Sleep Paralysis

No, definitely awake, because when control returns I get straight up without any change in state of consciousness. All this talk of pain and demons is 'alien' to my experience of this phenomenon. Certainly I felt fear the first time and my brain search for a reason made me think I was being held down - but I came to realise it was some sort of neurological hangover from sleep, so I'd experiment whether sheer force of will could move a finger. I couldn't. Control would come back to all parts of my body at the same time with no obvious trigger, unless...

Maybe Ros is right. Maybe it's a drawn out singularity where sleep and consciousness meet.

I get that about once every couple of years, except that I don't have the trouble breathing. Usually, if I try long enough, I can wake up and move, although sometimes it's terribly difficult.

Sleep paralysis

Night terrors

Possession by Incubus/Succubus

Panic attack

Whatever you call it, it is terrifying, and yes, it seems to go on much longer than it actually does.

I've noticed that when I wake up from these things that my eyes were closed during the event. And yet when I remember the event, I remember it as though my eye were open.

This is how I deduce that I was actually dreaming that I was awake.

Then that wasn't sleep paralysis..you can't speak during sleep paralysis..i have sleep paralysis and trust me it doesn't involve you being able to speak..maybe you got pannic attacks..they have rather similar symptoms..

Sleep paralysis, is also known as Old Hag syndrome and is a phenomenon that is known, to some extent, by all cultures throughout the world.
Sleep paralysis is a condition in which someone about to fall asleep, or just upon waking from sleep, realizes that they are unable to move or speak, but can still breathe and move their eyes. I like to call this the "twilight" stage. Your conscious mind has begun to drift into sleep but is not yet there, therefore you still retain a small amount of your waking conscious. It is a very transitory stage indeed, and one that seems to leave you open to certain experiences you would not otherwise be receptive to when fully conscious or fully asleep. It is also accepted by most researchers that although this can happen in any sleeping position, it most commonly occurs in the supine position.
Once the person realizes that they are unable to move, they usually, but not always leave this "twilight" stage and become fully awake, but remain paralyzed. At this point the experience can go either way. The person may only experience a temporary paralysis, and after several seconds or up to a minute or so would then regain their movement and the event would be over.
But the other scenario is much more frightening. Upon realizing one is paralyzed, a whole gamut of hallucinations may occur. Many people report hearing, seeing, and/or sensing a person or people in the room with them while they are paralyzed. There is also the common experience of a usually sensed, malevolent presence (or SPM). Note that not all sensed presences are felt as being malevolent, but very frequently they are. These SPM's usually seem to be just out of view of the person experiencing the SP, who from here on I will refer to as the "subject". Sometimes it is reported that the subject feels crushed, smothered, or pushed into the bed. There are auditory hallucinations as well. A voice may be heard, as well as footsteps.
During SP the subject may try to cry out or "fight" the presence they believe is responsible for causing them to be paralyzed. This however does not help, in fact it may cause said person to fall into a deeper form of SP.
The hallucinations are called hypnagogic and hypnopompic hallucinations. They are given these names because they occur at the onset of sleep, and the period just before waking. It is very hard to believe that it is just a hallucination, but after all, that's what a hallucination proper is. This however does not make the experience any less terrifying. However this is only a scientific theory not a fact. In some cases people report seeing, feeling and hearing the "said presence". This is why some researchers believe that people with the more rare HSP are gifted.
Finally, one last subject that needs to be looked at here is how does one avoid HSP? There unfortunately is no way to prevent HSP. All advice I can offer is to avoid sleeping in the supine position. However HSP can occur in any sleeping position but most commonly occurs while lying on your back.

Then that wasn't sleep paralysis..you can't speak during sleep paralysis..i have sleep paralysis and trust me it doesn't involve you being able to speak..maybe you got pannic attacks..they have rather similar symptoms..

Sleep paralysis, is also known as Old Hag syndrome and is a phenomenon that is known, to some extent, by all cultures throughout the world.
Sleep paralysis is a condition in which someone about to fall asleep, or just upon waking from sleep, realizes that they are unable to move or speak, but can still breathe and move their eyes. I like to call this the "twilight" stage. Your conscious mind has begun to drift into sleep but is not yet there, therefore you still retain a small amount of your waking conscious. It is a very transitory stage indeed, and one that seems to leave you open to certain experiences you would not otherwise be receptive to when fully conscious or fully asleep. It is also accepted by most researchers that although this can happen in any sleeping position, it most commonly occurs in the supine position.
Once the person realizes that they are unable to move, they usually, but not always leave this "twilight" stage and become fully awake, but remain paralyzed. At this point the experience can go either way. The person may only experience a temporary paralysis, and after several seconds or up to a minute or so would then regain their movement and the event would be over.
But the other scenario is much more frightening. Upon realizing one is paralyzed, a whole gamut of hallucinations may occur. Many people report hearing, seeing, and/or sensing a person or people in the room with them while they are paralyzed. There is also the common experience of a usually sensed, malevolent presence (or SPM). Note that not all sensed presences are felt as being malevolent, but very frequently they are. These SPM's usually seem to be just out of view of the person experiencing the SP, who from here on I will refer to as the "subject". Sometimes it is reported that the subject feels crushed, smothered, or pushed into the bed. There are auditory hallucinations as well. A voice may be heard, as well as footsteps.
During SP the subject may try to cry out or "fight" the presence they believe is responsible for causing them to be paralyzed. This however does not help, in fact it may cause said person to fall into a deeper form of SP.
The hallucinations are called hypnagogic and hypnopompic hallucinations. They are given these names because they occur at the onset of sleep, and the period just before waking. It is very hard to believe that it is just a hallucination, but after all, that's what a hallucination proper is. This however does not make the experience any less terrifying. However this is only a scientific theory not a fact. In some cases people report seeing, feeling and hearing the "said presence". This is why some researchers believe that people with the more rare HSP are gifted.
Finally, one last subject that needs to be looked at here is how does one avoid HSP? There unfortunately is no way to prevent HSP. All advice I can offer is to avoid sleeping in the supine position. However HSP can occur in any sleeping position but most commonly occurs while lying on your back.

Thanks for the info punkgal!

Its interesting to hear that it's much more common then I originally thought. So far it hasn't happened to me again since I first posted, which was almost a month and a half ago.

Now that our dog sleeps in our bed, I'm waiting for the day I wake up with a Shih Tzu licking my face, and am unable to push her away

How do you not panic? When it happens to me I cant breath and I'm aware I cant breath. By the time I wake up I'm positive I'm done for. And when I do finally wake up I find I actually haven't been breathing and I'm left gasping for air.

let me clarify, i was awake but couldnt move, i kept trying to scream and eventually i ended up being able to roll out of bed and ..most likely i was only screaming in my mind, or at the very end.... i dont know but i know damn well i couldnt move.

it was paralysis, but i think i am able to overcome it in a way becuase i (used to ) practice lucid dreaming. when i was able to lucid dream i was very happy too by the way, im sure theres a connection. i dont even dream anymore id ont think..time for me to go to one of those spa things.. 100% relax my mind and body.

oh my god i read through punk gals post a little more thoroughly.

scream out and fight the presence? hrm? sounds like what i went thru..

and on another note, i have experienced dreams where i saw the future, like 100 % perfectly. my grahma and the older female members in my family talk about something "premonitions?" i didnt think much of it, but then one day we were driving, and i thought about god , WELL NOT "GOD" BUT THE UNIVERSE, WHY WERE WE HERE?, and then immediately i cant explain, i saw/pictured the back left tiring blowing out, and not even 15 seconds later we hit something and skidded through the desert for almost 100 feet. damnit i hate this **** im supposed to be a skeptic. oh well it must have been coincedence..

right? yeah theres an explanation, maybe i felt the tired vibrating or soemthin..

but it doesnt explain my dreams, i mean its crazy. one time i dreamed i was digging up a root in my backyard and a cute girl hopped over the fence as soon as my pick hit the earth, the next day my dad said i had to help uproot this bush and then as i swung the pick into the ground my neighbor jumped the fence and was curious about what i was doing..

could it be a memory glitch?

Dear All,

Thanks for the great posts and clarifications.

Well contrary to other people's experiences, I go through this more often, may be once every 3~4 weeks and it IS frightening. I always thought that it was due to sleeplessness, which is an unfortunate part of my job life, but today morning was different. As usual I was unable to move, though was able to breath a bit, but once the condition was over (after the usual tries to move my feet, roll off the bed sort of things ), i got such a sharp pain in my head that has lasted the whole day and it is still hurting, but most importantly at the same time I got a sudden irritation in my nose as if its bleeding, like the one just before a nosebleed.....and that got me thinking my be its was a sort of stroke because I never felt any pain ever before. I know my sugar levels are higher than normal and the blood cholesterol is higher as well (I am going to get a complete checkup), so maybe this frequent occurrence has some thing to do with these health risks as well.........

Murtaza

I feel I'm becoming more and more aware when it happens. I was lying on the couch trying to stay awake to watch a show and I was nodding off and waking up nodding off and waking up then all the sudden I'm out but just as conscious as if I were awake. I'm telling myself wake up, wake up come on just move your hand, just take a breath, but nothing. I cant handle this anymore. Its to the point where I'm afraid to go to sleep.

I have had Sleep Paralysis for over 25 yrs - about several times a year at most.
Worryingly there seems to be a "paranormal-ish" feel to them in last few years -to the point where i will sleep in another bedroom.
I am an anxious person by nature.I do sleep on my back but also on my sides and Sleep Paralysis has occured in the side position
As a baby my brother nearly suffocated me by putting layers of balnkets over me- wonder if it is deep rooted childhood trauma being relived?

Information:
If you're still wondering about Sleep Paralysis... (I know this topic is a little old now.) But I've experienced Sleep Paralysis a various amount of times. I did a little research and found that your brain sends out a Hormone in which it paralyzes your body in order to prevent you from acting out your dream. If you wake up during this process, you wake up, well... "Paralyzed." After a few moments, it's gone. Also, I have read that the people experience this usually do because of an irregular sleeping pattern, lack of sleep, and etc.

Personal:
When I undergo sleep paralysis, I have the same symptoms. Hard to breathe, cannot move, etc. I have also experienced a more advanced stage where you hallucinate and such, but when/if I wake up in this state, I usually focus on moving my fingers or toes since the bigger muscles of the body are more effected. But I haven't had sleep paralysis in a couple months now, so I'd suggest a little more sleep.

Anymore questions? Ask. : D I'd be glad to try to help.

I've had these since I was a little kid. They're the beginning stages of an OBE Out of body experience. Try to relax and let your self go..you can travel to places you never thought possible in your waking life.

I too have suffered from HCP ever since I was little...probabaly starting at about 7 years old or so. I'm nearly 21 now and I still get them. As a matter of fact, I had a whole series of them this morning. Whenever I start going into sleep paralysis, I can almost feel my consciousness pulling away from my body before it happens and if I fail to wake myself within this short moment, I wind up with an attack. When I was younger, I used to be horrified every time it happened and I would wake up from it shaking and crying because it was so horrifying. It's especially scary when you get the hallucinations that a parent is just outside your room or a partner is in bed with you, yet they can't save you. When I have an episode of sleep paralysis, it never happens just once. If I have an episode and then wake from it, if I fall asleep anywhere up to 15 minutes afterward, sometimes pushing up to a half hour, i tend to have episodes over and over until I wake myself up and stay awake for a little bit. Haha, I get so mad at myself sometimes. When I wake up from an episode, I start falling asleep and in that little window where I realize I'm about to have another episode, I scream at myself "WHY DID YOU FALL BACK ASLEEP YOU IDIOT?!" But staying awake after an episode is so hard for me to do! Even though I know I am actually awake from SP now, my body is just so exhausted that I can hardly move to keep myself awake. I normally get plenty of sleep and I'm really not stressed and don't eat any kind of sugary or greasy foods before going to bed (I've found that doing either of these increases my chances of SP by like 500% haha).

One night I asked my wife to watch me since she would be up all night and note what I do when I have an attack. It was strange. My eyes were closed, yet I could see everything in the room exactly as it was, down to the order of books I had on a shelf. The only differences were things like a change in the color of the walls and carpet. I heard people droning on about something just outside my door and heard people walking around. A few times, I've even had a vision of the "malevolent being". Unlike being able to prepare myself and understand I'm going through sleep paralysis, I'm never prepared to see such horrifying things. A lot of times halfway through, I'll think I'm actually awake and see all these things, then when I wake up in the morning, I still shake from being scared and find it hard to concentrate during the day. I feel run down and tend to have memory lapsing.

While I was in the Navy, I had gone to the hospital and had an EEG done after suffering a seizure and the doctor had diagnosed me with epilepsy. Could this be a reason why I have sleep paralysis so much?

I used to get this a couple of times a year. The feeling of being paralyzed and not able to breathe at all was terrifying. It seemed to correlate with high stress situations and also with less-than- optimum pre sleep behavior: overeating, especially fatty (e.g. Ben and Jerrys) and/or spicy food combined with thriller type TV shows late at night. You can actually control the dream, though. Dropping your lower jaw as far as it will go creates an airway. If you concentrate on doing this in your dream, you will be able to breathe again, No kidding.

.

Rosborne,

I too have had sleep paralysis for quite some time, though it doesn't happen as often anymore. I agree with you that it is just a dream of being awake. If I try hard enough, I can wake myself up when these things happen. Usually, I will slip back into sleep after experiencing them.

I used to panic a bit when they happened, but after enough times of experiencing it, I realized that it does no good. Never experienced the feeling of not being able to breathe though...I would speculate that this feeling is all in the mind. If you truly were not breathing properly, you would wake up almost immediately.

I have suffered on and off since childhood. I have found that once aware of your inability you should wiggle your toes, it breaks the spell. Your toes are not affected by the paralysis , for some unknown reason.

I'll tell my Dad to try that. Thanks for the tip!