Sleep Paralysis

[freefall]

I've heard many people talk about their experiences with sleep paralysis and find there is always a few common themes;

1. A feeling of dread, horror, etc.
2. Hallucinations, usually involving someone choking them/holding them down or standing over them.

You have to admit, the human brain is interesting AND fucked up

Even on people with no sleep paralysis, hallucinations can occur during sleep phases. They are also completely normal, being that they occur when one is about to sleep (hypnagogic) and when one is waking up from sleep (hypnopompic).

Sleep medicine is an interesting field, as we still have a lot to learn

 

[pocketpool]

I've been experiencing sleep paralysis several times a year for the past five or six years.

Occasionally when I am very tired, I have a mix of very strange of dreams, hallucinations, and sleep paralysis that seem to last most of the night. Basically I will be having a very confusing dream, which transitions into a loose realization that I am awake, and then feelings of a presence in the room and inability to move, then the cycle repeats.

I also have a tendency to experience hypnagogic hallucinations at certain times of the day. If I take a nap in a well-lit area in the morning or early afternoon, I am almost certain to have repeated hallucinations which prevent me from sleeping much.

Honestly, I love it when I have sleep paralysis or hypnagogia. The experience is just so bizarre, terrifying, and fascinating that I can't help but enjoy it.

I've found that sleep paralysis is actually quite easy to stop if I just want to get some sleep. For myself anyway, there is a very small gap upon waking and onset of sleep paralysis. During that time I am afraid of a presence, but I can make the fear subside before paralysis and hallucination begins. I really can't explain it, it's basically just a decision to ignore fear.

 

[Puddle]

I suffer from sleep paralysis with considerable frequency, though thankfully it's never been accompanied by hallucinations (the sense of dread is sometimes there). It usually only lasts a few seconds for me, though I've had somewhat longer episodes as well. The worst thing about it for me is that I often wake up in unusual positions that make it difficult to breathe...

 

[AlmondMilk]

It's happened to me once every few years. I remember the first time it happened I was in such a panic. I ended up in a position that was very uncomfortable on my neck. As much as I wanted to move, I couldn't. After what seemed like a few minutes, I decided to just sleep it off. I think I went back to sleep.

 

[evanrick]

i had this when i was 18, 10 years ago. i woke up and couldnt move, i thought i was dead. i couldnt tell if i was breathing etc.
i also got very small seizures i wish i woulda known those were warning signs of disaster =X
not saying it goes for everyone but your body will clue you in, i never understood the clues.

 

[chrisw87]

Even on people with no sleep paralysis, hallucinations can occur during sleep phases. They are also completely normal, being that they occur when one is about to sleep (hypnagogic) and when one is waking up from sleep (hypnopompic).

Sleep medicine is an interesting field, as we still have a lot to learn

Your in the sleep-science field? or studying in it?

That is brilliant.

My sleep is shocking and have always considered going into one of those sleep labs to get a checkup. Never had sleep paralysis but the usual joys that people seem to suffer, insomnia/restless leg sydrome/body clock that seems longer than 24hrs.

Though Circadin (slow release melatonin) worked wonders for me, every other sleep drug, herbal remedy or other has not had decent results. Haven't tried hypnotherapy yet though.

 

[freefall]

^Of course not (who am I, a scientist? ). I'm just implying sleep is another human mystery. There are much we don't know about it

The sleep phenomena can be studies under psychiatry and/or neurology but of course you have to surge into the sleep science to appreciate it even deeper.

 

[oakpope]

body clock that seems longer than 24hrs.

Same here. It's so impractical in every day life

 

[Benvolio]

I never really understood it until it happened to me about 6 months ago. It also happened again just last night. Each time the scenario has been slightly different, but I 'wake-up' and feel like i'm in danger. I have never felt such utter terror. The first time I could sense an evil man who was just out of my vision. Last night, something was around my throat and was trying to choke me.

The worst thing is you can't move a muscle. I'm screaming and screaming at myself to just move something, an arm, a hand, a finger, but nothing works. I then try screaming for help but my voice doesn't work. After a minute or so the paralysis breaks and I can finally move and realise i'm not in any danger. Its not even like a normal nightmare, its much worse.

I've read its not that uncommon. Anyone had similar experiences?[/QUOTE

I think it is only a dream. I have had a similar experience. In my dream, I am asleep, but aware that there is some one or thing in the room which is a serious danger. I dream that I cannot move because I am asleep. I keep telling myself "I have to wake up to protect myself."
The difference is that I always know that it is only a dream. I wake up from a bad dream.

 

[72-Jay]

I experienced sleep paralysis a few times back then I was probably high-school age (so a long time ago LOL) like others here it was damn scary. I have no idea what caused it. I have read that if you can train yourself to recognize what is happening, you can then relax and make it a pleasant or even fun experience. (I've never done that but fully believe its true.)

I used to get recurring nightmares, and a number of years ago found a couple of dream-related newsgroups on the net...from there I started learning about dreams and in particular got interested in stuff like Lucid Dreams and Dream Control. Basically with practice you can sometimes realize you're dreaming and have some control over parts of the dream/change things within it.
I can't explain the internal "feeling" it gives to do that within a dream - other than to say its awesome & I personally have never felt anything better.
Its also a good way to take care of a recurring nightmare for good (and even individual nightmares can be reduced) because you can take a bad dream & turn it into something cool or awesome!
bit of info
Lucid just means Aware
Lucid Dream with no Control - you are aware that you're asleep and dreaming but as implied can't do anything (this alone is really cool)
Lucid Dream with Control - again you are aware that you're dreaming, and you have a varying degree of control over it - anything from changing a small bit, to fully changing the direction of the dream
not Lucid Dream with some Control - sounds contradictory but you can have some control of a dream without being aware...


The main reason I mention the Lucid Dreams & Dream Control thing here, is because its related to recognizing/controlling sleep paralysis, it takes the same type of realizing & belief to do.

Lucid Dreams / Dream Control .. may sound crazy or impossible, but I know for a fact that stuff works because I've done it (sadly I'm out of practice now .. & don't get enough sleep to do it anyway)

One other unrelated thing I've found with normal/individual bad-dreams/nightmares is when I wake because of one I'm almost always laying in an uncomfortable position...

 

[Kulindahr]

Special thanks to Johann and 72-Jay.

I got hit with this a lot while going to OSU. Attending university and trying to keep up as an honors student while dealing with PTSD, bipolar disorder, and a few other tidbits does strange things to the mind. When summer came along, I dealt with it by going on a camping trip where I let my body decide my schedule: if I felt sleepy, I slept; if not, I didn't, and I paid no attention to the clock, so I could be found canoeing or swimming at 3 a.m.... right after a 2 a.m. breakfast or lunch. During terms, sleep deprivation was usually effective (and a great way to get class projects done!). But most potent for an attack was when I learned to step in and take control of my dreams.

Only a few times was I truly terrified, once I knew what was going on. One was when I couldn't breathe -- I was aware enough of my body to know I actually wasn't breathing, not merely dreaming that I couldn't breathe. It was terrifying enough I was fighting to keep from peeing my bed -- but then it occurred to my "dreamwalker" mind that if I did, that might make me jump up, which might get me breathing. Short version: it worked. Another was when I was laying there frozen and getting cold, and sensed that around me the sleeping porch was getting cold, and the wood was starting to shrivel and crack. I have a vague memory of ordering a demon to get lost in the name of Jesus, then yelling -- and I really did yell; it woke up just about the whole house (I had thirty guys or so grumbling at me for days). The worst was on a camping trip, when I woke up (or dreamed I'd woken up) and could see out my tent window that the hills that had been there were gone... then I felt myself sliding, and understood that I and tent were on a vertical surface, and I was slipping, and would fall... my choice of dreamwalker image was very fortunate: I'd determined that in any dream, if I could get naked, I'd have power over the dream; since I was sleeping naked, I already had power. I commanded the cliff to be a hill again. I yelled as in Tae Kwon Do when delivering a punch as I gave that command, and felt the surface whirl and slam back to horizontal, which scared the crap out of me so I kept rolling, in dream and real now, out of my sleeping bag and out of my tent to stand "sky clad" in the moonlight. I learned in the morning -- about an hour and a half later -- that I really had yelled, too; other campers described it as a defiant and commanding yell they heard. With the hills the way they were, it echoed, too.

Then there was the one where I was encased in carbonite, a la Han Solo in Star Wars. That didn't stay terrifying very long, because it was just too funny. I think that was the only time I ever woke up giggling.

 

[Kulindahr]

@Kulindahr,

Speaking honestly, I shivered when I read your accounts of your dreams, because I can very vividly imagine them. "Demonic"-type dreams terrify our souls to the core.

Those dreams hint at a dark undercurrent to dreaming that I have never mentioned...Do hidden abilities exist, deep in the subconscious mind, that lucid dreaming can tap into? Somehow, I'd rather not know.

There's a strain of Christianity which maintains that our minds/souls have vast powers which are there because just a few humans were to be able to "govern" the entire planet, but that these are mostly lost to us because of the Fall. They're called variously "the forbidden powers of the soul", "the fouled powers of the soul", or (more neutrally) "the latent powers of the soul". Most such Christians believe we are to avoid the use of these, because we've fallen from our position of stewardship; assuming this is all true, I stand with those who hold that we're free to use them so long as the only things we do with them are stewardship. I could definitely use some at my project -- it would be tremendous to be able to tell plants to root deeply and hold the hillside, to tell spores and seeds to sprout and do well.....

BTW, I had a waking "night terror -- body paralysis" once, a thing that did a great deal to convince me that the supernatural is real.

 

[altlover85]

I've definitely had sleep paralysis and the fear that I either was dying or was very close to dying. I would try to scream or yell or move and nothing would happen. It was terrifying.

I've found that I was prone to it happening when I was sleeping on my back and I usually only fall asleep on my back when I'm extremely tired since it's the position I like the least.

 

[Beachguyj]

Thank God I don't get those, they sound scary as shit.

 

[freefall]

Talking about lucid dreamer training is funny. They say that one of the easiest way to recognise a dream is by looking at a writing twice. If the writing changes every time you look at it, it has to be a dream.

Weird thing is sometimes that cannot convince me I am dreaming to wake me up - which I frequently need, as I have very frequent nightmares.

Then again, I would try to preserve my sleep by avoiding jumping actions and screaming, but most often, it failed and I couldn't sleep the rest of the night

 

[Kulindahr]

Talking about lucid dreamer training is funny. They say that one of the easiest way to recognise a dream is by looking at a writing twice. If the writing changes every time you look at it, it has to be a dream.

Weird thing is sometimes that cannot convince me I am dreaming to wake me up - which I frequently need, as I have very frequent nightmares.

Then again, I would try to preserve my sleep by avoiding jumping actions and screaming, but most often, it failed and I couldn't sleep the rest of the night

That isn't conclusive, though -- writing in a dream can remain constant, just as places in dreams can remain coherent.

I trained my mind that if I was dreaming, if I got naked I could fly or at least levitate. Whether I had any other control in a dream, I almost always had enough control to strip. The moment my feet left the ground and I headed for the sky, I knew it was a dream.

I have worried, though, about thinking I was dreaming, and stripping only to find out it wasn't a dream.....

 

[72-Jay]

I got hit with this a lot while going to OSU. Attending university and trying to keep up as an honors student while dealing with PTSD, bipolar disorder, and a few other tidbits does strange things to the mind. When summer came along, I dealt with it by going on a camping trip where I let my body decide my schedule: if I felt sleepy, I slept; if not, I didn't, and I paid no attention to the clock, so I could be found canoeing or swimming at 3 a.m.... right after a 2 a.m. breakfast or lunch. During terms, sleep deprivation was usually effective (and a great way to get class projects done!). But most potent for an attack was when I learned to step in and take control of my dreams.

Only a few times was I truly terrified, once I knew what was going on. One was when I couldn't breathe -- I was aware enough of my body to know I actually wasn't breathing, not merely dreaming that I couldn't breathe. It was terrifying enough I was fighting to keep from peeing my bed -- but then it occurred to my "dreamwalker" mind that if I did, that might make me jump up, which might get me breathing. Short version: it worked. Another was when I was laying there frozen and getting cold, and sensed that around me the sleeping porch was getting cold, and the wood was starting to shrivel and crack. I have a vague memory of ordering a demon to get lost in the name of Jesus, then yelling -- and I really did yell; it woke up just about the whole house (I had thirty guys or so grumbling at me for days). The worst was on a camping trip, when I woke up (or dreamed I'd woken up) and could see out my tent window that the hills that had been there were gone... then I felt myself sliding, and understood that I and tent were on a vertical surface, and I was slipping, and would fall... my choice of dreamwalker image was very fortunate: I'd determined that in any dream, if I could get naked, I'd have power over the dream; since I was sleeping naked, I already had power. I commanded the cliff to be a hill again. I yelled as in Tae Kwon Do when delivering a punch as I gave that command, and felt the surface whirl and slam back to horizontal, which scared the crap out of me so I kept rolling, in dream and real now, out of my sleeping bag and out of my tent to stand "sky clad" in the moonlight. I learned in the morning -- about an hour and a half later -- that I really had yelled, too; other campers described it as a defiant and commanding yell they heard. With the hills the way they were, it echoed, too.

Then there was the one where I was encased in carbonite, a la Han Solo in Star Wars. That didn't stay terrifying very long, because it was just too funny. I think that was the only time I ever woke up giggling.

If I say, won the lotto or something, and didn't have to work/had no responsibility...One of the things I would love to do would be like you did on that camping trip ... but instead for an extended period of time.
Besides the fact that I really took interest in dreams in general at one point, One of the reasons I learned to take control of dreams is because of a specific recurring nightmare I'd get that always managed to scare the crap out of me.
Other than starting/keeping a dream journal/log I started getting 9-10 hours in bed.. its that latter part that really did it for me...
--
That time in particular when you couldn't breathe sounds truly terrifying .

I don't think I've actually yelled (or even made a sound) when doing so in a dream (but will never know for sure LOL)

I've had a few times when when I've woke up giggling ... usually because someone said or did something funny in the dream I had.

By far flying and the ability to go through walls were my favorite things. But I also love to be able to tell a 'monster'/demon/other-bad-thing "this is my dream, you can't hurt me" and all of a sudden all scary-ness is gone / a demon or something like that is suddenly harmless & friendly

Jay, at one time I could have called myself an "advanced lucid dreamer", so I feel pleased to make your acquaintance.

I wonder if your experiences mirror mine. For one thing, did you have sexual dreams? If you did, did you find that the nature of the sex differed from sex in physical reality?

I wonder if you had any interesting side-effects, too. I myself had to give the practice up, because I had some unpleasant side effects.

Wow Cool! I never got to the advanced point...but was deff beyond the beginner stage
I even sorta figured out my sleep/dream schedule & did some experiments with that.

The only real side effect I noticed was on nights when I had a dream/dreams with a longer lucid period, is the next morning I'd feel a bit worn out (mentally, but rested physically) - kinda hard to explain but you probably know what I mean.
I did always wonder what would happen if I got really good and could do it all the time - like in most dreams. If that might start to affect real life or something - maybe feeling truly worn-out mentally, or become somewhat addicted to sleeping/dreaming? Or i kinda doubt it but maybe mistake something in real life for a dream
I would be curious to know what some of the side-effects you saw were...

There have been a few times when I was having a good dream where I became lucid & I knew I was about to wake, where instead of trying to change anything I was able to delay myself from waking up if (just a short bit though)

I also got a good number of dreams where I had some control, but wasn't lucid.

I only occasionally had sexual dreams, but never anything nightmare-ish (there were a couple that after I woke & thought about it were a bit shocking/not something I'd do). I have nothing to compare even the good ones with in real life. I
I also (more common) got non-sexual dreams where I'd kiss another guy. Those always gave a 'wow' type feeling (can't explain it), I don't know how close they simulated real life since I've never kissed anyone...
There've been a number of times when I kissed or even just got close to someone in a dream ... and the next day (or even couple days) where I can still sorta see/feel it as if it had happened.

Talking about lucid dreamer training is funny. They say that one of the easiest way to recognise a dream is by looking at a writing twice. If the writing changes every time you look at it, it has to be a dream.
Weird thing is sometimes that cannot convince me I am dreaming to wake me up - which I frequently need, as I have very frequent nightmares.

The writing thing never worked for me (there usually isn't writing/text in my dreams anyway). I just would sometimes realize 'this is a dream'...
...then (depending on the situation) I usually think "that means I can walk through the wall" or "that means I can fly"

The whole idea is not to wake yourself... but instead to stay asleep/dreaming! and instead to realize its a dream and gain control of it. Basically take a nightmare and turn it around into something good or even awesome!

 

[Kulindahr]

One way I recognized dreams was that in almost all my dreams, geographical continuity was out the window. I could be seated in a physics lecture when some assassins charged in, race out the side door into a supply room but land on the floor of a bowling alley, run down a lane and dive through the pins and land in one of those play places filled with balls (like MacD's has), sprint through the restaurant to hide in the restroom and be in the shower house by the crew (rowing) docks... just to get far enough ahead of the assassins to strip and fly away. Places in different state parks, even different states, would be strung together by one trail; I once ran across a lake that was Diamond Lake in Oregon and ran ashore at an amusement park on Lake Erie.... Once I even climbed into a Chrysler LeBaron as a passenger but when I stopped and got out as the driver it was a passenger van.

Often I'd meet people who were also in trouble and I'd tell them that to get away from whatever it was, they should just get naked and fly. They'd object that wouldn't work (usually), and I'd tell them sure it would; it was my dream and that was the rule.

 

[MisterMajestic]

Some Herbalists think Sleep Paralysis is a common symptom of internal parasites in the Human Brain & Spine...The body is @ rest when you're sleeping...The Parasites begin moving in your Brain & Spine and cause you to wake up but they keep you paralyzed until they have migrated to different areas of your body...The cycle repeats itself over & over until you rid your body of the parasites....

If you ever ask your Primary Physician about internal Parasites he/she will tell you Americans don't have that problem...but man oh man we do...An infestation of Internal parasites is a real thing all over the world..

 

[MisterMajestic]

..............................

Vannie just because some Professional Herbalists have formed their theory does not mean it is FACTUAL...The traditional diagnosys for Sleep Paralysis could be 100% accurate...

I just think the parasite theory makes sense...Parasites are the smartest organisms on the Face of the earth because they LIVE in a host undetected, feed off your Life force and they can mimic your internal organs....That is a Bad Bitch...