Sleep paralysis

Has anyone here had sleep paralysis? That is when you wake from sleep, but are still partly asleep and cant move?

It happened to me today. I woke up, then tried to move but couldnt. This made me get a bit scared and I felt my mind speed up madly and I felt the adrenalin start to kick in. I realised if I struggled again it would get A LOT worse and id probaby start to hallucinate and stuff. I also knew what was happening. So I just relaxed and let the adrenalin run over me. Then I woke up normally and could move again.

Thinking about it makes it seem a lot worse than I think it was, but it was pretty scary! Anyone else had it??

Reply 1

Shockley

15

Yes, I have. It is very scary the first time you get it, I started to hear evil laughs and couldn't move at all. The reason why it happens is because your body is not "awake" although you are conscious. It's a bit like being under anaesthetic, you can't move anything even if you saw what was going on.
There's absolutely no need to worry, when you feel you are paralysed just close your eyes and go back to sleep. The last time it happened to me I just thought "oh god its happened again, better just close my eyes."
It does work!
http://www.stanford.edu/~dement/paralysis.html

Reply 2

CJ

TSR Group Staff

21

yep i've had it too.... for me it got worse the more i tried to fight against it and only went away as soon as i relaxed...

Reply 3

he_is_innocent

I have had it, but was too sleepy to realise what was happening - it was really weird! Hopefully it won't happen again!

Reply 4

jermay88

OP

2

I knew exactly what was happening when I had it. What is actualy happening is your body is awake and your mind asleep. When your in REM sleep your body secrets a hormone which paralyses your body, to stop you acting out your dreams in REM. If you wake partly from this state you will find you cant move because of this. Because you are still asleep if you let yourself get carried away it can turn into a nightmare. I paniced a tiny bit, and this caused my mind to go into overload. I felt my mind racing madly, and this was after I struggled a bit. Then I realised, Ok if i struggle again its going to get fricking even worse than it is now. I also felt like something was standing by my bed, but I didnt pay attention to it because I knew I was just in a *****ed up type of sleep. I relaxed and felt my mind slowly slow down, and the adrenalin to stop...then I felt myself wake up a bit more and knew that I could move.

Reply 5

Evil-Tuna

2

I've had it once, I can hardly remember it properly now but remember the sensation of not being able to move at all being completely bizarre. But I was so tired anyway and there was almost something telling me to go back to sleep anyway and its nothing to worry about. Quite strange I know.

Reply 6

Evil-Tuna

2

LePinkPanther

Yes, I have. It is very scary the first time you get it, I started to hear evil laughs and couldn't move at all. The reason why it happens is because your body is not "awake" although you are conscious. It's a bit like being under anaesthetic, you can't move anything even if you saw what was going on.
There's absolutely no need to worry, when you feel you are paralysed just close your eyes and go back to sleep. The last time it happened to me I just thought "oh god its happened again, better just close my eyes."
It does work!
http://www.stanford.edu/~dement/paralysis.html

Incubus alert.

Reply 7

hapa_girl

7

I've had it once... about a year and a half ago and I never want it to happen again! At the time, I didn't know wtf was happening. I was just frozen and I was hallucinating.. I had 3 demons on top of me who were screaming in my face and I felt like I couldn't breathe. It terrified me. I googled it and figured out it was sleep paralysis. I NEVER want that shyte to happen again.

Reply 8

LawQueen

14

I get it all the time, normally after a stressful day or drinking! I have to wake myself up through consciousnessess [sp?] and each one gets more and more like the real thing till I'm actually properly awake! The funny thing is I'm fully aware of everything that's happening and in my head I'm going "no, not this again" and I recall how to deal with it, I almost get quite comically fed up.

However there is a downside, once I awoke with sleep paralysis and my head in the pillow, I couldn't move and so couldn't breathe and I had to force myself to relax and slowly come to.

Reply 9

misslucifer

Any time I'm stressed I'll have it. Think my personal record was seven times in one night, hence I now sleep with a nightlight on, so when I wake up, I can make sure the evil laughing, corpses crawling up my duvet etc etc aren't actually there. Cos it also makes you hallucinate lots.

Reply 10

khil

15

Dunno if I've had it once. My blanket was over my face for some reason and I remember not being able to breathe but for some reason I wasn't moving even though I was desperate to remove the blanket :confused:

I was so "asleep" as it were though that I'm not sure if it was simply cus I couldn't be bothered to move or if I really couldn't move. Woke up in time though in the end.

Reply 11

Spent

Yeah I had it once but didn't realise what it was till now, was scary for a moment. :tongue:

Reply 12

Logan

4

i mean... you wake up in the middle of the night... cannot move... I really got terribly scared at that time, since i cannot do anything i eventually got back to sleep... well i was half awake... but thatnk god nothing happened

Reply 13

melquíades el gitano

9

Yeah, I've had it, and just after a dream where I was falling..... that was scary ****..

Reply 14

Doodahdoo

13

Oh oh! I know why this is!

I know that others have already said why, but I don't care - I learnt about it in Psychology today, so I'm damn well explaining why as well :smile:

There are four stages to sleep - the third being what is known as REM sleep. This is when 80% of dreaming takes place. During the REM sleep, your body goes into muscle paralysis.
If you wake up during this REM sleep (often caused by nightmares/some such thing) you tend to still be paralysed for a bit - and sometimes see things which possibly relate to the nightmare. Its just caused by a part of you still being asleep, so to speak.

It's perfectly natural, and affects about 20% of the population on a fairly regular basis, about 60% of the population have experienced it at some point or another.

x

Reply 15

Tinkers

1

I mildly get it sometimes when i wake, then my whole body jerks and im fine

Reply 16

AYE

10

I had the opposite a few times. I "woke" up but i couldnt open my eyes at all so i struggled with them (lol) but started to get scred of all the bright light i was seeing (while my eyes were shut) I dont know if this is the same thing but doesnt sound like it.

Reply 17

sufiankane

2

sounds fun, i want to get sleep paralysis. what has happened is i am in my usual dream and i wake up and i get the fereling i have fallen and JUST about to hit the floor

Reply 18

Nonsmoking

12

I've heard that in Norway it is called 'the grey witch', as many people also feel as if something is standing right by their bed. Never happened to me thank god, I wouldn't cope with that. Overactive imagination at the best of times!

Reply 19

misslucifer

There's a painting that they say represents it. It's called The Nightmare I think, and shows a monkey sitting on a sleeping persons chest. Cos it also feels as if your duvet is trying to crush you to the bed.

You really don't want it!!!! It's incredibly scary!

Sleep paralysis

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