Have you ever experienced Sleep Paralysis?

[bujin]

I had it many times throughout my university years and for a number of years after. It doesn't happen very often anymore, but I still get it on occasion.

For me, it coincided with the anxiety of moving away from home for the first time, the stress of workload, exams and coursework, and, of course, the lack of sleep from all the late night beer sessions!

 

[darnell11]

I've had it happen to me a few times before and it was pretty frightening. Something was after me and I couldn't scream or move. The worst part was not being able to scream or say anything.

 

[Tief]

Yep, had it a few times. It's normal

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

 

[Orphia Nay]

Over here in Singapore, sleep-paralysis is known as "being pressed by a ghost". But no, I didn't see any ghosts.

I wasn't sure if what I'd experienced was sleep paralysis until I read that.

That's exactly what happened to me 2 or 3 times, although only the first time I thought it might be a ghost - not anymore. It feels just like something is lying on top of me and also that I can't move.

The usual hallucination is that of something horrible lying on top of you, so I can understand that name for it.

It didn't feel horrible to me, although it wasn't nice either - just strange or unknown.

 

[grayman]

It used to happen to me often, complete with the sensation that someone was standing next to me that I could see if only I could turn to look.

Odd thing is, once I learned what was happening and how, the episodes stopped. It's as if, once I learned the trick my mind was playing on me, it no longer wanted to play the trick.

 

[fishbait]

I used to experience it often. While being unable to move, I would have the feeling of slipping away into a void and that I would not be able to return if I let it continue. With great effort I would shake myself out of it.

The experience was terrifying yet strangely compelling. After many episodes, I would let it progress further and further finding the experience oddly pleasurable and frightening at the same time.

Eventually, curiosity got the better of me and I decided to not fight it and see where it led.

After deciding to let it take me, I never had another episode.

Kinda disappointing. I was ready for the ride.

 

[Autolite]

I have had several episodes in my life. Mostly benign auditory hallucinations but some very frightening ones also. I've seen the "Old Hag" twice ...

 

[bozothedeathmachine]

I have also had hypnopompic (aka hypnogogic) hallucinations, and those weren't fun. They happened most when I was in college. There were several times when I would start enter the dreaming state without being fully asleep. I would always dream of a very loud sound, something akin to a chainsaw motor. It would be loud enough to wake me up, and my ears would be ringing. On a few of those occasions when I awoke I saw the silhouette of people standing over my bed. That was really weird. I couldn't see them in any detail. It was more like an after-image you see after a camera flash blinds you. I haven't seen the people above my bed in many years, but I still sometimes have hypnopompic hallucinations.

 

[Scazon]

I had it big time once. I was just 21, and in hospital with a collapsed lung. It being a chest case, everyone else in my ward was middle-aged to old, mostly old smokers or miner's lung cases. At least I got the attention from the nurses, for lack of anything better. Anyway, one evening an old bloke was brought in, clearly at death's door, and put in the bed opposite mine. That night, I (thought I) woke up.... to absolute, complete blank darkness. No sounds, no sensation of my limbs, but a sense of tumbling randomly. It suddenly came to me that the old chap opposite was TRYING TO STEAL MY BODY!!! I realised that I had to take back control, if I could only move a limb or mke a noise... what felt like a titanic struggle followed, just trying to find something I could control. Eventually, I 'felt' my voice, and woke up, screaming. Nurses came running, calmed me down, I think sedated me. I woke the following morning, to find the curtains drawn round the old man's bed- he'd died during the night.

Spooky or what?

I'll tell you about the time the fairies banjaxed me in Ireland next bedtime...

 

[Niobe]

I've had sleep paralysis quite a few times. Common for all times is that I felt as someone was in the room

I've never had the paralysis, but I did have the presence thing, where I can swear I'm seeing somebody moving in the hallway. I figured out it's just my daughters nightlight casting shadows but at 2 am when you're sure there's an intruder, to the point where I'm trying to wake my husband to go kick his ass, or just yelling at drying laundry, it's psychotic. Even worse were the times where I actually felt my husband was a stranger. Terrifying.

 

[Pardalis]

I've had it at least twice. I remember the second time an ugly woman was standing on top of me and grinning to my face (I was alone).

I think both times I was sleeping on my back, maybe it has something to do with it.

I used to get it all the time as a kid, but that stopped completely for probably 15+ years until this week, when I had it once (surprise). It never really freaked me out, nor did I have the waking dreams I've heard descibed with it.

I had lots of night terrors when I was a kid. Now I don't anymore, which sucks, they were kind of cool.

 

[bjornart]

Once, last summer. I probably described this online already, but I "woke up" on the couch and couldn't move or open my eyes. Then I heard someone unlocking my front door and walking down the hallway and into the room I was. Then when "he" was right next to me, he shouted "boo!" and that's when I actually woke up properly.
I knew what it was from reading discussions here, but it made me aware of how real it can feel, and I perfectly understand how that could freak someone into believing in... well anything.

 

[Rara]

its happened to me twice. It was very frightening,I couldnt move,felt violently sick,and a huge sense of impending doom. I was facing my husbands back and could see grey smoke,issuing from his body. The next day i was convinced (against my normal beliefs) that I must have seen his aura,and that he was going to die...I know,I know,but it felt so real,and it frightened me. i even borrowed a book off a woo woo friend,to check what this meant. But as time passed i realised what it was. The second time,although I felt sick,and felt in the presence of death,the logical part of my brain was able to dismiss it...so not so frightening.
I also have experienced,what i can only describe as complete transendence,once while sleeping (?) or dozing,not sure which....and i thought,well this is it..I`m going to die(as I could not understand why i had this sublime feeling) and it was going to be okay then...if this was death. But it was a fleeting moment,perhaps a couple of minutes...lets hope death is like that....

 

[Darat]

Old thread mentioning it: http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1300020

 

[The Kilted Yaksman]

Actually this happened to me about a month ago for the first time. This is what I posted on another site:

I had a very strange thing happen to me last night. I had my first real encounter with a phenomenon known as sleep paralysis, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_paralysis, actually in my case it was hypnagogic paralysis. I can certainly see how a superstitious person or someone else ignorant of the phenomenon might be convinced it was ghosts or demons or aliens. I kept drifting into that pre-sleep state and was somewhat aware of my surroundings, yet still experiencing the hallucinations. How do I know they were hallucinations? Maybe because the sounds I thought I was hearing would have woken everybody the neighborhood up if they were really as loud as I perceived. And I think my Dad would have noticed if the temperature in the house were really fluctuating between burning hot and freezing cold within minutes of each other. I can remember the exact feeling that others have reported of a crushing weight on my chest and fighting to breathe, and then actually waking up gasping for air like I’d just sprinted 200 meters. Then I’d lie back down and it’d start all over. The really bizarre thing is I knew what was happening, but I was absolutely powerless to prevent it. It was my first night back in a real bed after 3 ½ months on an air mattress, but was that enough of an environmental change to trigger this?

 

[Kilgore Trout]

I've never had sleep paralysis, but a couple times something that almost seems the opposite. I'll be dreaming, and some event will cause a reflex, like say I need to jump, or move my arm to swat something away. As I do it in the dream, I also jerk my body and wake myself up. One time I kicked and bruised my other foot doing that. I suppose if the conditions were right, I could actually beat myself up.

 

[Darat]

That's probably hypnagogic myoclonus.

 

[Alice Shortcake]

I've had two experience of sleep paralysis. The first one happened when I was 5 or 6 but I can still recall it vividly:

I was sitting up in bed reading a book when I suddenly felt very tired and decided to go to sleep. The light was still on but I was too tired to get up and turn it off, so I pulled the sheet over my face. After what seemed like a couple of minutes I sensed someone moving about in the room, opened my eyes and through the sheet I saw a shadow move toward me. I pulled down the sheet and saw what seemed to be a person about three feet tall wearing a white shirt with a dark jacket and trousers. Although I couldn't focus on its face I was reminded of a ventriloquist's dummy, and despite its small size I got the impression that it was an adult, not a child. Although I was frightened and felt sure that this wasn't a dream I was unable to move or scream. I realized that it was unusually quiet - no traffic noises or birds outside - and at that moment a car drove past my house and everything returned to normal. I opened my eyes and of course there was nobody else in the room. For some reason I didn't tell my parents about this. When I look back at this incident I'm struck by its resemblance to some accounts of alien encounters - that small figure in dark clothing wasn't unlike the classic "grey" alien of modern mythology!

The second incident took place when I was in my early 20s. My bedroom at the time was tiny, barely big enough to contain a built-in bed, wardrobe and chest of drawers. Due to the shortage of elecrical sockets the flex of my bedside lamp ran behind my pillow and halfway down the side of the bed. It was a very hot day and I was having a lie-down early in the afternoon. I wasn't aware of falling asleep, but I felt some movement amongst the bedclothes and realized that the lamp was unplugged and the flex was coiling itself around my body like a boa constrictor. Although I couldn't move I didn't feel in the least bit alarmed - in fact I remember thinking that it would be a weird story to tell my parents when they returned home from a shopping trip! Gradually the pressure stopped and I realized that I was lying on my bed, fully awake, and the lamp was safely plugged in...In retrospect I believe that the incident may have been triggered by a scene in "Nightmare on Elm Street", which I had watched on video a couple of days earlier.

 

[Niobe]

I've never had sleep paralysis, but a couple times something that almost seems the opposite.

Or the dreaded falling dream. You actually feel the sensation of falling down (like in your belly when you drive over a hill) and you flail your arms around to grab on.

 

[Jorghnassen]

I've had it a number of times (more than thrice but less than a dozen times I'm guessing, from my late childhood/early teens to the mid-twenties maybe, I haven't had it in a while). Sometimes it felt like a malignant force was actively preventing my movement, other times it was just like I couldn't move. In some cases, I would instinctively try to look at the doorway if I felt a presence, and I might "see" ominous silhouettes. In one case, I was dreaming I was in some sort of hospital bedroom (with the same geometry as my own room but completely different decor), and could see some very tall man with a misshapen head with huge saucer-like eyes, peeking at me from behind the corner. When I woke up, I realized I had been looking at a flower pot on top of the bookshelf right behind the corner, as it had the exact same contour as the strange man's head. The brain can do really weird things in between the states of sleep and awakening...