Have you ever experienced Sleep Paralysis?

[Soapy Sam]

My first - and most memorable-experience had some classic effects, some less standard;-
I don't actually recall a sensation of weight pressing on me, though my body did have the numb heaviness of an arm that has "gone to sleep", which seemed to be how my mind rationalised the inability to move. (This is very like what ChristineR suggests.)
The "evil presence" seemed to have just left the room immediately before I awoke. What spooked me was the feeling that it had been there all along and I had not been aware of it. (It would be easy to imagine I had tangled bedclothes around my chest, inhibited my breathing and this had woken me, but I was napping in the afternoon, lying on the bed, dressed, rather than in it. ) I've never (so far as I know) experienced apnea though I can't rule it out.

What was oddest was a clear auditory hallucination- of a sliding door moving on its track, which I heard twice, a couple of minutes (I think) apart. I had excellent hearing and never in my life had an auditory hallucination when awake. I do have a good auditory imagination- I need no MP3 player to "listen" to music in my head. On the other hand I had no visual hallucination - and I have no ability to mentally visualise images when awake, though I dream in hyper-real technicolour when asleep. What I saw was what was actually around me. My bedroom. What I heard was imagined. There was nobody else in the house. The door never moved. But if I had been a believer in poltergeist activity, my conclusions might have been frighteningly different.
ETA-To clarify, the sliding door did exist. It was the bathroom door, a few yards away. The bedroom door was closed. I could not see the bathroom door, but could easily hear it - or imagine I heard it.

 

[SteveGrenard]

I've never (so far as I know) experienced apnea though I can't rule it out.

Yes, you would need a sleep study to do that. The following is from the AASM Weekly Update dated today which goes out to members via e-mail:

The World Health Organization (WHO) has published a report on respiratory diseases that includes a comprehensive section on sleep apnea. According to "Global Surveillance, Prevention and Control of Chronic Respiratory Diseases: A Comprehensive Approach," the WHO concludes sleep apnea, which it estimates affects 100 million people world-wide, is preventable, a chronic respiratory disease and the most common organic sleep disorder. Further, the report includes estimates on the global economic cost of untreated sleep apnea, prevalence of sleep apnea, and impact on morbidity and mortality. Log on to:

www.who.int/gard/publications/GARD Book 2007.pdf

to download the report.

 

[Soapy Sam]

Interesting. I confess I thought of it as primarily a problem in the seriously overweight.

 

[Darat]

Never ever had any auditory component to my experiences of it - purely physical and visual.

What I find interesting is the number of you that no longer find it as terrifying, I still do, the fear feeling seems to be part of the experience not a reaction to it.

Plus for me the worse incidents are when I "think" I have woken up but for it all to start over again - I've sometimes had this happen multiple times. What is very interesting for me is that during the incident I have this "feeling" that I have woken up BUT there is no doubt at all that when I truly have woken up that I am now awake. So I have a "dreamlike" feeling of being awake but it is actually quite distinguishable from being awake.

 

[SteveGrenard]

Interesting. I confess I thought of it as primarily a problem in the seriously overweight.

Being overweight exacerbates OSA. But thin people have it also, even severe forms of it. It is caused by a combination of anatomical factors including a low hanging and/or enlarged uvula, large tonsils and adenoids (if you have them) and a large tongue. People with retrognathic jaw, and/or small oral cavities that are crowded by anatomical structures also have it.

 

[arthwollipot]

Plus for me the worse incidents are when I "think" I have woken up but for it all to start over again - I've sometimes had this happen multiple times. What is very interesting for me is that during the incident I have this "feeling" that I have woken up BUT there is no doubt at all that when I truly have woken up that I am now awake. So I have a "dreamlike" feeling of being awake but it is actually quite distinguishable from being awake.

Fascinating. I have had multiple-deja vu experiences - ie, having a deja vu about having a deja vu about having a deja vu about having a deja vu about having a deja vu. Each of them is the same deja vu. "I've deja vued this before!"

The biggest one of these was nested nine deep, and by the ninth repetition I had forgotten what the original first deja vu was all about. The focus had shifted from a place or situation to the deja vu experience itself! Very strange feeling.

Anyway, I'm not sure what relevance that has to dreams about waking up, but it's what I thought about when I read it. Make of it what you will.

 

[Erin]

Yes quite a few times when I was younger not now though.

 

[Angus McPresley]

I have had it happen exactly once and it was scary. Like all the nightmares in the world when you try to yell and nothing comes out. Didn't like it. Nope. Uh-uh.

That's my exact experience -- had it happen once, and it scared the bejoomny out of me.

It was actually in college shortly after I became an atheist. What made it so scary was that, even though my eyes were open and I could see my dorm room, a big demon face was superimposed in front of it, that started far away and got closer, and closer, and closer... All the time I couldn't move. When the face got right in front of me, I finally snapped out of it.

I had never heard of sleep paralysis, so I just "filed it away", but it still left me pretty badly shaken (though not enough to relapse into religion). When I stumbled across the explanation on the internet five years later, I just kind of went "Ohhhhhhhhhhh...."

 

[Angus McPresley]

As a follow-up, I should mention a dream I had that was the complete opposite. I won't bore you with the full details, but it involved a sort of "Defending Your Life" post-death proving ground, where I and everyone else were trying to move on to the "next plane of existence". I was initially rejected, but managed to convince them to let me through. As a reward one of the angel/administrators whirled his fist in a cartoonish fashion for ten seconds or so, and gave me a sort of cosmic punch to the face.

The crazy thing was, when I received the punch, it was complete and utter euphoria, like nothing I had ever experienced (including some past drug experimentation, but I was stone cold sober the night before this). Some chemical must have been tricked into being released into my brain by the dream. I woke up almost immediately, and was just so instantly disappointed to be back in the real world.

I would love to know how to do it again. Although, if I could do it on demand, I would never want to do anything else, so maybe it's good that I can't.

Anyone ever had a dream like that?

 

[largeprimenumber]

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've had a few episodes of sleep paralysis where I've felt a pulsing, electrical sensation radiating up my spine from the lumbar region, accompanied by a "voo voo voo voo voo" sound.

It's pretty uncomfortable, and seems like it would go on for quite a while if I didn't actively will myself to fully wake up. The "electrical" experience was quite common while I was in college and working odd hours, probably due to the erratic sleep schedule.

It was also during this time that I had my first (as far as I remember, anyway) "classic" sleep paralysis experience. I was having a dream, something to do with a dead child, and waking up felt like swimming upwards through a deep, dark ocean while running out of breath. I awoke to daylight and a loud "shooop" sound, like a sharp intake of breath or swishing fabric. It felt as if someone were standing next to my bed, and I immediately thought it was the ghost of the boy in my dream.

After waking fully, I couldn't shake the feeling for the rest of the day. It was spooky.

It's just spooky to read all these accounts of sleep paralysis. I'm beginning to get creeped out, even though I know it's all artifact.

I also have something I'll call "reverse sleep paralysis" where I'm falling asleep sitting up (as when riding the El train)--I'm awake enough to know where I am and what station the train is going to, but very close to being asleep. I'll hear what I like to call "the scientists" talking. The sentences are semantically correct, but damned if I know what they're talking about.

 

[largeprimenumber]

Plus for me the worse incidents are when I "think" I have woken up but for it all to start over again - I've sometimes had this happen multiple times. What is very interesting for me is that during the incident I have this "feeling" that I have woken up BUT there is no doubt at all that when I truly have woken up that I am now awake. So I have a "dreamlike" feeling of being awake but it is actually quite distinguishable from being awake.

I do this nearly every morning as a result of abusing the snooze button.

I'll have very convincing dreams of brushing my teeth, showering, dressing, catching the bus, only to realize that I'm still asleep. The worst is dreaming of urination.

 

[Tbone]

While not sleep paralysis, I have gone through a length of completely forgotten time while awake. I was lying on my bed reading somewhat early at night when the next thing I knew was me waking up to my alarm. At the time I didn't think anything strange had happened. It wasn't until my dad told me he had woken me up (sleeping in my clothes over my covers with the light on), and that I had gone and brushed my teeth, washed my face, taken my contacts out, changed for bed, and gone back to sleep that I started scratching my head. I couldn't remember any of that.

 

[arthwollipot]

I know a guy who can conduct entire conversations in his sleep. You can't tell he's asleep until the next day he tells you he has no memory of the conversation.

And then you have to tell him everything all over again. Annoying, that.

 

[Stereolab]

For some reason I only experienced sleep paralysis on airplanes. It was terrifying, not because I thought I was possessed or anything like that, but because I was legitimately scared that the plane would land and I wouldn't be able to wake up and get off.

 

[Soapy Sam]

I think this thread (like previous ones on the subject) is a resource worth preserving. I've learned from this forum that this phenomenon is very common indeed and may be the single major cause of apparently "supernatural" experience .

If only for newbies posting here after such experiences, I'd like to see this made into some sort of sticky post.

 

[SteveGrenard]

I don’t recall if sleep paralysis was mentioned as a a symptom of narcolepsy, a
condition caused by a deficiency of a neuropeptide hormone called hypocretin or orexin.
See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orexin


Not all narcoleptics experience sleep paralysis all the time but may have it on occasion or frequently or not at all.

Also: REM sleep normally occurs in cycles of every 90 minutes or so. When tested
during daytime nap trials people with narcolepsy fall asleep quickly and then demonstrate REM in 20 minutes or less. This is called sleep onset REM.

There are other narcolepsy symptoms as well, more than this brief quote, so visit the URL for additional information as some of the "symptoms" mentioned here may fit the descriptions given.

The major symptom of narcolepsy is excessive daytime sleepiness with sleep attacks.

People with narcolepsy may also have one or more of the following signs and symptoms:

· Sudden loss of muscle tone and control (muscle weakness) over parts or all of the body while awake (cataplexy)
· Sudden inability to move or speak while falling asleep or waking up (sleep paralysis)
· Vivid dreams while falling asleep or waking up (hallucinations)

http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/dci/Diseases/nar/nar_signs.html


So while sleep paralysis can hardly be called a normal or natural condition, it is a manifestation of this condition and there is nothing supernatural or paranormal about it.

 

[Abe_the_Man]

I have probably experienced over a thousand instances of sleep paralysis though I didn't realize it until reading this forum. Since the phenomenon has been so frequent throughout my life I always assumed that's what happened to everybody when their dreams were less than pleasant. From the time that I was little pretty much every "bad dream" that I have had is in the form of sleep paralysis though the frequency of nightmares in general dropped off drastically about half way through high school.

Now for me dreaming is a bit weird. I know that I am dreaming in at least 95% of all of my dreams. However the sucky thing is I am not able to fly or do anything cool as my brain "knows" it is impossible. For example I used to try to fly all the time in my dreams when I was younger and I would get very angry because I couldn't. I would say "Why can't I fly. It's my dream I should be able to do what I want....". But being the rational child that I was I wouldn't be able to do anything I knew was impossible (I've only had 1 flying dream in my entire life and it was about 2 months ago and it was awsome!). This is the same as when I experience sleep paralysis.

I start out in a nightmare, usually with something evil (though I've never seen it) chasing me around the house or somewhere. I know that I am dreaming and am desperately trying to wake myself up. I then wake up but am completely unable to move. I always try to flail my arms and legs to wake myself up but am unable to (cannot move at all). Luckily for me I have never 'sensed' anything evil or intruding upon awakening, but what happens is I can feel myself being pulled back to sleep and into the dream. Usually this happens 2 or 3 times before I am able to pull myself fully awake after which I usually shake my head and move my arms to fully wake myself up. After this I am able to go back to sleep with no more problems.

This can be a very frightening experience and I can see why people would believe it is demons or aliens. When I was little because of these frequent dreams I was scared to go to bed a lot of the time (I would usually run from the bathroom to my bed). I consider myself very fortunate because even though my parents were quite religious they didn't believe that demons or the devil could appear to people. So I was always told that when I was scared of something lurking in the shadows or of nightmares that it was just my imagination playing tricks on me.

 

[BenBurch]

It is a damned disturbing thing.

 

[PetersCreek]

I experienced sleep paralysis who-knows-how-many-times during my youth, on up into my early-to-mid teen years. It was never associated with any dreams, nightmares, feelings of foreboding, or any physical presence. I would simply wake up, unable to move or cry out. When I was very young, these episodes brought on near-panic. I remember trying so very hard to move that when I finally could, I felt like a watchspring explosively uncoiling. Very unsettling.

 

[kitakaze]

I've experienced hyponapompic paralysis/hallucinations and hypngogic myclonus more times than I can remember. The last time I experienced it I was hallucinating that a malevolent being was not on top of me but rather situated above and behind my head (not hovering over) and harrassing me by pulling at me.

I was lucid in such a way that I was aware I was experiencing sleep paralysis (I've been familiar with what it is since I was a young teenager) but instead of being frightened I was intensely angry toward my imaginary attacker. All I could focus on was trying to gain control to grab the arms of this thing the next time it grabbed me. I finally managed to get control just into time to seize the hand of it and when I jerked it towards me I suddenly was fully awake and trying to make sense of what just occurred.

I have often wondered if the frequency that I experience such things is connected to the fact that I regularily have extremely vivid, often lucid dreams that I remember as well as any waking experience.

While many people have made connections between alien abductions and ghosts and sleep paralysis here is something a little different. In one of the main bigfoot threads here I linked to a person's reported bigfoot encounter that I believe to be a textbook example of sleep paralysis/hallucination. I'm interested to hear some more opinions on this one:

http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/showthread.php?postid=2988354#post2988354