Last Christmas, my boyfriend Chris and I traveled to Donegal, Ireland, to visit his family. It was my first time there, and his dad still lives in the old house where Chris grew up. A house that also happens to be a bed and breakfast.

The place is big, with 15 rooms in total, and Chris and I stayed in one of the larger guest rooms instead of his childhood room. It looked charming enough, and the bed was comfortable but

I’m aware that there are plenty of scientific reasoning for sleep paralysis but I’m convinced there is more to it.

I’ve dealt with sleep paralysis since I was in high school. It got so bad one year that I was having an episode almost everyday. I’ve experienced things like shadowy figures in the corner of my room, the feeling of someone sitting on my chest and even whispers in my ear that would get progressively louder. As an adult, I’ve started to notice I’d have sleep paralysis more often if I was exhausted and sleep deprived, which made sense because I barely slept in high school and was always exhausted.

For context, I am Korean American with a mom who is very spiritual and superstitious. She used to tell me stories of her own, or her friends ghostly encounters and would tell me that spirits can sense when your Chi, or energy was low making it easier for spirits to “reach you.”

Back in 2019, my ex and I visited Vietnam. I had been their before before, solo in 2017 and wanted to show him my favorite country in SE Asia. We stay