From when I was two until four, I had a recurring sleep paralysis experience where my bedroom window flew open, and a long line of at least thirty sentient, hostile paper airplanes with duck feet sticking out the bottom swarmed in through the window, landed on me, and started intentionally making me convulse while screeching.
Dreams and sleep paralysis experiences can be strange and unsettling, especially when they recur during our early years. Here's an interpretation of your childhood recurring sleep paralysis experience:
Window Flying Open: The window in dreams often symbolizes a barrier between the inner and outer worlds. A window flying open could represent an invasion of thoughts, emotions, or experiences from the outside world that feel intrusive or overwhelming. This might suggest a sense of vulnerability, as if your private, safe space is being breached by external forces.
Sentient, Hostile Paper Airplanes: Paper airplanes are generally harmless, whimsical objects symbolizing airiness, freedom, or playful ideas. However, in your dream, they are hostile and sentient. This inversion may indicate feelings of anxiety over seemingly insignificant or benign issues that have taken on a more threatening nature in your subconscious mind.
Duck Feet: The presence of duck feet on the paper airplanes adds an element of absurdity, but also of movement and adaptability – ducks can walk, swim, and fly. This may represent feelings of being pursued by multi-faceted problems that adapt and persist in different forms, signifying that the challenges you face, although irrational or surreal, are versatile and take on new forms of menace.
Swarming, Landing, and Convulsing: Being swarmed suggests feelings of being overwhelmed by multiple small problems or thoughts that collectively become intimidating. The airplanes landing on you and causing convulsions can symbolize your lack of control over these issues, which manifest physically in the dream as involuntary convulsions. This can relate to feelings of helplessness or powerlessness in a situation, or possibly stress and anxieties manifesting in your physical body.
Screeching Sounds: The screeching from the airplanes can symbolize internal alarm or distress – a loud, invasive noise that reflects emotional upheaval or panic. It might be an auditory manifestation of inner fears or conflicts screaming for attention.
Age Context: Between the ages of two to four, children experience rapid development and face new experiences daily which they don't fully understand. The dream could be a reflection of the challenges of making sense of a complex, sometimes scary world.
Overall, this recurring experience could symbolize an intersection of anxiety, fear of the unknown, and a lack of control that was particularly potent in your early life. Recurring dreams or sleep paralysis episodes often compel reflection on unresolved emotions or situations, and understanding the symbolism might help in re-contextualizing these early experiences.