My Night Terror from Satan

I am 54 yr old male. I experience horrible nightmares about twice a month. They are spiritual in nature as if a demon or Satan himself is scaring me. I awake while screaming "help"!!! with my mouth closed. It seems to me that my mouth is open, but my wife assures me that my mouth is indeed closed. She will wake me from the nightmare if I don't waken on my own right away. This only happens when I lay on my back which seems very strange to me. I have only just begun to look into "Night Terror". Any help or thoughts will be appreciated.
This has happened off and on since 1989 or so. My Doctor prescribes me pain meds and xanax for anxiety, sometimes I have trouble falling asleep a couple times a week. Other than that I am in excellent health.
Thank-you very much for your help,
Mark

Hi, Mark! That sounds horrible! Could you ask your doctor about how you could find a specialist to help you? I remember something similar happening to me a few years ago, when I was really stressed. The "demons" were actually manifestations of what scared me.

I was definitely going to broach the subject with my Doc on my next appt. to see what he thinks. It seems like my dreams start out ok, but then this terrifying being seems to take over and then I realize who this thing is and that's when I start to yell for help. I don't see a guy with a pitchfork dressed in red or something corny like that, it's a dark hazy figure, but I know who it is because of the feeling of overpowering evilness that surrounds it. Hard to explain.
Thanks for your reply.
--Mark

It must be very scary. Can you control what you're thinking at all? Maybe you could remind yourself that it's a dream and not real.

No, I can't control what happens in my dreams. The "evil being" seems to enjoy slowly taking over my dreams and then showing a bit of himself and scaring the heck out of me. It seems so real. If my wife did not wake me or if I did not wake myself from my screaming I think the terror would just continue. I usually pray after this happens and roll onto my side, cause this only happens when I lay on my back.
I'm a "guilty" Catholic if that helps...I continually keep asking for forgiveness for my sins. I'm a mess.
Thanks for trying to help, its nice to at least talk to someone about it.
--Mark

Maybe this guilt and the fear of what might happen to you because of your sins, even if you don't belive in it completly, has to do with the nightmares. Someone used to scare the heck out of me too and it caused my nightmares, even though mine didn't last for so many years.
Maybe you were frightened as a little kid or something, and it stuck with you.

Yes, I was scared out of my wits as a little kid several times during the night. A few times when I was very young I would waken in the middle of the night and see a big shadow on the wall hulking over me and the bed. I'd scream, my folks would run in and that would be the end of it. I just chalked it up to typical kid stuff. There were a couple of "good" visions that I had too, but there again I just chalked it all up to over imagination. I don't know, the whole thing with the nightmares at 54yrs old is very creepy tho and why does it only happen when I sleep on my back?. I'm handling it by praying to the only One that can save me. I will be ok, it feels good to finally talk about it.
Thanks for listening and your counsel, I appreciate it very much.

You're welcome, Mark. That must have been very scary for you as little kid. I think you can wake up and still "dream" a little and that could be why you saw those things. Did you feel like you coulnd't move when you saw them?
It's ok if you don't want to talk about it.

>Did you feel like you couldn't move when you saw them?

Hmm, good question, its been so long that I can't really remember, but I think I could move. I was not physically paralyzed from what I remember about the shadow on my wall as a child. There were other times that I found myself under the blanket listening to the "creature" breathing right above me and into my ear. I would finally get the courage to scream out. I also used to hear scratching against my bedroom window and I "knew" that it was satan or a demon. I thought at the time that all kids experienced this stuff and it was an unwritten law that one just did not talk about it. I've never told anyone about them until now. These new nightmares might have me unable to move until after I scream, I just don't know. It must sound weird to my wife because I have my mouth closed during the screaming. She has mimicked the sound to me.
I think that you are right about the fact that this has alot to do with unresolved issues I had as a kid and even as an adult. That makes sense to me. It's helped to hear an opinion from some one else since I've kept all this a secret even as a kid.

When I was a little kid I was afraid of demons too and I couldn't fall asleep, but I don't think I actually saw or heard anything. Some stories that other older kids were saying had freaked me out.
I think not being able to move when you're having a nightmare or hallucination is called sleep laralysis, but I'm no expert: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_paralysis