like to put down to good habits, though I suspect it was mostly the wardrobe.
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| Sleep well, |
| Dream Signs |
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P.S. One of you wrote that her father, who gets it too, always says the same thing about the figure in the doorway, which is that it has never once come any closer. Tell me what yours looks like. She says he tells her this every time, and every time it helps.
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