42 replies to this topic

[Eggbert34]

Glad to see I'm not the only one....this used to happen to me more frequently but much less as of late.  It happened this morning on my flight which sent me in search of answer again. I know some people have said they see people, ghosts, demons, etc and hear weird voices but that's never been the case for me.  Pretty much I always think I'm awake and everything is identical to what it would be in "Real life".  If i'm in a car, i wake up in the car.  In my bed, i wake up in my bed.  Today i was on the plane and hence, I thought i was paralyzed on the plane.

The weird part was that this one went on for much longer than normal.  I usually snap out of it well before anything happens.  This time I somehow got off the plane, went on a shuttle train, and to a doctors office.  The flight attendant (who wasn't the actual flight attendant) helped me through all this and I don't remember if i was walking or what but i clearly remember my neck basically being useless.  My head was like flopped down so I had difficulty breathing or speaking.  I also vaguely remember seeing this in the third person for part of the dream but I do that a lot in my normal dreams anyway.

Also, i've noticed that after a dream like this I find myself falling right back into SP again after i wake up so I usually force myself to stay awake.  In nearly every case I can only move my eyes and have difficulty breathing and can rarely get out more than a squeak.  

They usually occur when I'm sleeping in a weird place and mostly naps (cars, planes, couch).  Generally they happen when i'm not flat on a bed or something.  Started happening about 8 years ago and not super frequent.  Wish I had more answers but glad I dont experience the vibrations or "demons" to this point...hope reading about it doesnt trigger anything

[A Shadow]

scowl said:

Do you mean "wake up paralyzed"? Your brain emits a chemical into the base of your brain to more or less paralyze you. When you wake up, that chemical is very quickly deactivated by yet another chemical.

Yes. Yea but except during sleep paralysis? I was wondering if there are cases of people waking up in a SP state when someone is trying to wake them?

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When you roll over, you are not in a dream state.

They are most likely not in a dream state when this happens.

But some do move while dreaming?

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And this is exactly why sleep paralysis is an important function of sleep. Sometimes it fails and people sleepwalk and do things while they're dreaming. If it happens regularly it's considered a sleep disorder. People who have this disorder often injure themselves.

Yes, I was just pondering if some SP was something different all together.

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This can be yet another common sleep disorder. When you go to sleep normally there is long period before your brain goes into a dream state. Some people's brains quickly go into a dream state. This can be a symptom of narcolepsy or it could be harmless.

So this is not SP?

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This is called apoplexy. It can be caused by neurological problems which aren't related to sleep.

Yes I lack knowledge in this area, which is why I ask such. But you could of known what I meant.

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Yes, it's no different from anything else in the human body yet people still go to doctors.

Also witch doctors, healers and psychics.

[Lupa92]

I have pretty bad sleep apnea. I stop breathing at night because my soft pallate(spelling?) falls back on my throat. Anyhow I've only had sleep paralysis once. I was semi awake and laying on my stomach, I felt like something was coming at me from behind but I couldn't turn around or move. It's fairly common I think to experience this with apnea after all your in a sort of starting stage of hypoxia(decreased oxygen to the brain) Maybe you suffer from something similar. I also get horribly vivid dreams (another symptom) you should look into having a sleep lab done at your local sleep center. I had one once and they really helped me out. I don't have anything really for the apnea (I should be using a c-pap) but they gave me a prescripton for the panic attacks induced by the apnea and those have helped a lot. Anywho you should consider getting some medical help you'd probably feel a lot better.

[scowl]

A Silent Shadow, on 26 June 2012 - 04:27 AM, said:

I was wondering if there are cases of people waking up in a SP state when someone is trying to wake them?

It's possible. I can't point you to any specific cases but sleep apoplexy has been heavily studied since it shows there's a natural way that people can be paralyzed and conscious yet not be put in any danger.

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But some do move while dreaming?

Yes. Your body is releasing a neurological chemical so it's not like a switch. Your body tries very hard to keep your body still when you're sleeping but it's not perfect. Some people talk in their sleep, some people sleepwalk and so on. What usually happens is this movement will wake the person up briefly so they will stop dreaming. This can lead to other sleep disorders like restless leg syndrome where people's own movement will wake them up constantly so they never get enough deep sleep.

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So this is not SP?

The clinical test for narcolepsy is how quickly a person will go into a dream state when they go to sleep. Normal people take an hour or so. A narcoleptic will go into a dream state much faster. I think the clinical definition is five minutes. This can put the person into a sudden case of apoplexy.

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Also witch doctors, healers and psychics.

These people are not part of the medical profession.

[bownaaro]

I've had episodes  throughout my life since I was 15..(Im in my 40's now), and they always terrified me! I would feel like I was awake, but realized that I wasn't and couldn't move and would get the feeling of some presence, if you will, right next to me. I sometimes would hear a low growl, and that's what would scare me. I would tell myself, "wake up wake up!" and would eventually. But I asked a very well known psychic lady what her thoughts were about it and as she explained it was an OBE...out of body experience, and that during sleep I was leaving my body and traveling, and something would wake me (say a slamming door) and my astral body wasn't back in my physical body....that I was being woken before I had a chance to reenter, that's why all the discomfort I would feel, the anxiety, the fear. I think the growling was me trying to scream...but who knows. Its not as bad as it used to be but sometimes I still have a "spell" but don't really have the fear involved...I just sort of tell myself, "oops, not awake, just ride it out"...and I get over it. Sleeping is one of those unsolved mysteries..

[UFO_Monster]

I've only had one episode of SP, and fortunately it was more humorous than anything. It occurred during a time of great stress in my life, and I had the bright idea of sleeping on my back. Sure enough, I was "dreaming," but still "awake." Sort of. But I couldn't move at all. For whatever reason, an abnormally sized rooster walked through the open doorway that leads to my bedroom. It fancied my bed post and started to peck at it. Now for whatever reason, this scared me. A feeling of absolute dread overcame me. It was like, if this chicken kept pecking the bedpost, something terrible was going to happen to me.

It stopped pecking the bedpost, however, and scraped its beak on my leg. I woke up, bewildered and nervous. I remember looking around, and guess what? No chickens were anywhere to be found. At the time, I did not know about sleep paralysis. I can remember many things, so when I learned of sleep paralysis, I knew exactly what I experienced was in fact an episode of SP. I suppose I was a lucky one, because many people who experience SP have more terrifying hallucinations than I did.

[A Shadow]

scowl, on 26 June 2012 - 04:22 PM, said:

It's possible. I can't point you to any specific cases but sleep apoplexy has been heavily studied since it shows there's a natural way that people can be paralyzed and conscious yet not be put in any danger.

Yes. Your body is releasing a neurological chemical so it's not like a switch. Your body tries very hard to keep your body still when you're sleeping but it's not perfect. Some people talk in their sleep, some people sleepwalk and so on. What usually happens is this movement will wake the person up briefly so they will stop dreaming. This can lead to other sleep disorders like restless leg syndrome where people's own movement will wake them up constantly so they never get enough deep sleep.

The clinical test for narcolepsy is how quickly a person will go into a dream state when they go to sleep. Normal people take an hour or so. A narcoleptic will go into a dream state much faster. I think the clinical definition is five minutes. This can put the person into a sudden case of apoplexy.

Thank you for some insight on the subject. Have you have any SP stories you like to share?

[scowl]

A Silent Shadow, on 27 June 2012 - 06:25 AM, said:

Thank you for some insight on the subject. Have you have any SP stories you like to share?

I've only had sleep paralysis once but I could write a book on the hypnagogic hallucinations I've had and the things in my bedroom they've caused me to destroy.

[Seeker79]

My cheesy misspelled video I made in bed one on my iPhone splice app one might I couldn't sleep.

[Christierella]

When I was 14 yo, I lived with my sister, her husband and new baby. I was asleep when suddenly I had a lot of pressure on my chest. I opened my eyes to see a creature, other worldly sitting on me. It said, " i can have you dead or alive any time i want you." I was really scared to say the least. When I brought it up to family, they all laughed. It just felt so real. Even the wieght on my chest. I had no animals, my sister and her family were in their room. It sure didn't feel like a dream, since I didn't go back to sleep that night. I respect all comments about sleep studies, my husband had several done...me with him.

Happy thoughts

[Lordlucan]

Last night scared the crap outta me.
Whilst sleeping I suddenly felt something very heavy across my chest like a person or something. I tried to wake up but couldn't open my eyes or move at all. After about 30 seconds of trying I managed to open my eyes but still couldn't move, all I could do was stare at the ceiling. After a couple of minutes i managed to raise my arms and was soon able to sit up. After that I couldn't get back to sleep for fear of ET returning to harvest my organs.
Thank god I found this thread; I had no idea sleep paralysis existed.
I guess you can get carried away with all the alien abduction accounts you hear in TV and movies and when something like this happens you just jump to conclusions.

[scowl]

That's exactly what it is. If it happens again it will be much less frightening. You can even experiment with ways on how to break out of the paralysis.

[scowl]

As I've gotten older, I've noticed that my hypnagogic hallucinations are getting lame. I used to have scary and almost believable ones. The one I had this morning was completely ridiculous.

As I was waking up, I thought I heard something in my living room. I then heard the buzzy monotone voice of a 50's sci-fi movie robot in my living room calling out to me: "Why...do-you-not...respond?"

As usual I had one second of shock followed by the realization that Robby the Robot is probably not in my living room. I don't know why my brain chose this instead of something better.