Sleep paralysis - what does it really encompass?

[pusspusslet]

Sleep paralysis is a temporary inability to move or speak that occurs when you're waking up or falling asleep. It's not harmful and should pass in a few seconds or minutes, but can be very frightening.

This is the NHS definition, which seems fair enough. What I don’t understand is why instances of people ‘waking up’ to find people sitting on their beds/their chests/attacking them are commonly explained away as being instances of sleep paralysis. I chatted with somebody at work yesterday, who told me that she experiences this, and there’s a lot about it on t’internet and on MN.

Why are those instances of people seeing things lumped together with sleep paralysis? I’m not a medic, but I don’t see a connection. I do believe in ‘the woo’, and it seems to me that when somebody wakes in the night to see something scary sitting on them/on their bed there’s no logical reason to suggest that it’s due to sleep paralysis.

What do other people think?

well I suppose experts have received enough reports and studied people in sleep labs

I don't think I will ever be able to hear the words without thinking of the Haunting of Hill House now!!

I saw some very odd things as a child but as soon as I woke up, I knew they weren't real. I suppose you could say "how do I know".

just realised this painting dates back to 1781

so people have been linking the two things for ages.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nightmare

I understand that hallucinations (hypnagogic hallucinations) are associated with what’s known as sleep paralysis, but what I don’t understand is why those reported all seem to be of the same type i.e. sinister figures sitting on beds/chests/attacking people. I’ve not seen reports of people hallucinating kittens/bunches of flowers/visits from friends or family or happy things generally.

I suppose what I’m wondering is whether these reports of sinister things may be reports of things that are actually happening, not in fact connected with the condition known as sleep paralysis. All of us interested in this subject (woo generally) have come across the body of people dedicated to trying to explain it all away by whatever means possible.

I get sleep paralysis, I see it as like a dream is happening with your eyes open. During one episode the 'demon' whispered in my ear about buying some nice blue beads to make bracelets with, that he was going to sell on eBay - total nonsense!

It's fun to think that maybe all of us who get it are seeing the same person, though.

yes, I thought you'd say that.

I think I have had some things that aren't that out of the ordinary - e.g. thinking someone's broken in and trying to wake myself up from that.

Interesting picture, RosaWaiting. I suppose the way I see it is that the fact that this sort of experience has been reported for a long time doesn’t mean it’s connected with sleep paralysis. It could be something people are actually experiencing as opposed to some kind of neurological hallucination.

I don’t pretend to know, but I’d like to know how these reports have become linked with ‘sleep paralysis’, thus apparently explaining them away.

I get it if I fall asleep on my back. It used to upset me but it's fine now. Staying calm and taking a massive deep breath usually gets me out of it!

I've had periods of sleep paralysis from mid to late teens.

Once my legs were pulled and I ended up half off the bed.

Other times I would see my school friends stood by my bed but be unable to speak.

I also had a few stand out horrendous experiences when something was pinning me down. It's so horribly, horribly real.

But it's not.

The inability to move brings on a feeling of dread or doom which then manifests itself in your half asleep mind as something or someone doing something to you.

It's not woo (and I am prone to being a bit woo).

Once awake I know it wasn't real but when I am in it it does feel very real!!

They started to fade when I learnt how to concentrate hard enough to move which woke me up.

They are linked with sleep paralysis because this is what people experience when they have sleep paralysis.

@smashamasha If it’s not real, how come your legs were pulled and you ended up half way off the bed?

I’m not trying to be argumentative, BTW - just trying to understand what you meant.

I get sleep paralysis but never see anything I'm just awake but cant move. So I breathe as deep as I can and try to wiggle my toes.

I get sleep paralysis. I luckily so far haven't had visual disturbances, but I do get aural ones. It's usually the front door slamming followed by heavy footsteps coming up the stairs and I'll be looking at my bedroom door fully expecting someTHING to come around the corner, but it's definitely not a person I'm expecting to see. The level of fear and full body energy draining horror is so intense, but since I now know what sleep paralysis is I can often tell myself that that's what it is literally as I'm experiencing it. Nevertheless, its very very real...but I know once I've properly woken up that the footsteps etc are part of the paralysis. While I'm not anti-woo (in fact, I'm quote into it) I often think when reading the ghost threads that many sound like instances of sleep paralysis. Particularly the 'I lay frozen in fear while I felt someone sit on the end of the bed' ones, and some of the ghostly sightings. Are you doubting that the hallucinations are part of the condition?

NotSoThinLizzy That’s what I’d have expected it to consist of, in view of the NHS definition. No demon hallucinations.

It must be frightening even without the hallucinations, though

Sorry tons of xposts

I have had a few experiences of sleep paralysis, one was someone sitting on the bed (I couldn't turn to see who), and the most recent was I had been dreaming of our cocker spaniel (she died two years ago) and woke with the weight of her head in my hand, just like she was there cuddled in. I wanted so badly to look and see her but couldn't.

I have very vivid dreams, and usually remember my dreams, I wondered if those who suffer from sleep paralysis also remember their dreams (very few of my family and friends seem to remember their dreams.

Cecilandsnail Yes, I suppose I am doubting (or at least questioning) the link between the hallucinations and the condition. I readily acknowledge, though, that I don’t doubt/question it from any position of medical insight.

It’s just that as a matter of common sense I can’t see why, if it’s to be suggested that sleep paralysis should involve hallucinations, so many of the reported hallucinations should appear to be so very similar, and all sinister: frightening/unknown figures sitting on beds/actually sitting on people/attacking people.

I know that people who aren’t willing to consider the possibility that things they can’t explain might exist are often extremely invested in attempting to explain them away by all means possible, and ridiculing those whose minds are not closed to the possibility of things we don’t yet understand, and I’m really just wondering whether this might be an example of it.

I agree with a pp that the inability to move creates a feeling of such fear, I think because being paralysed like that is exactly the same feeling as being frozen with fear, except in the instance of SP the paralysis causes the fear instead of the fear causing the paralysis. I imagine it follows that your mind goes to a dark place/big fear, and since you're actually still in a dream state you manifest creepy horrible things. I reckon if humans were predisposed to being paralysed with happiness or something, that the body would respond to the stimuli of being temporarily paralysed with a different dream response (kittens etc.😁).

@Defender90 I get sleep paralysis and also have very vivid dreams that I remember - sometimes even lucid dreams.

@MindyStClair me too, I have woken and had to go and check on things that I've dreamt about, heart pounding as they are just so real.

I get sleep paralysis occasionally, usually when I'm quite stressed. My experience of it is that I'm physically paralysed and mentally I experience complete and utter terror, last time it happened I was convinced that someone was sat on the end of bed, I could feel the weight of them, I could feel them tugging at my duvet trying to pull it off me and I couldn't move a muscle, I couldn't even make a noise.
When I wake up though, I realise that it's hallucinations and my brain playing tricks on me.

@cecil That does make sense to me. Still, though - the manifestations of that understandable fear do seem to be very similar, at least according to the various accounts I’ve read. There are many ways to be afraid - imagining sinister beings sitting on chests/attacking/succubus etc are really very narrow and specific.

@ruthyb Funny what you say about having that sort of experience when sleeping on your back. I don’t believe I’ve ever had sleep paralysis, but I do tend to have nightmares when sleeping on my back. These days I try to make sure to sleep on my side :)

I'm pretty used to it I have 3 episodes a night usually. Been tested for sleep apnoea and isn't that. Worse when I'm tierd or stressed

@NannyR

When I wake up though, I realise that it's hallucinations and my brain playing tricks on me.

What makes you think it was a hallucination when you wake up? Is it not possible that it actually happened?