Have you ever experienced Sleep Paralysis?

[Ryokan]

Cool. I do that too. I've had a number of dreamlands. I can think of five specific off the top of my head. I've just thought of them as recurrent dreams. But only the setting and the characters recur—not the story. It is like another life. There are people, places, and even cats that are nearly as much a part of my life as actual people, places, and even cats. It’s like a personal soap opera in your mind. Or like continuing a video game where you have some knowledge of the environment. You might jump in any where.

I tend to get these types of dreams in bursts. I’ll have 5 over a 15 day period, and then not have another one for a couple of months. Then I get another burst.

I love my dreamscapes. I love the dreams. There are some that I don’t go to anymore. There are some that have been destroyed in my dreams and are gone. There are people and places that I would love to go back and visit. There is work to be done in some dreamscapes that I desperately want to do, but I can’t get back there. Just writing this, I feel bad that I can’t go do some things I my dreamscape that I feel like I really want to do—check up on some people, places, and even cats.

This hit me right at home. I have it like that, too. It's like little worlds of my own

 

[bethanythemartian]

I have had at least four separate episodes of sleep paralysis that I can count. Luckily for me, I read up on the paranormal on a regular basis, and I knew what it was when it occurred.

The first one was still terrifying, though. I had an audio-hallucination of my dog growling (she wasn't in my room, my door was shut).

After that, I relaxed, and I had one very sexual one.

I got good at going back to sleep when it happened, and I haven't had any episodes since then.

EDIT (Clarify): Not that sleep paralysis is paranormal, but it gets mentioned in association with paranormal forums by people (good and misguided) who are trying to find something genuine. It's just where I found the information, not the nature of said info.

 

[Monza]

...I had an audio-hallucination of my dog growling (she wasn't in my room, my door was shut).

After that, I relaxed, and I had one very sexual one...

Dude, that is messed up!

 

[latent aaaack]

I hadn't thought of it before but Timebomb is right, insecurity and change seems to be a factor in the ones I've had but not always. More often for me going to sleep hungry is a bigger factor. After moving to a new state on the other side of the US and not eating for about the longest time in my life a week ago (two or three days of not eating) then eating a pizza, I had the strongest episode I've had. It was the only hallucination I've ever had where I felt something that wasn't there, in this case my new housemate's cat scratching my leg (door was shut, no cat around).

What really worried me about this one though was a sensation of pulsing, of electrical activity in my head in disorientating waves that I could hear, that felt uncomfortable. I've had that before but not associated with paralysis and it would be more sudden and quick like a sudden electrical jolt or even a pop I could hear that would make me sit up extremely startled. Now THAT I would really like to know if anyone else has had, since I've never heard of it before and it makes no sense.

 

[latent aaaack]

What really worried me about this one though was a sensation of pulsing, of electrical activity in my head in disorientating waves that I could hear, that felt uncomfortable. I've had that before but not associated with paralysis and it would be more sudden and quick like a sudden electrical jolt or even a pop I could hear that would make me sit up extremely startled. Now THAT I would really like to know if anyone else has had, since I've never heard of it before and it makes no sense.

I see. Well then it's off to a doctor given the lack of respones - anyway... carry on.

 

[Invidious]

I used to get it all the time. It was always accompanied by the sense of a presence entering my room and sitting at the foot of my bed (I felt it sit at the end of the bed). I was usually so terrified I couldn't make a peep, nor move a muscle.

I'd never even heard of sleep paralysis until I started lurking on this board. No one believed or listened to me when I tried to describe the hallucinations.

 

[Diamond]

I used to get it all the time. It was always accompanied by the sense of a presence entering my room and sitting at the foot of my bed (I felt it sit at the end of the bed). I was usually so terrified I couldn't make a peep, nor move a muscle.

I'd never even heard of sleep paralysis until I started lurking on this board. No one believed or listened to me when I tried to describe the hallucinations.

Now that you know that you're normal, what are you going to do?

 

[SteveGrenard]

latent aaaack:

What really worried me about this one though was a sensation of pulsing, of electrical activity in my head in disorientating waves that I could hear, that felt uncomfortable. I've had that before but not associated with paralysis and it would be more sudden and quick like a sudden electrical jolt or even a pop I could hear that would make me sit up extremely startled. Now THAT I would really like to know if anyone else has had, since I've never heard of it before and it makes no sense.

You could be hearing blood flow in your ear. In some cases you can hear your own heart beating. This is not uncommon. The pop/startle response is probably the "exploding head syndrome" (look/Google that up). Here's two links to start:


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploding_head_syndrome


http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/exploding-head-syndrome/AN00929



I didn't go back and read the whole thread to see if anyone mentioned this but sleep paralysis is normal during REM sleep and it persists on occasion if you wake up from REM but not for long.

Since you were dreaming during REM it is not unusual fragments of the dream persist with the sleep paralysis when awakened such as the "presence" in the room, etc.

 

[Invidious]

Now that you know that you're normal, what are you going to do?

I never thought I wasn't normal; I attributed the sensations to the place I was sleeping. Even knowing the name and the nature of what I was experiencing now, I would still probably have a problem sleeping in the same place that most of the experiences took place.

 

[LibraryLady]

I find the spread in the poll very interesting. It looks almost even for all options.

 

[Esperdome]

I've never experienced sleep paralysis strictly speaking, but I've experienced most of the symptoms at one time or another. When I was a child, I would often wake from nightmares thinking there was an evil presence in the bedroom. It wasn't that I couldn't move, I thought if I did move I would attract the attention of the presence. I would lay there for many minutes trying to get up the courage to move. Eventually I would convince myself I was being irrational and I would make a blatant movement, breaking the spell.

Once, I was laying in bed half asleep when I hallucinated that a large python was poised between the ceiling and walls of the room. The python lunged down at me, and I made a panicked grab for his head. I was certain that I'd successfully grabbed it with my right hand, having a death grip on it though the covers, when I gradually realized it was my left hand I'd grabbed, which had fallen asleep.

I used to have nightmares all the time about the refinery I was working in blowing up. I would be with co-workers doing a routine job when someone would notice the plant didn't sound or feel right. Odd noises and sights would increase to the point of the evacuation sirens going off. We would start running as the situation deteriorated. Everyone else would be getting away while my legs moved slower and slower. The ground would start shaking and the relief valves would start blowing, and I was frozen in place. This is when I'd wake up.

I'm glad I didn't read this thread right before going to bed.

 

[maledoro]

When my dad was alive, he used to experience it quite often. Even after the doctor told him that it was nothing to worry about, he still worried.

I had experienced it only a few times.

 

[Checkmite]

When I was young I suffered from something called "Pavor Nocturnus", which is often confused with sleep paralysis even though it is technically different.

 

[Hardenbergh]

Iacchus posted a thread about this subject in the Scientific Research forum at his website, the Dionysus Forums. There was a Discovery Channel special titled, Unraveling the Mystery of Alien Abduction. Did anyone see it?

http://www.dionysus.org/forums/showthread.php4?t=166

Iacchus has also posted it here:

http://www.alien-ufos.com/forum/showthread.php?t=19040

 

[Soapy Sam]

I didn't go back and read the whole thread to see if anyone mentioned this but sleep paralysis is normal during REM sleep and it persists on occasion if you wake up from REM but not for long.

Since you were dreaming during REM it is not unusual fragments of the dream persist with the sleep paralysis when awakened such as the "presence" in the room, etc.

Steve, what does require an explanation- and I expect it must be a physiological / neurological explanation, is why the experiences are so similar , across time and cultures. A breathing problem due to a shift in breathing mechanism on partly waking may explain the feelings of a weight on the chest, but how does it explain a sensation of an evil presence sitting at the foot of the bed? Clearly there's something going on here that is very common indeed and needs to be more widely known about.

To people who have heard of this phenomenon, it is an unpleasant, but intriguing experience. To those who have not, it can be terrifying and may lead to all manner of wrong assumptions.

 

[ChristineR]

Steve, what does require an explanation- and I expect it must be a physiological / neurological explanation, is why the experiences are so similar , across time and cultures. A breathing problem due to a shift in breathing mechanism on partly waking may explain the feelings of a weight on the chest, but how does it explain a sensation of an evil presence sitting at the foot of the bed? Clearly there's something going on here that is very common indeed and needs to be more widely known about.

To people who have heard of this phenomenon, it is an unpleasant, but intriguing experience. To those who have not, it can be terrifying and may lead to all manner of wrong assumptions.

Most of it can be explained by a combination of facts: you can see and hear what's going on around you, but not very well. You order your body to move and even dream that you have moved, but in fact you're in the same place.

An example: you're lying on your back and you tell yourself to sit up, but you don't. You have the sensation of being pressed back into bed. You tell yourself to roll over and put your feet on the floor, but you don't move. You have the sensation of having the bed be weighed down on the opposite side as if someone is sitting there.

I think the tendency to see people is probably related to the general tendency of humans to see faces and people where they're aren't any.

 

[baron]

I think the tendency to see people is probably related to the general tendency of humans to see faces and people where they're aren't any.

Not sure about this part; it's not possible to actually see anything when you're experiencing sleep paralysis so the natural tendency to create familiar shapes out of random patterns isn't really applicable. What is interesting is why, when visual hallucinations occur, the experiencer tends to visualise their immediate surroundings rather than a purely imaginary environment.

 

[sthomson]

Steve, what does require an explanation- and I expect it must be a physiological / neurological explanation, is why the experiences are so similar , across time and cultures...Clearly there's something going on here that is very common indeed and needs to be more widely known about.

It's an interesting question, actually, and I suspect it's related to the reason why people who have "Near-Death Experiences" report feeling and seeing very similar things, despite the fact that the situations leading to the NDE can be very different.

 

[Fengirl]

I’ve experienced sleep paralysis from time to time going back over the last 20+ years.

It isn’t nice, but it’s no longer the terrifying experience it was at first. The worst occasion was about 5 years ago when I had a full-blown out of body hallucination which absolutely scared the bejesus out of me! (I was clinging to the wall like a spider and then floating across the ceiling, looking down at myself in bed!)

Two things seem to make sleep paralysis more likely for me: one is being generally stressed or depressed and the other is taking a nap during the day.

When I started doing some reading about sleep paralysis about 10 years ago, I remember reading a paper which said that around 30% of people suffer with it at some point. At the time, that figure surprised me, because nobody I had ever spoken to knew what the hell I was talking about when I described it, and I never met anyone who said “OMG! Yeah, me too!”. I felt like a freak.

So…it’s kind of nice to find so many other “freaks” here!

 

[SteveGrenard]

.....but how does it explain a sensation of an evil presence sitting at the foot of the bed?

While the old hag sitting on the chest can explain the symptoms during an arousal from sleep after an obstructive sleep apnea, I suppose one dreams/visualizes either the hag or some other entity sitting on the legs and feet during sleep paralysis after waking from or while transitioning from REM sleep. Sitting on the foot (feet) rather than merely at the foot of the bed might more aptly describe it.

PS: You can have an obstrctive apnea during REM as well as during any other stage of sleep. It occurs most frequently in Stage 2 and REM. In REM the muscle tone of the jaw drops, the muscles at the base of the tongue become floppy and such patients have almost as many respiratory events during REM as they do during stage 2.

Alcohol at bedttime makes it much worse since one of the first muscles to be affected by the booze are those that keep the tongue in place.This is why after a few most people begin to slur their speesh.