Sleep Paralysis - Your Experiences

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_paralysis

Some interesting stats on there and a pretty interesting subject (at least i think).

Ever had any experiences?

Im starting to wonder if all the dreams i can remember really vividly are subject to them being sleep paralysis because im pretty sure i laid still after them and had sort of hallucinations after waking up.

In one dream i was being chased by dinosaurs and the like, i went at sat in a corner basically giving up running away out of fear and i woke up as i did so in my room, although after i woke i laid still until i felt a pain in my back and saw a sort of hallucination of a dinosaur when it would have gotten me in my dream.

Wierd stuff... and yeh i have strange dreams i guess lol.

No more Turok for u!

Whenever i suffer sleep paralysis i get hallucinations like people are standing around my bed and i can't move, but i know I'm awake.

I've experienced it a few times.
Frightening as ***in some ways, just the helpless feeling of it.
I only really got it when I slept at places I didn't normally sleep, so when I stayed at my ex's house after a night of rough sex i'd hallucinate and be like wtf.
Later on in life I had some badasss *** lucid dreams though.
wake up from a dream into a dream into a dream.
cool stuff.
but that may or may not have been effected by my lsd usage at that time.

I hallucinate when I start to fall asleep. I'm not paralyzed though. But I'm at the point where I don't know what is real and what isn't. The most common is I'll open my eyes and see spiders. They're look perfectly real as if they are really there but then they disappear before my eyes. I've seen spiders, imps (yes ffxi ones), evil handprints on the duvet, people in the room, monsters and sometimes I wake up thinking I've died and I'm a ghost <.< Unfortunately most of the time I see these things and jump out of bed, scream and pull the covers off my husband <.<

I go through phases of getting them. Sometimes it can be a while and then if I'm anxious irl i'll get them a lot.

I get this occasionally. It usually happens when I've been sleeping really erratically or inconsistently (the last time I had it, I was waking up every 90 minutes to kill an NM >_>).

It's kinda hard to describe. It's a really scary feeling, like something's watching you but there's nothing you can do about it because you can't move. It only lasts for a little bit though.

Maybe try getting used to a more normal sleep schedule?

That sounds more like night terrors to me.

i can't quite put my finger on the exact feeling either, it's like i dunno when i used to like take short cat naps I'd wake up and feel like deathly ill because I had most likely been interrupted in my sleep cycle...I dunno, i don't really wanna experience that ***again though, would do my lucid dreams hands down unless I'm late for something.

I wish I did. If I had then I wouldn't have ended up in a knee stabilizer for a week....

I was having some dream that something was falling down and would crush me if I didn't move. I apparently sat up in bed, started tearing the blankets off of me and launched myself off the bed. I then skittered across the room and woke up over there wondering how in the hell I ended up there.

One of the times i remember i was very young and sleeping at my grandparents house, and in response to Jukie.. ive had spiders too *shudder* lol

Personally i dont suffer from it much, it just got brought up and i started wondering, its wierd, some hallucinations ive had are sort of like flashes back to dreams but also ive also thought ive seen a snake on my wall

Edit: that some strange form of sleep walking or something roxanna?

lol Oh wow... I've had this happen to me also on more than one occasion. The most frightening of which was when my comforter was covering my nose. I could feel that I wasn't getting enough oxygen and the warmth of the comforter on my face but I couldn't move or wake up to remove it.

The other times it has happened after that, my main concern is to realize that at least I can still breathe okay and then work on forcing my extremities to react and wake myself up, even if it's only to open my eyes. (I'd go into panic-sh*t mode if my comforter was covering my nose again.)

Didn't do any research into it though, just asked family/friends if anything of the sort had happened to them and since no one could relate, I just let it go. Kind of got tired of the: "Yeah, you told me already, you couldn't move or wake up, and NO it hasn't ever happened to me."

Best thing so far that's come out of the experience is to learn to sleep on my back instead of face down. XD

See i only just realised it had a name too! Also my friend said the opposite, he said he slept on his back now he tries not to, not only that but he said he sometimes has trouble breathing when it occurs

I've had it once. It was during a nap on the couch and some friends were over. It was so messed up cause I could hear them talking and could envision the room, but couldn't move, talk, or see anything directly. It was almost dream-like. Pretty awesome experience, though I'd hate to have it often.

I get this one a lot.. At least once a week.

I've experienced sleep paralysis many many times.
It can be frightening, and it can also be debilitating when it happens frequently.

Don't brush this off. Sleep paralysis can be one symptom of a larger problem. I learned that it can be a symptom of narcolepsy. Surprisingly, narcolepsy doesn't always cause "drop attacks" (cataplexy) like we see in movies and TV shows. If you're experiencing sleep paralysis, and certain other diagnostic criteria, there may be medical treatment available that can help you.

Consider getting a polysomnogram ("sleep study").

This. If you notice it frequently either do the sleep study or change your sleeping habits and see if it makes a difference.

Mine could be explained by previous sleepwalking as a child and drug use as a young adult.

But lucid dreaming is probably one of the most awesome things that you can have in regards to dreams, sleep paralysis being the possible bad side-effect.

I remember one lucid dream I had I'd wake up try to flip on my light(you can train your mind to know that if the light doesn't work or times don't display properly it means that you are in a dream and then you can be come self aware.)

My dream I kept on waking up continuously and I'd have normal events happen but it'd be a bit off, like my dad randomly coming in my room and giving me a brownie for some reason.

Near the end of it I ran down my hallway and all the walls had a repeated pattern of my name all over.

i loved my dreams back then, but that one was one made the largest impression on me just because i can actually remember it pretty well.

cool story bro

So the first person I just told: Remember that time when I told you I was awake but I couldn't move and I could hear everything that was going on around me? I just found out it's called 'sleep paralysis.' Gave me a "Whoop de do" and walked away lol :(

Also I started to sleep face up just to keep the comforter off my face, don't care too much if it happens as long as I can keep the damn comforter off my face...

what exactly do you mean by comforter? like a person? or your pillow? or.. sorry if this is a dumb question :P

Edit: forget that just found out its american english for like... a pillow i guess lol, at first i had visions of some "comforter" like maybe a carer or someone that was looking after you trying to suffocate you hah.

a comforter is like a blanket with stuffing, a bit thicker and heavy duty.i know it was, wasn't it brosef?

Sleep paralysis affects a lot of people, but be careful as it seems that sleep apnea might sometimes be related...

http://www.sleepnet.com/tech2/messages/251.html

http://en.allexperts.com/q/Sleep-Apnea-1336/Body-stiffens.htm

...sleep apnea being directly related to controllable factors like one's weight, one's positioning while asleep, etc. but also related to uncontrollable factors like the configuration of the soft pallet, a tendency to mouth-breath while asleep/snore, etc.

So try to analyse what might be the underlying factors. Or just play FF all night until you fall sleep in your chair, so you will always wake up easier. :p

Used to do this occasionally when I was younger. However, this is more in line with night terrors than sleep paralysis. My most vivid ones involved either clocks (I DON'T KNOW, I WAS 5) or a sensation of literally falling through my bed. These days I fall asleep more or less instantly, so I haven't experienced a night terror in years.

Don't think I've ever experienced sleep paralysis tbh.

I once woke up in the middle of the night, it was pouring down with rain outside. I couldn't move, but I was wide awake... It was quite scary, especially since there was thunder occasionally. It lasted for about a minute, then I suddenly 'snapped' awake, and could move like normal.

Certainly it's not common for me, but I have had it once or twice; none less scary each occurance. Hasn't happened for nearly five years, though, so whether something changed to stop it, I wouldn't know.

This is spot on in regards to a sleep paralysis explanation.
I think the concept of time was a bit off wack for mine, felt like it was forever when it could have only been a couple minutes.

more like a blanket but your version of a human "comforter" made me laugh

I think i may have had this happen to be me before how ever I wasn't in my bed, and it wasn't even night time @_@

I was like 10 & went Surfing with Friends, and well >.> I was 10, so i could barely even get over the waves, ended up passing out for a short second. enough to find my self face down in the watter, but unable to move, what so ever, and the water was barely high enough to reach my ears, i honesty thought i was going to drown, sucked to cause the ppl i was with, where what seemed to be a few yards out waiting for a wave lol scared me senseless. Only lasted about 15~20 seconds, thats about as long as i could hold my breath back then :P

Iv'e also had a lucid dream, one that happened for about a week, every night, i would dream that i was falling, and i would wake up, step off my bed, and be falling again, it really sucked, I almost hit the ground in the last one, woak up to my body hitting the bed, as if i was "floating" or at least thats what it felt like.

Note: I know i wasn't really floating, but it seemed like i impacted the bed once i was awake for real

(Wow quoting myself, I fail)

But to add more detail to this, I even have the same thing, where I will wake up, and because I sleep on my side facing the wall, I will see a shadow on the wall, like someone is sitting beside my bed. I obviously can't move at all, but it normally lasts about a minute or two, or what I would perceive as a minute or two at least. Then I will just snap out of it, and normally I will sit up bolt upright at that moment. It actually all started with this one dream I had years ago, I must of only been about 10. Since then this has been happening as I said at least once a week, and every single time has been as scary as the first.

nah that's not gonna be sleep paralysis, you just passed out and things can get kind of weird with that.
that's not really lucid dreaming, it's "like" lucid dreaming, but lucid dreaming you have like a little more control over the situation. That was probably more the typical falling dream scenario.
Sleep paralysis is unable to move whilst pretty much tripping balls in a way.

Seems pretty normal to me but meh

lol ah well i wasn't able to move XD thats the thing, :P Idk could have just been the salt water pushing down on me, but still doesn't explane why i couldn't move my arms or legs to the side at least to Try to get up & out of the water :P and i don't think it was shock, cause well ive had far more tramatiseing events in my life then thinking im going to drown :P

-Just saying, not trying to start an Argument, cause now, i wana know what caused it XD-