Sleep paralysis...

mk6705

Before I start, what has happened to the sleep paralysis thread? I can't see it anywhere...

Anyway...Last night I had a dream, then I woke up with sleep paralysis, but I didn't realise it. I started thinking about something, then I had this weird (but relaxing at this point) feeling and it was almost like I was "letting something go"...in a nice way. But then it changed and it was like someone was on top of me pressing down on every part of my body, particularly in well...the worst place to press down on...It was a very scary experience and I was almost afraid to go back to sleep after it...

marbar

i'm always afraid to go back to sleep after it. i always feel that the pressure is on my chest and that i cant breathe. wake up gasping for air, finally

read somewhere that trying to move your ears and your nostrils is one of the best ways to try to wake yourself, so i've been doing that

remember tellinh people at a session about this and they were freaked out. most had never heard of it

mk6705

Yeah it's hard to explain to people sometimes. Had another dose of it a while ago. I think it can happen when you're not sleeping on your back but it's only bad if you are. So don't sleep on your back!

_Roz_

It's happened to me twice in two years, so it's not exactly common. With me, it's a case of I half wake up, and feel like someone is holding me down, so I naturally try to stuggle and I can't. Scary stuff.

First time it happened, I woke up looking at my Nightmare Before Christmas poster, and all I could see was a blurry face-shaped pumpkin, which my sleepy brain took to be a person. I freaked :rolleyes:

claireloopy

This happens to me everytime I sleep on my back so I havent slept on my back in about a year. Couldnt handle waking up seeing shadows been paralyzed and other stuff every single night. It sucks and I used to like sleepy time

seanybiker

never happened to me. Me sister gets it sometimes. Sounds really scary.

claireloopy

seanybiker wrote: »

never happened to me. Me sister gets it sometimes. Sounds really scary.

it is i miss sleeping on my back too lol

Plug

Adro947 wrote: »

Before I start, what has happened to the sleep paralysis thread? I can't see it anywhere...

Anyway...Last night I had a dream, then I woke up with sleep paralysis, but I didn't realise it. I started thinking about something, then I had this weird (but relaxing at this point) feeling and it was almost like I was "letting something go"...in a nice way. But then it changed and it was like someone was on top of me pressing down on every part of my body, particularly in well...the worst place to press down on...It was a very scary experience and I was almost afraid to go back to sleep after it...

Its exactly what happens to me!
I now know what it is and I accept it, I kindo of think its cool now:)
Happens to me maybe once a month.

Skapoot

I hate when it happens! Aaah! I dont really know what causes it in me, but my brother gets it from drinking, and so have a few of my friends. So... If thats any help to anyone out there, give up the oul drink!

marbar

it's recreational messing that does it to me

i was in ibiza at 21 the first time it happened, and i was having a nap. i really thought that i was screaming as loud as i could for my mates to come in and wake me, but that they wouldnt. when i woke i was really pissed off with them, until they looked at me like i'd 8 heads

it doesn't matter if i'm on my back or not

how does anyone manage to finally wake themselves?

FUNKY LOVER

oh my god i thought i was alone with this.i get it once a week mostly day after i ahve been drinking.

its so scary cause its like my heart stops and i cant breathe then i fear going back asleep cause it keeps happening.

does anyone know if there is danger like when my heart stops or when i think i feel it stopping etc?

its very scary!!!

claireloopy

I dont drink that much so I dont think thats how i got it.

I just wait it out until i can manage to move my body then I wake up its scary

mk6705

A few days ago I had an experience where I was lying thinking, then I started to feel what I was thinking about in a sleep paralysis way. I was able to stop it quick but I wonder if anyone else has experienced anything like that.

In relation to more severe sleep paralysis it only happens to me when I sleep on my back.

Amalgam

RTE Radio 1 did an interview with a man that suffered from Catoplexy (also.. Narcolepsy)

It didn't sound half as nice as the above posts, basically a horned demon climbs in through a window and starts jumping around on top of him, beating him up.. Lucid, but paralysed.

Anyone have the feeling they're sleeping with eyes open dream? Or rather, the frame of mind for your dream is more or less the room you're in.

claireloopy

Why is it always evil things? Why cant it be good things like fairies lol

mk6705

claireloopy wrote: »

Why is it always evil things? Why cant it be good things like fairies lol

It's not always bad, but it's a scary experience and hard to get used to, so most people have bad experiences with it.

keiran110

It`s scary stuff alright. I woke up completely paralysed twice, couldnt even open my eyes. Eventually after about 5 seconds (what felt like a lifetime), I could move my hand. It really felt like i was pinned to the bed.

Theres a chemical the body releases to keep you from moving and acting out your dreams when your asleep, i can't remember what its called, poor memory on the college summer holidays. Anyway, when you wake, that chemical is broken down.
If you wake up and that chemical is still present, you wont be able to move.

username4321

It happened to me nearly every night just before and during my exams.
Must have been stress, I would be in a deep deep sleep and my eyes would just randomly open and i would hallucinate and not be able to move because my body was still asleep. I think this is sleep paralysis.
I kinda started to just tell myself whenever i woke up i was only hallucinating that it was just my eyes. It helped a bit, but its still unpleasant.


It also made me think that when people wake and see 'ghosts' at the end of their beds/in their rooms that sleep paralysis could be an explanation for it.

Smyth

I've experienced this before too.

For me, I was having a dream about being stuck in some sort of hell, and in the dream there was some sort of demon who kept whispering in my ear that I wasn't allowed to leave. Then I woke up (paralyzed) and saw my mother walking around the room. I couldn't hear anything but the blood pumping around in my head. It was so loud. I could feel it travelling past my ear. I also felt this pressure on my entire body which didn't help either.

Worst. Dream. Ever.

Whiskey Devil

Skapoot wrote: »

I hate when it happens! Aaah! I dont really know what causes it in me, but my brother gets it from drinking, and so have a few of my friends. So... If thats any help to anyone out there, give up the oul drink!

From what I've read it's not actually caused by the alcohol itself - it's the lack of R.E.M. sleep you get whilst under the influence. Basically, drunk sleep is no sleep. From my experience, drinking excessively leads to sleep paralysis, whereas drinking moderately doesn't as it doesn't affect your sleep in the same way. Drinking a FEW beers before going to sleep will help, if you've had a lot to drink in the previous nights.


The worst part for me is the feeling that your heart is racing (and I mean RACING), you actually think it's going to stop, but when you wake up it's beating normally. The say fighting it is the worst thing you can do, never TRY to move or open your eyes, it just prolongs it. I've had some really long experiences of it (at least they felt long - like a minute or more).


Anyway, sorry for the long post - glad I'm not the only one.

cokedrinker

This has happened to me very frequently since i was about 12 (Im 27 now!). Every single time it happens i feel like there is someone in the room with me, and that i have just been drugged - I struggle to move and try shouting but to no avail...before falling back to sleep again.

That moment in which it happens is still always scarey for me!!!

paikea

It is so good to see that what happened to me was actually normal . Because it only happened once with me (20 years ago) and I never heard of any one talking about it before, I actually thought it was something else. I am not talking about demons and stuff. But I thought that I was suffering from something like (low) blood pressure.

In my case it was a mess. I was sleeping when these baby birds started making noise in the middle of the night. In my dream I imagined that someone was playing with a pencil hitting the hard floor. So I decided to wake up. That is when everything went wrong. I could not wake up, I was trying very hard to call for my brothers, and of course I could not move. I wanted to get up, move anything but I couldn't. I felt like there was this river of energy going from my head to my toes. Not like if I was being drained but more like I was in the middle of it.

When I finally woke up, my body was calm and that just made me even more scared. I ran out of the room crying looking for my brothers. It took me a while to feel ok about sleeping again. It helped when I found out that it was the birds that were making the noise.

keiran110

Yeah i actually never had the weird life-like dreams or visions when i woke up paraylsed.
I literally woke up (in my head) and couldn't open my eyes, move even a baby finger etc... I was fully alert though and not in a dream-like condition. No creepy visions for me. And thank god thats so, that sounds intense fo everybody that experienced strange paraylsed dreams.

O and yeah, i've also read how alcohol can induce sleep paraylsis. It was in a popular scientific article though so i dont actually know the in's and out's of the chemical reason why it happens.

pinkheels88

Sleep paralysis is AWFUL. It happens to me a couple of times a year, usually when I'm stressed out (exam time/ assignment deadlines etc.) and especially when I go to bed exhausted - I guess that would explain how lack of REM sleep can lead to terrible bouts of it. I don't have visual hallucinations but auditory hallucinations like a ringing in my ears that increases in volume and an overhwelming sense of impending doom. Awful! Best tip is to avoid going to bed too tired, avoid sleeping on your back if possible and try falling asleep with your hand positioned beside your leg or on your arm so you can pinch yourself awake- that's helped me!
The worst of it is when you are trying to scream out for help - it happened me once when I fell asleep and my boyfriend was beside me and I could see him sleeping but couldn't get his attention. Worst ever!

mhogan101

I used to get it quite alot when I was in my teens, really scared the b-jesus out of me, the only way I could get out of it was if I managed to move my head to the side but this would be quite hard to do, I found that if I dosed off again after it, it would happen again, it's a horrible feeling, glad I haven't had it in years....

Birdie086

This used to happen to me every Saturday evening. At the time i was working 40+ hours in the family business as well as going to college. At the time I used to work on a Sat 7am to 6pm and go straight home and have a two hour nap before going out. Invariably i used to 'wakeup' and ther would be someone/soemthing at the end of my bed bed and nothing I could do about it. Used to freak me out untill I spoke about it and then I realised I wasnt alone. To this day about six years later I suffer form night terrors - crazy mad dreams but usually after a big feed of aclohol so i leave a lamp on and can actaully wake myself up form them - can anyone else do this?? To me its a major feat - to be able to wake myself up and get over it I realise the lamp helps

Birdie086

On a side note how many in this forum have gotten the Falling down dream? You know when it feels as if you are fallin only to wake up form a sleep. I think its something to do with overtiredness and that all your muscles are relaxing at the same time? Correct me if I am worng

davej

This isn't a new phenomenon. Here's a famous painting depicting sleep paralysis from the 18th Century



When you are sleeping, the brain paralyses the body so that you don't act out your dreams. It is possible that you can become conscious/aware of your surroundings even though the brain hasn't yet un-paralysed your body...

davej

pinkheels88

Birdie086 wrote: »

On a side note how many in this forum have gotten the Falling down dream? You know when it feels as if you are fallin only to wake up form a sleep. I think its something to do with overtiredness and that all your muscles are relaxing at the same time? Correct me if I am worng

Yup, I've had it happen on occasion. Or other times waking up with a gasp. I've all the luck!

fifth

I get this all the damn time. Since I was a child, as far back as I remember.

I've been learning how to cope with it. For years I couldn't alert anyone to the fact I was in a 'sleep paralysis' but now I've honed methods of alerting my OH by breathing really short and fast (if I can breath) and trying to force sounds from the back of my throat (as I still find it difficult to make words, but I've made a lot of improvement)

I can almost make out names when I try and speak. My fave is 'help me' which sounds like 'hup muh' haha.

Seriously though, it is very scary. It's distressing. Mostly I get back to sleep afterwords pretty quickly, but some times I get multiple bouts of it and I have a rough night.

As a child it was absolutely terrifying. As an adult I've come to accept it but still not without a few chills whenever I get it.. and see and hear things.. like people walking up my stairs, entering my room and trying to choke me etc.

Anyway, nice to see I'm not the only one.. (Well not nice.. cos it's not pleasant) :pac:

gamgsam

Had this for the last two years

I actually learned to like it. When im lying there screaming in my head BRING IT ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and then I finally beat it. Aah

Weird I know, but you get tired of being scared!