[Zenomorph]

(Original post by Spontogical)
Well the thing is that when it happens.. I'm always aware of it, but because it happens so frequently.. I'm no longer scared. It usually occurs after/during bad dreams though.

Wow, that's something else, alternative reality. I've ever only had it a couple of times and that was way back when I was a small kid, but I do remember it was quite scary.

[CantThinkOfaUsername]

I've had it a few times, mainly when I've not been sleeping properly for a while. The first time, it was after a series of bizarre dreams (the last of which was a false awakening during which I became lucid) and I remember feeling like someone else was in control of my body. When I started to move, it felt like it was someone else moving, not me. It freaked me out a bit afterwards because the line between being asleep and awake was really blurred so I couldn't properly differentiate between what was real and what was just part of the dream. Admittedly, I slept with the light on for a couple of nights after that first time I was more aware of what was going on the next few times so they weren't as scary. I've learnt to just keep my eyes shut once I start feeling like something's pushing on my chest, so that I avoid the hallucinations. It normally passes fairly quickly.

[diggy]

I had it for the first time last week,it was very scary my eyes were open and i could hear everything but i couldn't move,i could feel more heart pumping because i thought id be stuck like this forever

This was posted from The Student Room's Android App on my GT-I9100

[Wulf chan]

I had a weird experience last night which I think was this. I was lying in bed for about half an hour, sort of thinking but letting my thoughts just go their own way. Then I began to like dream but I think I was still conscious. When I realised I tried to move but my body was completely paralyzed. I tried to open my mouth but I couldn't and I panicked because I thought I couldn't breath. lol I quickly managed to 'wake up'.

[Watch Key Phone]

I've had it a few times. It's pretty scary. My usual method is to try and make a vocal noise, or a hum if my mouth is closed, and that normally 'wakes' me out of it completely. Most of the times I've had it, there were no hallucinations, I could see but I simply couldn't move. On one occasion, I was dreaming, and in the dream, I went into my bedroom and lay down on my bed, and I then 'awoke' into sleep paralysis, and there was a figure/being of some sort inside my dressing gown which was hanging on the back of my door. It seems weirdly common to hallucinate or get a feeling of there being some kind of malevolent presence during sleep paralysis. My personal theory is that when the brain realises that it is partly awake and partly asleep, the only way to resolve the confusion of being in two states at once is to attribute one of the states (the paralysis) to something external - some evil being holding you down or coming for you - and assume that only the other state (the waking, conscious mind) is actually part of you. Totally unproven, of course, but I suppose you can't really prove that kind of thing.