What is it like to experience sleep paralysis?

 I have insomnia and suffer frequently from sleep paralysis, a terrifying condition where I feel I am awake but cannot move or speak. Sometimes I have trouble breathing.

I try to wake myself up - or try to move - and it's impossible.

I tell myself I will suffer less if I remain calm.

In this state, I almost always feel like other hostile people are in the room (which makes remaining calm pretty much impossible.)

If you look up "sleep paralysis", this sense of someone else being there is reported by almost everyone who has experienced this condition, which I find oddly comforting.

Last night I was waiting for Boyfriend to come home and he texted to let me know he'd be later than expected. Nap lover that I am, I fell asleep on the couch.

Sleep paralysis set in and I felt the presence of a man standing behind me.

Unable to speak and trying to keep calm I thought "Go away. My boyfriend will be home soon."

"Tell him it's Abraham" he replied.

If you have ever experienced sleep paralysis I don't have to tell you how incredibly real this feels.

I finally woke up (or returned to a condition where I could move) and was still peeling the nightmare off me when Boyfriend walked in.

"Thank God you are home", I said. "I had one of my terrible, vivid nightmares. I felt the presence of a man in the room. He said to tell you it was Abraham."

"Oh" Boyfriend said. "Abraham was my grandfather".

I am an optimist and am very pragmatic, even skeptical. I don't believe in spirits or ghosts.

I can still hear the deep voice.

"Tell him it's Abraham."