Sleep paralysis

[Mrswhiskerson]

I have experienced sleep paralysis for years , being awake while my body is asleep and on the whole it is a scary experience which comes with hallucinations and sometimes the feeling of being dragged off the bed .
It happens when I am over tired an because know one I know had it I was wondering if anyone on here has it ? Is there any cure and does anyone think this is a slep disorder or something more spooky? Like I say it Can be terrifying. Being a believer in all things supernatural I'm not sure what to make of it I would love to hear what others think.

I knew it!

I have suffered from this for 15 years but has been getting less and less over the last 10. When they started when I was 15 I was convinced I was being hunted by the devil and actually told my doctor this!

The first time it happened I was awoken by a loud noise, like a digital alarm clock. It was getting louder and louder, hurting my ears and I was running around my room in the dark unplugging everything in a blind panic. When it stopped I found myself curled up in my own bed!

I've also had sensations that someone is pushing me really hard against my bedroom wall.I could actually feel the cold wall against my face and when it got unbearable it sudddenly stops and I'm lying in the middle of my bed as usual.

One time I levitated to the ceiling and was desperatly calling out to my mum but all that would come out was a tiny grunt. My body slowley rotated to look down on my bed as I was trying to call for help and I could see a little boy in my bed. His mouth was moving in time with my grunts for help and I'm surprised I didn't wet myself I was that scared.

Lots of times a black shadow man starts floating up from under my bed, slowley forming the shape of a large man. He just stands there staring at me, or sometimes he tries to get on top of me.

They are not always scary though; once I opened my eyes during an episode and my bedroom had been transformed into a bright office! I just lay there looking at the desks until the feeling passed.

My doctor did not understand the condition at all and prescribed me beta blockers to take on the onset of one of these 'out of body experiences' as he called them!

I finally learnt to recognise when it is starting to happen and seem to be able to fight it off, or just talk myself through the hallucinations as they happen. I haven't had a real scary one in over a year now.

I'm pleased I found this thread as when I try to talk to friends about it they look at me like I'm mad

Mine take the form of me fighting to reach consciousness. I am aware that I need to wake up, but I can't. I fight to open my eyes, move and call out. None of which I'm able to do as I'm sleep paralysed. Even though my dh is often not home when it happens, I am trying to call out to him or get up and move towards him. There's a real inner battle going on between my unconscious and conscious self. It seems to last for a long time, but is probably only a minute or so.

Noticeable that most people get it when overtired, but I'm fairly sure mine happens when I've had too much sleep and got too hot. ie nearly always when I'm home alone in the afternoon and I nod off in the chair in the conservatory.

This all sounds bloody terrifying! I thought I had sleep problems but nothing like this. Quite often have the heebie-jeebies with things 'coming for me' but if I can bring myself round I quickly realise it's not real and can usually go back to sleep fairly easily.

I used to suffer from Old Hag Syndrome when I was in my teens regularly. I would be aware of a crushing sensation in my chest and being completely unable to do anything about it. I used to dread going to bed at night for fear of having an attack

I assume it was a symptom of stress as after I had finished my A levels I only ever had one attack and have had nothing like it since

Bloody horrible sensation that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy - the first time it happened I thought I had had a stroke or something as I was totally aware of my surroundings but unable to move - horrific!

I've had it since I was eleven or so. My first episode was a hallucination of an army of little green men climbing up the radiator and then towards my bed, where I was of course frozen. Scared the shit out of me.

I used to get it a lot more often, especially when I was in my last few years at school, but it's been a lot better since I left. I probably have it now every three or four months or so. Usually get a couple or more episodes in the same night or across a week, then it goes. Mine tends to happen if I'm overheated (as do my bad dreams - not nightmares but things that make me wake up feeling really lonely or upset or even crying, because of what's happened in the dream) and especially if my sleep is overly disturbed (I generally have terrible sleeping habits despite years of attempting to get into routines) or if I'm napping during the day. Have both hypnagogic and hypnopompic, but more of the latter.

Mine often involve somebody breaking in downstairs or my mom shouting at me for something or other (go figure). Have never had a sense of evil, the hag or aliens. Have a couple times had an OBE (but worked out afterwards through what was happening that they were definitely not real, despite how real they felt) and once or twice hallucinated an asthma attack. Which was fucking terrifying because of course I'm frozen and I know I need to get out of my paralysis and off my back to take my inhaler or I could literally die...forcing myself out of that one only to find I was actually breathing quite fine was a relief, but a nasty one.

I'm fine if I realise what's happening and I can either let myself relax and wait or do the thing of working on a finger or a toe and concentrating on wiggling that, then slowly making bigger parts of my body move till the paralysis breaks. Usually will recognise what's happening if it's happened already recently. If it's been a while though it can still throw me even after over a decade of this.

I definitely see it as a sleep disorder rather than something supernatural, even though I've an open mind to lots of those occurrences. It's like dreams and the subconscious mind, just another offshoot. The brain is crazy when you think about it (no pun intended).

I have had them since I was a kid , I can not have one for months then have a few in a week . I do t tend to have as many hallucinations now but in the past I have sensed pure evil in the room and I still cN have auditory hallucinations which are scarier. On occasion I have had really
nice ones and like another poster said have orgasmed in my sleep or have felt like there are hands stroking me. If I have the presence of mind to know what is going on I can turn it into a lucid dream which is fun bus most of the time I am so scared I just try and shout out for dh to wake me which he never hears with the exception of the last time it happened he heard me moaning in my sleep .
When I read about seeing yourself behind the curtain goosebumps went right up me that sounds terrifying!
I used to think I was astral travelling and have read it can lead to out of body experiences but I think I will stick to the lucid dreams for now!

I have also had these all my life and wonder why it is that this state of sleep always seems to evoke evil and frightening situations and not happy ones? I mean why can't I dream that Brad and George are fighting each other to get to me?

I used to have this in my teens. My parents are big believers in the supernatural though, so I believed that I really genuinely DID have a demon sitting on my feet/chest. Also with the feeling of sheer terror and of an evil suffocating presence. It's only through MN that I@ve learnt that this is an actual sleep disorder!

I had episodes of this in my twenties. Terrifying. I am an atheist, with no belief whatsoever in spooky stuff, but I would wake up with sleep paralysis and then feel what I can only describe as the most awful sense of evil around me, as if a dark force was standing over me, and then feel as if I was being dragged by some sort of incredibly strong magnetic force off the bed. Very frightening.

brightyoungthing that sounds so scary! I'm glad this thread helped I used to think I was being visited by ghosts andfriends would look at me like I was mad . Eventually I told my brother and he has it too . I have never had the crushing weight but I have had the hag and I once heard the voices of everyone I love saying the most atrocious things about me but I was very depressed at the time so I do think the type of experience you have depends on state of mind.
It is funny it is one of those things I have never really heard people discuss but judging by the responses on here it is a lot more common than you would think.
The mind can do the strangest things icould see how you could hallucinate but what really stillpuzzles me is feeling like someone is actually touching me it's as real as when it happens in rl.

cheekymonkey if you can fight the fear and have a lucid dream you can actually have brad and George fight over you, I once had quite the experience with eric northman courtesy of a sp induced lucid dream I just wish I could control it more often !

I am going to try that as I know due to sleep deprevation for last 9 nights I am going to be due one but mine have never been anything short of horrific and disturbing. How do you fight the fear? Do you just tell yourself you are not afraid of the person in your bedroom that is about to bludgeon you?

Does everyone who has SP also experience other sorts of sleep 'issues' then?

I've always had really vivid nightmares, over and over, and through this have learned to dream lucidly and recognise early warning signs of a nightmare and wake myself, but also to control good dreams sometimes, or be aware enough to enjoy them like watching a film.

I also have trouble with insomnia.

I have had sleep paralysis from time to time. Scary stuff, it's seems to happen when a dream crosses into conciousness- for example I will be dreaming that someone is coming to the house then I cross over into the awake but paralysed state and I can hear them walking around the house, coming into the room, standing over me and all the while I am struggling to move and open my eyes.

I find it tends to happen in the daytime, hence it rarely happens now because I have no time to sleep in the day.

GrownUpNow- I find I can control the direction of dreams to some extent. Which can definately have it's plus points .

I also have trouble with insomnia at times.

I have chronic insomnia, do you think it is related?

I have this from time to time too. I can have several over a few weeks and then none for months. I haven't worked out what triggers mine.

In my episodes I feel awake and the room looks exactly as it should except there is an evil presence at the side of the bed. I can't see it but I know that it is evil. I know that I have to shout at it to go away but I can't make a sound and only manage a few grunts. For me the worst thing is I want to sit up but I can't move or turn my head which scares the life out of me. Quite often I think that I have "woken up" and that it's over but I fall back into the same scenario again. It's truly horrible.

I think that this is an age old thing and there are reports about people hundreds of years ago thinking that they have a demon sat on their chest when in bed.

My experience is very simular to aquos and I always try to call out as I know that if someone shock me or touched me my body will wake up. I do physically struggle to try and move. Reading this thread has made me realise it only happens when I sleep on my back.

I only ever seem to get it in the mornings too, never in the middle of the night. My Mum and Nan both have it too (I believe it's more common in females) and we all started getting it as teens and all suffer from periods of insomnia. I didn't know other people suffered from this for a long time, it's bloody scary too!

When mine strikes its usually upon waking. Often there is a dream/nightmare beforehand where I am killed often either by falling or in a bomb blast of some kind, once a bomb blast one was so realistic I was certain I was dead - I was thinking - wow, this is it, I'm dead, my "soul" was still alive but my body was dead, couldn't move, couldn't talk, couldn't feel pain, and I remember thinking "that was a pretty good death actually" because I hadn't felt any pain at all but then I was thinking "what now? Just float around here in the dark forever?" and then my conciousness slowly started to return to my "body" and my eyes opened and a minute or so later I could move my body. Bizarre.

Other times I just feel completely weighted down but safe and happy enough but just aware that I'm asleep and wont be able to move until I wake up "properly"

I've had it off and on since I was probably about 10, maybe a bit earlier.

I've had a couple of episodes. In the first one I felt the bed dip by my feet then something clawing it's way up my body to sit on my chest. I couldn't move or scream. I tried wiggling a finger and when I managed it the feeling passed.

The second one I had I thought hands had come up through my mattress and clamped round my ankles.

They were terrifying...

I started getting them in my early twenties - completely freaked me out (...as an athiest/anti-woo sceptic, I started to question whether there perhaps was something in it after all!). It used to happen if I was over tired, and I could feel a prescence in the room with me, then a crushing weight pressing down hard on me trying to force me into the mattress. I used to try to scream and scream, but apparently nothing could be heard (by partner or housemate). Even when I found out about sleep paralysis, I used to get anxious about going to bed, and slept on my front for a couple of years as it seemed to help. I can now tell myself whilst asleep - "oh, it's only sleep paralysis, it will stop", I guess because my brain is beginning to come back to consciousness.
It happens way less now, but slightly oddly I had a mild episode this morning - wild, scary dreams and I remember fighting to make myself come back to wakefulness (several times, only to find it was still going on). It was my first lie-in in months - I will be making sure I get up with the alarm tomorrow!

... And yy to sleep paralysis being behind what a lot of people might call hauntings/abductions. These experiences feel very real, even when you know there is a scientific explanation.

Interesting thsi came up now - haven't had it for a while and had an 'episode' last week - I could see someone by the bed but I couldn't speak or move - managed to wake DH up though (a feat in itself) by whimpering - and that stopped it... although I gave up trying to sleep and went and made a cup of tea and faffed around for a bit.

Re other sleep issues - I rarely remember dreams, but I used to sleep walk every night when I was little - and DH has told me that I occasionally talk in my sleep.

Arnt there demons called sucibus something or other that have sex with you whilst you're sleeping? Apparently its amazing and the orgasms are very strong