Sleep paralysis...

Ostrom

There is an interesting intercultural mythology to it also, every area seems to have its own interpretation and superstition surrounding it. The word nightmare has its Germanic origins in the expereince. Google 'old hag' and 'witch sitting'...

I get it about once a week, it feels like (what I imagine to be) a heart attack. For some reason I always have control of my right foot so I move it until I'm awake. I'm so used to it now I just wait it out.

Taz86

My story seems tame in comparison to what I have read on the internet about sleep paralysis. It happened last week. I was awake but couldn't move. I felt like there was something on my chest. Even though I could feel my right arm I couldn't move it. I kept thinking 'c'mon move your arm' but it just wouldn't budge! I couldn't even feel the rest of my body. I was like lead. It was an awful feeling. I tend to sleep like a log and have had a regular sleep pattern for quite some time now so this was unusual. Hope it doesn't happen again.
Edit: This never happened to me before but as I said it wasn't as bad as some accounts I've read. I was worried about it afterwards for a few hours but have been sleeping normally since.

Skapoot

Ugh I got it this morning again, haaaate it. So I've just realised that not only do I get it after drinking, I get it if I wake up in the morning and then decide to go back to sleep again.


I tried moving everything and I could feel my body twitching but it wouldnt wake. Weirdly enough I woke up as soon as I decided to check the time?? It was weird. I dont even know why I decided to.

This means no more lie ins for me ever again lol!

delspeed78

Right, i first read this thread a few months back and remember thinking 'oh ya i got that once or twice, its kinda wierd alright', but last night just freaked me out.

Now i was after drinking for a few days previous and i do sleep on my back a lot of the time so it is obvious why it happened but it was the lenght that scared me. It wasn't one paralysis but several and it went on for what felt was about 2 hours.

It started off harmless enough like my father standing over me telling me to get up or my mate suddenly lifted his head up off the pillow beside me and start talking about Man Utd. It was when it started to get physical that it gets a bit frightening. For example feeling like your been held down by your arms and legs or someone poking you with their finger (jesus i'm even getting worked up from just typing about it:eek:)

Eventually i just got up turned on the light and started reading a book and was fine when i went back to sleep an hour later. It has really caught me by surprise and i will most certainly be going easy on the alcohol in the near future.

As you can see from the time of this post i am a bit slow in going to bed tonight/morning.....how sad am i..:D

Jessica-Rabbit

_Roz_ wrote: »

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:

Acutally it can be very common and a regular accurance.. I have had this problem since I was 5 and its still a problem it can happen very often

Dr.NickRiviera

Just sitting here surfing boards.ie then stumbled upon this interesting thread. I have experienced the same feelings and thoughts as many of the users above.
I gotta say the one that said 'Come on...bring it!' I identify with the most...very true...after a while u just get sick of whatever it is thats messing with your beauty sleep...be it natural or supernatural!
Ill save you all the spiel about the medical pseudo-explanations. Anyone can google all that to their hearts content.
What im interested in is 'the old hag' and 'the shadowman' syndrome...do we fabricate all this in our simple minds? If so why has this phenomenon been recorded for centuries? Science teaches us to explain what we see, hear and touch in terms of facts and figures...but what do we do when science fails?
Some cultures have recorded this phenomenon and explained it as 'djinn' or demons attacking you in your weakened metaphysical state. Could this be why we usually get these attacks when we are tired, stressed or hungover?
Alas...the image of poor emily rose and the 'djinn' hopping on her bed is not one wants to dwell on...especially when trying to sleep...

Goodnight...and next time the old witch or the shadowman visit...dont...be...afraid...

Tar.Aldarion

First time was a bit odd all right, agh I'm paralysed, can't breathe agh!
Now I'm just like, come on stupid body, start moving

okioffice84

Happens me all the time. Several times a week. It is common in shift workers or those with irregular sleeping patterns. Often when it happens to me it can be 2-3 times in succession within 5 mins and I have to wake up properly and move about a bit in the bed to stop it. I don't get any negative hallucinations but can sometimes hear footsteps on a carpet floor. I'm always fully aware I'm experiencing sleep paralysis. Sometimes I get a loud buzzing in my head coupled with a weird feeling of increased pressure in my head which gets louder and higher until I wake myself up properly- google "exploding head syndrome"

zeruda

I'm pretty sure i got sleep paralysis this morning... it was so weird
It was quite strange because i was able to move for a while then i wasnt like it kept switching on and off...
At first i thought i was only dreaming and waking up because when i couldn't move i saw really weird hallucinations and heard buzzing and shuffling sounds although i was pretty sure it wasnt a dream...


agh so weird!!! kinda cool though :rolleyes:

Jessica-Rabbit

Dr.NickRiviera wrote: »

Just sitting here surfing boards.ie then stumbled upon this interesting thread. I have experienced the same feelings and thoughts as many of the users above.
I gotta say the one that said 'Come on...bring it!' I identify with the most...very true...after a while u just get sick of whatever it is thats messing with your beauty sleep...be it natural or supernatural!
Ill save you all the spiel about the medical pseudo-explanations. Anyone can google all that to their hearts content.
What im interested in is 'the old hag' and 'the shadowman' syndrome...do we fabricate all this in our simple minds? If so why has this phenomenon been recorded for centuries? Science teaches us to explain what we see, hear and touch in terms of facts and figures...but what do we do when science fails?
Some cultures have recorded this phenomenon and explained it as 'djinn' or demons attacking you in your weakened metaphysical state. Could this be why we usually get these attacks when we are tired, stressed or hungover?
Alas...the image of poor emily rose and the 'djinn' hopping on her bed is not one wants to dwell on...especially when trying to sleep...

Goodnight...and next time the old witch or the shadowman visit...dont...be...afraid...

you scared the hell out of me i wont sleep for a month thanks for that:mad:

SoupyNorman

I feel like I'm in a room with fellow sufferers...

"Hi I'm Soupy and I suffer from night terrors"


I'll never for as long as I live forget my first experience of paralysis. I was 10 and I woke in the wee hours, the landing light was always left on when we were kids and the doors had glass panels at the top. Anyway, as I lay there helpless trying to call out for my mam I realized that a dark figure was slowly starting to appear in the glass panel, followed by an arm stretching in through the door, not nice for a ten year old. Further Incidents were quite sporadic until a few years ago when I started having night terrors.

These are guaranteed to happen if I sleep on my back, funny thing is that no matter how tired I am I cannot fall asleep on my back, but should I roll over on my back then Im in for some sort on nastiness. I also wail and moan when the terrors get violent and graphic, I frighted the life out of my poor GF the first time she experienced it. When it happens noe she just turns me over and rubs my back


The terrors themselves always follow the same format, they take place in the room I'm asleep in, I'm asleep and dreaming, I'm telling myself to wake up (which sometimes works)The nastiness is usually a cloaked or witch like figure gliding softly at the end of the bed, I feel totally calm and serine but with no warning I suddenly feel very very threatened, panic starts rising and the figure starts to move to me painfully slowly (queue my whelps and wails) If the GF isnt beside me then I have to ride it out till I wake otherwise she'll sort me out.


As to what causes or triggers it, the only solid answer I can give is that it happens when Im on my back. As regards all other theories put forward, It happens when Im both drunk and sober, I work nights now but it started way back when I was in college...As horrific as it can be I dont think about it much!

neutra

Amalgam wrote: »

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.

Yes, I have thought I was awake in a dream in the room I was in and woken to realise I was asleep and dreaming... not quite the same but still!

Just remembered I have had several experiences where I have also felt myself leave my physical body, too. Again, not the same but not a level of consciousness which is over-familiar. Zombified, yes: from sleep-deprevation. So, I have just written down what I think has been a denied or a blocked memory and I am hoping very much that recalling it will help me overcome insomnia ...would be excellent. Progress.

I have had a fear of falling asleep (which sounds so, so silly) ten years, maybe more. Not really sure at all. Time, I'm not keen on time. Watching the minutes pass unless there is an appointment to keep, that's courtesy towards the others at the same meeting so I do it, as one does. That's as far as I take its sigificance, really, so it could be much longer. Not that it matters. I'd like to be able to settle down for a good sleep. I am not afraid of being asleep, only of falling asleep. Maybe all I need is to acknowledge this as a problem and get on with getting over it. I hope so.

Any one else have this phobia? I wonder about my sanity and/or lack of on a regular basis (not only when trying to sleep!) It did worry me but I still pass as sane (eccentric, sometimes, but hey!) Provided no-one can lock me away for reasons of insanity, it doesn't bother me. Anymore. I do feel I have to watch over myself to stop clues reaching the men-in-white coming to lock me up but then really, am I less sane than others whilst I can see and make a judgement call on my reasoning and behaviour which is not under major question by anyone but myself. For all I know, it is relatively okay to have the falling-asleep fear and there may be sociopaths and worse lurking at every corner who appear sensible and sane to me but may be so far out of their minds that they walk beside themselves. I'm not going to ask, though... and I do know that it is impossible or close. Not on every corner! Statistics, as I understand them, have calmed my worries there. I'm not totally insane. Insomnia, it could all be down to that. It does have far worse effects on me than I'd care to admit, I suspect.

Blame it on the

SoupyNorman wrote: »

I feel like I'm in a room with fellow sufferers...

"Hi I'm Soupy and I suffer from night terrors"


I'll never for as long as I live forget my first experience of paralysis. I was 10 and I woke in the wee hours, the landing light was always left on when we were kids and the doors had glass panels at the top. Anyway, as I lay there helpless trying to call out for my mam I realized that a dark figure was slowly starting to appear in the glass panel, followed by an arm stretching in through the door, not nice for a ten year old. Further Incidents were quite sporadic until a few years ago when I started having night terrors.

These are guaranteed to happen if I sleep on my back, funny thing is that no matter how tired I am I cannot fall asleep on my back, but should I roll over on my back then Im in for some sort on nastiness. I also wail and moan when the terrors get violent and graphic, I frighted the life out of my poor GF the first time she experienced it. When it happens noe she just turns me over and rubs my back


The terrors themselves always follow the same format, they take place in the room I'm asleep in, I'm asleep and dreaming, I'm telling myself to wake up (which sometimes works)The nastiness is usually a cloaked or witch like figure gliding softly at the end of the bed, I feel totally calm and serine but with no warning I suddenly feel very very threatened, panic starts rising and the figure starts to move to me painfully slowly (queue my whelps and wails) If the GF isnt beside me then I have to ride it out till I wake otherwise she'll sort me out.


As to what causes or triggers it, the only solid answer I can give is that it happens when Im on my back. As regards all other theories put forward, It happens when Im both drunk and sober, I work nights now but it started way back when I was in college...As horrific as it can be I dont think about it much!

silly as it might sound, next time you have a lucid dream, just ask the cloaked/witch person why they are there. If you can tell yourself to wake up in a dream you can control your dream to an extent. Ask what they want and if you can't help them ask them to go somewhere else as they are frightening you.

And no, I don't need the men in white coats to call around, thanks.

But please let me know if it helped.

Blame it on the

neutra wrote: »

Yes, I have thought I was awake in a drem in the room I was in and woken to realise I was asleep and dreaming... not quite the same but still!

same thing happened to me yesterday (technically)

thought I was awake but couldn't move. Tried to wake up. Could hear everything around me and finally woke up to find I was still asleep:eek:

Maybe I do need those men in white coats afterall...

lol

SoupyNorman

Blame it on the wrote: »

silly as it might sound, next time you have a lucid dream, just ask the cloaked/witch person why they are there. If you can tell yourself to wake up in a dream you can control your dream to an extent. Ask what they want and if you can't help them ask them to go somewhere else as they are frightening you.

And no, I don't need the men in white coats to call around, thanks.

But please let me know if it helped.

Thats a seriously interesting idea, I will try although telling myself to wakeup could also be a pre-programmed part of the dream too!

Blame it on the

SoupyNorman wrote: »

Thats a seriously interesting idea, I will try although telling myself to wakeup could also be a pre-programmed part of the dream too!

I doubt it's pre-programmed Soupy as you'd have to know that you were sleeping/dreaming to want to wake up. Different dream state and active brain for those things. Use it as a last resort.

If you can do as I suggested, you have the possible benefit of finding out what's going on in your "subconscious" and perhaps the nicer possibility of it going away.....for good.

SoupyNorman

Blame it on the wrote: »

I doubt it's pre-programmed Soupy as you'd have to know that you were sleeping/dreaming to want to wake up. Different dream state and active brain for those things. Use it as a last resort.

If you can do as I suggested, you have the possible benefit of finding out what's going on in your "subconscious" and perhaps the nicer possibility of it going away.....for good.

It may sound weird but I would never try to get rid of it. I find it totally fascinating tbh, it's just so real and vivid...Closet thing to something paranormal happening to me. Maybe thats crazy talk

Blame it on the

SoupyNorman wrote: »

It may sound weird but I would never try to get rid of it. I find it totally fascinating tbh, it's just so real and vivid...Closet thing to something paranormal happening to me. Maybe thats crazy talk

down with the men in little white coats for this one so...

lol:D

Kold

Just had my first experience of this. It was bloody terrifying. Been back from Vancouver about 3 days and have barely been able to sleep so I drifted off in my brand new bed with a big thick blanket on me.

It's weird, I can't tell if I switched on or just slowly gained more awareness. I barely ever remember dreams at all, and most of the time wake up unaware if I even dreamed. I felt pinned to the bed and then it felt like I was shooting up into the air. I don't believe in the supernatural but this was just so out of the ordinary for me. I couldn't move, I tried to call out but I couldn't. It felt like I was in this hovering state, petrified, for ages. At some stage I managed to reach for my light and then I guess I was awake. Also realized that I woke up in a patch of my own drool =/

First thing I did was grab my lappy and googled "Sleep, constriction, can't move" and Yahoo Answers provided the answer. That's 2 out of 2 for Yahoo Answers actually because last Winter I was able to self diagnose chilblains (Also sucks).

Blame it on the

Kold wrote: »

Just had my first experience of this. It was bloody terrifying. Been back from Vancouver about 3 days and have barely been able to sleep so I drifted off in my brand new bed with a big thick blanket on me.

It's weird, I can't tell if I switched on or just slowly gained more awareness. I barely ever remember dreams at all, and most of the time wake up unaware if I even dreamed. I felt pinned to the bed and then it felt like I was shooting up into the air. I don't believe in the supernatural but this was just so out of the ordinary for me. I couldn't move, I tried to call out but I couldn't. It felt like I was in this hovering state, petrified, for ages. At some stage I managed to reach for my light and then I guess I was awake. Also realized that I woke up in a patch of my own drool =/

First thing I did was grab my lappy and googled "Sleep, constriction, can't move" and Yahoo Answers provided the answer. That's 2 out of 2 for Yahoo Answers actually because last Winter I was able to self diagnose chilblains (Also sucks).

I hate to disappoint you Kold but you could just be suffering from extreme jet lag. Give me a minute to check and I'll get back to you with a link.

http://www.hhmi.org/biointeractive/clocks/summer/jetlag.html

http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=9806

As for the chilblains, bet Yahoo didn't show you this one: -

http://raynauds.chicanes.net/potioncms/articlefiles/57-Chilblains.pdf

There is medication that can help if you are diagnosed with this. It's not a serious condition at all.

Kold

Ah the chilblains were fine, I do have bad circulation to my feet but it was mainly due to staying in a fecking FREEZING room. just wore 2 pairs of socks around and kept wiggling my toes.

Would it not be sleep paralysis induced by jetlag seeing as my experience matched a lot of what I've read in the last hour or so. Weird thing is, I think I got barely any sleep, I can't be sure what time I turned off the lights but I was asleep for less than half an hour definitely. I should probably try and sleep again soon.

Blame it on the

Kold wrote: »

Ah the chilblains were fine, I do have bad circulation to my feet but it was mainly due to staying in a fecking FREEZING room. just wore 2 pairs of socks around and kept wiggling my toes.

Would it not be sleep paralysis induced by jetlag seeing as my experience matched a lot of what I've read in the last hour or so. Weird thing is, I think I got barely any sleep, I can't be sure what time I turned off the lights but I was asleep for less than half an hour definitely. I should probably try and sleep again soon.

Go get some well deserved rest Kold and check the links 2moro. They'll still be there.....promise:)

Blame it on the

neutra wrote: »

Yes, I have thought I was awake in a dream in the room I was in and woken to realise I was asleep and dreaming... not quite the same but still!

Just remembered I have had several experiences where I have also felt myself leave my physical body, too. Again, not the same but not a level of consciousness which is over-familiar. Zombified, yes: from sleep-deprevation. So, I have just written down what I think has been a denied or a blocked memory and I am hoping very much that recalling it will help me overcome insomnia ...would be excellent. Progress.

I have had a fear of falling asleep (which sounds so, so silly) ten years, maybe more. Not really sure at all. Time, I'm not keen on time. Watching the minutes pass unless there is an appointment to keep, that's courtesy towards the others at the same meeting so I do it, as one does. That's as far as I take its sigificance, really, so it could be much longer. Not that it matters. I'd like to be able to settle down for a good sleep. I am not afraid of being asleep, only of falling asleep. Maybe all I need is to acknowledge this as a problem and get on with getting over it. I hope so.

Any one else have this phobia? I wonder about my sanity and/or lack of on a regular basis (not only when trying to sleep!) It did worry me but I still pass as sane (eccentric, sometimes, but hey!) Provided no-one can lock me away for reasons of insanity, it doesn't bother me. Anymore. I do feel I have to watch over myself to stop clues reaching the men-in-white coming to lock me up but then really, am I less sane than others whilst I can see and make a judgement call on my reasoning and behaviour which is not under major question by anyone but myself. For all I know, it is relatively okay to have the falling-asleep fear and there may be sociopaths and worse lurking at every corner who appear sensible and sane to me but may be so far out of their minds that they walk beside themselves. I'm not going to ask, though... and I do know that it is impossible or close. Not on every corner! Statistics, as I understand them, have calmed my worries there. I'm not totally insane. Insomnia, it could all be down to that. It does have far worse effects on me than I'd care to admit, I suspect.

Sweetheart, I just saw your edit now. Please just add a new post in future.

Hon, I think we need to talk. Are you there now?

neutra

Blame it on the wrote: »

Sweetheart, I just saw your edit now. Please just add a new post in future.

Hon, I think we need to talk. Are you there now?

I edited cos I thought it was not good to enter multiple posts in the same thread? ...I don't really know, I am new to this type of site.

Anything you can say that may help ...I will gladly hear it

:pac:peace-man!!!:cool:

strmckr

i have a question or a pondering, i was pointed to the cases of sp via some friends of mine and this thread seems to be actively tallking about it and so i post my inquiry.

i my self do not have sp i have insomnia and adhd, how ever something strickling familiar (identical descriptions) i see often seems to plague many of the individuals with sp.

im curious to any open minded explanation to it?

sorry for being a bit vague but i rather not discourse it too much in public.
if any one else see's it, feel free to contact via pm and i'll share more information.

Rylan

They are talking about this on Gerry Ryan at the moment.

heavyballs

i went through a whole year of this and now thhat i look back on it i can defo say it was brought on by stress and depressiona as a result of losing someone close,if i didn't relax when i 'woke up' i would spin around in my mind's eye,has anyone else experienced this?

smelltheglove

I havent read all of this so I am sorry if I am being rude. this is a long post but would like to clear with people first that my version was quite severe, I wil explain what happened and how I came to terms with it, I hope somebody may be able to try my methods and maybe sort themselves out, this is not a nice thing to endure and unfortunately is not given enough coverage, people think they are the only ones suffering this but in fact it is very very widespread.

I have suffered this for years, sometimes I could have a year in between sometimes not even an hour. I have been clear the last year or so as I can now combat it. I cant remember the first time I had it, I had stressful teenage years and cant recall it although I know my first my memory wasnt the first time it happend. I do remember having it after my first child, I am sure this wasnt the first time. I was sleep deprived, my family were downstairs and I had taken a nap whilst there were people to keep an eye on my baby, I think this stands out as my first memory as it was horrific. In my paralysis somebody walked in and raped me, I was screaming and screaming, I awoke and cried, I felt like it actually happened.

So the next few years it would happen on and off but I never spoke about it.

So when did it get to its worst? After my second child, this was extreme, I went to doctors, I had insomnia, I was so fearful of sleep but as I had a young baby I could not take sleeping pills, docs will not prescribe them for mothers with children under 1 in case you ffall into too deep a sleep. I was aware of this anyway as I always suffered insomnia on and off.

What happened:

Well there is no nice way to describe what happened, it was always horrific and it always adapted itself to the situation, I will explain how in a moment. A man would walk up my stairs, I could see his foot resting on each step, slow motion, he would enter my room and I would be lying there paralysised, he did not rape me but my children, torturing them, they would be screaming for me, why wasnt I helping them, he would then somtimes go on to cut them, kill them in front of my eyes, all the time mocking me.

This adapted in many ways, my eldest would sometimes be in her daddys house, so it would just be my youngest child, they could be in their own room, and he would bring them into me, sometimes it could happen 3 times in a night, although it mainly happened when my husband was working nights, when he was beside me I was often able to come out of it before any harm happened.

Fixing myself.....
My last resort was a sleep clinic, my docotor advised it but I was afraid of this, I decided to research, many places I came across online mentioned connection to a spiritual world, I visited a 'psychic' who advised it was most likely stemming from my childhood. I was not abused but had been in the company of an abuser on holidays however never alone and i never witnessed anything so i could not imagine this being it, I pondered it for a while though. I continued googling, and found many theories.

As mentioned somewhere here moving the ear or nostril, I focused on a finger, I was now always aware of what was happening and always trying to pull myself out of it, now rather than trying to scream or kick I would concentrate on my baby finger or index finger, quite quickly i could move my finger and would then move my hand and so forth. I learnt lying on your back could bring out the extremities, I stopped lying on my back, I rarely do at all now. I learnt that human touch can release you from this state, I had my husband always keep a hand on me, however I did get it once whilst his arm was over me so am unsure if this made a huge difference.

So recently it dawned on me the causes at each stages... Many people here mention alcohol which apparently can be a factor however not for me, nicotine, may have been a factor during my worst cases as I was using nicotine patches so I stopped these. mostly stress. I am sure I had this during my teenage years, when my parents broke up, I dont think it was strong though but i remember being very fearful of sleep. I had this after my first baby, i suffered post natal, I had suffered months of pregnancy without the father, stress from being a young single mum etc and after the second baby I had moved away from family and we were extremely stressed coping with the move, new baby and my insomnia. I used to read horror stories and stopped this also, I quit smoking.

Why am I so sure stress was a big factor? We moved home, my sleep got better the less stress I was under, the only time it has happened, or should I say almost happened, was this year, after the shock killing of a family friend, I was emotionally stressed, I kept it together for a while and one night I broke down, the following day after a restless night from being upset and stressed I needed a nap and on it came, I shook it off quite quickly and havent suffered it since.

I hope this helps, I suppose its good for people to know if they get it this bad that they are not alone and they can overcome it. Yes it still comes on from time to time during stress but due to my awareness of it I can pull myself out before the feet make it all the way up the stairs.

myster

Its jinn that cause sleep paralasis most of the time.

If anyone gets this experience then visit a spiritual advisor and get it sorted.

Alternatively if your struggle (PS dont pay em *hit loads of money - theyl rip you off) then contact me.

niamhy84

This is mad and so glad when i found the 'Sleeping and Dreaming'.When im upset,stressed or anything bad i have these dreams but there not 'really' dreams,its like an out of body experience.
I feel myself floating over my bed,constantly been spun around and around.I try to fight it to wake up but its like it wont let me till it has finished so to say.its really weird and horrible.. everyone i say it to thinks im mad or its my emotions coming out in my dreams.. Anybody experience anything similar???