Sleep paralysis, share your story

stevowhelo1 · 10-12-2014 1:43am #1

Does anyone suffer from sleep paralysis? If so, what has been your scariest spell? Being a person who gets it, it would be interesting to hear from other people who have it also.

Highflyer13 · 10-12-2014 1:45am

stevowhelo1 wrote: »

Does anyone suffer from sleep paralysis? If so, what has been your scariest spell? Being a person who gets it, it would be interesting to hear from other people who have it also.

The first time I got it I thought I died. Truly f**ked up experience.

ChewyLewy · 10-12-2014 1:45am

Sometimes get it the day after going on the beer. Scary stuff . Mentally I'm awake but then I just can't move my body.

Canis Lupus · 10-12-2014 1:48am

'Woke up' couldn't move... realised it was sleep paralysis... chilled out and then woke up properly after a couple of minutes.... simples :P

Sheep Lover · 10-12-2014 1:49am

Every morning before I have to get up, I know I have to get up and try my hardest to move but I just can't. Awful.

tim3000 · 10-12-2014 1:50am

When I work nights I sometimes sleeping tablets to get some sleep during the day. I only get it when I take them. The last time I got it was the worst yet, goose-flesh, the horrible sensation of not being able to move and the feeling that something was sliding the blankets off me and sliding itself into the bed beside me. Miserable experience.

DarkJager · 10-12-2014 1:50am

Had it a few times, the worst though was one night when I woke up in pitch darkness to a very loud whisper in my ear. Was literally frozen to the spot in fear, couldn't move or even turn around and was 100% certain there was somebody behind me. Terrifying experience to have.

AnonoBoy · 10-12-2014 1:51am

Wake up.
See figure standing over bed.
Freak the f*ck out.
Wake up properly.
Try to explain to partner why you were screaming blue murder.
Repeat.

Great night's sleep that was.

retro:electro · 10-12-2014 1:54am

This has started to happen to me lately. I woke from my sleep one night and I could not move a muscle, I was lying flat on my back and couldn't move or speak but I was fully aware. I felt like someone was pushing down on my chest and in the corner of my eye I could see a white circle and was convinced it was some sort of poltergeist. All of a sudden I just sat up in the bed and awoke properly. The terror I felt was unbelievable although I specifically remember my heart was not beating fast and this didn't match the fright and anxiety I felt inside. It happened a few nights later when I was lying on my side and woke up and couldn't move. I was convinced there was something behind me in my bed but I couldn't move to see what it was, I heard whispering and tried so hard to move my hand and shout help but I couldn't. These episodes have scared me so much I'm afraid to go to bed at night, they really are terrifying.

Books4you · 10-12-2014 1:55am

Anytime it happens to me I Wake up, can't move and 9/10 times I think there is someone on top of me. Usually with a knife. Creepy as hell!

Have to get up and walk around. If I just try nod off again it keeps happening. Used to happen a couple of times a month but thank god it's a rare occurrence these days! Freaky freaky feeling!

GerB40 · 10-12-2014 2:09am

DarkJager wrote: »

Had it a few times, the worst though was one night when I woke up in pitch darkness to a very loud whisper in my ear. Was literally frozen to the spot in fear, couldn't move or even turn around and was 100% certain there was somebody behind me. Terrifying experience to have.

Years ago when I just drank and took drugs all weekend I started having a very similar experience to you on a fairly regular basis. I know, it was my own fault but I was young and thick. Instead of whispering into my ear I used to feel someone blowing into it. I'm a skeptic by nature and never believed in supernatural stuff but when I could literally feel someone blowing into my ear all rationality left, it was clearly a ghost..

A while after they stopped I told a friend about them, slightly embarrassed at first, but he said they were common enough. Eventually I found out about sleep paralysis and was very relieved to know I wasn't going mad/haunted...

Moral of the story, don't do drugs. Or if you do, moderate...

The Diabolical Monocle · 10-12-2014 2:18am

re: all the above.

:eek:

wait .... what

but this only happens to other people right ?

rodge68 · 10-12-2014 2:26am

Just stuck there with someone (usually a man) trying to climb on top !! Haven't had that experience in a while, generally after a long weekend drinking..

barry181091 · 10-12-2014 2:37am

Yeah get it a good bit, used to it though. If I want to go into a Lucid dream, you sort of have to guide yourself into and past the paralysis stage basically.

If you have particularly bad hallucinatory episodes, one solution is to start sleeping on your stomach. The hallucinations and terror should subside, even if the paralysis does not.

harry Bailey esq · 10-12-2014 2:45am

stevowhelo1 wrote: »

Does anyone suffer from sleep paralysis? If so, what has been your scariest spell? Being a person who gets it, it would be interesting to hear from other people who have it also.

I'm fkin plagued by it.Have been for years,kinda have a handle on it now thank god.Its terrifying.Hope it improves for you mate

certifiedcrepe · 10-12-2014 3:32am

I get it most nights and have had it regularly the past 2 years along with night terrors. Pretty frightening if it happens once off but with so many occurrences it can drain your energy during the day and keep you up all night. You don't want to sleep because it'll happen again so you stay up until you pass out from exhaustion.

In my night terrors I've seen everything from men raping me to seeing the people I love dying in front of me. Sleep paralysis is also terrifying in its own way, sometimes I see things, sometimes I don't. When I do it's usually men in suits leaning over me or a very old woman in the corner of my room looking at me.

I don't recommend it

harry Bailey esq · 10-12-2014 5:54am

certifiedcrepe wrote: »

or a very old woman

That's whats reffered to as 'the old hag' very common with sleep paralysis.Total brainfcuk.

john the one · 10-12-2014 5:58am

Every damn night unless I'm pissed drunk. Usually within the first hour of sleep. Its either somebody standing over me or the baby falling and I need to try catch her. It takes it out of me!

Saralee4 · 10-12-2014 7:47am

I just made a post about this in paranormal forum yesterday

The reason I put it in paranormal is because when I get this, there's always an evil presence usually an evil kid in the dream and I somehow get lifted to the ceiling. It's so scary when it happens. Creeps me out for days.

blackwave · 10-12-2014 8:33am

Haven't had one in ages thankfully but thevworst one was in college think it was after rag week and I was staying in my house in college. Anyway woke up with a feeling of dread and couldn't move. I moved my eyes to the door of the room and there was a guy there sitting down with his face covered. He then ran at me with a knife. Not the most nicest experience now.I tend to get it when I have been heavy on the beer a few days and then sleeping with a hangover.

LucidLife · 10-12-2014 8:55am

Somebody mentioned being brought to the ceiling. An outer body experience. That's what happened you. Your body is powerless not your mind. If you put every ounce of strength you can muster into moving you will release yourself kind of. Its a safety net of sorts and proves one can transend. You will be able watch the terror and your paralysed self from a up above. Do this once and your perspective of possibilities changes forever.

strobe · 10-12-2014 9:02am

LucidLife wrote: »

Somebody mentioned being brought to the ceiling. An outer body experience. That's what happened you. Your body is powerless not your mind. If you put every ounce of strength you can muster into moving you will release yourself kind of. Its a safety net of sorts and proves one can transend. You will be able watch the terror and your paralysed self from a up above. Do this once and your perspective of possibilities changes forever.

Or to put it another way, lay off the ecstacy.

ShadowHearth · 10-12-2014 9:28am

Holy crap, it's actually a real thing. I had a few of those before and I just though it was completely fecked up dream.
Last time I had it, I woke up and could not move a bit. My dog was barking like crazy, like someone was in the room. Creepiest fecking thing ever.

Cee-Jay-Cee · 10-12-2014 9:34am

Used to happen to me years ago but thankfully not recently. The worst was I woke and a small Chinese guy was creeping into my room (my landlord was Chinese at the time and had a habit of just arriving unannounced in the house) anyway I couldn't move and was trying to roar at him but couldn't, I was absolutely terror stricken and it lasted maybe 30 seconds. I'm not sure how I snapped out of it. The last few times it happened I knew what it was and told myself just to relax and go back to sleep and then wake again normally...worked each time.

anncoates · 10-12-2014 9:46am

Is it when you're lying in bed in an inert lump without the ability to move, feeling an overwhelming sense of terror while an older person, shouting, tries in vain to drag you out of the bed?

I suffered terribly from it Monday-Friday all the way though school.

ZiabR · 10-12-2014 9:49am

ShadowHearth wrote: »

Holy crap, it's actually a real thing. I had a few of those before and I just though it was completely fecked up dream.
Last time I had it, I woke up and could not move a bit. My dog was barking like crazy, like someone was in the room. Creepiest fecking thing ever.

Maybe someone was in the room... everyone that has this experience always feels like there is something or someone in the room with them.

anncoates · 10-12-2014 9:51am

ChewyLewy wrote: »

Sometimes get it the day after going on the beer. Scary stuff . Mentally I'm awake but then I just can't move my body.

Are you actually awake though?

I used to get it sometimes but not for years now.

You are 'awake' and trying to move and call out (to your partner or when you were a kid, to your parents) but you can't move or speak and you start to panic.

Always assumed that it's just a vivid dream: you're not actually awake and you actually 'wake' when you snap out of it.

Canis Lupus · 10-12-2014 10:02am

LucidLife wrote: »

Somebody mentioned being brought to the ceiling. An outer body experience. That's what happened you. Your body is powerless not your mind. If you put every ounce of strength you can muster into moving you will release yourself kind of. Its a safety net of sorts and proves one can transend. You will be able watch the terror and your paralysed self from a up above. Do this once and your perspective of possibilities changes forever.

Get a friend to put a mystery object on a shelf that you can't see in normal day to day activity. Wait till you have an out of body experience and then come back and report what the object was as you look down from above.

(pro tip): You won't be able to do it because you're talking rubbish.

Sunnyisland · 10-12-2014 10:08am

It's a long time since it happened to me,

I also have fell from a high cliff/building and can feel myself falling and falling and just before I hit the ground I wake up. Strange feeling.

qo2cj1dsne8y4k · 10-12-2014 10:09am

My scariest spell was about two weeks after my dad passed away. My dad had cancer, and I associate really hollow cheek bones with cancer now. When I think back on how my dad looked this time last year I'm looking at cancer, not at my dad. Annnnyway,

This night I was having this really scary dream. That this old lady, wild hair, wide eyes, that waxy skin.. And those hollow cheeks, well she grabbed me, and she was hugging me so tight, so tight that I couldn't even breath. I woke up in a panic, but I couldn't move, I still couldn't breathe, and it felt like she was still squeezing me tight. I wanted to scream and couldn't even scream.

I had absolutely no idea what was happening. It's happened a few times since but doesn't frighten me as much anymore but since that happened I'm very bad at sleeping, haven't really felt safe asleep since and I know how stupid and ridiculous that sounds

Saralee4 · 10-12-2014 10:15am

Canis Lupus wrote: »

Get a friend to put a mystery object on a shelf that you can't see in normal day to day activity. Wait till you have an out of body experience and then come back and report what the object was as you look down from above.

(pro tip): You won't be able to do it because you're talking rubbish.

you can't decide when it's going to happen so the mystery object wouldn't work.

When it happened me it felt like I was being pulled to the ceiling. It happened only about 3 or 4 times in my life. I don't have the ability to turn around and look back at the bed to see if my body is there.

I just read up on it and it is a common thing in sleep paralysis but the experience is exactly the same as people have when they have an out of body near death experience. Something to do with waking up mid REM.

King George VI · 10-12-2014 10:18am

I experience this almost every night. I've learned to accept it and let it run it's course. It's gotten to the point that I can control it. Before I learned to do this it was scary as ****. Normally I go through periods of about 3 months getting them every night, then a month or so SP free, then 3 month cycle starts again.

From my post in the sleeping and dreaming forum:

Johnny Carson wrote: »

I sleep on my belly with my face pointing to the left or right. I was having alot of weird dreams (one involved me going into the kitchen for a snack and all I found was broken pieces of Easter eggs HAH... but that's a story for a different day). Anyway when I "woke" from the dream I felt the familiar sensation of the skin on my face being sucked off, I felt an evil presence in the room and everything was kind of... blurry. My face was pointing towards my girlfriend who was fast asleep next to me. As with sleep paralysis I couldn't move a muscle so I tried to shake my hand and breath heavily to try wake her but to no avail. Then (and this freaked me the **** out) she suddenly sat up and turned her head to me. As it was dark and blurry I assumed it was her anyway. She stared at me for a minute or so then really quickly crawled off the bed out of my view and as she crawled out of view she kind of resembled a demon like creature/incubus type thing. She was gone for a minute and then I felt her crawl onto my back which made my breathing really difficult. I tried to scream and rock back and forth, all the while my breathing was getting increasingly heavier and after a minute or so of this I woke up.

Out of breath and exhausted, I looked over and there was my girlfriend looking at me asking me did I just have a seizure. I sat up in bed for a minute and after I gathered my thoughts I laid my head back down on the pillow. Literally within a minute it started happening again. Blurry room, unable to move, that face suction **** going on. I was like "Jesus!! Not again". I was able to snap out of it the second time and finally fall back asleep.

It's a scary occurrence but it's totally harmless. It's caused by messed up sleeping patterns, medication, caffeine, stress... etc...

Read the wikipedia page. It helps you understand it a bit better. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_paralysis
__________________

One strange thing though, it ALWAYS happens when fall asleep with a body part sticking out of the duvet.

Canis Lupus · 10-12-2014 10:20am

Saralee4 wrote: »

I just read up on it and it is a common thing in sleep paralysis but the experience is exactly the same as people have when they have an out of body near death experience. Something to do with waking up mid REM.

Yeah, it's called dreaming.

LucidLife · 10-12-2014 10:21am

Canis Lupus wrote: »

Get a friend to put a mystery object on a shelf that you can't see in normal day to day activity. Wait till you have an out of body experience and then come back and report what the object was as you look down from above.

(pro tip): You won't be able to do it because you're talking rubbish.

You sir are wrong. It has been proven. Do a bit of research lol

Mr Freeze · 10-12-2014 10:22am

Tis a scary experience.

The first time it happened to me, it was quite bad and I was 100% positive what was happening was real.

I was lying in bed and thought I was awake and noticed there was something behind me, pressing against my back.

It my head, I thought it was a giant snake or it was a demon or devil or something and that all it was going to wrap itself around me and eat me and drag me to hell. To say I was panicking like never before would be an understatement.

I couldn't move a muscle and I didn't know why, and I just lay there terrified.
I don't remember waking up, I was in same position when I did wake and was able to move.

I thought it was the most real feeling dream I ever had.

LucidLife · 10-12-2014 10:23am

strobe wrote: »

Or to put it another way, lay off the ecstacy.

I don't take it.

Saralee4 · 10-12-2014 10:24am

Canis Lupus wrote: »

Yeah, it's called dreaming.

No it's a transitional experience between wakefulness and sleep. It is medically recognised.

Canis Lupus · 10-12-2014 10:25am

LucidLife wrote: »

You sir are wrong. It has been proven. Do a bit of research lol

I'll await the links to this peer reviewed research...

I'll be waiting a while I imagine as well...

LucidLife · 10-12-2014 10:28am

Canis Lupus wrote: »

I'll await the links to this peer reviewed research...

I'll be waiting a while I imagine as well...

You will be if you expect me to enlighten you. I don't care up or down what your mind perceives about anything.

noodler · 10-12-2014 10:28am

tim3000 wrote: »

When I work nights I sometimes sleeping tablets to get some sleep during the day. I only get it when I take them. The last time I got it was the worst yet, goose-flesh, the horrible sensation of not being able to move and the feeling that something was sliding the blankets off me and sliding itself into the bed beside me. Miserable experience.

Exactly right.

Usually it feels like a massive gust of wind coming from nowhere is blowing my duvet covers off leaving me exposed.

I only remember seeing somebody once but they walked past the bed and wouldn't look at me.

1) Frozen - (can still see)
2) Can't scream or make any noise no matter how hard I try
3) Duvet flying off me due to wind (although it actually isn't).

noodler · 10-12-2014 10:29am

noodler wrote: »

3) Duvet flying off me due to wind (although it actually isn't).

I ought to get that looked at!

Am I rite?

AM I RITE?

Canis Lupus · 10-12-2014 10:33am

LucidLife wrote: »

You will be if you expect me to enlighten you. I don't care up or down what your mind perceives about anything.

You could just have said no such research exists that proves it....

Canis Lupus · 10-12-2014 10:37am

Saralee4 wrote: »

No it's a transitional experience between wakefulness and sleep. It is medically recognised.

Oh I know sleep paralysis is recognised but then as you can read in this thread people have horrible stories to recount about sleep paralysis. One person thought she was being raped! Obviously they were all dreaming and yet you, when you float out of your body, apparently are not despite it being the obvious cause of the 'experience'.

LucidLife · 10-12-2014 10:41am

Canis Lupus wrote: »

Oh I know sleep paralysis is recognised but then as you can read in this thread people have horrible stories to recount about sleep paralysis. One person thought she was being raped! Obviously they were all dreaming and yet you, when you float out of your body, apparently are not despite it being the obvious cause of the 'experience'.

Your ignorance is my bliss

StormWarrior · 10-12-2014 10:52am

When I was a teenager for a while my bedroom was the attic. When sleeping in there I used to get sleep paralysis all the time. The scariest one was when I felt it happening again, managed to scream for my mum who came upstairs, opened my bedroom door and stood over me. I said, "Mum, it's happening again," and she did nothing to help but just went downstairs again. When it finally wore off I got out of bed, went downstairs to complain, and my mum said she hadn't been up at all. The hallucination was so real I thought she'd really come up. That was when I realised that my bedroom door had been locked from the inside, she couldn't have come in. I had one where two strange men were in my room, sitting on my bed, looking at me and talking about me. They were really scary and sinister and even though I knew it was a hallucination, I was terrified. I had a horrible one once where on my bedroom wall I could see a scene of the beach and cliffs down the road from my house. In the sleep paralysis it looked and felt like I was repeatedly climbing up the cliff and jumping down onto the beach, over and over again. I also used to have one where I could see an evil figure by the window of my bedroom. Later I moved to a different bedroom and my sister got the attic. Now my sleep paralysis ended and hers began. She used to see the same figure by the window that I had seen.

LucidLife · 10-12-2014 10:59am

StormWarrior wrote: »

When I was a teenager for a while my bedroom was the attic. When sleeping in there I used to get sleep paralysis all the time. The scariest one was when I felt it happening again, managed to scream for my mum who came upstairs, opened my bedroom door and stood over me. I said, "Mum, it's happening again," and she did nothing to help but just went downstairs again. When it finally wore off I got out of bed, went downstairs to complain, and my mum said she hadn't been up at all. The hallucination was so real I thought she'd really come up. That was when I realised that my bedroom door had been locked from the inside, she couldn't have come in. I had one where two strange men were in my room, sitting on my bed, looking at me and talking about me. They were really scary and sinister and even though I knew it was a hallucination, I was terrified. I had a horrible one once where on my bedroom wall I could see a scene of the beach and cliffs down the road from my house. In the sleep paralysis it looked and felt like I was repeatedly climbing up the cliff and jumping down onto the beach, over and over again. I also used to have one where I could see an evil figure by the window of my bedroom. Later I moved to a different bedroom and my sister got the attic. Now my sleep paralysis ended and hers began. She used to see the same figure by the window that I had seen.

Ouch thats a rough run. Do you remember anything the two men said or do you try and ignore them memories? The one with your mum was a lucid nightmare sounds like which aint fun.

StormWarrior · 10-12-2014 11:06am

LucidLife wrote: »

Ouch thats a rough run. Do you remember anything the two men said or do you try and ignore them memories? The one with your mum was a lucid nightmare sounds like which aint fun.

I couldn't actually make out what the men were saying but they were looking at me while talking and there was a really sinister feel about it, I just knew they were making plans to do something to me.

noodler · 10-12-2014 11:14am

StormWarrior wrote: »

I couldn't actually make out what the men were saying but they were looking at me while talking and there was a really sinister feel about it, I just knew they were making plans to do something to me.

..a makeover?

Bastards.

EDIT: By the way, this thread has huge potential. Similar to that "most unerving thing that has ever happened to you" thread from a few Xmas ago.

StormWarrior · 10-12-2014 11:24am

noodler wrote: »

..a makeover?

Haha no. I felt that they were planning to rape and kill me.

asteroids over berlin · 10-12-2014 11:30am

used to get it after going for a couple of beers then staying up until 8 - 9am playing poker (cash games) in a casino. usually walking out with a nice wad of cash, however the paralysis was quite fcuked up, in my case, it was a sign it wasn't a good thing for my health, so I knocked the poker on the head. Play the odd tournament now, which I suck balls at! hmmmmm

thebostoncrab · 10-12-2014 11:34am

Only happened once to myself. I woke up with the same feeling of dredd and fear that others are describing. I couldn't move, and I couldn't make any noise (It was like I couldn't catch my breath). All the while the bedroom door was being knocked at so violently that it looked like it was bouncing against the hinges. After about a minute of this it suddenly all stopped and I just shot up like a dart. It was terrifying and I wouldn't wish it upon anyone!

Sleep paralysis, share your story

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