to ask whether anyone suffers from sleep-induced temporary paralysis and related hallucinations?

[holmesgirl]

I believe they're fairly common and attached to stress/anxiety. Mine have been ongoing (sporadically) for over ten years now. They are so vivid and the hallucinations really are terrifying.

If you've had them or similar night terrors what are your experiences like?

Mine are pretty text book. I hear loud footsteps stomping round my bed, then feel a massive pressure on my chest and try to scream or force myself awake but I'm totally paralysed (I can feel my eyelashes flickering though...). Or worse, I have the hallucinations - usually a malevolent witch-type old lady coming towards me from the bottom of my bed. Hideous... :/

The first time it happened to me I was 21yo. My parents had just moved house (I was still at home) and I was convinced their new house was haunted - until I described what had happened to my mum - and a colleague - and they'd both had similar experiences in the past...

Tell me your story :)

[blueballoon79]

I've not had the same as you but when I'm stressed and overtired I'll be paralysed and trying to move and can feel someone grabbing my ankles and dragging me down the bed.

It terrifies me each time it happens even though I know it's happened before and know what it is.

[holmesgirl]

Yes I am same, even though I know what's happening it's still terrifying. Because it's so weird, each time there's always that doubt what if :-o

[blueballoon79]

Yes I always think what if. I sometimes think maybe someone has broken in and is dragging me down the bed and that I'm just too fast asleep to wake up!

[boaty]

I get them every so often, very similar to you holmes....thought the house was haunted too!

[Tristessa]

Yes. The worst was with a false awakening afterwards. I was convinced it was all over then I was dragged across from my bed across the room. Awful - just like a horror film.

[holmesgirl]

There's nothing quite like the feeling. Sheer terror.

Yeah the first time mine happened was after a traumatic accident. After that it's been more frequent during times of high stress - related to relationship breakups etc - but sleep was affected by proxy so maybe it was due to that.

[Confuseddd]

I used to have this but not for a while - was usually when overtired, like blueballoon, so when my boys were babies.

It's used to be very scary - I can normally cotton on to what's happening now and talk myself down. It's the anxiety that makes it distressing and there are things you can do to allay that - meditation helps.

[Shakey1500]

Had the paralysis but not the terrors. I am fully aware of my surroundings, calm myself down by telling myself it's only temporary. It feels like a "wave" coming over me and I think "here it comes....here it comes....nowt I can do to stop it...aaaannnd it's here.." and that's it. I'm paralysed. I don't know how long it lasts exactly, couple of minutes maybe?

BUT, once I have an episode, it happens ALL throughout the night It doesn't matter what I do. I've got up before now, gone downstairs, made a cuppa, read a little, gone back to bed and BAM, it continues. That's what I don't get?

[boaty]

I haven't worked out the trigger yet...they seem to happen very randomly.

[holmesgirl]

Tristessa that's so scary. I once had similar - an out-of-body experience - again, similar and related - where I was sucked up to ceiling and pulled/pushed back and forth as if I was on a conveyor belt. Hideous.

[SpangledPandemonium]

I don't have paralysis so much but awful hallucinations.
I've had them forever, from what I can gather. Mum says I used to come into her room to tell her the bed was shaking!
They follow a particular pattern for a while then the focus changes.
The earliest I remember were hands coming out of the wall to grab me.
Then it was poltergeists - objects being thrown. And so on...
I have also seen lights and heard voices. Terrifying, but at least I know what it is now. They are always linked to something in the room, so I assume that my eyes have woken up before my brain, if that makes sense.
My heart races though - it beats so violently I fear for my health. I think this is what makes me feel like the bed is shaking.

[MeatSweats]

My mum has them occasionally. She won't have it that there is a logical/physiological reason for them. Its supernatural and thats that. She'd rather believe that Satan's head imp has it in for her than her sleep pattern and body clock is all to cock.

[UserNameNotAvailable]

Not me but my df suffers sleep paralysis. When he has an episode it seems to be when he's stressed. He goes to sleep normally (he struggles to get to sleep and sometimes suffers with insomnia) and the next thing I know I can hear a shaky whisper calling out my name, I have to shake him awake and make sure he wakes up properly otherwise he goes straight back into it. Like you he said that he can feel his eyelashes flickering but is totally paralysed and has to force out the whisper.
He is aware of reality and doesn't see the old hag/hallucinate but starts to panic because he can't move and is worried about his breathing. He has on occasion managed to move his arm or leg of the bed to wake himself up. The next day he feels like absolute shite and exhausted.

Luckily it hasn't happened recently but it's sods law that now that I've mentioned it it'll happen.

[NicNocJnr]

Again mine is transient and rather than happening when very stressed (not really sleeping anyway) they seem to occur when I'm 'coming down' from a very stressful period. I do expect them now, not that it doesn't still get terrifying.

I'm fairly standard really, and depending on severity it goes from being convinced I'm properly awake and seeing humanoid shapes and shadows moving in the corners of the room/bottom of the bed/doorway etc to having actual people coming up to me and talking to me to outright attacking/abducting me.
It's actually part of the reason I'm so sound in my scepticism of the paranormal because I could convince anyone I had a visitation from a ghost, spirit or even a demon and have woken up with welts or scratches on me where I've continued the hallucination in a different sleep stage when I can move - at this point though I usually do wake entirely and not necessarily have it recur when I drop off again.

But I'm also an occasional sleep walker and sometimes have 'followed' things/people I've seen (an old science teacher once?!). I seem to have a problem in waking properly and can have a conversation etc often about what's going on but when fully awake have very poor recollection of that section of time.

It never happens when I'm pregnant. My children are mostly fine but one has night terrors and has talked about people being there scaring him.
When I am able to sleep properly it's rare or if I'm waking with a baby and not getting into really deep sleep it's rare. If it got worse or the kids started having trouble and DS doesn't grow out of it I would get a referral to a sleep clinic. An aunt was convinced it was because this house was built on an old pet cemetary [rollseyes]

[ginmakesitallok]

I don't get paralysis, but do have really vivid hallucinations (not scary ones really though). I regularly see people in the room, or hiding in the wardrobe,or in the bathroom. I have to get out of bed and check that they have gone. Or I'll wake dp convinced that the ceiling is falling in. I usually just fall back to sleep, and only remember out when dp reminds me in the morning and then I feel like a right prat!

[ginmakesitallok]

Nic, recognise the bit about having a seemingly rational conversation about it. I'll wake dp and tell him what I see and ask him to check it out, not understanding why he can't see it. He's tried ageing with me in my sleep, but that just scares me more, ignoring me makes me cross, so mostly he just tells me I'm asleep and to lie down

[NicNocJnr]

Gin - I was woken by Dh once as I was trying to get him to climb in the built in wardrobe with me to get out?! I have no idea but was utterly convinced that we needed to leave via that way and some stupid fecker had left loads of stuff in the way. So in the morning I had ample time to feel the eejit and I put all the stuff back on the shelves! Sometimes it's just funny and all you can do is have a giggle!

[ginmakesitallok]

Agreeing, not aging! (on phone!)

[NicNocJnr]

sorry xposted!

I know, I seem the same but have no idea what to suggest to him to make me not be cross or worried! I think your DP has the best idea.

[NicNocJnr]

Aging with you, lol - hopefully!

[ginmakesitallok]

I've had dp up changing the bed because I'm convinced it's covered in mud, and had him telling funny little men to get out of the wardrobe...

[holmesgirl]

Spangled yeah, i think the way it works is that your brain wakes up before your body :/ my heart is exactly the same!

meatsweats :o @ satan's head imp haha!

@user i know it's not funny but the forced out whisper made me laugh. That's exactly what I do - try to scream "HELP* at the top of my lungs and use all my might to do so, and all that comes out is the tiniest most pathetic little whisper :-|

[Shakey1500]

usernamenotavailable interesting you mention about your partner getting you to shake him awake. I wake DH and tell him I'm having "one of those nights" and ask him to try and move me (I'm convinced that I'm absolutely immovable but logic must prevail that I'm not!). Trouble is, I'm that paralysed that I can't let him know!