Have you ever experienced Sleep Paralysis?

[ninjamessiah]

I've had it a few times, between the ages of 19 and 21. I didn't hallucinate at all. I remember on each occurance, I'd be lying in bed, my eyes would open themselves it felt like, and I couldn't move or breathe despite my conscious effort. I panicked the first time and it felt like I was forcing myself out of some kind of supernatural binding spell or something . It only lasted about 30 seconds each time, I know how to remain calm and I'll regain full body functionality.

I've read somewhere that it can be caused by low blood pressure or dehydration, which I was one of those two things on each occurance.

A friend of mine experienced it once, he said he saw his family members all standing over him talking in some language he couldn't understand.

 

[ninjamessiah]

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.

Once I had the falling dream, and I woke up on the floor, having fallen out of bed, the moment I hit the ground in my dream, haha it was ironic I thought. Lucid falling is the most fun, I had a dream where I was pulled high in the air by a tornado, but I took control mid-fall and let myself gently glide to the ground.

 

[Sir Robin Goodfellow]

I get them once in a while, usually not during the night, but rather sometimes if I take a long nap. They seem to be more common if I sleep on the chesterfield, for some reason.

 

[mac]

I've had a few, the first being very scary but the subsequent ones not. A family member has had several, but only while very ill. I was told that it could be brought on by prolonged lack of sleep. I was also told that it was the closest thing to understanding how "real" hallucinations can be to people who experience these because of mental illness.

 

[sophia8]

I've had a few, the first being very scary but the subsequent ones not. A family member has had several, but only while very ill. I was told that it could be brought on by prolonged lack of sleep. I was also told that it was the closest thing to understanding how "real" hallucinations can be to people who experience these because of mental illness.

Very true. I once went through a phase of having very vivid pre-waking dreams of murdering somebody and hiding the body somewhere. Immediately on waking from this dream, I was fully convinced I had actually killed somebody. After a couple of minutes, reason would always kick in and I'd realise it was all a dream, but those couple of minutes, filled with guilt and fear, were worrying.

 

[alex04]

i can clearly remember this happening to me when i was about 15. It's only ever happened the one time.

I remember using every ounce of strength i had barely move one of my fingers. I also at the time had an irrational thought going through my head - i felt like i was being dragged back into sleep - but i actually thought i was going to die if it did happen.

..and a huge sense of impending doom..

^describes the feeling quite well.


I fought against it, and eventually got use of my limbs back again.

Strangest experience i've had.

 

[Cainkane1]

A couple of years ago someone asked about sleep paralysis on a different bulletin board and I was surprised to learn that I was the only one (other than the frightened person who started the thread) who had much experience with it. I hadn't though that the typical person has had thousands of episodes (as have I) but I was surprised at how rare it was.

I've had sleep paralysis. You lay there awake but unable to move. The trick is to try to move just one thing. A finger, a toe. When that happens it gradually lets up. My paralysis was caused by my addiction to Valium. I came off of that crap and the paralysis went away.

 

[Big Les]

My bout of sleep paralysis overlapped with something I'd experienced as a child and again, don't seem to get any more - waking up unable to breath, as though my throat was closed off. I couldn't work out if it was actual sleep apnoea, or if I was indeed getting sleep paralysis and happened to have my face in my pillow at the time. Either way, pretty scary. I'm so glad I'm all growed up.

 

[Skeptic Guy]

When I was a boy, I had sleep paralysis. Always involved monsters in the closet or under the bed, but I always seemed to understand (at some point) that I was asleep and would force myself to yell to wake up.

 

[baron]

I can cause sleep paralysis by waking a couple of hours early and going to sleep on my back. The paralysis itself is unremarkable but the hallucinations are sometimes weird, because it's impossible to distinguish them from reality (other than they can't logically be occurring). I recall once where I heard two old woman let themselves into the house and come to stand by my bed. I listened to them whisper things like, "Look, he's still asleep," and "Can he hear us?" One of them said, "Poke him with a stick." I was dying to laugh but of course I couldn't, and when the paralysis faded it felt like the whole of reality drained away and another one took its place (without the old women, happily).

 

[LibraryLady]

I've experienced it twice. As with the others, the first time was terrifying--I thought I had had a stroke. I didn't feel like anyone else was in the room or have any feeling of doom, just cold fear. Once I actually did wake up, I called my doctor, and after he finished laughing, he explained what it was.

The second time, I thought, "Oh this again," and went back to sleep.

 

[Diamond]

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.

Good grief! I was reading this thread thinking "well I've never had sleep paralysis" and then you mention something that I've had frequently.

Darat: I never knew it had a name.

Actually this thread is impressive. We skeptics do have strange experiences - its how we interpret and deal with those experiences that makes us skeptics.

 

[Rrose Selavy]

I remember having it once or twice - not much more than that - I woke up and couldn't move - no other effects - I tried to remind myself that it was probably a temporary condition and try to get back to sleep. It's only later that I found out what it was and how common.

Talking of sleep, isn't it still quite mysterious yet the most common human activity?

One thing you will not want to have is

Fatal familial insomnia - saw a documentary about it years ago - really scary -

The disease has four stages, taking 7 to 18 months to run its course:

1. The patient suffers increasing insomnia, resulting in panic attacks and phobias. This stage lasts about four months.
2. Hallucinations and panic attacks become noticeable, continuing about five months.
3. Complete inability to sleep is followed by rapid loss of weight. This lasts about three months.
4. Dementia, turning unresponsive or mute over the course of six months. This is the final progression of the disease, and the patient will subsequently die.

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

 

[Ysidro]

Haven't had it in years, but I've had it several times before. Generally no hallucinations. Just a vague sense of a malevolent presence out of eyesight. Never fun.

I do think my earliest remembered dream may have been a case of sleep paralysis with visual hallucinations however. Weird dream involving a cartoony "ghost" turning into a skeleton and vanishing when I told it to go bother my mother instead. Yes, she's fine.

 

[Rrose Selavy]

When I started meditating many years ago - I was also able to experience lucid dreaming but not for very long.-

 

[Quinn]

I've had probably half a dozen episodes, starting in my early 20s. Easily the most terrifying thing I've experienced -- the hallucinations, presence of other beings, thinking I had woken up when I was still dreaming, the whole bit. I'm now more than a little embarrassed to admit that the first episode sent me into a phase of belief in astral projection and OBEs. When I finally learned what was actually going on, I felt rather silly. But examining my own reactions to that experience is largely what made me the skeptic I am today, so I can't complain too much.

 

[arthwollipot]

Nope, never. Not so far as I know. Although I posted in another thread a story about a sound I heard while it was raining. But I wasn't paralysed - I could move about without any problem.

More interesting to my mind is the fact that many of my dreams (starting in my early teens, I think) have taken place in the same "dreamlands". I've often returned to particular places in subsequent dreams. It's like when I'm dreaming I'm experiencing various points in time of another life I have in the dreamlands. I have dreamed a couple of times about my first home in these dreamlands - I lived in the basement there. And I've had dreams about going to school, and having various jobs - all in my alternate dreamlands life. All through these dreams is the conviction that this is a real, consistent world - parallel to the waking world - where I live a life entirely disconnected from my own. The timeline is not the same as my own - different nights I can dream about different times in the dreamlands.

I look forward to my continued explorations of my other life in the dreamlands - but not in a Lovecraftian sense...

 

[EHLO]

Every now and then, with the experience ranging from scary to mundane.

The feeling of a heavy chest and difficulty breathing has accompanied it a few times, and on very rare occasions I feel trapped in the state and get very stressed trying to yell out to get someone to wake me (with no effect).

 

[EHLO]

Nope, never. Not so far as I know. Although I posted in another thread a story about a sound I heard while it was raining. But I wasn't paralysed - I could move about without any problem.

More interesting to my mind is the fact that many of my dreams (starting in my early teens, I think) have taken place in the same "dreamlands". I've often returned to particular places in subsequent dreams. It's like when I'm dreaming I'm experiencing various points in time of another life I have in the dreamlands. I have dreamed a couple of times about my first home in these dreamlands - I lived in the basement there. And I've had dreams about going to school, and having various jobs - all in my alternate dreamlands life. All through these dreams is the conviction that this is a real, consistent world - parallel to the waking world - where I live a life entirely disconnected from my own. The timeline is not the same as my own - different nights I can dream about different times in the dreamlands.

I look forward to my continued explorations of my other life in the dreamlands - but not in a Lovecraftian sense...

I find the consistency of my dreamland quite intriguing - especially when you know where things are because (as far as it seems) you left them there in a previous dream.

It's also been interesting to note how the recurrent dreamscape has changed over the years to incorporate (dream versions) of new places in my life.

 

[arthwollipot]

I find the consistency of my dreamland quite intriguing - especially when you know where things are because (as far as it seems) you left them there in a previous dream.

It's also been interesting to note how the recurrent dreamscape has changed over the years to incorporate (dream versions) of new places in my life.

Indeed. My dreamlands do change, but in the same fashion as the waking world does. In the waking world, my old high school has been demolished. In my dreamlands, other people "now" occupy and renovate the places where I lived.

"Now" because as I stated, I move backwards and forwards in time in different dreams.