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.

Legalseagul, yes that would trump everything. Yeuch!
I have had really horrible sleep paralysis a few times, but the most recent was the worst. The dark figure was aactually lifting me up and I could'nt struggle. I was trying to yell "Put me down!" and nothing was happening. My husband woke me because I was making such strange noises but my mouth was not moving. Both of us totally unnerved.

Hey OP. I had sleep paralysis and hallucinations like you describe upon waking when I was quite ill several years back. I was widowed traumatically and had a small child and my stress levels were through the roof.

However, over the years because I have had such significant symptoms, I have changed various things about my diet - particularly given up tea and coffee, as well as looking into food sensitivities :( this has had an immense impact and I no longer get ANYTHING like this at all. I sleep soundly and naturally without any problems. While these things are well documented, it may be worth looking into alternative causes that aren't just 'stress'.

I started getting a very similar thing a few years ago when I’d been through a severely stressful time. It still happens but much less. I’d always considered it to be nightmares but the link is really helpful in defining this as something different.

I ALWAYS get the ‘pushing on my chest’ bit, almost always my DH unfortunately. It’s usually soon after this that I can finally shout out and wake up properly with my heart pounding.

Sympathy to all who experience this but it’s strangely reassuring to know I’m not alone.

Not rtft but here to say I never remember dreams usually and had something similar not too long ago. My heart was thumping so much I could hear it. About 3 days later I developed the worst flu I've ever had. Not saying you'll get unwell but I wonder if it's where our bodies are burnt out, I know a lot of people have really vivid dreams when poorly. Hope you're okay now x

I used to get sleep paralysis quite regularly, it was awful. It was a particularly stressful period of time.

It’s only really occurred to me reading your post that it hasn’t happened to me for years.

It was very similar to
how you described.

You need to learn to kick the night demon's arses, you got to scare them back where they came from, fuckers

One thing you can try (long term) to combat bad dreams is starting to learn to lucid dream. It's tricky, but it's possible, and it can be really effective. I hardly use it now, but a few years back I kept having horrific nightmares where I couldn't wake up, or I'd "wake up" to another nightmare and I'd end up really drained and shaky. From what I remember of the learning to lucid dream process, you focus on spending time during your waking hours doing the same repetitive thing regularly and repeating "I'm awake, I'm conscious" or something similar. I liked to count my fingers. "I'm awake, I'm conscious, I have one, two, three, four five fingers" etc. If you do it enough while you're awake, then you'll start to do it in your dream, and in a dream apparently, things don't quite work and you can't count properly. I found myself having dreams that felt very real, but then in my dream I'd look at my hand and go "I'm awake, I've got one, three, seven... oh" and then realise I was dreaming. The next step is apparently to then control the dream, something like "this is just a dream, I can make that monster go back in the cupboard/disappear etc" - I never got to that stage because I was so excited to find myself consciously dreaming, that I'd wake myself up. But essentially it had the same effect, because the dream stopped.

I rarely have bad dreams now, but when I do, I usually recognise them as dreams and can consciously make myself wake up.

Hi- just wanted to post an update if anyone is still (hopefully) about.

thank you so much for all the lovely comments- they were so reassuring and really helped to know other people had experienced similar and it was normal, albeit horrible.💕

This all started a week ago, and after this post I didn’t have any other sleep problems- until tonight. I’ve just woken up after an even worse experience than the one in my OP.

I fell asleep and had a spooky dream- it wasn’t anything extreme just a normal unpleasant dream (no paralysis etc) and I woke up quickly and thought wtf. I wasn’t too bothered and went back to sleep.

The next sleep I had was the worst experience of my life- i had a horrible dream where I was waiting for my best friend to finish work and a boss in her work was telling me to stop making so much noise (I’ve never been to her work and I don’t know her collegues, he was just a random guy but I somehow knew he was the boss) I told him I wasn’t making any noise and he got so angry at me, like seriously so so angry and started trying to attack me and he was screaming so loud in my face. The scream was so loud it actually hurt my ears and everything sort of went swirly and I felt my body completely tense up and go rigid in a really weird shiver, but also thrash and move- I was sort of awake but sort of sleeping and it felt like I was in a callidascope because everything was swirly. I remember being sort of awake because I was rolling about and lying on my face at one point, and I remember having conscious thoughts along the lines of ‘shit this thing is happening again’ and I thought I saw a face in the calliedascope/swirls but I was conscious enough to reassure myself that it wasn’t real. I wasn’t paralysed or trying to move this time, it just felt like a weird swirly calliedascope and I had to wait for it to wash over me until I could wake up. I was completely frozen but also moving but I wasn’t controlling it. I could hear the horrific screaming in my ears the entire time, and I thought I was screaming for help as well during it but I wasn’t until I woke up properly. Then I completely screamed the house down and woke everyone up and there’s no way I’m going back to sleep now. My nose hurts from presumably rolling on my face and I can still hear screaming and ringing in my ears (not as loud as in the dream thankfully) and I’m absolutely freezing and shivery which is weird because when I went to bed I was so hot and sweaty it was uncomfortable. My heart was going so so fast when I woke up too and it’s only now starting to slow down a bit

I don’t know why this is happening- I don’t drink and I don’t take any medications, drugs and I dont drink too much caffiene and haven’t had any today. I haven’t changed my routine at all, no scary movies and I do regular exercise. I’ve never had sleep paralysis before but it’s completely terrified me

I’m terrified to go back to sleep tonight and ever again tbh, and my parents are a bit confused and worried about what’s going on and I don’t know what to do.

I know it’s only happened twice but it’s absolutely horrendous 😥

Oh no. That sounds terrible. Do you think it might be worth seeing your GP? It sounds really scary and they may offer reassurance or some light medication.

This sounds like sleep paralysis, it’s horrific isn’t it?!
ive only experienced it once but my sister used to have it quite regularly, especially during periods of high stress.
she learned to manage it somehow, by pinching herself when it started, as she was awake enough to do that, so that she’d wake up properly and it would stop.
apparently you can have hypnosis to take you to that ‘between sleep and awake’ place to try to discover/ resolve whatever it is but I’m not sure how recommended that is, DSis never did it.
it’s so scary the first time though, you feel really violated as it’s so real!

just to add, if you can’t pinch yourself, try wriggling your fingers/ toes to wake yourself up.
if you google sleep paralysis you’ll find lots more info.

Hiya OP, as others have said it's sleep paralysis.
I suffer with it, sometimes a few times a night, sometimes monthly.
Other people may have it once but never again.
There is lots of misinformation regarding SP making it more supernatural than it is.
However the best thing to do should you get it again is say to yourself, "i am just asleep" and Don't try and force waking your body up.
It's a horrid horrid experience, over the years I've experienced things such as hearing my DC cry for me and my smoke alarms going off and being unable to get to them, to howling demons casually entering my room through a old TV.
Don't worry, nothing bad will happen, you're just over tired or something has disrupted your sleep.
Remember to lie still, keep eyes shut and think "it's a dream" and try to get back to sleep.
I hope its a one off occurrence x

When I was a child I had a bit of a horrible dream. Woke up and there was a cat sitting on top of my wardrobe. I couldn’t understand why it was there but then it started hissing at me, I started getting scared and it suddenly flew at me scratching at my face, screeching, tearing my face to pieces, I could see blood splattering up the wall and I thought I was going to die … I was trying to scream but no sound was coming out … Then I woke up for real.

This was 30 odd years ago and I’m still terrified of cats to this day. It just seemed so real. I’m getting upset just thinking about it.

It's sleep paralysis, feeling fear, can't move, seeing and hearing something strange is all very typical for sleep paralysis, but I can imagine how scared it may be if you experience it immediately after seeing a nightmare!

OP this is classic sleep paralysis even though you've experienced it before and this felt different.

I've experienced SP many many times over the years, the worst of it being between 2007-2009 when I was under extreme stress. I still have episodes from time to time but it's thankfully rare for me now.

SP is utterly terrifying. You cannot distinguish what is real and what is not, such are the hallucinations. You usually don't know you're in SP at the time but the fact that you witnessed this shadowy figure, couldn't move, couldn't scream etc is all typical. Also, the noise you heard suggests it was SP. I have learned over the years that I, too, hear a loud noise as I'm falling into an episode of SP. It's like the noise you hear if you clench your teeth really hard - a sort of buzzing and vibrating deep in your ears. Maybe I AM clenching my teeth when this happens? I don't know, what what you describe is very familiar.

People think SP is a nasty nightmare. It isn't, and in fact nobody understands SP. I describe it as getting 'stuck' between being awake and being asleep. You're dreaming (and seeing/hearing things) but don't have the option to wake up and free yourself of the 'nightmare'. That's what makes it so utterly petrifying.

SP is NOT indicative of mental illness or a medical episode, but it CAN be brought on by stress and/or sleep deprivation.

Be gentle with yourself today. You've had a nasty experience but it's (weirdly) normal and doesn't mean you're unwell or becoming so.

Also, if it happens again, there does seem to be a way to free yourself from the grasps of SP a bit faster. Once you realise you can't move or call for help, relax into it and think calming thoughts. Tell yourself "This isn't real, this is sleep paralysis and I will wake up in a moment. I am safe in bed.". Try gently, slowly, to wiggle your toes. If you can't, repeat that phase in your mind and try again. Once you can wiggle your toes you'll start to wake up. The key, however terrified you are, is to stay calm.