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22-Year-Old Man With Sleep Paralysis Recreates His Nightmares In Photos, And It’s Terrifying
Rokas Laurinavičius BoredPanda staff
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Photographer Nicolas Bruno spends his days like the rest of us, but his nights are very different. And terrifying. 22 year-old Nicolas has been suffering from sleep paralysis for 7 years now, which means that he experiences his nightmares more vividly than regular sleepers.
Sleep paralysis is a condition that happens when we are about to enter rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. In it, our bodies paralyze themselves to stop us from acting out our dreams, but Bruno’s mind is awake and experiencing horrific hallucinations. This forced him into insomnia and depression: “I thought I was possessed by demons,” he said.
Everything changed when one high school teacher suggested he should document these terrors. He has been battling his fears with photography ever since. “This project has gifted me a sense of who I am,” he said. “It gave me the strength to persevere in life, to create art and speak to people. It gifted me art, and I don’t know where I would be without it.”
More info: nicolasbrunophotography.com | Facebook | Instagram (h/t: cnn, lostateminor)
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Rokas is a writer at Bored Panda with a BA in Communication. After working for a sculptor, he fell in love with visual storytelling and enjoys covering everything from TV shows (any Sopranos fans out there?) to photography. Throughout his years in Bored Panda, over 300 million people have read the posts he's written, which is probably more than he could count to.
Read less » Rokas Laurinavičius
Author, BoredPanda staff
Rokas is a writer at Bored Panda with a BA in Communication. After working for a sculptor, he fell in love with visual storytelling and enjoys covering everything from TV shows (any Sopranos fans out there?) to photography. Throughout his years in Bored Panda, over 300 million people have read the posts he's written, which is probably more than he could count to.
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What do you think ?
Talitha Calamia 7 years ago
I've had this issue since I was 10 years old and I'm 35 now. Not until 5 years ago I learned how to deal with it. I know what's happening in my mind so I try not to fight it. The more I try to wake myself up the worse the dreams and feeling in my body gets. So I try to coach myself to go back to sleep.
Richa Kharshandi 7 years ago
i do the same. I have been dealing with sleep paralysis since 4 years. I don't fight back now. I just keep myself calm and try to sleep back.
Load More Replies...
Shweta Chaudhary 7 years ago
I am relieved to know that I am not the only one. Suffering from this condition for 9 years. Yes I believe stress and some deep rooted fear could be a cause. Things are a little with me now.
kevin grey 7 years ago
I also have this around 12 years old it developed. In my quest to fix myself I used a lucid dreaming devices lights and sound triggers. After using it for 5 or months my brain kind switched up to let me sometimes control my dream. I'm not completely better yet. I still have them just less often. For me the whispers and feeling of being held down really messed with my personal relationships.
Dawn Denham 7 years ago
The same. I just started to ride it and ended up controlling the dreams. It was like being trapped in a bizarre movie in the end. I grew out of it eventually, but the adventures I had...
Yasin Onur 7 years ago
You could really be possesed by demons. They could stay with person 30-40 years according to muslim exorcists. They try to talk them out like negotiators. But like all muslims it is divided issue. Some say it is others say it is medical condition. But the thing is exorcists really has a job out of it. So i might think it is maybe a possesion problem, maybe not.
Yasin Onur 7 years ago
After i post this post i made a research on sleep paralysis on web. I came accross this story on Shaolin Monks, Sifus, way of chi. He was mastering (Wu Qin Xi ). This guy experienced beginning of sleep paralysis after their sifu(Teacher) pass energy to them. Than this guy read some book on Dr. Bilal Philips University of Wales and so on. You can read the story on http://dangerofchi.org/mystory.htm . I was like wow that really happened or whats going on.
Yasin Onur 7 years ago
Sry i didn't replied all of you just replied main post somehow it replied all of them at the same second. Website mistake. Sry again.
Tosca Sombroek 7 years ago
13 years and counting here... Only figured out recently I am not alone in this! There was a documentary on sleep paralysis Netflix, my relatives were shocked to discover how absolutely frightening is gets everytime. Not fighting back however never crosses my mind when it occurs, it seems going against your own nature of defending yourself, but will try from now on thanks :)
Ajda Boksic Filipovic 7 years ago
Hi, my son suffers from this, to me it lasted just few months instead. May you give me the name of that Netflix documentary please? Thanx :) x
Lawrence Foster 7 years ago
You have a h. Pylori infection. Clear it and your sp will go away.
Mesa Wind 7 years ago
Sleep paralysis part 4 woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of my name being called by Hollywood sound effect 3 ghostly voices in 1, I sat bolt upright & looked over to this girl who was sleeping 3 feet away from me. Her body was arched, her lips were in a hard-line closed. Her eyes were wide open staring at the ceiling I took in the scene for a few seconds and then poked her upper arm cautiously. She immediately snapped out of that position sobbing saying she had been trapped like that for 45 minutes (she could see the clock) and fed me saying she'd been trying to get my help. I asked her what she was into because by this time I had studied phenomena and esoteric books to find how it was possible and what for. She denied occult practices and drugs use. So I taught her about the white light in case it ever happened again.
Mesa Wind 7 years ago
Part 6 Then as I turned to settle and lay down before my head even touched the pillow, it started happening to me, it was a roaring of wind, the sound of inhuman laughter and a weird voice speaking a language unlike anything I've heard except perhaps Latin backwards. And I was completely immobilized. I let it go on for a full minute analyzing everything. it may sound crazy but true once I satisfied my curiosity I taunted them with -' is that all you got?' White Light & GONE. I finally got it out of this girl that the argument with her boyfriend was about him getting her addicted to heroin and she was currently on methadone and didn't want to be dragged back hence her need for a sleepover. And this is where I smudged Native American Style convinced I didn't have to take something on faith, I could KNOW it first-hand It's explained in Aldous huxley's book: 'Doors of Perception' from which the band , The Doors took their name.
Rod Amadeo 7 years ago
I experienced this too, what I usually do to wake-up, is to move my fingers slowly, once it move just a little bit, the rest of your consciousness follows.
Barbra Ligston 7 years ago
I used to have it all the time and I always fought back. I don't have one of these in years now.
Partty Wittawat 7 years ago
Have you ever recognized that you were dreaming? Wonderful moment!
Doris Wyche 7 years ago
Excact same experience. I had to learn to control my thoughts then relax. That took me years to to.
Zuza Krasowska 7 years ago
Does waking up from sleep paralysis feel like being hungover for you guys? When I had those dreams when younger I just tried to relax and fall back asleep just as you say you do. I don't have them as often anymore and last time it took me by surprise again. And apparently I sleep with my eyes slightly open so I am usually somewhere that resembles my room in those nightmares. It's quite interesting to wake up and see all those small shadows and objects in the room and how your brain transformed them into aliens, ghouls and other weird things.
Teresa Hammer 7 years ago
I'm 34 and slept with a nightlight until about 4 years ago for that very reason.
Joshua Smith 7 years ago
I usually have sleep paralysis when I've been under a lot of stress. A few years ago it started to become an every night occurrence to the point I was terrified to go to bed at night. My dreams were always very similar stuck in my bed as 5 to 10 people busted into my home with assault rifles. I can feel my wife beside me and know they are in between me and my child. I can't move or make a sound but can open my eyes and see everything going on. After what feels like 30 min I usually wake my wife with my panicked breathing or just snap out of it. After a few months I learned how to for the most part cope with it and talk myself through it or go to str8 breathing as deep and hard as I could. I've done a lot more research and now can transfer and control it into more of lucid dreaming. Although it dosent always turn for the better.
Andreea Rau 7 years ago
These used to happen to me when I was stressed in the beginning but then started happening even by a short nap. But it was not like a dream, I could open my eyes, see the room in detail and also hear noises that were around me. I think thats why these experiances were so terrifng for me, because all the halucinacions were added to a real scene that I was so concious about. I tried to embrace it one time and transform it into a lucid dream but I felt like half of my brain was on fire and then in the exact time the hous begun to move... it turns out I was having sleep paralysis during a erthquake. I don't know about you but every time I experianced this thing it made me verry tired, exhausted to the point were I could not get up from my bed or even roll on the other side. Now I know how to relax and get rid of these situations.
Alexandra Lee 7 years ago
IF ti's a series of photos, why can't they present them without video format? So many aren't available in my country...
Daisy Quintero 7 years ago
Alexandra, visit his page: http://nicolasbrunophotography.com/ There are a series of photos...hope this helps
Load More Replies... 
Eleanor Duncan 7 years ago
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
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Zori the degu 7 years ago
I feel so sorry for him. I`ve heard about this condition but it seems far worse than I thought. Having nightmares is terrifying and what can we say about having this condition.
Dániel Huszka 7 years ago
almost every week, i have at least 1 Sleep Paralysis. For me its a nightmare before i wake up. Its terrible when a monster comes to you and you cant move scream shout. You feel the pain, you think you woke up and its done, but no. One second later the monster comes again... and again... and again... after you "died" 5-10 times you dont know if u are in rl or not. And in the end you just want to die to end your suffer... and ta dam you woke up for example at 2 am, so you have to go back to sleep....
Load More Replies...
Felicia Meek 7 years ago
I'm so relieved to know other people have these problems!!!! I knew I couldn't be the only one experiencing the living hell.
Christopher Rosser 7 years ago
Man this s**t happens to me all the time. Dreams inside of dreams inside of dreams only to think you've woken up but really you're inside another nightmare.
Nathan Elliott 7 years ago
I've had sleep paralysis since I was young. I've spent many nights feeling awake but literally can't move and seen weird things while sleeping. When I became a Christian it intensified until I removed the license I gave the enemy. Now I don't have them. What I found out is that people that have this happening to them have a prophetic gifting given to them from the Lord. The enemy try's to bombard your senses and keep you bound. Call on Jesus next time I bet you it stops. It has for me every time when I had them.
Jennie Quinn 7 years ago
I know this condition inside out. I always thought everybody has this experience and I avoided sleep since I was very young for this reason. Sleep was not pleasant. What Nathan mentions is a good tactic, I've used it a lot of times, but then, I am a Christian and you may not be religious at all. What then? Many a time I know I'm leaving my body and then I 'wake' myself up, only to find myself outside of my 'dream ego' (Jung calls it that) and then a third level of dreaming will follow and so on. When you keep a dream journal you will see a pattern. Dreams are wonderful 'messengers'. If the message is so important that you have to have SP to take note, then it is worth keeping a dream journal. You have several questions to answer about your dream. These are according to the studies of Jung an integral part of processing your dream and to always remember dreams happen in the dream arena. However real they feel, your sub-conscious will remember you are dreaming.
Meaghan Hungerford 7 years ago
Thats not sleep paralysis thsts night terrors. Thats even worse...i suffer from sleep paralysis and my dad suffers from both. But what you just described is night terrors. Way worse than sleep paralysis..although you could be suffering from both.
Scott Ritchie 7 years ago
I used to suffer from night terrors almost every night when I was 10-12 years old, I honestly was so afraid to sleep I almost got really sick because of sleep deprivation. It's pretty scary.
Meaghan Hungerford 7 years ago
And the guy that made this video..and/or the video...is definitely suffering from both. Sleep paralysis doesn't give you night terrors like this. Thats either a negative entity thats latched onto you (depending on your beliefs) or a form of ptsd manifesting itself during the sleep paralysis. 😟 sorry ...just wanted to put the information out there after a lifetime of personal and family experiences
Mandy Gershon 7 years ago
I would recommend keeping a pen and paper by the bed and writing down your dreams immediately. It not only allows you to get it out of your system, but it's a great tool for helping to see any patterns in yourself that might help you to learn how to deal with it. In addition, I've found that documenting my dreams has helped me understand my relationship with my dreams better, and if I stay true to the method, I end up having more control over my dreams while sleeping. That can be a great relief.
Tara Susnowitz 7 years ago
This happens to me at least once a month. It really is like a nightmare. I try to scream, but all that comes out is a cloaked whisper. I try to move but I have no control, and just remain still, locked in that position. Different things happen each time, but the worst is when I know something is there in the dark, waiting and watching me. One night it leaned on my bed so that I tilted towards it. My eyes were wide open expecting it to come into my line of vision. Then it got close to my ear, and went "Ugh, ugh, ugh, " over and over, in a terribly ugly raspy voice....it is still the worst sleep paralysis I've experienced. And I've had some bad ones......
Summer Coley 7 years ago
Same thing stopped my crippling night terrors, Nathan Elliot! I'm Christian, but definitely not religious. A friend lent me her book with the verse and I was AMAZED how incredibly well reciting Psalm 91 worked. Not kidding; worked liked nothing else ever did!
Abdullah Nafi 7 years ago
Call adhan. Its a prayer call. have a look on youtube. it will help you and you must believe in it that it will help you.
Talitha Calamia 7 years ago
I've had this issue since I was 10 years old and I'm 35 now. Not until 5 years ago I learned how to deal with it. I know what's happening in my mind so I try not to fight it. The more I try to wake myself up the worse the dreams and feeling in my body gets. So I try to coach myself to go back to sleep.
Richa Kharshandi 7 years ago
i do the same. I have been dealing with sleep paralysis since 4 years. I don't fight back now. I just keep myself calm and try to sleep back.
Load More Replies... Shweta Chaudhary 7 years ago
I am relieved to know that I am not the only one. Suffering from this condition for 9 years. Yes I believe stress and some deep rooted fear could be a cause. Things are a little with me now.
kevin grey 7 years ago
I also have this around 12 years old it developed. In my quest to fix myself I used a lucid dreaming devices lights and sound triggers. After using it for 5 or months my brain kind switched up to let me sometimes control my dream. I'm not completely better yet. I still have them just less often. For me the whispers and feeling of being held down really messed with my personal relationships.
Dawn Denham 7 years ago
The same. I just started to ride it and ended up controlling the dreams. It was like being trapped in a bizarre movie in the end. I grew out of it eventually, but the adventures I had...
Yasin Onur 7 years ago
You could really be possesed by demons. They could stay with person 30-40 years according to muslim exorcists. They try to talk them out like negotiators. But like all muslims it is divided issue. Some say it is others say it is medical condition. But the thing is exorcists really has a job out of it. So i might think it is maybe a possesion problem, maybe not.
Yasin Onur 7 years ago
After i post this post i made a research on sleep paralysis on web. I came accross this story on Shaolin Monks, Sifus, way of chi. He was mastering (Wu Qin Xi ). This guy experienced beginning of sleep paralysis after their sifu(Teacher) pass energy to them. Than this guy read some book on Dr. Bilal Philips University of Wales and so on. You can read the story on http://dangerofchi.org/mystory.htm . I was like wow that really happened or whats going on.
Yasin Onur 7 years ago
Sry i didn't replied all of you just replied main post somehow it replied all of them at the same second. Website mistake. Sry again.
Tosca Sombroek 7 years ago
13 years and counting here... Only figured out recently I am not alone in this! There was a documentary on sleep paralysis Netflix, my relatives were shocked to discover how absolutely frightening is gets everytime. Not fighting back however never crosses my mind when it occurs, it seems going against your own nature of defending yourself, but will try from now on thanks :)
Ajda Boksic Filipovic 7 years ago
Hi, my son suffers from this, to me it lasted just few months instead. May you give me the name of that Netflix documentary please? Thanx :) x
Lawrence Foster 7 years ago
You have a h. Pylori infection. Clear it and your sp will go away.
Mesa Wind 7 years ago
Sleep paralysis part 4 woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of my name being called by Hollywood sound effect 3 ghostly voices in 1, I sat bolt upright & looked over to this girl who was sleeping 3 feet away from me. Her body was arched, her lips were in a hard-line closed. Her eyes were wide open staring at the ceiling I took in the scene for a few seconds and then poked her upper arm cautiously. She immediately snapped out of that position sobbing saying she had been trapped like that for 45 minutes (she could see the clock) and fed me saying she'd been trying to get my help. I asked her what she was into because by this time I had studied phenomena and esoteric books to find how it was possible and what for. She denied occult practices and drugs use. So I taught her about the white light in case it ever happened again.
Mesa Wind 7 years ago
Part 6 Then as I turned to settle and lay down before my head even touched the pillow, it started happening to me, it was a roaring of wind, the sound of inhuman laughter and a weird voice speaking a language unlike anything I've heard except perhaps Latin backwards. And I was completely immobilized. I let it go on for a full minute analyzing everything. it may sound crazy but true once I satisfied my curiosity I taunted them with -' is that all you got?' White Light & GONE. I finally got it out of this girl that the argument with her boyfriend was about him getting her addicted to heroin and she was currently on methadone and didn't want to be dragged back hence her need for a sleepover. And this is where I smudged Native American Style convinced I didn't have to take something on faith, I could KNOW it first-hand It's explained in Aldous huxley's book: 'Doors of Perception' from which the band , The Doors took their name.
Rod Amadeo 7 years ago
I experienced this too, what I usually do to wake-up, is to move my fingers slowly, once it move just a little bit, the rest of your consciousness follows.
Barbra Ligston 7 years ago
I used to have it all the time and I always fought back. I don't have one of these in years now.
Partty Wittawat 7 years ago
Have you ever recognized that you were dreaming? Wonderful moment!
Doris Wyche 7 years ago
Excact same experience. I had to learn to control my thoughts then relax. That took me years to to.
Zuza Krasowska 7 years ago
Does waking up from sleep paralysis feel like being hungover for you guys? When I had those dreams when younger I just tried to relax and fall back asleep just as you say you do. I don't have them as often anymore and last time it took me by surprise again. And apparently I sleep with my eyes slightly open so I am usually somewhere that resembles my room in those nightmares. It's quite interesting to wake up and see all those small shadows and objects in the room and how your brain transformed them into aliens, ghouls and other weird things.
Teresa Hammer 7 years ago
I'm 34 and slept with a nightlight until about 4 years ago for that very reason.
Joshua Smith 7 years ago
I usually have sleep paralysis when I've been under a lot of stress. A few years ago it started to become an every night occurrence to the point I was terrified to go to bed at night. My dreams were always very similar stuck in my bed as 5 to 10 people busted into my home with assault rifles. I can feel my wife beside me and know they are in between me and my child. I can't move or make a sound but can open my eyes and see everything going on. After what feels like 30 min I usually wake my wife with my panicked breathing or just snap out of it. After a few months I learned how to for the most part cope with it and talk myself through it or go to str8 breathing as deep and hard as I could. I've done a lot more research and now can transfer and control it into more of lucid dreaming. Although it dosent always turn for the better.
Andreea Rau 7 years ago
These used to happen to me when I was stressed in the beginning but then started happening even by a short nap. But it was not like a dream, I could open my eyes, see the room in detail and also hear noises that were around me. I think thats why these experiances were so terrifng for me, because all the halucinacions were added to a real scene that I was so concious about. I tried to embrace it one time and transform it into a lucid dream but I felt like half of my brain was on fire and then in the exact time the hous begun to move... it turns out I was having sleep paralysis during a erthquake. I don't know about you but every time I experianced this thing it made me verry tired, exhausted to the point were I could not get up from my bed or even roll on the other side. Now I know how to relax and get rid of these situations.
Alexandra Lee 7 years ago
IF ti's a series of photos, why can't they present them without video format? So many aren't available in my country...
Daisy Quintero 7 years ago
Alexandra, visit his page: http://nicolasbrunophotography.com/ There are a series of photos...hope this helps
Load More Replies... Eleanor Duncan 7 years ago
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
Do you have a pay_pal ? in the event if you have you can create an additional 900 week after week to your earnings working from home for a couple of hours per day. check out this page... https://www.facebook.com/Sdfsdfwes-1205834779506845/app/208195102528120/
Zori the degu 7 years ago
I feel so sorry for him. I`ve heard about this condition but it seems far worse than I thought. Having nightmares is terrifying and what can we say about having this condition.
Dániel Huszka 7 years ago
almost every week, i have at least 1 Sleep Paralysis. For me its a nightmare before i wake up. Its terrible when a monster comes to you and you cant move scream shout. You feel the pain, you think you woke up and its done, but no. One second later the monster comes again... and again... and again... after you "died" 5-10 times you dont know if u are in rl or not. And in the end you just want to die to end your suffer... and ta dam you woke up for example at 2 am, so you have to go back to sleep....
Load More Replies... Felicia Meek 7 years ago
I'm so relieved to know other people have these problems!!!! I knew I couldn't be the only one experiencing the living hell.
Christopher Rosser 7 years ago
Man this s**t happens to me all the time. Dreams inside of dreams inside of dreams only to think you've woken up but really you're inside another nightmare.
Nathan Elliott 7 years ago
I've had sleep paralysis since I was young. I've spent many nights feeling awake but literally can't move and seen weird things while sleeping. When I became a Christian it intensified until I removed the license I gave the enemy. Now I don't have them. What I found out is that people that have this happening to them have a prophetic gifting given to them from the Lord. The enemy try's to bombard your senses and keep you bound. Call on Jesus next time I bet you it stops. It has for me every time when I had them.
Jennie Quinn 7 years ago
I know this condition inside out. I always thought everybody has this experience and I avoided sleep since I was very young for this reason. Sleep was not pleasant. What Nathan mentions is a good tactic, I've used it a lot of times, but then, I am a Christian and you may not be religious at all. What then? Many a time I know I'm leaving my body and then I 'wake' myself up, only to find myself outside of my 'dream ego' (Jung calls it that) and then a third level of dreaming will follow and so on. When you keep a dream journal you will see a pattern. Dreams are wonderful 'messengers'. If the message is so important that you have to have SP to take note, then it is worth keeping a dream journal. You have several questions to answer about your dream. These are according to the studies of Jung an integral part of processing your dream and to always remember dreams happen in the dream arena. However real they feel, your sub-conscious will remember you are dreaming.
Meaghan Hungerford 7 years ago
Thats not sleep paralysis thsts night terrors. Thats even worse...i suffer from sleep paralysis and my dad suffers from both. But what you just described is night terrors. Way worse than sleep paralysis..although you could be suffering from both.
Scott Ritchie 7 years ago
I used to suffer from night terrors almost every night when I was 10-12 years old, I honestly was so afraid to sleep I almost got really sick because of sleep deprivation. It's pretty scary.
Meaghan Hungerford 7 years ago
And the guy that made this video..and/or the video...is definitely suffering from both. Sleep paralysis doesn't give you night terrors like this. Thats either a negative entity thats latched onto you (depending on your beliefs) or a form of ptsd manifesting itself during the sleep paralysis. 😟 sorry ...just wanted to put the information out there after a lifetime of personal and family experiences
Mandy Gershon 7 years ago
I would recommend keeping a pen and paper by the bed and writing down your dreams immediately. It not only allows you to get it out of your system, but it's a great tool for helping to see any patterns in yourself that might help you to learn how to deal with it. In addition, I've found that documenting my dreams has helped me understand my relationship with my dreams better, and if I stay true to the method, I end up having more control over my dreams while sleeping. That can be a great relief.
Tara Susnowitz 7 years ago
This happens to me at least once a month. It really is like a nightmare. I try to scream, but all that comes out is a cloaked whisper. I try to move but I have no control, and just remain still, locked in that position. Different things happen each time, but the worst is when I know something is there in the dark, waiting and watching me. One night it leaned on my bed so that I tilted towards it. My eyes were wide open expecting it to come into my line of vision. Then it got close to my ear, and went "Ugh, ugh, ugh, " over and over, in a terribly ugly raspy voice....it is still the worst sleep paralysis I've experienced. And I've had some bad ones......
Summer Coley 7 years ago
Same thing stopped my crippling night terrors, Nathan Elliot! I'm Christian, but definitely not religious. A friend lent me her book with the verse and I was AMAZED how incredibly well reciting Psalm 91 worked. Not kidding; worked liked nothing else ever did!
Abdullah Nafi 7 years ago
Call adhan. Its a prayer call. have a look on youtube. it will help you and you must believe in it that it will help you.
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