Sleep Paralysis - Your Experiences

Sometimes in stead of hallucinating I just feel like I can't breathe but I'm too tired to do anything. But then suddenly I'll jump up gasping and my heart will be hammering in my chest. I find it really hard to fall asleep. I usually just play psp til I'm on the point of sleep.

I once had a dream I was eating pancakes. It was a good dream.

(No, I was not eating my pillow.)

I hate those dreams where you're thirsty irl but you dream that you get a drink. Then you realise wait I'm in bed and I don't have a drink ; ;

Hmm ... I think the witch finder should be brought in on this one. Used to work well in the old days. Or maybe a copy of silent hill for all.

I hate it when I dream that I tripped over something, so I jump irl, and then I am fully awake...

Cocaine is a helluva drug.

I don't if this is the same thing, but often when I try to fall asleep (whether its a daytime nap or at night) I will have a very real sensation of falling, which seems to be happening sometime either right before or during I reach "Stage 3" of sleep, which is the transitional period between light and deep sleeping.

Anyways, this "falling" sensation I get usually seems to last anywhere from 5 seconds up to around 20 maybe. While this is happening I am unable to move, eventually I will "snap out" of it, usually jumping or twitching myself awake.Oh and also I can usually here things while it happens, if I fall asleep watching TV, or if someone is in the room.

Not sure if this is the same thing or not... anyone know?

ive noticed when i sleep on my back ill get sleep paralysis more often then if im on my side...i dont get it when i sleep on my stomach..hmmm

yea pretty much...i mean if u cant move
edit: not sure about that falling part though

Interestingly enough several people who experience sleep paralysis see something very similar. This is where the myth of the "old hag" or "sleep witch" comes from. The amount of detail varies but people say they see a black or shadowy figure. Some see it as a decrepit old woman. Sometimes people say they could hear it talk (saying the persons name ect.) or even appear to touch them. Not that I really believe in some ghost witch. But still interesting none the less.

I experienced something similar once, though weather you would call it sleep paralysis or a lucid dream would depend on when I actually woke up, which I'm not sure of. Ironically it was only a few weeks after researching it. It was about 10 in the morning. I had just woken up but was still in that half asleep mind set. Though I still had a very limited ability to move. It was strange because I could almost feel it coming. I got my arms up a few inches above my chest and it hit me like an invisible wall of pressure baring down on top of me. I didn't feel fear exactly. More like defiant panic, a need to push back with everything I had. That being said I didn't dare open my eyes. All the while I'm hearing what can only be defined as noise. Like the sound of a swarm of bees, the wind blowing through the trees, and a group of people talking at the same time all happening at once.

I lasted a few seconds then it was over. Never had anything like that happen before then, and never had anything like that happen since.

Your description is pretty spot on, it's a littlee bit different from person to person but that sounds about right.that seems a bit more on the typical side, i wouldn't say that's sleep paralysis or anything, probably something stress related though, i tend to get those kind of situations with sleeping when i'm overly stressed.

I'm not entirely sure if this is relevant but I've had instances where I'll be in a deep sleep and then my conscious will wake up but my body won't move and I can't speak it's a really weird feeling. I'll end up panicking in my mind, yell at myself to get up, some how manage to slowly move parts of my body and eventually wake up completely lol.

Also: hateee it when I dream that I fell or tripped and actually feel myself fall and wake up only to find out it was only a dream and I'm actually laying down!

this. this! THIS!

I thought I was the only one that had to find anything that would move on my body to wake! If I'm on my side, I try to tilt back or forth to make my arm move so it will wake me >.> Always thought it was just my nervous system losing packets or massive lag in my brain on the transfer x)

Good info, OP! And even better, glad other people have the same issues

I've had sleep paralysis for years, ever since I was in my early teens, maybe earlier. (I'll be 25 in a month)

It was horrible before knowing what exactly it was. You don't know what's going on. You know it's not a dream, but it can't possibly be real. I didn't find out what it was until a year or two ago when I saw a topic about it on BG forums.

My encounters are always with a shadowy figure(not human figure, just.. a shadowy nothing) and being "held down" by something I can't see. I can feel the weight pressing down, holding me still. It's either hands around my wrists, or extremely heavy weight on my chest/all over my body. I have no voice in which to scream. Everytime, it's trying to kill me in some way. The last major one, this spinning black vortex above me was literally sucking my breathe/life from me and I couldn't breath.

They've been so bad that at one point when I did finally break out of it, I actually cried. I took comfort in a friend. I had no idea what was happening to me, but it was as real as real could get. I could still feel the tingle on my wrists where I was being held. Was I nuts? Why was I seeing these horrible things?

I, thankfully, haven't had one in a while. I always worry when I talk about them I'll have another one, though.

This seems like a really cool subject. Makes me wish I'd actually experienced it for myself, no matter how disconcerting or scary it might be. The only thing that ever happens to me is I wake up and my hands are completely numb from carpal tunnel. :(

Very interesting posts guys/girls, glad i could help enlighten a few people! Some instances sound really quite scary/freaky like Xiani's and the whole idea of the shadow of some old hag is... rather interesting and ridiculously freaky

Forgot where i learned this but when you sleep the brain will send a weak paralysis through the body preventing you from sleep walking or acting out your dreams and when you wake this paralysis leaves. So maybe if you were to wake fast it may take a moment for it to leave. I've never heard of sleep paralysis lasting super long after you wake though. Interesting...

Yeah that's what my take on it was, your body pretty much has a signal sent to it from the brain to make it inactive in regards to voluntary movements and essentially your mind and body are asleep, sleep paralysis is just the mind waking up in this state with the body still asleep, the external stimulus is just more because the mind may be awake but it's in more of a sleep state enabling hallucinations.
This typically happens at a certain part of the sleep cycle though, probably some point REM sleep gets interrupted and ping pong.