Have you ever known that you were awake but couldn't get up from your bed? Something was holding you down, maybe?

It's happened to me 5-7 times. I don't sleep on my chest all the time, but it would only happen when I was laying down like that.

I could see the surroundings in my room, but I had to struggle to rise from the bed. My vision was kind of blurry also. The last time it happened was about 1-2 weeks ago. I was taking a nap, then I woke, then yeah.. I couldn't get up.
For some reason I figured it was a natural habit of fear. While I was awake, but in the trance (or whatever..) I started to think I was falling from the sky or something/someone was chasing me and my body was filled with fear.

It's weird, I tell ya.

A simliar story is of a scandanavian belief called the Sleep Hag.
I've listened to a woman tell her story of how she awoke to see this apparaition swaying closer to her bedside. She couldn't get up, she was stricken with fear. She closed her eyes and then opened them to find that it was gone.

Only I've never seen it and I really don't care to.
What are your thoughts? Anyone else have the same kind of experience?

the only thing i've had is lying in bed in the morning....your ears and brain are awake but your eyes and body are still sleeping,,,,,,weird.......

what i find is weird is

WHEN YOUR SLEEPING YOU DREAM,,BUT IN YOUR DREAM YOU WAKE UP AND THINK CRIKEY I WAS DREAMING,,BUT IN REALITY YOU ARE STILL SLEEPING...WEIRD OR WHAT

I've had incidences of dozing on and off where I know that I'm asleep and need to be awake, but can't actually wake up and I can see and here everything going on around me, but can't move. Kinda similar to what you described. Doesn't have any similarities to "Old Hag" though. From what I've read about that it has something to do with your dreams and sleep paralysis. Like when you dream your body paralyzes itself so you can't move around and hurt yourself while you're dreaming. Sometimes though that paralysis thing malfunctions and you wake up, but you're still paralyzed and in the dream mode almost. During this "awake" sleep paralysis all sounds and lights and scents are magnified, and some ppl hallucinate and see ppl or things. Thats one major explanation for alien abductions and also ghost attacks.

Click Here for more information on multiple false awakenings, which is where you are dreaming that you are waking up and then get on with your day, only to re-awaken back in your bed.

Thanks for the info on that Al, I've experienced 'false awakenings' myself, and I never thought anything of them until reading that.

Naveed I think you have pretty much touched on what is happening to Dysmorphia . I was watching a documentary last week on sleep paralisis . Apparently 2 things happen to the brain and Body while suffering a sleep paralisis attack . The first thing being exactly as Naveed put it your body shuts down to stop itself from getting hurt while acting out dreams. Secondly chemicals are sent to the part of your brain that stimulates fear . I wouldn't dream of diagnosing you Dysmorphia as I don't think they give Phd's in Documentary watching ( Darn ) but I think it would definately be worth while your looking into it .

Shortly after leaving a boyfriend I had an episode of sleep paralysis. It scared the hell out of me. I remember opening my eyes and all I could see were these arms that I could only see from the elbow down. The hands were choking me. I remember trying to move and to scream (for I could here my brother talking in the next room) for someone to come and help me, but to no avail because I couldn't move. Though the entire experience seemed to last forever I'm sure it was only a few moments. I ended being able to close my eyes and when I re-opened them it was over. For a long time I struggled with what it could mean or what that thing was that was choking me. Since then I have done a lot of research on sleep paralysis and feel better knowing that the hallucination I had is quite common as with the feelings of horror, dread, and evil that come with it. I suggest doing a simple search on sleep paralysis and see what you can find. I think it will make you feel better and help you understand what was going on.

i've had a couple of experiences of sleep paralysis, but one that i will never forget was when i around 13 yrs old. when the s.p. wore off, i could clearly hear someone say "ZEUS!" out loud. i dont think it was me. and why would i say that. it freaked me out to much that i almost wet myself. chills ran all over my body. the creepiest feelin ever. i couldnt sleep for a while.

I once had a dream that there was a monster in my room, i was about 8 - 9 years old when it happened, then i shouted out "MONSTER!" and my family was watching me wondering what was going on, then i ran to my lounge room.

Ok, now the thing is, i thought the whole thing was just a dream but when i woke up i was in the lounge room and found out that it was real!

It was freaky because i thought i was REALLY dreaming then-when i have dreams i can usually wake up in the middle of the dream or whenever i like to and this felt like one of those dreams.

mymum said i had a fever so that might explain it. So, was i hullcinating, sleep walking or one of those other things you said - sleep paralysis or something else

I've had those "night terror" experiences off and on for about fifteen years now, and I have just very recently begun having them again. Up until a few days ago, I had not had one since the year of 2000. Then suddenly, the other night, I had another terrifying experience, which was even more terrifying than before, due to the fact that I have now been diagnosed with severe heart damage and such a shock to my system as a night terror experience could definitely bring on a major coronary! As I lay awake the other night, trying not to go to sleep (out of fear of another experience) but yet terribly exhausted, my mind played back the previous years that these experiences had happened to me and suddenly a puzzle piece clicked into place! The first time that this happened was the same year that I had a cat scan done on my head for severe headaches and dizziness. This has been a re-occurring problem for years now..(about 15 years) and I have had a total of about 4 cat scans done over the span of those years. Suddenly it dawned on me that these experiences have begun to re-occurr each time that I have had a cat scan done and continue to go on for up to the next 4 to 6 months afterwards. I am wondering if anyone else has made such a connection between having cat scans done on the head area to the occurring of these "night terror" experiences. Dzstar

So strange, this nght I dreamt of scenes very close to my real daily life and preoccupations...anything supernatural, no floating feelings, just me chatting with people of my school, watching TV and receiving a mail from a friend.

When I woke up I had this kind of "Matrix" feeling lol...

QUOTE (dzstar @ May 22 2003, 08:39 PM)

I have now been diagnosed with severe heart damage and such a shock to my system as a night terror experience could definitely bring on a major coronary!   I am wondering if anyone else has made such a connection between having cat scans done on the head area to the occurring of these "night terror" experiences.  Dzstar

Hi dzstar, welcome to the forum.

I am sorry to hear about your heart problems. Have you ever
discussed with your doctor about these nightmares? Maybe some
medication would calm you enough to get some sleep, since I would
think that alone can be bad for your health. I think she/he should
definitely be told.
Although I have never heard of any correlation between cat scans
and night terrors, it does seem possible. Maybe you can check out a
medical website.
Good luck and take care.

I have had these experiences many times, though the last one was probably five years or more ago. I am on the fence as to whether these are strictlly biological in origin, or whether there are paranormal elements.

I realize medical science has "diagnosed" this as a biological problem, and that they can recreate much of it in the laboratory. But there are some problems with their assesment of the data. For one thing, theoretically *any* experience is capable of being recreated in the laboratory. The reason for this is that we do not experience the outer world directly, but mediated through our senses and the biochemical processes that lead to our feelings. If we took this as evidence that something didn't happen as we thought it did, then *nothing* ever happens as we think it does! It is very convenient for science to use this to define the paranormal into the imaginary, but not the normal.

I think another problem is that scientists have not as yet gone to the trouble of adding the unique elements of these experiences. Each person describes a core of similar phenomena, but then there are the parts that pertain only to each particular person.

In my case, the (theoretical, I grant) entity respondible for the phenomena was trying to communicate something to me. It tried various methods, trying to trick me into listening, because I didn't want to hear whatever it was going to say. The feeling of evil caused me to refuse to listen. It strikes me that this could easily be some part of my own subconcious trying to find a clever way to "speak" to me. Others have had the experience and have actually heard something. The message is a clue toward discovering the ulitmate source of the phenomena.

Do the messages always pertain to energies that have been undeveloped psychologically? If so, then we can be more confident about calling this a biophysical phenomena. But if the messages are not always so clearly psychological in origin (for instance, if an interaction has reference to some real world event) then it is more problematic to make this assertion.

In my own case, my experiences did not even begin until after a friend had had the experience himself, and when the entity spoke to him, he said, rather foolishly if I may say, "no, do not bother me.. go bother Sidhe, he doesn't believe in you." It was that very morning, before I had seen or spoken to my friend, that I had my first experience. I don't think we can so confidently say that such a thing would arise solely out of my own bio-psychology. The cynic argues reflexively that it could be simply a meaningless coincidence, but that seems to me to be as untenable as the paranormal explanation is held to be. Certainly the odds against it must be enormous. The best you can do with science is, following Karl Jung, to call it "synchronicity," which is the meaningful connection between two events that are acausal (one did not cause the other). Of course, most scientists aren't comfortable with the idea of synchronicity, either.

I don't mean to say that I *know* what these things are. I believe actually that they may arise from multiple causes, some of them being absolutely benign and entirely from the body. But I suspect that there is more to it.

Hi Sidhe, Thank you for giving me your analysis of this phenomen of "night terrors". When I read thoughts like yours on the subject, I become more convinced that this is a paranormal experience, but when I read the science-based articles on the subject--I begin to doubt! I do know, though, that they are extremely real as far as I am concerned....I was even picked up (scooped up like a small child) once and flung against my bed-room wall! My husband said I just rolled off the bed (he guessed, he was asleep) but I definitely saw this black shadow form come to me and FELT it put its arms and hands(?) around me, pick me up, and fling me into the wall, where I landed with a huge crash before slumping onto the floor. Prior to doing this it had seemed angry with me and "communicated" silently "You do NOT belong here!" I tried to tell it to go away, but to no avail...but it was gone as soon as the lights came on! This was only one of the many experiences..but they have ALWAYS been negative, unpleasant ones! (And always a black, dark, and shadowy form) Now...since these experiences are begining to frequent my sleep once again...I am getting desparate to understand the meaning of them. Dz

Dz , welcome to the forum
Have you allways been woken from your sleep to experience this or has it ever happened to you while you were awake ? Have there been times when you could move or are you allways paralised ? My experience was like yours a dark shadow that seemed huge was definately frightening and physically hit me , only I was wide awake and had no problem moving because I was just getting into bed when it happened .

Kismit, I know you didn't ask me but allow me to add this.

The first time it happened to me, I *know* I was awake. I was still lying in bed, but I had to go to work in 30 minutes (it only took me about five to get there) and I was deciding whether I would take a shower quickly, or just go in without one. It was while I was considering this that the thing happened. I wasn't sleeping! But it did paralyse me. I felt the paralysis come upon me. That in itself was quite frightening.

A scientist might say that I was "falling asleep while awake." That's a neat trick!

Thanx Sidhe it is nice to know I'm not the only person who has experienced this . I know I wasn't asleep and I never felt paralysed during the episode . In fact I was still moving when the Shadow came up from the end of my bed .
I would just love to know what the heck it was ....

Sorry about the delay with the reply...I got sidetracked...I have had some experiences with the night-terror entity that happened AFTER I woke up...Once I woke up in extreme terror...somehow I had sensed while asleep that this thing was in the room and I woke up screaming and saw it rushing at me. I raised up in the bed and was letting out a scream that probably deafened everybody for a mile...because this thing was coming at me...It was coming right over my husbands body and AT me! My husband jumped up, upon being awakened to my screams, and turned the light on. Naturally, there was nothing there...once the light was on...but before the light was on...I WAS awake and I DID see the darkened profile of the "thing" coming at me! I lay in the bed trembling for the rest of the night. This had happened to me around 2 a.m. and I could not go back to sleep! Another time...I woke up and saw a dark shadowy profile coming down the hallway toward my bedroom..it was daylight..my husband had already gone to work and I thought it was my (then) 13 year old son. So I said..."Jason--You better get ready for school" Then...my mind told me..."that's not Jason"...and I could not move...not a muscle...could not even blink my eye..it FLOATED towards me...it had NO feet. I could not see above the shoulders, it was so tall, and I could not raise my head or even move my eyeballs...had to look straight ahead! I "thought" to it..."You are going to make me die"--"The fear will KILL me" and it "thought" back to me--"I don't want that to happen" and instantly, it was gone! and then I felt "released"!! These experiences WERE real..I DID see these entities BOTH times AFTER I woke up! But I don't usually get the feeling that people believe me when I relate these experiences. I gather that not too many other people must have these vivid experiences that I keep continuously having...but I certainly would swap places with them if I COULD!!---Dzstar

Thanks for sharing that, dzstar. That is a very interesting experience. I am really intrigued about the "I don't want that to happen" bit.. sounds as if the thing isn't really so bad if it can react to your fear by stopping.

In my experience, the entity *really* wanted to talk to me, but I wouldn't "let" it.. I put that in quotes because it was really very strange.. it was like a tape recording backwards and at varying speeds every time it tried to say its thing.. but I had the feeling that if I wanted to, I could make myself hear it. This part has always made me think it could have been some psychological thing, as I mentioned in an earlier post. But other factors suggest otherwise.

It's just possible that the experience is always frightening but the entity involved isn't always a bad guy.

But the "sense of evil" is always a very difficult emotion to get through rationally. It begs the question.. do we really have a sense of evil? Or are we interpreting another sense as evil because it is unfamiliar and powerful?

I don't know what to say about that. I do know that every time it ever happened, a simple call to Jesus made it stop. But maybe that was my reflexive way of saying, "this is too scary for me" like you did, and as in your case, my "tormentor" bowed out.

I have heard of other cases where the thing won't leave..

Anyway, thanks for sharing. You have stimulated my thinking on this very odd phenomena, which frankly, I hope I never have again!

Well this happened to me many times ... but I gusses it was just a dream ... and if it was not it might be a an Alien Abduction
When this happened to me nothing was beside me ... what I mean people or Aliens ... But the devile he might be behind this stuff ... Because as I know that angels visite each person at night about 2-4 am in the morning ... to see what you did all day ... and after they leave the devile comes and tries to change your good thoughts to bad ones ... as an Advise ... just try to egnore it ...

Once,
I was just laying on the floor watching some tv when suddenly I looked at my arm and a miniature tarantula was crawling up my arm. I could see the tiny hairs and everything, I blinked to make sure I was awake and it was gone. I looked up to see my mother staring at me...maybe she thought I was on drugs...

yeah i hate it when i am between like sleep and wherver and i feel like i am falling too - i think it's your mind holding you down!

I've been having episodes of s;eep paralisis since befor I can remember. I don't just have one or two inn a night, I at least have four. I had five three nights ago. Everytime I tried to wake up compleatly it felt like I had to pull my self out of my body. I've had these for many years but each time is just as scary as the first, cuz all you can think is I'm going to die. I am not over exagerating, am I?

Dysmorphia, I was once watching Montel Williams way back maybe a month ago, and he had pyshic Silvia Browne on and the guest told her that she kept on having this strange pressure on her chest, and that she wanted to know if her house was haunted. Slyvia told her that it wasn't haunted but only that her 'soul' was only coming back to her body. Anyway I don't know if this fits this thred.

Happy Holidays

I have had several such experiences where I was sure I was awake, but later came to realilize that I had only been dreaming. I have also often experinced the effect of coming out of a dream but not seeming to make it all the way; then I find myself unable to move and the and the felling of still being stuck in the dream.
My believe is that dreams are another type dimension that our minds enter into. And that when the said experiences happen it is u waking up before we are fully out of the dream dimension.

Once in awhile when I try to fall alseep its like I'm still awake but every part of me is completely relaxed so I can still hear everything going on around me but its like im sleeping I dont know its hard to explain but its neat

I'm not familiar with this particular subject. Is this like sleeping walking?

Btw, I tried to click on the link, but I got an error message.

When I was seven or so I had a dream I was killed by that jack-in-the-box clown and then "awoke" and got out of bed only to have the clown come and kill me again . Once again I was lying in my bed this time a little nervous , but I was thirsty so I stepped off the bed and ... the clown killed me and I was in bed again .

This continued about 9 times of killings and reawakenings untill finally I just lied their in my bed . Oddly enough , in order to get out of it I had to take my hands and lift my eyelids open with them ... it strangely worked .

'lucid dreaming'

Iv had this a number oftimes,usually in the morning when contemplating whether to go to school or not.Ill drift off to sleep,then dreamthat im getting out of my bed and doing all the things i usually do in the morning,after im all ready to go to school.Ill wake up and think "Oh bugger,i have to do that all again!".

Not quite sure if this story fits into this selection or not but I'll give it a shot. Okay... Have you ever been asleep and were having a dream/nightmare and it wakes you up, adn you open your eyes but when you blink them shut again it's like you're beck in your dream? Okay, I know that's a little hard to follow but oh well. I woke up one morning from a nightmare, a dream that started off not so scary and then turned very terrifying. I opened my eyes adn blinked, but when I closed my eyes they were kinda . . . stuck you could say? I was there again back in my nightmare, terrified to the point of wishing I hadn't blinked. I knew that this was a dream adn that all I had to do was will my eyes open but I couldn't!!! It almost made the dream seem way toooo real! Funny thing is I woke up in the exact same position I had gone to sleep in that night, on my back, which I usually can't sleep in that position, and there was nothing lying around me, just the pillow under my head, and I somehow got a scratch across my back! In the same place where I had, in that moment been scratched in my dream! . . . . . So am I just crazy or is that just really really really bizarre???

It happens to me also. I am petrified with fear and I can't move. I have heard many others tell me it happens to them also. I am so curios to know why it happens. Any theories that you might want to share do so at adelinainlove@hotmail.com
Also even if I hate talking about it...I have hallucinations, visual and voices, mostly either before I go to sleep or right after I wake up. That combined with night terrors and a bit of insomnia...not a good combo. Maybe I should go to a doctor.

Indeed, you should want to ask a doctor about that, because the combination of symptoms may point towards a serious underlying cause. I would definately get tests run before taking any medications though. Many doctors are too quick to perscribe meds (even sedative/hypnotics), so be aware that you should definately understand the root of the problem before hanging anything on the branches, so to speak. High stress levels and diet can affect these things too, but a doctor should really be the judge of that.

Sometimes when falling asleep I experience the falling sensation and closed-eye hallucinations. At this point I'm not really fully awake or asleep. As long as I stay in this state, I am unable to move, but am still conscious. I practiced lucid dreaming for a few years and have learned to control this transition to some extent. That is, I can choose to awaken, fall asleep, or maintain this 'twilight' state for a little bit. This has eliminated the terror factor and now I find it enjoyable sometimes. I know that this relates to the overall topic somehow, but I'm not sure if we're all not talking about different things altogether. There is still a lot that is not understood about sleep.

---Edit:
Spikes: I like the theory, that's actually not too far from the 'truth' as many scientists understand it. I wish that I could back that up with references, but I think that it actually came from a documentary I saw a while ago. There is more complex factors in play like hormones and nerves, but you summed it up very well.

The same has happened to me; sometimes it feels like someone's choking me and I can't breathe.. I think it has something to do with the waking process in the brain. Your eyes open and see (activate) before your brain is ready to start muscle movement in certain areas (lungs, laps, etc.). This happens when I wake up too fast, so I suggest you try to do it nice and slow; it worked for me..or so I think. Give your body time to settle and get ready to get out of bed.

Never had that happen X) I usually pinch myself though to see if i'm dreaming XD cliche I know,but it helps.

This sounds like sleep paralysis to me.I have had it a few time, but it never frightened me and I gently went back to sleep.

What I would like to know, is what happened to me on 2 differant occasions when I woke up in the middle of the night say around 2:30 a.m. moved around, was wide awake,turned my head and looked at the clock,laid there for like 20 minutes and then bam, a numbing of my entire body, wide awake and unable to move for a period of time.Maybe like 10 minutes,and the whole time I could only move my eyes and kinda look around and think to myself "why can't I move my body?",then it went away and everthing was normal.Mind you I had been fully awake for like 20 minutes, and the experience seemed harmless.I have no explanation for it, but I know the differance between that and sleep paralysis.

I have also heard stories of what people refer to as sleeping ghosts, who sit on your chest and steal your breath.Basically choking you, and you cannot move the whole time.

Whenever I fall asleep in cars, I can hear everything- radio etc. But cannot move or talk or do anything.

I used to have quite bad sleep problems when I was very young. Hallucinations of monsters, sleepwalking, even weird stuff like hearing loud voices I couldn't understand, etc. Eventually I learned to control it and I grew out of it and they went away.

Now though, I sleep very lightly and sometimes even with my eyes slightly open for some reason (I can even remember one time this happening while staring at a clock and seeing the hands fly round really quick until I woke up ). Even the tiniest noise or even movement near me can wake me up.