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Guys, I just lived on me the most frightening things I ever have this morning : sleep paralysis.
Basically you wake up but you're kind of trapped in your own body : your muscles don't work and you are only able to control your breathing. It takes several seconds/minutes to recover the usage of your muscles.
It's scary as hell, you try to move the hardest you can but not a single part of your body responds and you can't talk too. I just concentrated on my breathing and tried to clench my fists and tiptoes and I was able to move about 30 seconds after I woke up.
I did some research and apparently it's well known and affects healthy people (I mean, I'm not dying xD) and 20 to 60% percent of individuals have experienced this at least one time in their lifes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_paralysis
So, have any of you guys experencied this? And if so, how many times?
  
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I get it all the time. Scary at first, but I'm used to it now.
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I get it quite a few times - it happens when I get too much sleep and then my body doesn't respond. Basically, when it happens, I have to force myself to get up and not go back to sleep even if I want to.
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I got it once and it scared the shit out of me.
Most terrifying thing that's happened in my sleep.
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ogsj bless his soul, has been this for awhile unfortunately TT;
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United States33466 Posts
I guess a lot of people find this scary, but personally it just strikes me as annoying?
From what I hear, with some people it's frequently combined with nightmares of someone (ghost, monster, whatever) sitting on them or holding them down, which intensifies the experience... so I could see that being fucking scary.
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Belgium108 Posts
Been there, done that. I've had this happen to me on a regular - almost daily - basis some three years ago. It always happened when I'd fall asleep. It was like witnessing the exact moment you passed from waking state to sleeping, without getting fully into the dreamstate. I can only describe it as a complete inability to move your body whilst being completely concious and lucid. It always felt like I was falling down head-first into a hole without being able to control my movements. This would happen several times until I finally fell asleep normally.
Totally hated it. It stopped after a few months.
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I got this a lot last year, or maybe the year before that. Anyway, I learned how to control my sleep paralysis and turning it into lucid dreaming. Basically, when you wake up and can't move, instead of forcing yourself out of it, try to imagine that you're standing up from your bed or alter the setting you're in.
It takes time to practice. Don't get scared. If you do, sleep paralysis can turn into a nightmare, which is why some accounts report the "hag" who sits on your chest.
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I've never had this in my life. So you pretty much wake up but none of your muscles respond?
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I've found that it only happens when I sleep on my back. It's scared me from ever sleeping that way, I'm always on my side now. I've had no problems since.
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Happens a ton when I'm dozing and don't wake up properly.
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Its happened to me before although I wasn't fully awake, I was half awake and still kind of dreaming so it seemed like there were people in the room with me and weird shit going on, it was a pretty ill experience.
This condition explains the vast majority of "hauntings" and "alien visitations".
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On November 14 2011 23:50 ArnaudF wrote:Guys, I just lived on me the most frightening things I ever have this morning : sleep paralysis. Basically you wake up but you're kind of trapped in your own body : your muscles don't work and you are only able to control your breathing. It takes several seconds/minutes to recover the usage of your muscles. It's scary as hell, you try to move the hardest you can but not a single part of your body responds and you can't talk too. I just concentrated on my breathing and tried to clench my fists and tiptoes and I was able to move about 30 seconds after I woke up. I did some research and apparently it's well known and affects healthy people (I mean, I'm not dying xD) and 20 to 60% percent of individuals have experienced this at least one time in their lifes. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_paralysisSo, have any of you guys experencied this? And if so, how many times?
Hundreds. But that's because I often use WILD for Lucid Dreaming.
Once you know what it is it isn't scary at all and is actually a great chance to enter into a lucid dream. \\On November 15 2011 00:08 tyCe wrote:
I've never had this in my life. So you pretty much wake up but none of your muscles respond?
That's correct. It's often accompanied by other sensations like vibrations, spinning, loud noises, etc. This occurs because your body isn't fully out of REM sleep and is still, in essence, dreaming a little. The paralysis comes as well from the REM paralysis not being fully gone yet.
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It's a sign to invest more time into spirituality/meditation, imo.
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It happened to me once when I was a little kid. Was terrifying as all hell, and didn't know what it was until 15 years or so later. Haven't had it happen to me since though...
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This has never happened to me. It would probably freak me out real bad if it did. 
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Thanks, I feel a lot better about this after reading all your comments!
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It happens to me every few months. I usually have a dream and get a fright, then I lie there with my heart pounding and none of my muscles responding. I listen to noises outside and lay there frozen for 40 seconds or so (who can really tell, time seems to last forever when you're like that). As J1.au said, it has only ever happened to me when I wake up lying on my back. So it is possible that it is less likely to happen if you sleep on your side. However it is hard to control in your sleep, especially if you are used to sleeping like that or find it comfortable.
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o man i got this mate who is abit dodgy and i woke up and couldnt move but i was still half asleep. my head was facing my computer monitor and there was a red light on it and i couldnt look away. i was totaly convinced it was my mates eye and he was going to kill me. i almost cried but the more i woke up the better it was. i feels ya brah some of the scariest shit i eever experienced.
o and i dont think this counts but on new years i fell asleep on my arm and for about a month after i couldnt move my hand because i damaged the nerve. radial nerve palsey i think its called or saturday night palsy.
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On November 14 2011 23:59 Waxangel wrote:
I guess a lot of people find this scary, but personally it just strikes me as annoying?
From what I hear, with some people it's frequently combined with nightmares of someone (ghost, monster, whatever) sitting on them or holding them down, which intensifies the experience... so I could see that being fucking scary.
Actually, my one high school teacher (and old and somewhat batty lady) claimed to have visited a famous haunted hotel somewhere in the UK and experienced 'The Sitting Ghost' which she described as an immense pressure on her chest. Despite all our arguing that this was actually sleep paralysis she insisted there had been a ghost pinning her to the bed for several minutes.
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Haha, you didn't mention the best part - that it can be coupled with hallucinations. Like you're awake but still dreaming. And you can't move. So you see something like Vego from Ghostbusters II bursting from your ceiling and you get to lay there and watch it like a dumbass.
This has only ever happened to me once. I can't think of anything I did to lead up to it - I'm sure I wasn't getting a lot of sleep at the time, but that's pretty typical. But it was a shitty enough experience that I dreaded going to bed every night for at least the first few weeks afterwards. Good times.
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I have had this... I've also had a semi-similar experience where the last part of my dream becomes lucid but I can't wake up... that's really weird.
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lol i've had that a bunch of times. the longest i've had it was for like 20 seconds. i've got kinda used to it. ._.
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I had it once, coupled with a paranormal hallucination. Scared the fucking shit out of me, I can honestly say I was never more scared in my life. Two days later after searching for information on what it may have been, I found out it was sleeping paralysis. Now I actually hope I'll get it again because I think it's an interesting experience.
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It happened to me a lot when I was younger, not so much now that I'm older, I vividly remember one time it happened when I was 4 or 5, I woke up and my face was in my pillow and I couldn't move at all, it was difficult to breathe and I tried shouting my parents but because I had a face full of pillow they obviously couldn't hear me, I thought I was gonna die that night!
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[QUOTE]On November 15 2011 00:16 L_Master wrote:
Hundreds. But that's because I often use WILD for Lucid Dreaming.
Once you know what it is it isn't scary at all and is actually a great chance to enter into a lucid dream. \\[QUOTE][B]On [/QUOTE]
Whoaa can you elaborate more on that please?
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I actually had this once several years ago and I never found out what it was until just now.
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On November 14 2011 23:59 Waxangel wrote:
I guess a lot of people find this scary, but personally it just strikes me as annoying?
From what I hear, with some people it's frequently combined with nightmares of someone (ghost, monster, whatever) sitting on them or holding them down, which intensifies the experience... so I could see that being fucking scary.
Yes this exactly, I used to get these when I was around 14-15, and I used to have a lot of dreams and nightmares (it was turbulent period..teens).Whenever this happened it was normally after a horrible nightmare about some stupid daemon, like the kind of stuff you find in doom, but just a ton more scary. I also remember at times my face would be shoved so hard into the pillow that I couldnt breathe and I would thin I was going to die lol. I think it's just the person waking up with your eyes, but not waking up mentally for some reason., atleast thats how it felt. And when you regain your senses it gets back to normal.
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On November 15 2011 01:38 dartoo wrote:Show nested quote +On November 14 2011 23:59 Waxangel wrote:
I guess a lot of people find this scary, but personally it just strikes me as annoying?
From what I hear, with some people it's frequently combined with nightmares of someone (ghost, monster, whatever) sitting on them or holding them down, which intensifies the experience... so I could see that being fucking scary. Yes this exactly, I used to get these when I was around 14-15, and I used to have a lot of dreams and nightmares (it was turbulent period..teens).Whenever this happened it was normally after a horrible nightmare about some stupid daemon, like the kind of stuff you find in doom, but just a ton more scary. I also remember at times my face would be shoved so hard into the pillow that I couldnt breathe and I would thin I was going to die lol. I think it's just the person waking up with your eyes, but not waking up mentally for some reason., atleast thats how it felt. And when you regain your senses it gets back to normal.
Where I live it's called "being raped by the devil" lol, and it's more your brain waking up before your body, you are conscious but can't control you body.
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I started to get sleep paralysis when I was like 14 I think.. first few experiences was really scary but after the first few I just got used to it and new that nothing I would do would help so I'd just accept it but still persist on getting up. I still get them every once and a while.. I think it happens when I get over stressed. Just happened yesterday actually.. I still persist on getting up but of course it never happens..
They are usually like 20-30seconds long it seems.
I'm glad that I never hallucinated before I researched it I would've freaked out as a child lol...
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On November 15 2011 00:52 Flaccid wrote:
Haha, you didn't mention the best part - that it can be coupled with hallucinations. Like you're awake but still dreaming. And you can't move. So you see something like Vego from Ghostbusters II bursting from your ceiling and you get to lay there and watch it like a dumbass.
That is indeed the "best" part.
I've had this happen to me 3 times, once when I was maybe around 10 or 12, I couldn't move but I was able to open my eyes and I was seeing a freaking snake right next to me so I was thinking "the snake paralyzed me and now I'm going to die". Stupid kid. The other 2 "incidents" happened a few months ago and both times it felt like someone was sitting on me. I do freak out, complete paralysis is one of my worst fears so it kinda sucks having to face it, even if reason tells me what it is and that it will pass in a few seconds, some part always wonders "but what if it doesn't?"
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hmm, never heard/experienced this before :^
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The first time was really scary, I was really tired so I took a nap, then it happened, I tried to scream but i couldn't.
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Had one once. But I wasn't frightened because I knew about it through lucid dreaming. If it happens to you, just wait, it'll go away.
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On November 14 2011 23:59 Waxangel wrote:
I guess a lot of people find this scary, but personally it just strikes me as annoying?
From what I hear, with some people it's frequently combined with nightmares of someone (ghost, monster, whatever) sitting on them or holding them down, which intensifies the experience... so I could see that being fucking scary.
I think they are called hallucinations, not nightmares. They don't feel like dreams at all and it takes some time to realize that they didn't actually happen.
For me it used to be a stranger entering my room and watching me. When I could move I actually had to get up to check no one was there.
People have suggested that many people who claim they were abducted by aliens actually suffered sleep paralysis with hallucinations. This doesn't surprise me at all and if it happened to me I'm 100% sure I would have thought it was real.
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Every months this happens to me a few times a night for a few days then it goes away for a few months again. Usually I just way up unable to move feeling like my body is vibrating all over. After a few seconds I realize what is happening and I "jolt" awake.
On November 14 2011 23:59 Waxangel wrote:
I guess a lot of people find this scary, but personally it just strikes me as annoying?
From what I hear, with some people it's frequently combined with nightmares of someone (ghost, monster, whatever) sitting on them or holding them down, which intensifies the experience... so I could see that being fucking scary.
More than annoying for some people, can be very disruptive to sleep.
One time I did have it combine with a dream and it was freaky. I was in bed my old room in my parents' house at night, but it was lighter than it should have been. Like a really bright full moon or a light with a slightly blue hue was shining in through the window. I found I was unable to move, and began "levitating" out of bed, the covers falling away. I tried to yell but couldn't move or utter any words. After floating a few feet into the air and a few feet to the side of the bed, I began to sink, not falling like I would with gravity but as though something was just letting me sink slowly toward the floor. When I touched the floor the wierdest part was my body started to pass through the floor and it felt so strange. The only way I can describe it was that it FELT like I was passing through solid matter, if that makes any sense at all. Once I got up to my arms, I woke up in a completely dark room in the middle and at about 1:30 in the morning completely able to move.
Very, very strange experience. After that I fully understand why "alien abductees" become so convinced that they have been abducted, when in fact they are likely suffering from a sleep disorder such as this. It felt completely real, every part of it. Had I not woken up when I did, I might be so confident that something paranormal didn't happen to me...
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I regularly experience hallucinations upon waking up - usually of huge spiders for some reason, once a visitation by a cat of mine that had just died. I've always wanted to experience waking REM paralysis, just because it fascinates me, but I can always move, I just see very strange and sometimes terrifying things for 10-30 seconds after I wake up.
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Ive had sleep paralysis hundreds of times. Sometimes up to half a dozen times in one night. Im usually in the middle of a drream and when it starts i just fall to the ground and cant move. Its a weird feeling that my mind never gets used to. I always enter a panic when it happens and try to wake up as fast as I can.
I have no idea why it happens so much but one way I have found to make it happen less is to go to sleep on my side (I usually dont move around when I am asleep)
Edit: I have never had them from nightmares... 75% of the time I am dreaming that I am walking around in my house.
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I've had this before. The first few times I think I was somewhere between awake and dreaming, so what I was seeing was still just a mental image. The last time I had it however, I'm 99.999999999% sure that I was awake and looking around my room, where I suddenly began to hallucinate seeing my computer chair as a giant dog, and someone I've never seen before opening my door and looking in
Shit is fucking scary and if you don't get your shit together quick it can be a really horrible experience
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It's happened to me a few times. First time it happened at the countryside when I was about 13. Then I thought that a tick got to me and I'm going to be paralyzed for the rest of my life. Luckily it was just sleep paralysis. Second time it happened at my home. I couldn't move myself, and I thought it was some crazy dream, but then I realised what it was and I got amused.
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Happens to me occasionally, mostly during periods when I'm under intense stress. Wouldn't really be that scary if it wasn't for the the hallucinations (shadows moving in the periphery, loud bangs or other noise etc) and the feeling that someone's present in the room with you and is out to hurt you. Even though you're aware of it eventually, like "oh I'm having hypnagogic hallucinations again"; you're still in a kind of semi-dreamy state of consciousness so you're never actually quite sure if it's real or not :/
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On November 14 2011 23:59 Waxangel wrote:
I guess a lot of people find this scary, but personally it just strikes me as annoying?
From what I hear, with some people it's frequently combined with nightmares of someone (ghost, monster, whatever) sitting on them or holding them down, which intensifies the experience... so I could see that being fucking scary.
Well it's only scary because every time it happens, I hallucinate -_- so I never knew if I was too scared too move or I couldn't move at all.. fortunately I was able to wake myself up in 2 seconds at one time. It's always something touching me or some black human figure in my room LOL.
Anyway @OP It's happened to me about 7 times or so~
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The first time this ever happened to me I thought I was permanently paralyzed or something. In my head I was freaking out but I couldn't even make a sound, it was weird ._.
Now it happens on occasion. It's annoying and still scares me a little haha. It happened to me once as I was dreaming about a ghost or something. I literally thought it was the ghost attacking me >.<
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First time scared me but nowadays it is just bothersome. Sometimes I feel like, I'm controlling something without being there, weird perception
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Just a small hint:
There are specialists for this kind of stuff, go seek help if it happens frequently, it might be everything, from just "nothing" to a malicious disfunction in your body.
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On November 15 2011 01:47 VaultDweller wrote:Show nested quote +On November 15 2011 00:52 Flaccid wrote:
Haha, you didn't mention the best part - that it can be coupled with hallucinations. Like you're awake but still dreaming. And you can't move. So you see something like Vego from Ghostbusters II bursting from your ceiling and you get to lay there and watch it like a dumbass.
That is indeed the "best" part. I've had this happen to me 3 times, once when I was maybe around 10 or 12, I couldn't move but I was able to open my eyes and I was seeing a freaking snake right next to me so I was thinking "the snake paralyzed me and now I'm going to die". Stupid kid. The other 2 "incidents" happened a few months ago and both times it felt like someone was sitting on me. I do freak out, complete paralysis is one of my worst fears so it kinda sucks having to face it, even if reason tells me what it is and that it will pass in a few seconds, some part always wonders "but what if it doesn't?"
Theres actually videos on youtube of people enduring this state for 30minutes or so but they of course have a more severe case with other complications.
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It only happened once to me  thought i was going to die for sure; found out what it was afterwards though so all good^^ can't believe people don't get informed about this though (thinking something extremely serious has happened and that you are going to die is pretty rough)
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Kentor
United States5784 Posts
The first time is always scary. Now I just try to relax whenever it happens.
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Fix your sleep schedule.
I experienced this a lot in high school. Three times out of a week, usually, especially in senior year due to sleep deprivation and stress. I still get it occasionally now in college, but it's a lot less frequent, though I did have an episode earlier this week. You just learn to relax and wait.
Never got the visual hallucinations, but I get the auditory ones. It's usually just a really loud buzzing/ringing.
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On November 14 2011 23:59 Waxangel wrote:
I guess a lot of people find this scary, but personally it just strikes me as annoying?
From what I hear, with some people it's frequently combined with nightmares of someone (ghost, monster, whatever) sitting on them or holding them down, which intensifies the experience... so I could see that being fucking scary.
Yeah, I was really into reading about lucid dreaming, sleep paralysis and such for a while... and right after I learned about it it happened to me haha. Like I woke up and couldn't move and I heard all these voices and saw weird monsters.. obviously it was kinda scary at the time but it's pretty funny hah.
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Countless threads on this topic on this forum. It's relatively common. People used to think supernatural things caused it. In europe they call it 'the hag'. Its probably the cause for many claims of ghosts stories or alien abductions.
It's happened to me at least a half a dozen times. The last time was about 8 months ago but this time I knew exactly what was going on and didn't freak out like I had in the past. I knew I was in a state of concsiousness and unconcsiousness at the same time and I just tried to calmly get over it.
Basically your mind plays tricks on you trying to figure out what is going on. The easiest way to get over it is to sort of accept your fate at the moment. And accept that even though it seems so real that everything is ok and its probably all in your head. And that will calm you down.
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On November 15 2011 01:22 JieXian wrote:Show nested quote +On November 15 2011 00:16 L_Master wrote:
Hundreds. But that's because I often use WILD for Lucid Dreaming.
Once you know what it is it isn't scary at all and is actually a great chance to enter into a lucid dream. Whoaa can you elaborate more on that please?
What do you want me to elaborate more on? Lucid Dreaming?
I wrote a blog/guide for it once on here: http://www.teamliquid.net/blogs/viewblog.php?id=137954
If you have any questions I'm always happy to do my best to provide answers.
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That is insane! I can't even imagine what it would be like to just wake up and not be able to move a muscle. Just thinking about it scares the crap out of me.
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it only happens to me when i lay on my stomach. it isn't really scary, it just feels really weird, i haven't had it in a while though cause i don't really sleep that way
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Happened to me a couple of times. What's weird though from what I'm reading here is that I didn't find it scary. Instead I was annoyed and I remember that I got angry(lol) from being put in this position, focused and broke out of it very fast.
Maybe I am strong in the way of the Jedi.
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It happens to me every once in awhile, but if you get used to it and you realize what it is you can relax a bit and it won't be as bad.
The first time for me was horribly scary. -__-
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Get it all the time.
First time was scary, but you get used to it and learn to relax. However there have been times where it's really uncomfortable and hard to breathe. It's incredibly panic-inducing in those moments.
There have also been times when it's accompanied with dreams and weird sensations (ticklish/squeezing/stabbing feelings around my obliques). Actually let me chronicle some of my worst experiences.
1. Dreamt I was being choked by steel bars. Felt suffocated and shit. I actually thought I was going to die and was like, "I guess this is the end." Then I woke up.
2. This one was random but I dreamt I got stabbed in the oblique area and I actually felt stabbing pains. Woke up feeling like crap.
3. This one's more funny, but I went to bed and was falling asleep but I didn't realize my body had actually gone into "sleep paralysis". I felt an itch on my head (mind you I thought I was still awake here), and went to scratch it only to realize I had gone into sleep paralysis. Zzz.
4. I've never had a nightmarish (as in seeing an actual ghost/monster in my dreams) experience during my sleep paralyses, even though a lot of people claim that they see things sitting on them, etc (I can't seem to recall any).
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interesting based on the replies this seems to have happened to a lot of ppl here. i had heard about it before but especially now after reading all the comments i really hope i never have to experience it i tried lucid dreaming once after my friend told me about it but it felt complicated so i never gave it much thought, but from what i understand sleep paralysis is involuntary so you can't control it but lucid dreaming is voluntary, meaning you actually have to try to make it happen
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On November 15 2011 09:30 keiraknightlee wrote:interesting based on the replies this seems to have happened to a lot of ppl here. i had heard about it before but especially now after reading all the comments i really hope i never have to experience it i tried lucid dreaming once after my friend told me about it but it felt complicated so i never gave it much thought , but from what i understand sleep paralysis is involuntary so you can't control it but lucid dreaming is voluntary, meaning you actually have to try to make it happen
Both can be voluntary or involuntary. More often than not though lucid dreaming is a voluntary thing and SP is an involuntary thing.
However, its by no means uncommon for someone to spontaneously have a lucid dream even if they aren't trying to. Occasionally something just sets you off and you end up realizing you are dreaming. SP can be voluntary because you can induce it yourself; in fact that's a critical component of the standard approach to WILDing (lucid dream induction technique).
I had heard about it before but especially now after reading all the comments i really hope i never have to experience it
Why? Once you know what it is there is nothing scary or unpleasant at all about it. It's only scary for people who don't know whats happening because they wake up, seemingly paralyzed, and hear weird noises/experience strange sensations/hallucinations, etc. Basically it's scary because you think it is real.
Once you know what it is your just like "Oh, looks like my body woke up a little abruptly from REM".
On November 15 2011 07:40 AnachronisticAnarchy wrote:
That is insane! I can't even imagine what it would be like to just wake up and not be able to move a muscle. Just thinking about it scares the crap out of me.
Interestingly enough sleep paralysis (better called REM atonia) is a natural process in the body. During REM sleep, the brain activity correlates with your dream movements. I.E. if your dreaming about jumping off a diving board, your brain is actively trying to make your body dive. Thankfully, we go into REM atonia, which is brought on by the blocking of neurotransmitters, which in turns prevents your body from acting out your dreams.
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My last experience with sleep paralysis involved me falling out of a plane that just exploded, and I thought I was dead in the ground and I couldn't move... horrible, horrible experience.
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I get this so much, most of the time without a dream.
It's so annoying, my brain's awake but i can't use my muscles, so I have to wrench myself awake with the power of my brain. Then I crick my neck and go FUUUUUUUUUUUU....
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The best to wake up from this is to wake up from each level individually. I've learned to shake myself out of it though, lethal weapon style.
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EPT
