I experienced the old hag hallucination a couple of times about a month apart. An old woman in a loose hood loomed towards me. I was trying to yell “Get away from me!” but I felt like I was being choked and could not speak.
Then I began waking up with sleep paralysis every month or so. The first time I was in a state of panic. Once I had woken up properly, I realised what had happened. The next few times I remained calm and waited for the paralysis to go.
The last time I woke up paralysed and was waiting for the paralysis to go, I saw a expanding grey ring. It will be this ring, contrast stretched by the brain in its dream state, that gives rise to the old hag hallucination. The hallucation seemed to last longer than the two seconds that the ring took to expand and vanish, indicating that temporal stretching is taking place.
I have had no sleep paralysis episodes since I started taking vitamin D. This suggests that a low vitamin D level results in the disruption of the brain's return to consciousness.
© Copyright 2021 Andrew Jarvis.