Sleep Paralysis

[Allons-y]

For those of you who do not know, sleep paralysis is is a phenomenon in which a person, either when falling asleep or awakening, temporarily experiences an inability to move. It is a transitional state between wakefulness and sleep (copied that straight from google). Basically I like to say that its when your brain is awake but your body isn't. I would just like to share my experiences with it because it occurs often for me. With sleep paralysis occasionally comes hallucinations. So here goes:
My first sleep paralysis hallucination I can remember is when I woke up, and found I could not move (this isn't the hallucination part yet). Now people, if you ever get sleep paralysis, I recommend to NOT open your eyes, because you might see something you don't want to see. So I opened my eyes, and standing six feet tall on the side of my bed watching me was a dark hooded grim-reaper like figure. It had bloody roses all over and there was nothing in the black hood.
Another one I had wasn't as demonic or scary, but it was pretty shocking. I was laying in my bed in the morning when my dad came into the room and sat on the bed, telling me that he had to go to work early and he'll see me in a few hours. I couldn't speak. I did my usual routine and got myself out of my paralysis, and I got out of bed. I walked into the hallway and I saw in my dad's room that he was asleep in his bed. I remember asking, "I thought you were going to work early?" and he said "No... what are you talking about I just woke up." I was completely mind blown. I had FELT his weight press down on the bed. I heard him speaking. I felt his presence. But it turned out that the WHOLE thing was a hallucination. It seemed so real that I wasn't sure whether or not it was.
And the creepiest hallucination I have had with sleep paralysis was I think in the middle of the night. I opened my eyes and a woman was just standing there by my door (yeah, creepy enough already do I even need to finish this story). As she started to move (and Im not saying walk because she wasn't moving her legs) towards me, she started screaming. But while she was getting closer, and as she was screaming, her face kept morphing into different women's faces. The strange thing was, I wasn't scared. I don't even know. But what made it more bearable for me was that when she finally got close to me, her face morphed into an anime girl face and I ended up laughing when I woke up.

But yeah, those are my sleep paralysis stories. If any of you have ever had sleep paralysis and would like to share your experiences, it would be interesting If not any super creepy weird dreams would be cool too.

 

[Goofyono]

There was one time that I took a nap and had sleep paralysis. My stomach felt heavy and I had that sleeping sensation but I was able to open my eyes. Kind of freaky because the first thing I tried to do was get up and I wasn't able to move. I knew exactly what was happening and I decided to just open my eyes when I was debating on whether that was a good idea or not . I remember noticing a dark shadow moving in the corner and it felt like something was on top of me.. didn't want to sleep for a week after. I know what you're talking about with the whole not wanting to open your eyes in fear of seeing something creepy. I heard if you want to try to get out of sleep paralysis, is to try and wiggle your fingers and toes first.

 

[Kinglaser]

I used to wake up with sleep paralysis kinda often. I never hallucinated, although I always opened my eyes. Like Goofy said, I learned that trying to move my hands and feet first helped, and I even learned how to put myself back to sleep. I become so used to it happening, that I could stop panicking, and tell myself it would be ok, and fall back asleep.

 

[CoralHibiscus]

I've never hallucinated, but I have had moments of sleep paralysis where I wake, and want to move but I can't. I either somehow am able to move after a little while, or I just fall back asleep

 

[Elle]

I do have a sleep disorder, but sometimes I also have sleep paralysis. Technically that ends up being my own fault because I never fall asleep on my back completely straight, but sometimes i'm so exhausted that I just end up doing it and I end up going through the paralysis. I actually did a research essay on Dreams vs Reality (sleep paralysis being one of the topics) and it went around the usual, hallucinations vs the paranormal and more. I even gave myself the creeps writing it and didn't do it until the very day before it was due, lol. XD
Anyways, I never truly had bad experiences until I entered college LOL. Stress added into anything in my life never works out.

For my first year of college, I was taking afternoon classes so naturally I would wake up alone in my house while everyone was at work or school. Ended up waking up to the paralysis, except I felt like someone was pushing me against the wall and I kept hearing my brother's voice saying random things like "go to the wall, don't look, etc" and I literally got so freaked out, I remember I hadn't slept for more than 2 hours before I had finally been able to get to sleep, so after I woke out of it, I practically ran out of the room and stayed awake on the couch with my dogs around me LOL.

The second creepy one happened recently, actually. I was so tired that at around 7 pm, I went to my brothers room to take a small nap there while everyone was in my parents room watching television. The dog we were taking care of was sleeping beside me, but I had left the light on by accident and forgot to turn on the fan. So, when I went into sleep paralysis, I saw that I was trying so hard to knock over stuff so someone could freakin' wake me up because it feels like forever. I actually felt the books whenever I "knocked" them over and stuff, and I do believe in astro projection, so I could see myself doing it and I wouldn't leave the room because someone was standing right there in front of my brothers room and I began to pray but that wasn't exactly working at all, and usually I do pray when i'm in paralysis mode. I ended up waking out of it, screaming, and found out that I was in it for over an hour, the longest i've ever been in a sleep paralysis. That's the last one i've been in so far and it just keeps getting longer every time, so i'm trying my best not to fall asleep on my back completely straight LOL.

I have many weird stories but these are just two. My family goes through this also, except for my brother. He's the lucky one out of the bunch, haha. xD

 

[x_Alison]

I've had many encounters with sleep paralysis, although yours sound way more terrifying than anything I've ever experienced o.o
My sleep paralysis begins with night terrors. I've had night terrors ever since I was a little girl, maybe 4 or 5 years old was as early as I could remember. During my night terrors, I am completely (or usually) aware that I am in a dream. I cant move or speak at all. It feels as if something is sitting atop my body and my lips are glued shut. Wiggling my toes/fingers/etc. doesn't work to wake me up. The only way I have ever known to wake up from a night terror is to scream in my dream which results in me screaming in real life. It's absolutely terrifying.

This is what I imagine.

 

[Kinglaser]

The scary thing is not knowing how long it is. It could feel like a minute and be an hour, or feel like an hour and be a minute.

 

[x_Alison]

It's very scary! I don't know why it happens. I've never met anyone in person who has the same problems. It's especially weird and embarrassing when I have a new friend over and I start screaming in my sleep lmao!

 

[Myth]

I have had sleep paralysis since I was a 2nd grader (that was the first time I remember it).
I usually have bad episodes every other night (or morning when waking up).
I've been on very high dosages medicines for illnesses and they have caused me to have extreme hallucinations and terrors. I had to go to a clinic for a week to get over an awful series of episodes I had.
I will never forget any of them. The worst one was being picked up and kidnapped by a guy and screaming. It felt 100% like I was being picked up and it felt 100% real. I woke up screaming and on the floor, sweating like crazy and then crying.
I had many extreme hallucinations where I literally died in my bed and rose to the ceiling and saw my body laying there.

Crazy stuff. My sleep paralysis now is more just annoying, but can be extremely scary when I wake up paralyzed and my mouth is stuck on my pillow and I can't move it or breathe. Talk about life or death situations you can't control!

 

[Otters]

I have periods when I get it more often and I get it really bad sometimes and have only hallucinated a few times but I had a grim reaper figure thing too and it was horrible.

 

[Jason]

I've had it once or twice. In one dream I was being chased (more like hunted) by a scary knife wielding figure down a dark alleyway. When the intensity and fright of the dream woke me up I wasn't REALLY awake.

I was in sleep paralysis. Strangely enough, I was only able to open 1 eye. In the open eye, I saw my room's ceiling. In my closed eye, I saw the dream still ongoing as the figure walked closer. It was very surreal, a bit like double vision. Both of the images were merged together and it was terrifying. I couldn't move in the real world OR the dream world. My heart was pounding out of my chest after that.

As I was killed in the dream I managed to wake myself up completely and open my other eye. But I still found it difficult to move for a few moments and still found it hard to catch my breath.

 

[Jerimiah]

One time when I woke up I thought the pokemon rotom possessed my tv then used it's psychic mind powers to paralyze me

 

[Sophia]

Omg I totally had this conversation with you when you told me about that level that will not be spoken of in Thief.
But yeah, about a month ago? I had about an hour long conversation with my sister and mom about paranormal stuff and weird occurrences that have been happening to me at the place I'm living in lately. When I went to sleep that same night, I opened my eyes, couldn't move my body, it felt like I was kidnapped and tied down with rope or something. I was looking around at my room, everything looked the same but the color scheme was off, then a demonic looking lady in a white dress began to approach me from the end of the bed, I was trying to scream but I wasn't able to talk, all I could move were my eyes, but finally I was able to let off a faint groan that woke me up and allowed me to move.

I honestly thought I cracked the code, I thought that something I had said to my family about the strange occurrences was true and I was paying for it. It happened at about 2 am. It's never happened to me before, I had never even heard about this phenomenon (until I googled what happened to me afterwards). I find it weird that it just so happens on the day I was talking about those things which I never talk about. Hasn't happened to me since.

 

[†_Beast_†]

I don’t have a personal story to share regarding sleep induced paralysis but I think it’s quite funny how people like to use the term hallucination around with interchangeability. Psychiatry loves to do this. While it is true that some people suffer from narcolepsy from a medical standpoint, others might be delving into things they shouldn’t ‘touch’. In each event that occurs, it is a case by case scenario. Even someone that has been diagnosed by multiple professionals in their fields of study as suffering from a brain disorder, you can’t rule out other causes that could be at work such as those ‘hallucinations’ you think you aren’t actually seeing. Sleep paralysis occurs from the thought of common sense – some of you may know, some not. The easiest way to explain it is as thus – the human body was made to turn itself off during deep sleep so it cannot kill or seriously harm itself, in non-technical terms - think of it as a snooze button. What happens when you hit the snooze button on that alarm and it doesn’t go off? Your brain sends signals to the rest of your body, when to turn on and turn off your muscles. In crude layman’s terms, when certain receptors misfire, it causes confused signals within the body. It’s easy for a psychiatrist to take a few hundred bucks an hour and then say ‘you suffer from hallucinations’ – ‘here’s a prescription’ lol. People hear what they want to hear, not always what they should hear. Often times, its things they don’t want to hear that will cause others to think twice about telling them – mainly those who work for that ‘living’ per this case. The problem is – it’s usually a psychiatrist’s job to figure out what is the cause for human beings and in other cases, a priest, a clergyman, a demonologist etc. as examples. The fact is this, people still don’t have the slightest clue and many look in the wrong places. Any person that specializes in one or two fields only, often gives misdiagnoses or treats it with only what they themselves can feel or see. People do not take others seriously enough when they have stories of things happening to them during sleep paralysis – when the subconscious and conscience is the most active together. Everything a person experiences should be looked at before you discount something else and move on. Heck, that’s the most important thing to keep in mind. If sleep paralysis concerns you, it needs to be done in layers of diagnosing it. It’s not as simple and direct as say - using a stent in a left ventricle. That’s where people ( )…’mess’ ) up. To reiterate a point, people also become so concerned and worried that nobody will believe them in cases that aren't correlated to narcolepsy alone. That's why it's imperative for people to understand sleep paralysis should not be limited to one field of expertise and diagnosis.

 

[Allons-y]

Thanks for your insight on this! You seem to know a lot about these kinds of things, thats so freaking cool!

 

[Jenner]

I have had sleep paralysis since I was a 2nd grader (that was the first time I remember it).
I usually have bad episodes every other night (or morning when waking up).
I've been on very high dosages medicines for illnesses and they have caused me to have extreme hallucinations and terrors. I had to go to a clinic for a week to get over an awful series of episodes I had.
I will never forget any of them. The worst one was being picked up and kidnapped by a guy and screaming. It felt 100% like I was being picked up and it felt 100% real. I woke up screaming and on the floor, sweating like crazy and then crying.
I had many extreme hallucinations where I literally died in my bed and rose to the ceiling and saw my body laying there.

Crazy stuff. My sleep paralysis now is more just annoying, but can be extremely scary when I wake up paralyzed and my mouth is stuck on my pillow and I can't move it or breathe. Talk about life or death situations you can't control!

THIS

I've had it for as long as I can remember, I just couldn't put any words to it when I was younger. I don't know what causes it, but I've had it about 5 times a week for the past year or so. I've def had several where I see dark figures and it feels like someone is grabbing me and I literally feel like I am dying. I actually imagine this is what it's like to die. But I agree, at this point it's super annoying. I'm just like, "okay, I'm ready to wake up now." Also, I try to sleep with my mouth open and on my side so I avoid that whole breathing mess.

My worst experience was when I heard shrieking loud radio-static noises (exactly like THESE, they actually haunt me now so I can't listen to the audio again). I couldn't escape them and they were so loud, and I can't even explain it ahhh. I also get them every single time I nap, without fail, so for me it's a REM cycle thing.

They actually got so bad (topped by my anxiety), that I went to go see a sleep doctor because I wouldn't sleep for fear of having another episode. I actually found out I have narcolepsy, which is why they may occur so often for me (and maybe others). There's no way to stop them, but it explains why they happen. Something to do with the REM cycle.

P.S. has anyone looked into what ALS actually does to you? I imagine sleep paralysis is just a glimpse of what they experience their entire life. It's so scary

 

[Allons-y]

Its the same with me! I've had sleep paralysis ever since I was LITTLE, but I never looked back and actually thought about it until a few months ago!

 

[Guitar]

Hey guys and gals,

I know this thread is old...I don't see the need to start a new one. Thanks for putting this up, @Allons-y!

So, I can't say that I've ever had Sleep Paralysis, though, I have had some very 'strange' encounters over the years where I've seen/felt unexplainable things. I'll say this: I do believe that I have seen a "Shadow Person" (not when waking up or asleep, I was fully awake doing my day) and sometimes while I sleep, I feel something on me, but its never been more than that from what I remember over the years.
Maybe that last part is Sleep Paralysis? I don't even know.

The reason for my post is because, I was roaming around on YouTube a couple of days ago and ended up stumbling upon one of my favorite YouTubers who posted a video on this very subject a week or so ago. It's a fairly recent upload to that channel. I want to share the video with all of you in the hope that it helps with Sleep Paralysis, or, maybe see even more of what it's about. My heart goes out to you all who have had this happen and still have this happening in your lives.

I'm not sure what else to say other than, I saw this thread last year, but I didn't know if I should post or not back then. Now, I have a reason to share something with all of you. If you could please give this video a chance. Maybe even view it a few times. It's a really well put together video and worth the time to watch it.

Spoiler

If you click the little YouTube button on the vid, a new tab will open with the video and you can scroll down under the video to view over a thousand comments that were left by so many other people where they share their own experiences with Sleep Paralysis.

Hey @†_Beast_†, I thought maybe you'd be interested in seeing this post and video.

Have a great rest of your day everybody!

 

[Thorn]

I've experiencd this a few times.

Most recently was a few nights ago.

I was dreaming that I was being chased, then my eyes shot open, and I continued the conversation I was having in my dream. After about a minute or two of not being able to move, but feeling like I was running, and talking to someone in my dream out loud, I was able to completely re-enter the dream.


My other times weren't as weird as this one. Usually the part of the dream that continues is visual and I see things that aren't there in my room while being FROZEN.

 

[PudgeTheFish]

This has happened to me twice. It usually happens when I go to sleep really late and am tired the next day. When I take a nap the day after it happened (twice)