Sleep Paralysis
 

Has anyone experienced sleep paralysis? If so, do you see or hear things? I always hear a high pitch whistling sound everytime it happens...

That high pitched sound is probably tinnitis, for one thing, which is just some natural sound that is generated by your ear nerves when no other sounds can be heard. Try sitting very still, and very calmly, away from any possible noises, and you will probably hear it then too.
And no, I don't think I have ever experienced it, although I believe my brother did once a long time ago, when we lived in the same bedroom. He didn't seem to have a whole lotta fun.

I get sleep paralysis all the time. Happens when I wake up directly from REM sleep. I also experience apnea a lot :(.

Strangely it's only happened when I've had incredibly frightening/demonic dreams. I guess it's me trying to wake up from them too fast. Being paralyzed after being freaked out in a dream is terrible; it adds to the fear greatly. When it originally happened I thought that indeed something supernatural was occurring. I found out many years later that this wasn't the case at all. Science for the win!

Sometimes it feels like my body is being levitated. What's strange is that sleep paralysis only happens if I'm lying on my back. I've heard a few other ppl say this as well. Anyone ever experienced it on their side?

When I was around eight, I think I had this type of thing, though my memory is so cloudy that I cannot remembe whether or not it was an actual dream. I was certainly paralysed, whether it was purely psychological or not.

Basically, I was in my bed, and everything in my room was completely normal — nothing surreal at all. Then, this blow-up skeleton in the corner of my room which I had a general mild fear of (as you do when a child) came to life, and slowly moved towards me; it was the slowness which truly traumatized me. I mean, we're talking some seriously intense fear here: how would you react if you saw a skeleton moving towards you at an incredibly slow pace while unable to move?

I recall being aware of my mother in the bathroom next door, and trying to scream for her but couldn't; I was just unable to produce a sound. I think at some point I either woke up or snapped out of it, and never mentioned it to anybody as I always assumed it was just a nightmare. Not happened since though, as far as I'm aware!

Wow...I didn't know this experience had a name :confused:.

I've always experienced sleep paralysis, but it's been happening a lot more often lately, right before I fall asleep (which apparently is hypnagogic sleep paralysis). And like you mentioned, GrimReaper, sometimes I feel like I'm being levitated or flying. It usually is when I'm laying on my back, come to think of it....so odd. I've never had fear or nightmares involved with my paralysis, though. I usually kind of enjoy the sensation. Then again, maybe I'm just weird...

I might be experiencing something similiar to what Arkhangelsk is describing. I can't say I've ever woken up at night and had this happen, but I've had these strange feelings right before I go to bed. Most of the time it'll be like I instantly fall asleep, but I can still feel my body while I'm sleeping. This usually causes me to instantly wake up, but I lose all sense of time... I can't tell if it's been 1 minute (which it has nearly every time), or if it's been 4 hours.

Perhaps thats not even close to Sleep Paralysis, but its the only thing I can think that's similar to it.

Yeah, sometimes it'll happen multiple times all within minutes. I'll be able to move a few seconds between episodes...I usually take this opportunity to switch over to my side so it won't happen again. A lot of people believe it's actually a ghost or something on top of you holding you down...you guys ever heard of this belief?

I had a couple of cases of sleep paralysis as a child. I remember waking up, trying to move and then get scared because I couldn't. Then I screamed from the top of my loungs, but no sound came. It was a little scary, but I haven't experience this since I was little.

Ahahaha... I have heard that belief before, but that's not nearly the craziest one I've heard. Apparently some people associate it with alien abductions, but as to the truth... who knows?

That seems to be the common case, no matter how hard you try, you can't make a sound...I don't know about you guys but my entire body would be paralyzed. I can't even move my fingers.

Wikipedia knows all!

Some people associate sleep paralysis with narcolepsy and lucid dreaming -- which I've never experienced, but I have a friend who always lucid dreams and doesn't understand how anyone else cannot lucid dream.

I used to think it was like my soul trying to pull away from my body... which apparently is not completely original, because it's also associated with out-of-body experiences.

Umm, it happens to me quite often actually. Never heard noises though. Usually silent cause I'm in my room and it's usually do to the fact that my foot was underneath something and got too warm partially waking me up. I just can't move at all or really do anything except think "OMFG WAKE UP WAKE UP WAKE UP!". Managed to open my eyes once though, except I'm not sure whether I dreamt I opened my eyes or if I actually did.

It happened to me twice. I didn't hear anything, but I woke up seeing a huge black shadow towering over me. I can't really come up with a logical explanation for this other than maybe I was in a phase of REM sleep where the body is paralyzed to prevent thrashing during dreams.

This is how I always sleep, though I certainly can't claim to fall asleep instantly (more like 2-3 hours). Throughout all my dreams, I can feel myself laying down in my bed, and can't move in the dream...at least not directly. I can think about moving to move myself, just like I can take pretty much take control of most dreams I have. But I can't move naturally.

Another weird thing is that I almost never see other people in my dreams. I can hear them, feel their presence, but not see them. Not sure why that is, or if its related to the first "problem" I mentioned.

It used to happen to me now and then but no longer. The first time was rather frightening and I was around 17. After that experience, I decided to research the phenomenon and came across several accounts, each with various explanations ranging from scientific conjecture to superstitious wives-tales.

What I read, however, was that sleep paralysis tends to happen in stages, all of which matched my own experience. From that point, I had a frame of reference; if it happened again, I'd be able to at least monitor the progression in a somewhat scientific manner. Sure enough, I awoke with the paralysis soon after, recounting the stages in my mind as I let them progress.

Unfortunately, as much as it all happened as anticipated, I still didn't enjoy it much. But I was bouyed by the fact that I'd endured a bout without becoming totally freaked. I understood the way it worked and had accepted some reasonable explanations on both sides of the scientific coin. The paralysis was no longer a fear factor to me; it was mostly a curiosity.

Around one year later, it happened once more. I was startled since the lag between had been significant but my mind quickly recalled everything I knew. Only this time, I wasn't in the mood.
There's a point at which the paralysis reaches a peak, often accompanied by a "crushing" sensation upon the chest by some, or "floating" by other. I got the "crushing" experience. As I lay there, feeling like I was trapped, I decided to abandon all previous knowledges and simply try my best to move. I summoned some nerve and quickly counted off. I suddenly swung my right arm up above me and soon my entire body was upright in bed. My heart was racing but I had full mobility as though I'd never lost it.

By all scientific reasoning, I'd beaten sleep paralysis by willing myself to move before the "natural" progression was complete. I've looked into the subject but haven't found any accounts from other people who've done the same, leading me to wonder how I precisely managed to override the phenomenon where so many are helpless.

But once I proved my own willpower was stronger than the sleep paralysis, I stopped having it.

Those witches felt the crushing flow of defeat for the first time, and probably decided to torment some other poor soul.

I had exactly one bout of sleep paralysis several years ago -- very much like Syndrome's experience, only that I was only half-awake. For a few seconds, I couldn't move or speak. Somehow I managed to get my arms and the rest of me moving again. Scared the shit out of me, but it never happened again.

I haven't had sleep paralysis for a good few months now, fortunately. It's an awful feeling. Usually happened when I took a nap. I'd wake up seemingly normal until I tried to get out of bed. I couldn't move at all, even though I kept trying and trying. Once I even felt like I fell off my bed, but luckily I woke up completely.

I've had it a few times, but I can't say it's ever happened to me when laying down. Usually it's been when I'm in a short little sit-sleep like on a couch or recliner or something. From what I remember, I could kind of move my eyes, but nothing else. Couldn't speak or anything. Pretty scary feeling, particularly the first time I experienced it. Every time it has happened, I've managed to get out of it by, with much effort, suddenly jerking my upper body to the side or something. It had to be sudden or else I just wouldn't move at all.

I don't know if I ever had sleep paralysis but I do know that sometimes when I'm asleep I'll feel like I'm floating, but the moment I realize it I just suddenly feel a falling motion as if someone took out the floor from under me. Usually jolts me awake.

I think I've had this happen to me...twice. I'm sleeping and then I wake up, but I guess I'm not really awake because I can't move! So I move my hand, or try so I can get out of bed but I can't!

I really want to wake up because my eyes are open, but I just can't...

So I close my eyes and shut them tight and although I think in my head,

"crap, those nasty aliens finally have come to experiment on me. Wait, there are no aliens. I would see them!. It must be something else. Whatever it is, I'll going to wait till this is over," I finally manage to sleep again in what feels like a really long time.

I don't ever want to experience that again. I talked to my sisters about it and they said they have never had that happen to them. Lucky.

Seems like the vision of a black smoke or shape is a common experience. Although I haven't seen anything my friend told me once he saw a black shape, clearly that of a man, he said the shape tried to choke him too. That is creepy.

I used to have stuff like this happen to me as a kid. I remember quite a few times trying to wake up from a nightmare. I was only able to open my eyes. I was terrified and I couldn't scream, open my mouth, turn over, move something, etc. It's an awful feeling. I was literally screaming in my head, but no sound came out of my mouth. It felt like something was sitting on me, pinning me down.

I don't have stuff like that anymore, thank goodness.

It used to happen to me all the time. But like all other sleep and other issues (stress, depression, anxiety) it went away for the most part when I moved. It still get it every once in a great while, especially the floating and falling feelings, but not nearly to the extent of back when I used to live at home.

It's happened to me twice, but luckily I knew enough about it before hand that it wasn't all that scary.

Anyway, I didn't see or hear anything weird either time, which was a huge relief, but I was afraid the whole time that I might start hallucinating, which freaked me out a bit. Both times I "defeated" sleep paralysis I guess, since it never progressed. I willed myself to speak, just to get any sound at all out of my throat. The second I got a tiny moan the paralysis broke.

There was this other time as a kid, I was sleeping on our pull-out couch, and I woke up in the middle of the night unable to move. I heard footsteps in the hallway, and I heard someone flush a toilet. I was scared out of my mind, but I figured it was just a dream. Years later I realized that it could have been sleep paralysis coupled with some hallucinations, but since I had nightmares where I couldn't move very often as a kid, I dismissed it. Still could have been SP, I guess...

I never really thought it was scary... I always thought it was pretty cool. Then again, I'm also a very strange fellow.

A word to the wise: sleep paralysis is the penultimate step for astral projection.

If you don't know, now you know.

That would explain those annoying prophetic dreams I keep having. Really, I don't care if I'm doing something a week later, its going to happen either way.

Astral Projection? Isn't that where you go out of your body and can travel to far away places and see what's happening there?

Big frown :(, I have this sensation almost weekly and other times with alarming frequency. I just had a terrible case this morning, which I couldn't fight since I slept after 3 a.m. last night, so my body was actively keeping me asleep. Unfortunately for me, my willpower seldom beats it and I'm left to aimlessly struggle with no progress:

- usually my eyes are "open" and I can make out the blurry image of whatever I see in the room (it doesn't help that I always see blurry things due to my high glasses prescription). I think I'm awake and try to move.
- I then realize: "damn it! I'm still physically asleep" and I try to move at least one body part (usually a finger). I feel like it worked but my mind snaps back since I'm really lying motionless and I haven't physically moved anything.
- The whole ordeal is something I wouldn't mind if I wasn't always perceiving my paralyzed position as something highly uncomfortable (I always feel like I'm going to choke to death or it's really warm, even if I'm not under the blanket).

The only good part is that just like many dreams and such, I've erased the horrible sensation completely back in real life.

Isn't it also called scissor lock?

I have yet to experience it, but my friend has. He's also religious, so he gets freaked out about these since, apparently this is when you're most likely to get "possessed". I don't blame him though, since from the descriptions, you literally can't move your body, but you're awake.

The closest thing I experienced sleep paralysis is when I force myself into self hypnosis. It actually feels good if you want it to happen. You're entire body is relaxed, and the your state of mind is also just floating around.

Naah, I don't believe this one. If sleep paralysis is one of this I would love to have them as much as possible <3.

What's the connection between those two anyway?:cow:

That happened to me while I was sleeping in Enlish once. I was able to open my eyes but I couldn't move. So I was just like "fuck it" and I went back to sleep.

I think I experience what Nehmi experiences. As I am trying to go to sleep, I will seem to be fully aware of my surroundings, but unable to move or react. I think I've had this happen while I was on my stomach a few times. I guess I never really considered my position. I'm not even sure if it was really sleep paralysis. Being aware while you are "asleep" really sucks, though....

Sleep paralysis doesn't happen all that much to me . . . But it's scary as all hell when it does. I know they say that the motor neurons are disabled for REM sleep but when I wake up, I can't breathe for 2 minutes . . . Scares the hell out of me even tho I know it'll pass . . .

I never realised that Sleep Paralysis happened to so many people, I thought it was quite a rare thing. I myself have never experienced it, do you snap out of it instantly or does it take a while for it to go?

I don't know about everyone else but I snap out of it instantly.

It happened to me a few times when I was a kid. It scared the **** outta me.

If you want to experience sleep paralysis, sleep on your back. At least that's how it works for me. Some nights I really want to dream, but dreams are only really vivid for me when I'm on my back. Unfortunately, this results in sleep paralysis more often than I'd like.

Good link here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_paralysis

I've had it before. At first I kind of freaked out, cause I was "awake", but I couldn't move, nor could I talk or even open my eyelids.

There have been a few times where I sort of force myself to move, and sometimes it works. Should I "fail" however, I more or less force myself to go back to sleep, knowing this'll blow over in the morning.

A psychology class I took says that it's an uncommon occurance, and it's probably a leftover from evolution, where your brain locks down your body to prevent you from acting out your dreams. Cause back then, there were real dangers when early man went to sleep, and they could for instance fall down a cliff while asleep, or walk into a hungry predator after leaving their protective areas.

But most of the time you don't realize this cause you're sleeping, it's when you start waking up and notice your body's still on "lockdown", where people start wondering wtf is going on. And since their understanding of the world and science wasn't as advanced as ours, they had to come up with reasons for it happening (hence the popular "demon/evil spirit" sitting on your chest thing almost all those cultures seem to mention).

I too go out of it instantly, although it's one hell of an annoying and useless struggle trying to break out of it. I wish there was some sort of medication to circumvent it. :S