Sleep paralysis

Today is the fourth day in Bremerhaven and for the last 2 days everything in the city has been closed because of pentecost. Pentecost is a holiday here in Germany but not in Sweden and that’s why I’ve never heard of it. So it wasn’t exactly the best day to have freeguard.

I woke up very tired at 04:30, I needed to be night watch for 2 hours. At 5:30 Knut came out on deck with all of his stuff. He was going home early because he didn’t want to miss his sister's graduation. We hugged him goodbye and he left. He said that it would take the whole day to get home. He’s probably at home by now. After my night watch I went down to my room to get some rest. While falling asleep I got sleep paralysis. Sleep paralysis happens when falling asleep or waking up, and it’s when your body is asleep but your brain is active. When you're in sleep paralysis you can’t move, speak or open your eyes. When in sleep paralysis you always feel frightened that someone is pushing you or screaming and you can’t distinguish reality from dreams, this often results in you panicking.

The sleep paralysis I had was very random and I don't really know if this was a dream or if this actually happened. The sleep paralysis involved a bee flying into my bed, flying into the walls, and coming closer and closer to my open mouth. I started panicking because I couldn't wake up or close my mouth. I used all my strength to try and pick up my pillow to put it over my face to prevent the bee from landing in my mouth. This did not go well, I was so slow that even if I had managed to close my mouth, the bee would’ve already made it inside.

After the sleep paralysis I woke up even more tired than I was before. At 7:55 I went up to the daily meeting. Today was apparently the Swedish national day so everyone sang the national song together. To be honest our crew isn’t the best at singing. After that I went back to sleep, still tired after the night.

Maximilian Lennartz

NAB2124