Title: Sleep Paralysis
Fandom: Ghost Hound
Spoilers: None
"So how have you been sleeping?"
Tarou's eyes flicked momentarily from Dr. Atsushi's moving finger. It was another attempt to hypnotize him, to sort out the real memories from those constructed to hide the truth. It was getting increasingly harder to put him into a hypnotic trance.
"Ok I guess, in the evening mostly. My friends are teasing me, I keep falling asleep on them when we're studying together," he laughed faintly, his eyes still focused on Dr. Atsushi's finger. "I keep waking up with doodles on my face," Tarou pointed to a fading spiral doodle near his ear.
"Your friends are aware...?"
"Yeah. They think it's weird. But they all have weird stuff of their own, so it's ok."
"But your having attacks less often?"
Tarou nodded, "I used to get them all the time during the day. Now I mostly it happens in the evening or when I'm anxious."
"That's good to know. I was considering having Dr. Ōtori prescribe you Strattera or Modafinil to help with your EDS. But you've improved to the point where I don't think you need it." his finger didn't waver, despite the fact that Tarou was concentrating on his face instead of his finger.
"That's good; I don't want to have to take any pills"
"Is there anything else you would like to report?"
"I keep having this sort of dream, where I'm awake except I can't move anything except my eyes. I can look around my room and there something, these giant moths all over my chest."
Dr. Atsushi's finger stopped mid swing. He adjusted his glasses. "What you're describing sounds like sleep paralysis. It's common in narcoleptics."
"And the moths?" Tarou remembered the moths, the one giant creature, with the body of a moth and the face of a man sitting on his chest. He had seen it once before over the forest in the unseen world.
Dust from the fluttering horde caught in the moonlight slanting across the room; all he could do was blink and roll his eyes in panic.
"Hypnogogic hallucinations are also quite normal. The experience of something on your chest is not uncommon. It's called kanashibari
Tarou frowned, "My mom talks about that. She says there is an evil spirit choking her while she's sleeping"
"Sleep paralysis often goes hand in hand with other sleep disturbances. Your family obviously has a very strong predisposition to dyssomnia when under stress" he seemed to be talking to himself now.
Tarou nodded in agreement, more words to add to the ever-growing list of things he needed to read.
Dr. Atsushi paused his hand frozen midway between his lap and his glasses.
"Tell me about your friends..."