I hate giant topics, so I'll try to keep this as short and sweet as possible--despite the fact I tend to ramble and go on and on about useless stuff.

A while back I posted a topic on sleep paralysis (and, really, it was a long time ago), to learn more about it. Since then I've been looking into it more, and I've started to wonder about the connection between science and the paranormal in sleep paralysis.

There's one important question I haven't been able to get answered, in Googling, searching Wiki, or topic-hopping around here. Though SP isn't normal to begin with, what would be abnormal in the number of times SP happened to you in a week, a month, or a year? I know that stress tends to cause SP, and sleeping on your back will encourage it (and that's the only time it happens to me), but what if it happens EVERY time you sleep on your back? For the past week that's the only way I've been able to get to sleep for some reason--I normally sleep on my left side, but recently I just can't get comfortable that way. Even if I fall asleep in that position, I'll wake up on my back. SP is quite normal for me, it's happened so much in the past. But I've noticed that within the past month, every single time I sleep on my back, or wake up sleeping on my back, I'm paralyzed. I just know that can't be normal, but am I really doing that to myself? I haven't been SUPER stressed lately, there was only one instance that caused me to be upset, but even when I'm in a peaceful mood it still happens.

I can remember a few instances when I was SPed, and what I saw during that time. I have never been SPed where I didn't see something. Several years ago I remember waking up from a dream where I was ghost hunting in an abandoned building, and I was putting up cameras. I was ordered to go into a room that was separated by a large black sheet, and in front of me stood this giant black mass. I woke up at that instant, and it was still standing over me in bed. I couldn't move or scream, and it took a while for the figure to fade away. Around the same time (as I was sleeping in my brother's room while he was gone) I had a similar dream, but I woke up to see a grotesque gray figure peeking over the mattress. I've seen the figure before, in real life, twice in the span of five minutes at my dad's old house. I haven't seen it since, but I can't remember if I saw that figure during a moment of SP recently before or after my dad's house burned down. It was one or the other, because I remember not long after having to go to his house and facing the fear of seeing it again.

There are two instances where I SPed that happened very recently. One was only a few weeks ago, and the most recent was two nights ago. I remember having a dream about Cloverfield--only instead of a monster it was an alien invasion--and everyone was forced to hide inside of a super market. I remember running out of it with two of my friends who said they were going to run for it, but the spinning ship (which apparently had a razor of some sort whirling around the middle) came out of nowhere. I ducked down and tried to stay still, but when I looked up my friends were gone. I turned around, and woke up, and as I was laying in bed I saw the disk hovering above me. The image faded and I realized it was my light.

Two nights ago I woke up to see a massive army of red ants crawling out of my ceiling, but I don't remember the dream I woke up from. There was also something strange about this time, that I don't remember ever happening before. I can recall a voice saying something about the ants, and that's when I was actually able to make sounds. I remember feeling very heavy and tried to scream, and I remember wanting to pull something off my throat. I remember feeling like I was making a choking/gurgling sound, but I went back to sleep. When I woke up again, I realized that what I must have seen was the shadow on my wall--but since I went back to sleep after that moment of SP, I don't know for a fact if I was struggling, or if I had actually managed to make a sound. It was by far the strangest SP episode I've ever had, and is undoubtedly not the last.

I do love to SP, for some reason. I think that at some points, I realize I'm SPed, so I don't tend to worry as much as I did before.


Anyway, your thoughts? Is it my body, as I'm sure most instances tend to be caused by, or do you feel some episodes were different? There's something about the most recent one that felt different than the rest, whether it was mostly dream or mostly real, or something else entirely. Most times I SP I stay awake, and watch until my dream fades away before I'm able to get up. But that time nothing began to fade away, and I wound up going back to sleep--which almost never happens when I SP. I feel like there was something weird about it, but I don't want to think that--if it was paranormal in any way--that it was a malevolent spirit. I've lived in this house for upwards of seven-eight years, and no one's said they've felt threatened despite the fact everyone claims to feel or see things. If it was my body and nothing paranormal, am I finally able to combat SP and struggle to stay in control over my mind's perception in it's dream state...?

I'm not sure, but I wouldn't want to stop SPing all together. It's an experience in itself, and definitely adds spice to the rest of the day.

Well, Ebony, you answered your own question:


However, nothing is simple:


Sleep paralysis is a sleep disorder. "Abnormal" is one more time than you find desirable. If this "one more time" has occurred for you, then you ought to talk to a healthcare professional, and get a referral to a sleep disorder or other specialist.

There is also a second issue: you might want a professional opinion that the paralysis part really is "sleep paralysis," and complicated only with hallucinations, especially if you're going to make a career of it.

Finally, if what you enjoy is the hallucinatory component, then that is available without the paralysis.

I lol'ed the other day when I read a post that some hallucination must have been a real event, because the poster rolled over in bed, so it couldn't have been sleep paralysis. Good call on the SP, but utterly irrelevant to the hallucination issue.

You will make your provider's day when you offer that as a treatment objective, but hey, dude or dudette works for you.

Because you seem to enjoy the experience it is because you have become familiar with it. The next step is to take command of it by having even more awareness about what is happening when it is happening. You are developing a preference to sleeping on your back because this indeed does facilitate sleep paralysis which can lead to an OOBE. Your bed might also be with the head facing just East of magnetic North which will exacerbate the condition.

i have had to start sleep studies because im going under anesthesia soon, and despite my reports of sleep paralysis they focused more on the lack of sleep cause by sleep apnea and other such things, being that causes you to not really rest. They haven't said a word about sleep paralysis even thought it is all over my forms. I can ask when I do my next sleep study in about a week

I answered a little bit of it, but I don't think I was really clear on what opinions I wanted (because I was too worried about rambling, which I wound up doing anyway...). I know that SP is caused by brain functions, but the supernatural relation to it seems to have its differences with normal SP. I suppose that what I was looking for, as far as personal opinion, is what others think about the relation between spirits and SP. Though I know a lot of my SP is caused because my mind has waken up before my body, there are sometimes I can't help but wonder if something else is happening too. My bigges question is, do you feel SP is caused primarily, or majorly, by the brain, or do you suspect that at times, a different reason is to blame. I rarely try to physically struggle when I SP, in fact, the abosute only time I can recall being so afraid was when the black entity was left from my dream. Is there a reason why only certain things from the dream are left when you SP? Would it be reasonable to say that the mind is afraid of that entity, so it lingers because the mind believes it's real--or is it in fact a real, residual entity. I know that can't be answered factually, though the former is undoubtedly the reasonable answer. What I'm looking for is personal opinion. I love hearing what others have to think about this subject.



Sigh, I wish somethings in life could be.

I've been to the doctor before for sleeping disorders, and she perscribed these unimaginably powerful muscle relaxers. They're smaller than a pea, but I had taken a whole one and the next morning I woke up I was in such a daze from it I couldn't walk down the stairs--my legs were so flimsy I could barely pick them up. They helped me stay asleep and relax, so I wouldn't wake up at ungodly hours of the night (as I had been waking up at every hour for the past few weeks, and wasn't getting any rest). Those helped, but I haven't taken any for a few good months--which afterwards, the SP began again.

For a professional opinion on the subject, who should be contacted? A regular doctor, or someone else?



There is something about the paralysis I enjoy too, but I don't know why. It's like a really wicked trip, almost. Something that, when you come out of it, you realize your hearts pumping and you're excited.

XD! I did something very similar early in the morning, when I was very young. I woke up really early, when the sun was just coming up, and I rolled over and looked my TV. I saw what looked like a floating goat's head over it, and immediately ran upstairs to tell my mom. She loled and was like, "OH ROFL KC, Your lazy eye is rolling." Because I am like a chameleon, and my left eye wiggles in the morning and just goes all over the place. xD!!



That would make sense. I was thinking that maybe that's why I didn't feel as scared anymore, because my body was becoming used to it. I'm not sure about where my bed is, but I think it's pointing... north east-ish? I know it's in that area somewhere, but I don't think it's exactly north or eactly east. (I know because the road we live on points north to south, and our house is parallel to the road, and... yeah.)

I think physiological events occur much more often than supernatural intrusions into the natural course of things. I also believe that the mind is powerful, powerful enough to surprise herself, powerful enough to make someone sincerely believe "I couldn't possibly do that."


I don't know.


I would be open to a third possibilty, that something sensed by the mind is really there, and the mind creates something that it can grasp and understand to account for what it senses.

More than fear, I think, the mind recoils from what makes no sense. Better, then, to deal with a visible monster than to lie helpless for incomprehensible reasons.

The problem with SP, of course, is that something indisputably is there, the paralysis itself.


You mentioned that you have already spoken with a doctor. Maybe you could speak with her again, and tell her about your reaction to the muscle relaxants. She might be in the best position to help plan your next move, get you pointed in the right direction. It could be as simple as adjusting the prescription to reflect your experience with it, for example.