sleep paralysis

[Dhrizzle]

My first time I "woke up" facing the wall, everything felt a little odd, it's difficult to explain exactly how but I just put it down to waking up tired. I had a sense or an anxiety that there was something terrible behind me but it wasn't worrying, I figured it was just a response to a noise or something that woke me, and turning around to see an empty room would dispell it. So I tried to roll over, and my body didn't move. I tried to turn my head, it wouldn't move. I tried to move my eyes, they stayed staring at the same patch of wall. I tried to open my mouth, to shout, to scream but nothing moved and the sense of oddness and something terrible closed in like a roaring sound and when it reached fever pitch and I was sure something was about to happen and then...

I woke up facing the wall, it didn't feel odd and there was no sense of something terrible. I tried to move my eyes and they scanned across the wall. I tried to turn my head and ended up facing the ceiling. I rolled over and took in an empty room barely illuminated through the window.

"What the fuck was that?" I thought, turning back and facing the wall.

It happened two or three more times that night, and after the second they weren't disturbing or alarming just a little tedious. Had them on several occasions since but not for quite a few years.

[McFuu]

Most of what people are describing just sound like bad dreams that are set in your room.
I honestly thought occurrences like that were pretty normal.

[Dhrizzle]

Yo this sounds fun as fuck how can I induce one?

In my experience you just need to fubar your sleep pattern through partying and anti-social working hours.

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Most of what people are describing just sound like bad dreams that are set in your room.
I honestly thought occurrences like that were pretty normal.

Nah it's different to a dream, your brain wakes up and you know you're awake but your body is still in a relaxed, non-responsive state. It's intense in a different way to bad dreams or nightmares.

[Bombkirby]

Most of what people are describing just sound like bad dreams that are set in your room.
I honestly thought occurrences like that were pretty normal.

Uh no. It's a very well documented thing. Your mind wakes up before your body does and you're unable to move at all for up to several minutes. Meanwhiule you're still in dream mode and you can "see" nightmares/dreams around your room and "feel" things touching you. It's not a cutesy little dream set in your room.

[chazus]

While I haven't experienced sleep paralysis, I used to for a long time suffer from waking hallucinations, things I would see (or imagine I suppose) even after waking up. Sometimes they lasted for a few good minutes, even after I had gotten out of bed and moving around. Most of the time it was just seeing things in the dark, bugs or spiders or something.

Granted, I -have- woken up mostly paralyzed from the chest down once... But that was due to an actual injury. It was still scary though.

[Laqweeta]

Yep, had a bout of that 2 months ago

You "wake up" and can't move, at all. All you can move are your eyes, and out of the corner of your eyes you see a dark shadow, creeping towards you. You try to scream and can't, or shake yourself awake. Until suddenly you can, as your heart is racing and you're near crying.

Yeah it's not fun :3

[Harry Botter]

Have you ever suffered from sleep paralysis? I've been reading about it and it seems terrifying. Even worse I read some people hallucinate during. Seeing shadow people in their rooms.

I have experienced it quite a few times in the past. Possibly the worst time was when I apparently started screaming bloody murder in my sleep and woke up the cops coming in my place because neighbours seriously thought someone was being murdered.

I remember the dream too. It's one I have quite often. When I was in 2nd grade a babysitter raped me and then he ran after me when he got scared at what he did and thought I would tell and tried to kill me. Lucky for 2nd grade me he didn't think to zip and button his pants or he likely would have killed me.

[Frogguh]

Have you ever suffered from sleep paralysis? I've been reading about it and it seems terrifying. Even worse I read some people hallucinate during. Seeing shadow people in their rooms.

Yes I've had both. Went through a period of a couple years where every time I slept I would wake up and have hypnopompic or hypnagogic hallucinations, sometimes accompanied by paralysis. Most of the time I'd wake up and the room would be oddly distorted in perspective, like those 3D images you cross your eyes to see. Things would appear close enough to touch but I couldn't touch them. Other times I would see spider webs all over the place, almost like that Halloween decorative cotton web. Only twice did I see a spider, and both were absolute monsters that scared the crap out of me.

Sometimes I'd see furniture that wasn't there. Once I had a cat jump on my bed, but the cat was the size of a Labrador. Another time I woke up and saw two of my wife. One was lying beside me asleep, the other was sitting on the edge of the bed with her nose pressed into the wall and I found myself hoping to God she didn't turn around (stuff of horror movie setups). Another time I woke up and there was a rotten corpse on the ceiling above me and as soon as I realized what I was seeing, it fell at me. About wet myself on that one.

Just to relate how long ago this was, I finally got irritated (this was before Google searches) and got a Polaroid camera to take a picture the next time this happened, because they would hang around for several seconds. And of course, it stopped happening. At best it was disruptive to sleep, so I'm glad it stopped. I've had a few more over the years, but nothing like the daily occurrence of back then.

[igualitarist]

I have episodes regularly, it's a side-effect of my medication but quite frankly, I used to have episodes of sleep paralysis for as long as I can remember.

My episodes will always be me laying on my back in bed, looking out over the room. I'll then see something, for example a man with a very square, long face staring at me from the darkest corner of the room. He's got milky, white eyes and a very "flat" expression, not many attributes to his face other than the eyes and mouth which has no lips.

When I was younger, I used to scream for help during the episode, crying. Once the episode let go of me, I would be angered with my dad that he had not come rushing to my aid when I was frantic with fear. The first time it happened, my parents literally believed that someone had actually been in my room, and I was brought to hospital for a physical despite my description of the "man" being outlandish to say the least and not at all realistic.

It quickly became obvious to the doctors however that I was suffering from sleep paralysis. As I got older, I started getting far greater control of my dreams and now whilst I can be "caught" in a sleep paralysis for a short time, I can also be totally aware of what's going on and thus interrupt the process. I believe lucid dreaming is a pretty common trick for people to adopt in these cases. I no longer fear the episodes, and I have a special pillow against the wall which prevents me from rolling over onto my back, since that's when the episodes are triggered. <.<

Whenever people speak of seeing "angels" or "aliens" or "demons" during the night, I think sleep paralysis.

Yep, i've already seen "a demon" during an episode of sleep paralysis. That was the second most incredible sleep paralysis episode in my life (the first one being that one i've already exposed on this thread".

I was a preteen back then, and saw the silhouette of a woman entering my room. I thought it was my mother, so i asked her what she was doing in my room and she just ignored. Then she sitted on the top of my chest, suffocating me and stood there for a while, when she approached her face to mine i just saw the most horrible face i've ever seen in my life. Suddenly it vanished and i could take my breath and move again.

Reading about it, experiences similar to mine have already been reported for centuries, and back then, people used to think that was a sucubus/incubus attack. There are even paintings portraying it, like "The Nightmare", by Johann Heinrich Füssli:

[TheRainman]

Yep. Absolutely terrifying. Had it happen many times, some of the times were definitively worse than others. I've experienced...I'm going to call them "happenings" because not all of them came with visual hallucinations. Some did, others had smells, and others had the understanding of 'something' or some 'presence' nearby of not at all a good nature. Obviously the latter were the most terrifying.

I don't know if this has some positive correlation with it, but as far as I can recall, every time it happened I was laying on my back.

[Lazuli]

You haven't experienced true fear until you wake up paralyzed, your mind and body filled with pure dread. It was the scariest shit I've ever had happen to me, thankfully only once when I was younger.

[Deleted]

2 times here and both nasty. First I had a vision of a gargoyle style demon on top of me holding me down. I was trying to scream and thought I was as the whole thing felt so real. Apparantly I was not screaming because my partner did not wake up, and they are a light sleeper so any noise would have woken them nevermiind 2 minutes of screaming next to them.

The next one I knew was coming somehow before it happened and I knew that when I opened my eyes there would be something there. Lo and behold right in the middle of my room, with a dagger raised to stab me was Yharnham the Pthumerian queen from Bloodborne. It was still scary as fuck even though that time I knew it was a hallucination so I was mostly just trying to move and snap myself out of it. After that there was no more late nights playing Bloodborne, mostly because I completed it but thats not the point lol.

[igualitarist]

Most of what people are describing just sound like bad dreams that are set in your room.
I honestly thought occurrences like that were pretty normal.

Its different, during sleep paralysis is like your mind is playing tricks with you. You know you are awake, there's no "reality rupture", like it happens when you wake up from a dream and immediately realize you were dreaming.

During sleep paralysis You are completely conscious, but your body and senses are, well, bugged. You can't move (when i have it, i can move only my eyes) and your senses start to, as i said, play tricks on you that feel very, very, very real.

[Deleted]

Yep, had a bout of that 2 months ago

You "wake up" and can't move, at all. All you can move are your eyes, and out of the corner of your eyes you see a dark shadow, creeping towards you. You try to scream and can't, or shake yourself awake. Until suddenly you can, as your heart is racing and you're near crying.

Yeah it's not fun :3

Exactly this. The feeling is horrible. Never understood what triggers it. Stress? Luck of sleep? Fear of the dark. ? Can't find answers

[igualitarist]

Exactly this. The feeling is horrible. Never understood what triggers it. Stress? Luck of sleep? Fear of the dark. ? Can't find answers

Sleep paralysis is the inability to move or speak immediately after waking up. This can be an exceptionally scary time for those afflicted with this weird phenomenon, but despite former beliefs, the feeling of paralysis is not caused by supernatural beings.

Causes
During rapid eye movement (REM) sleep the brain has vivid dreams, while the muscles of the body are essentially turned off. While sleeping, the muscles are unable to move so that the person won't be able to act out dreams with their body. Sleep paralysis happens when a person wakes up before REM is finished. The person will be conscious, but the body's ability to move hasn't been turned back on yet.

Several things can bring on episodes of sleep paralysis. For example, sleep deprivation, some medications and some sleep disorders, such as sleep apnea, are triggers. Also, sleep paralysis is commonly seen in patients with narcolepsy, said Dr. Shelby Harris, director of Behavioral Sleep Medicine at the Sleep-Wake Disorders Center at the Montefiore Health System in the Bronx, New York.

Youth seems to be a factor in the occurrence of sleep paralysis. According to the Mayo Clinic, this disorder is more likely to happen to people between the ages of 10 and 25. Sleep paralysis is also more prevalent in those with post-traumatic stress disorder and panic disorder, according to a 2017 report published by the National Institutes of Health.

Sleep paralysis may also be genetic, according to a study done on 862 twins and siblings. "It's still a preliminary finding," said Daniel Denis, a psychologist at the University of Sheffield in England, and co-author of the study published online February 2015 in the Journal of Sleep Research, but added that it provides "a general inkling that something to do with the control of circadian rhythms is probably involved in sleep paralysis." [Sleep Paralysis Linked to Genetics]

According to a study in 2011 by Pennsylvania State University, 7.6 percent of the general population has problems with sleep paralysis. People with mental disorders such as anxiety and depression are more likely to experience sleep paralysis. According to the study, 31.9 percent of those with mental disorders experienced episodes.

Symptoms
Those afflicted with sleep paralysis are often unable to move their bodies or speak immediately after waking up. This can last one to two minutes, according to the Mayo Clinic. People experiencing sleep paralysis may also feel a weight on their chest or a choking feeling.

In the past, it was believed that demons caused sleep paralysis by holding people down or sitting on their chest. This was often due to hallucinations, which are a common symptom during sleep paralysis because the brain is still in a dream state. People have reported seeing ghosts, demons and other strange apparitions while experiencing paralysis.

https://www.livescience.com/50876-sleep-paralysis.html

[Amunrasonther]

I've had it happen to me three times in my life. It always happens in the summer when I'm staying up at ungodly hours and my sleeping patterns are off. The first time it happened was obviously the most terrifying. I fell asleep around 5 in the morning only to wake up around 7 to this strange noise. I couldn't move my body whatsoever, my eyes are wide open, I'm able to look around, and I hear this horrible humming noise. I honestly thought I was being attacked by aliens lol. It lasted for about 2 min and then instantly went away.

The second time it happened it felt like there was this creature on my back pressing down. It was doing this evil cackle over and over and over.

Third time it was a combination of the two, except I saw these shadow beings moving around the room. I will say, I do enjoy them now. It's fun trying to make yourself move and yet....you can't.

[Dwarfhamster]

I've gotten it before, mostly when I was younger. I don't recall having an episode in years. *knocks on wood*

[Arnoux]

I had it once when I was very young. Then I have forgotten about it for a decade then saw a 9gag post about it a couple of years ago. Since then I had like 6. It is very terrifying. Luckily after a couple of events you start to realize that you are in a sleep paralysis and what I did is i didn't open my eyes. I knew there will be some terrifying person in my room.

In the recent years I saw a reaper reaching for me, and a red headed guy standing in front of me, like Darth Maul from Star Wars.

[Enfilade]

It seems to happen much more to my husband when he’s really tired and sleeps on his back.

Guess I just have bad luck then, I'm almost always really tired and sleep on my back too!

[Ghostpanther]

It seems to happen much more to my husband when he’s really tired and sleeps on his back.

That is only time it happens to me. Is when I am sleeping on my back. Which I normally am sleeping on ether side. Not sure why it happens when you are on your back, rather than your sides or belly.