Just took a bit of a funny turn, please read :(

[Neversleepingagain]

I know it’s the middle of the night and there’s probably nobody here, but I just had a bit of a strange episode / funny turn and it’s really shaken me up.

I don’t usually suffer with terrors, nightmares or any other problems but I’ve just had the most terrifying experience and I’m shaking like a leaf now. I fell asleep (only 15 minutes ago!) and had a very normal dream about being at Uni with my friends and being in a boring lecture. Then suddenly I was driving home down the motorway and there was a ghost bus ahead of me and I had the most horrible feeling about it. Just a normal nightmare/scary dream so far, but then I had a bit of a funny turn and it’s left me completely shaken.

I sort of woke up- I could see my room and the photos and posters on the wall, and I ‘saw’ a black shadowy figure aswell moving across my room and had the most sickening and petrified feeling I’ve ever experienced. To be honest I’m not certain I even woke up at all or if I was just ‘seeing’ my room in a dream. It felt dream-like and fuzzy. I tried to wake up or get up to scream for my parents but I felt a really weird feeling on my body- it was like a really, really extreme cold shiver and it honestly felt like my whole body seized up. Ive had sleep paralysis once as a child but this felt so different- it was as if I had touched a plug and my body was jolted and seized. My head felt as if it was a static tv and I could hear staticy sounds and it completely froze me and couldn’t shout for help. It felt like forever but was probably 2 seconds max! I had to try so hard to wiggle my toes and fingers and then eventually the seized feeling passed. Again, I don’t know if I was half awake or if it was a dream- I then somehow woke myself up and screamed the house down for my parents.

I’ve had a cup of tea and calmed down and I don’t feel unwell, but it was the worst experience I’ve ever had. I’m sure it was just a particularly realistic nightmare but I’ve never felt my body seize / freeze like that, and combined with ‘seeing’ (dreaming) of some black shadow in my room, i had the most awful feeling of dread and fear- I seriously thought I was going to die. My head sounded like what a static tv or radio would sound like and when I woke up properly it took a few minutes for the ringing in my ears to quieten down and for my heart to stop pounding.

I don’t believe in ghosts and all (but equally I’m very easily frightened and I know I will scare myself silly) so I know the ‘shadow’ part was just a scary dream, but I’m absolutely terrified to sleep now and I’ve never had anything happen like this before. (Please don’t tell me it’s a ghost because I seriously will never ever sleep again, I’m a massive wimp and too easily scared)

Just posting because 1. I’m too scared to sleep again (at the age of 24!), 2. In case anyone else has experienced this or knows of what the heck happened? I’ve never felt my body seize up as extremely as that and I’ve never had static sounds in my head and it’s really, really shaken me.

Sleep Paralysis. I get it when im stressed. I recognise what's happening so its not really scary anymore. Just have to wait it out!

Yes I agree, sleep paralysis. I used to get it in my early twenties. Truly terrifying. You need to properly wake up for a bit, have a soothing drink, read a book, watch a sitcom etc.

OP, sleep paralysis can very often happen in combination with "hypnagogic hallucinations". It sounds like you had one of those.

It's a dream like phenomenon happening right between the states of wakefulness and sleep, where you see something disturbingly scary with clarity in the room you're actually in. Afterwards it's hard to shake the feeling that you weren't actually asleep and the "thing" was actually there (I've personally "seen" spiders and bugs the size of footballs as well as strangers just standing over me). Very frightening.

This is fairly common and benign, though, and despite the name (hypnagogic hallucinations) it really is just a strange dream - you're not hallucinating, seeing ghosts or going insane. It happens very frequently to people with narcolepsy, but it's also fairly common in otherwise healthy persons. Don't worry.

Sleep paralysis
Its the worst. But when it happens the next time just remain calm.
It gets better. I promise

The shadow sounds like a hynagogic hallucination and are very common with sleep paralysis. Basically your brain is half awake and half asleep still. I get both a lot during times of stress. I find that if I panic then it lasts longer. I see millions of spiders on the ceiling and I am terrified of spiders.

I’ve had this too - no visuals but the feeling of being seized up and the static. A couple times this spring. I kept asking DH if there had been noise in the middle of the night (that would account got the sudden waking and the static- I’ve in past interpreted a real sound as something else upon waking), but there wasn’t. The static was really loud, I was so sure it was outside me. But nope, in my head.

I've had night terrors since I was a kid as I have a funny septum that makes it hard to breath through my nose, and if I shut my mouth in my sleep I don't get enough oxygen and my brain wakes me up with a terror as a response, usually my heart beats quite fast too when I wake up! They've changed from being about rats, witches and huge scary birds as a little kid, to shadowy threatening human shapes in the room or getting into bed with me as a teen, to mould and worms growing over the pillows and onto my face as a student living in damp houses etc, changes with my growing psyche! Your surroundings absolutely can be incorporated seamlessly into the night terrors, it's unreal when you remember the blend and so easy to consider it was real and there really was someone there, but I've had these in every home I've lived in including brand new builds so I've always known it was my stupid brain acting up on me :) you'll feel better in the light of day, just try not to be too anxious before bed by anticipating another.

Sleep apnea. Used to happen to me A LOT. Some experiences still etched in my memory. I used to dread falling asleep.

I very rarely get them now but it has left me a really, really light sleeper. I’m very alert even while I sleep.

Yeah sleep paralysis! I get this regularly - static noises and everything. I actually always used to assume this is just what people meant by nightmares as I had them so often as a child; it wasn't until I got older and described them to people that I realised not everyone experiences sleep paralysis. Anyway, next time you feel it start to happen (that feeling of dread, the noise in your ears), keep your eyes firmly shut (don't look at the creepy thing in your room/dream even if you hear it or feel it touch you) and focus very very hard on wiggling a toe or finger. As soon as you can move it, you know it's over.

I've only had true sleep paralysis once before but it was the exact same as you've described. Bloody awful.
I was particularly stressed and unwell at that time and think that can be a trigger x

DH is 6’ 4”, built like a brick shithouse, ex military, works Security and Close Protection but is reduced to a nervous wreck when he gets sleep paralysis. He gets it a couple of times a year, exactly as you’ve described it and will stay up all night afterwards then talk about it for days. I think it’s the only thing that he’s ever been truly scared of!

In his work he always has to be in control of his body, his reactions and his feelings but with sleep paralysis he briefly seems to lose control of all that and that’s what really scares him.

Sympathies OP, it’s horrible 💐💐

Does sound like sleep paralysis - I used to get it regularly and it was terrifying. Ended up going to sleep with the TV on so if I had it I would have something to distract/focus on.

Had many versions of it in my time, so the static/jolt feeling could very well just be part of the waking nightmare.

Definitely sleep paralysis-
It’s horrid.
Suffer with it sporadically, so now know what it is, now.. But terrifying initially.

@Neversleepingagain
Google sleep paralysis
some of the images show just what I see!
How can people all “ dream” the same 🤔 thing?

It’s not a ghost, just something people the world over get sometimes.
I used to sleep with a small light on, til I got another dog.
Feel safer with her.

Sleep paralysis and it sounds like your body went through a bit of struggle to reconnect. You did well to get up and move a bit around.
You could had a bit of low or high pressure, got a bit of circulation problem if you were putting your weight over any part of your body, or a muscle spasm.
But you are feeling ok now, so nothing major.
I hope you managed to get some rest.

Hi OP sending some love💐

Night terrors are AWFUL and can leave you shaken up for days. I've had them lots and I still remember every episode vividly. Unfortunately, all of them have happened within an hour of falling asleep in the REM cycle. And the paralysis comes from your body being asleep in this part of the cycle and keeping itself still so you don't act out your dreams (weird right?!).

A few things for me are triggers for night terrors -

1. The room or me being too hot.
2. Any major or unexpected anxiety or stress (vivid dreams are common for me with anxiety but night terrors are if things are bad!)

Thankfully, these episodes can be short lived or this way never happened again. Nothing spooky happening just dreaming while semi awake and our brains can be dicks and play awful tricks!! X

Meant sleep paralysis! Xx

His that sounds horrific. However, I once dreamt I had sex with Donald trump, so I think I win

Sounds like a night terror to me. I have them regularly and mainly see bugs flying around the room. I occasionally see people at the bottom of the bed or walking past the door though. Once, when my son was a baby, I 'saw' him choking in his cot, I 'woke' up, got him out his cot and lay him over my forearm ( as you're supposed to with choking babies - or that was the advice back then anyway) and was about to start the back taps when I properly woke up. I was shaking horrendously for ages. It was so real and terrifying both the thought of him choking and also, although the technique was right for choking, I could have bruised him or anything and for no reason. Luckily that sort of dream hasn't happened since but I regularly terrify my husband with screams in the night!

I hope you got a good nights sleep!

Sounds like a combo of sleep paralysis and still being half in your nightmare. It does sound scary - saying that, once you’re over it, it’s a fantastic story.

Aw op that sounds like a horrible experience. It seems to run down the female line in my family, and I've had these experiences since I was very young, three or four years old. I especially get them when sleeping in the spare room (Dh is a night fidget so I often go off in there for some peace) because I can't fully relax in there on my own. It's an old house and I got it in my head that it had a strange feeling when we moved here years and years ago, and I haven't quite been able to shake that suspicion. So I know that the paralysis happens when I can't fully relax and switch my brain off.

One thing I've found over the years is to stop fighting it but instead to lean into it. I used to feel that I had to wake up or something terrible would happen, but now I let myself surrender completely into the drowsiness. I'll then have these amazing lucid dreams (usually of flying or great sex ) The experience has become almost enjoyable!! I realise that I may be a bit of an odd-bod though.

The hallucination thing is fascinating. I wonder how so many people experience the same. Luckily I've only had the hallucination thing once in the form of an incubus. That was truly terrifying.

I get sleep paralysis if I lie too flat (so I know not to go to sleep on my back on the sofa without a pillow for example!)

I hate it...for me, it's feeling like I can't breathe and I genuinely feel like I'm going to die from being paralysed and not being able to take a breath.

I obviously am breathing but I think it's a shallower type of breathing, perhaps like a PP says you don't use your diaphragm as much?

Horrible!

Sleep paralysis. It's absolutely terrifying when it happens. I have it regularly and it still makes me terrified.