Sleep paralysis, anyone else experience it?

[aresrin]

I have never experienced it personally, but I have read a fair amount about it when I was looking into astral projection. I never projected myself but I have read a lot of stories from people who have, which seem genuine and are often stranger than fiction.

Anyway, Robert Bruce, the author of Astral Dynamics, theorized that we all astral project in our sleep, so we have one consciousness outside our body and one inside our body. He believes that sleep paralysis, which he has suffered from his whole life, is caused when one becomes conscious before one's Astral consciousness returns from a projection.

Like I said, I have no way of knowing if this is true and I don't know if the folks here are even open to considering that kind of explanation, but I thought I would throw in my two cents on the off chance that he's right.

 

[orangeapples]

It happens to me quite frequently. Far more often than most. Some really crazy stuff has happened during these things.

The first few times it happened to me, it was while I was trying to go to sleep. I'm in my bed, then I feel a cool breeze come over me. I open my eyes and I can hear nothing. Everything begins to shake, and I cannot move. The walls started moving farther away but the ceiling starts to get closer and closer. I tell myself that if I can move my leg it will end. It takes up so much of my energy to move my leg, but eventually my leg breaks out of the paralysis, but the rest of my body is still trapped, so I force my arm to move. I start to become short of breath as I am fighting my body to move. I eventually break out of it and I am sweating.

I had that going on for about a week and a half solid (every night)

eventually it went away and I had no problems sleeping.

After a while, it happened again, but this one got weird. I woke up, and I couldn't move my body, but I could move my head and look around. My legs and my arms feel as though they were shackled and pulled apart. I tried telling myself to move my leg, and it worked, but I could not move my leg very far. I tried telling myself to move my arm, and it worked as well, but again not very far. So I'm on my bed, and it feels as though I'm strapped to the bed. I try moving all of my limbs at the same time, and then I hear a girl laughing. I begin to struggle even more. I then feel a heavy weight on my chest and I cannot breathe. I look to see what is on my and I see this girl. She had white skin, long straight black hair, dark eyes and the scariest laugh I have ever heard. She had her knees on my chest and she was holding my arms down by my elbows. She just laughed and did a backflip. She was gone and I could move again.

That was about a year ago.

Recently (within the past month), it happened again.

I was sleeping (obviously), and I was having a dream. In my dream I was on a lawn chair just relaxing. Then out of no where a bunch of dogs just jump on me. I couldn't move. I tried to fight the dogs off but I couldn't do anything. So I woke up, but I couldn't move still. Eventually I broke out of it again. I broke out of it, but I found myself in another dream. In this dream, I was trying to go to sleep. but then I heard a girl's voice calling to me. I get up to see who it is, and I see t girl, about 8-9 years old I'm only judging by height. She was wearing a yellow tea-party type dress and a white sun hat. with a red ribbon. She called my name again, and I look at her more closely. I then notice a dark shadowy figure behind the girl. Too tall to be human. it just had these blue eyes. The shadow put it's hand on the girl's shoulder, and the girls began to laugh. The both disappeared and then I woke up, and I couldn't move again. I tell myself, "These dogs were not real." I got up and it was 3 in the night. I lay back down close my eyes. My hand is off to the side of the bed, and I feel something hot and wet touch it. I tell myself, "It's only the dog," but right after I say that, I remember, "I don't have a dog" i get up and I see a shadow run past a corner in the room. The back of my hand was wet.


I never considered that it was caused by stress or bad sleeping patterns. They were just random. Or ghosts. Or even Synapses that are misfiring (or not firing). Whatever the cause, it is exciting.

 

[danielje]

I've had sleep paralysis from waking rapidly from a dream state. Its scary when you don't understand it, but once you relax and your body catches up to your mind and resynchs its all good.

 

[Samurai Goomba]

Sometimes I do things while "awake," after just having been asleep, then later I don't remember them. Like getting up to use the bathroom, or walking downstairs to do something. I'm awake at the time, but after I go to sleep again I forget it ever happened.

One time a family member was sure I had been up moving around well after the time I know I went to bed. I don't remember ever getting up to do anything after going to bed, so I chalk it up as one of those times.

Sometimes I'm awake, but unable to open my eyes or move. Is that sleep paralysis? I don't think so, there's never anything like hallucinations going on. I just can't move. So when, say, people are trying repeatedly to wake me up, I can hear them just fine but can't do anything. It's annoying.

 

[Jinx_Dragon]

Many times!

This is even more frustrating as on average a person might experience it once, or twice, in their entire life time. I have woken more times then I can count on both hands to this experience and still have the possibility of undergoing many many more times in the future. The worse part is you are not entirely aware of what is happening, your mind is open to many 'hallucinations' such as the feeling someone is trying to invade your body. As this is bored line spiritual I won't touch on that, my scales are not flame retardant, but I can say from experience it isn't a fun thing to go through.

 

[Falconus]

This is quite a common occurrence for me, though on the rare occasion I hallucinate it tends to be pretty tame. Generally I just have to wait patiently for the paralysis to wear off.

It was scary the first time I experienced it, I didn't hallucinate but I was aware of everything going on around me, I could hear my brother in the next room and my parents in the kitchen making breakfast and talking. I couldn't move or speak and had no idea what was going on. After a while I think managed to move my hand slightly and the sensation made me snap out of it.

I've more or less gotten used to it now. I pretty much just take it as an excuse to sleep in.

 

[mikecoulter]

My dad used to suffer from that, I'll let him know what it's called. He also said it was a horrible experience.

 

[amazinglettera]

No, I've never had that happen. I know it's real so I don't doubt you, but the closest I've come to that is the "falling into your body" experience. Then again, I'm a complete insomniac so....

 

[similar.squirrel]

Haven't experienced it in a while. I tend to enjoy even bad dreams, though. For the sheer novelty of it.

 

[Mr_spamamam]

Only once and it was kinda fucked up. So if its happening to you every other month then I think somthing is amiss mate

 

[QuirkyTambourine]

Yeah I had that a few times over the summer. It's frankly terrifying, waking up being unable to move. It came and went with little fanfare but I certainly don't miss it

 

[Juven Ignus]

I've had a few of those in my life time. I really wish I hadn't though.

When I was around 12, I woke up in my bed and expected to get up and get ready for school. All of the sudden, my body can't move. I tried to scream, but my body was completely locked down and I start to feel as though I'm drowning. I keep telling myself to move, and after what seemed like years, I broke out of it. Pretty intense.

Another one happened way back, but it's still there in my memories. I wake up, having no control over my body, and in the bathroom across the hall, I hear the toilet flush and a dark figure emerge. It stops at my room and looks at me, with no face, then calls my name and walks away. Freakin' scary, I had to cry myself to sleep.

 

[Gruthar]

I've had it happen a few times in my life. The worst one was when I was about six. I was having a nightmare of some sort, then woke up to see a blue light moving around my bedroom wall and a loud noise that's difficult for me to describe in words -- think Alvin (the Chipmunk) going into convulsions whilst really pissed off. I was able to move after a few seconds of sheer panic, and tried to shut out the noise by hiding under the sheets and covering my ears (my heart was pounding and my ears were ringing from the effort, which suggests to me I was indeed awake.) But the hallucinations kept going. I tried to call out to my dad (my parents' room was just down the hall) but was too frightened to get more out than a whisper. Nevertheless, I heard him call my name. I got out from under the sheets to see him slowly walking down the hall. The noise and light were gone. He wordlessly picked me up, carried me to my parents' bedroom, and set me down next to my mom, where I promptly fell back asleep. When I woke up in the morning, though, I was in my own bed. Neither of my parents had any clue what I was talking about.

Latest one I had was a couple of months ago. Again, I was dreaming before it began. In my dream, there was someone on the bed behind whispering pleadingly "Don't wake up! Don't wake up!" and a bunch of other gibberish I couldn't make out. Well I woke up, but the whispering didn't stop, and I could feel a presence on the bed behind my back (I had been sleeping on my side.) I couldn't move, but I could turn my eyes enough to catch a white silhouette watching over me and a luminous green blob floating around the room. At this point I had a good idea of what was happening, but I was still spooked. I forced myself to say "What the fuck am I looking at?" and everything stopped, except for the green blob. Disoriented as all hell, I sat up in bed, let my heart rate go down a bit, and fumbled for my glasses. Turns out the green blob was just the LED from my smoke detector, and the disorientation combined with my crappy eyesight gave it the illusion of movement. Clock said I was only asleep for just under 2 hours.

I've also read that there is some association between lucid dreaming and sleep paralysis. I've been able to lucid dream for as long as I can remember, though most of the time it just happens randomly. At one point I did start keeping a log of my dreams to try to master lucid dreaming. As interesting as some of my dreams were, the process was exhausting, as I was having ~4 dreams a night.

I've woken up and been unable to feel my arm before because I slept with my head on an artery. It weird to see your arm, know it's yours, but for the first time in your life, not feel it. The solution? Exercise! Get a strong heart!

I've done that a couple of times, too. In one instance, I slept on my arm and dreamt that my arm was severed, shortly before waking up... and not being to feel my arm. I was like "Oh shi... wait a minute!"

 

[AboveUp]

I've done that a couple of times, too. In one instance, I slept on my arm and dreamt that my arm was severed, shortly before waking up... and not being to feel my arm. I was like "Oh shi... wait a minute!"

I had that once, except I burned my hand in the dream and still felt the pain of it after waking up.

Sometimes I'm awake, but unable to open my eyes or move. Is that sleep paralysis? I don't think so, there's never anything like hallucinations going on. I just can't move. So when, say, people are trying repeatedly to wake me up, I can hear them just fine but can't do anything. It's annoying.

Might be related, though I'm not sure if it is.
I might have that same problem with going back to sleep and forgetting what happened, though I don't have anyone to tell me if I was really awake or not.

I think I have experienced this before, it was about 4-5 years ago when I was going through a rough time. I woke up one day and could not move for some time, i thought it was 30min or so but my perception of time was probably off. I remember being very disoriented, but no hallucinations. It felt as though i were spinning on all axis' in space or something, vertigo possibly?

First post. yay!

I saw a few other people here say they had something similar, with no hallucinations. I've had times with really timid hallucinations myself, so it's probably the same thing.
Also, welcome to the 'scapist!

Thanks for the posts and stories so far, everyone. It's nice to know I'm not the only one with this problem.