Sleep Paralysis

[Vanilla Mnm]

Hellloooo everyone. Well, my friend was talking to me yesterday and he was telling me how he experienced something called 'Sleep Paralysis' and he was telling me all about it and I watched a video about it and then I went to sleep last night and it happened to myself. I was just laying there in like 'dream mode' and I could see everything, but I could not move, talk, or do anything, just look around. It was insane. I was just wondering, has anyone ever experienced it and what has happened if you have? My friend told me when it happened to him some guy was about to like chop his foot off, but he couldn't do anything about it. (This guy obviously wasn't real, but he was dreaming while being awake so he thought it was)

If you don't know what Sleep Paralysis is here's a video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCSqT5nZ9n4


There's also another thing called Astral Projection, I'm sure a lot of people have heard of it, but has anyone ever experienced it?

[A2P]

Oh god

Sleep paralysis is probably one of the scariest things to experience

[Dr Tran]

i havent but i want to

[Coolboyrulez0]

i havent but i want to

Ditto, sounds like fun. >:]

[dood gone krazee]

Agree'd, I do not like sleep paralysis. Its actually happened quite a few times to me.

[Devilution]

I had trouble sleeping for a long period of time and this happened a couple times.. it only lasts a few seconds with me but I literally thought I was about to die one time. I remember trying to yell for help but I couldn't

[jellygod]

i get it every couple of months, usually happens when i get a crappy nights rest then take a nap in the middle of the day.

[Vanilla Mnm]

It's happened multiple times to me, but last night was just weird because my friend was just telling me about it. When it happened before, I had no idea what it was, but I remember waking up and I couldn't move or anything and I like looked in front of me and I saw the phone next to my brother and all of a sudden it started to like glow or something and then I heard all these 911 calls and conversations of these people and stuff. And another time this snake like came into my room and it was huge & I tried to get up, but I couldn't and I was so terrified because I'm so scared of snakes haha

[JenovaSephiroth]

Happened to me once, hated it lol

[Adamaja456]

i havent had it happen to me lately, but happened quite a few times when i was younger. such a weird experience. i dont like it :P

[simulater10]

I pretty much never dream so I think this has never happened to me and probably won't. Sounds pretty crazy.

[Spenner]

One of the scariest things I've ever experienced- I had it very frequently as a child.

One one occasion that has recurred MANY times, it goes as so (in the "dream"):

I'm lying in my bed, tucked in, though the blankets feel cold. The room is very dark but I can still see the door and the room in my peripheral vision. The room is damp and dark gray, with mold up along the walls, peeling down them. My eyes are fixed on the door, which is the same colour as the demonic room around me. I see the knob turn ever so vividly, and the door begins to open very very slowly (the entire of process of opening the door felt like about 5 minutes total). As it opened the door it would stop to reveal each eye for about 30 seconds, a white piercing eye that was clearly visible in the dark. It had no eyelids, and it's hair was lacking and greasy, yet very long, though there was very few strings of it's hair attached to it's peeling gray scalp. It featured a glasgow smile revealing it's horrible jaws, and it's lips were peeled off- it's nose was pressed into its face as well. It was wearing a very bad looking coat, and I couldn't see underneath it's chest, so it appeared to be floating. Once the door opened to reveal the entire creature, it slowly made it's way towards me, floating, with it's menacing smile. There was absolutely no sound around me, not even the sound of silence inside my own brain. I tried to scream, as loud as I could. All I could feel was the sternum flexing- no air could escape. I couldn't even breathe. I tried harder and harder to scream as it inched closer, and as it was inches from my face it's jaws opened to the size of my head. As the blackness of it's throat surrounded me, still trying to scream, I woke up, shaking and crying and still screaming. This happened at least 30 times when I was a kid, that exact sleep paralysis vision.

Another one that was slightly more relaxed was me- and again, young, and on a tricycle. I was on the top of a skyscraper, so high up that I could not even see the ground around me. The top of the skyscraper that I was on was flat, only it has a slant in it as if to roll the rain off it. Staring at the edge, my heart pounding, my wheels began to move towards the sunny cliff of the skyscraper. Slowly. Heart beating. It wasn't even the slope of the roof- my feet were slowly pedaling. This simply continued until I reached the edge and fell, waking up with that "jump" that I'm sure we've all experienced at one point.

[Syhto]

I've always experimented with dreams. I have experienced many things, including astral projection, obe's, what have you, and it is phenomenal. I've been meditating, doing body exercises for quite some time and I can basically have lucid dreams on command. I've never had this "sleep paralysis", I always feel very free... I also like the rush of a nightmare. In fact I love it, and will try to spur on the nightmares sometimes.

Try meditating before bed. :)

[Spenner]

I also like the rush of a nightmare. In fact I love it, and will try to spur on the nightmares sometimes.

Yes, I love nightmares- and the fact that the lucidity of my dreams have become so common, it really adds excitement to the situation. Lately things have become so realistic that I wake up the next morning completely convinced that the events of the dream have happened. Some dreams just seem straightforward and logical- conversation wise, visually, etc. Other dreams become something of a twisted acid trip, but everyone gets those. Oh yeah, and I typically remember every nightmare I have with every little nuance of detail, so that's another reason why I like them.

For some reason lately the visual quality of my dreams have been phenomenal- camera angle changes, retouching on the things I see, generally an artistic look to everything. I also get a surround sound movie theatre feel in some as well.

God I love dreams. Sleep paralysis is just a bad feeling though, it doesn't give you that rush of adrenaline as much as it does fear for your life.

Just remembering now I have had sleep paralysis recently... I might post it later. It was odd, it started as a dream and developed into a sleep paralysis. Very odd, but it was very neat.

[Vanilla Mnm]

I've always experimented with dreams. I have experienced many things, including astral projection, obe's, what have you, and it is phenomenal. I've been meditating, doing body exercises for quite some time and I can basically have lucid dreams on command. I've never had this "sleep paralysis", I always feel very free... I also like the rush of a nightmare. In fact I love it, and will try to spur on the nightmares sometimes.

Try meditating before bed. :)

Meditating is part of an Astral Projection, I think. I don't know much about it, but I think you meditate to slow down your heart rate and then look at an object for an amount of time and eventually you'll be forced asleep or something, but you'll still be able to see the object and then I forgot what you do after it, but I think that's part of it haha

[funmonkey54]

Only happened to me once majorly when I dreamed I was about to go to bed and I found my girlfriend tied up on the floor. There was a man wearing a blank mask standing over her. In the dream my girlfriend and I had 2 kids who were tied by their wrists to the wall and the man had cut out their stomachs and they were just hanging there dead with the blood all over their white night clothes. I watched the man beat my girlfriend in the face then kill her execution style while she was on her knees. When I snapped out of it I felt an overwhelming urge to kill myself.

Single scariest moment of my life. Same situation occurred with the same identical dream 2 years apart from each other.

One other dream I have had like this is strange. I'm in my room but everything is gray. I look around and all I can see is gray normal things. Then I hear a small jingle and look over and see a small green piece of cloth poking from beneath the closet door. I open it and look in to find a little girl in a joker suit (Not from batman. She has a little green top on and green cloth curly shoes with a body suit under it that is gray with dray-green stripes up the whole body of it. Then a joker hat on.) I see she looks scared and sad, so I reach out to touch her. My finger tip touches her finger tip as I offer my hand to her so that she might get up. In that split second I run through every major memory in my life that I have (Actual memories) and see her off in places throughout the scene of them hiding scared and watching. I feel pain all over and this emotional weight in my chest as if what I felt was the cold reality of death overcoming my entire soul. I pull away and am thrown back by the sheer weight of emotional pain in my chest against the floor where I stare at her and she slowly disappears. I crawl into her place curled up and overtaken by this weight. I look down and realize that I am wearing that outfit she wore and am in her same place staring out of my closet. I close the door as the darkness around me for some reason is comforting. I hear my mother's voice call out saying good night and watch the small shadows along the floor from the rooms light peaking beneath the door and see footsteps as a small child (me) climbs into bed. I slide the tip of my shoe under the door a little and then I wake up. I still feel the weight when I wake up.

[leonid]

I experienced several sleep paralysis only after hearing about what it actually is.

Since I knew why I couldn't move my body and what to do, it was okay,

except I sucked at controlling my mind to actually move around while having sleep paralysis (I mean in dream).

[AC1speakerbox]

I pretty much tl;dr'ed every post after the first few, so sorry if this is a repeat question.

Are people engaged in sleep paralysis capable of rational thought?
If so, shouldn't they be able to think, "oh, this is that sleep paralysis **** I heard about,"?

[leonid]

Are people engaged in sleep paralysis capable of rational thought?
If so, shouldn't they be able to think, "oh, this is that sleep paralysis **** I heard about,"?

Yes. Read my post just above you..

[Syhto]

I'd imagine it really depends on the person and the specific experience. Based on how experienced you are with lucid dreaming, etc, you could definitely do that. I don't think it has anything to do with the thought process at all, just the physical aspect of it. So, yes you could think that. But it doesn't mean you will.

[kommisar[os]]

i have it quite often. also related to my mother's epilepsy. it always happens when i'm half asleep since my body thinks its sleeping but my mind is wide awake. i usually just freak out and try helplessly to snap out of it, which the longer it takes the more freaked out i get. breathing also becomes difficult.


it usually happens when i'm overtired or when i'm tired and sleep in any sort of light. freaky as **** but they say it's not lethal.

[devonin]

Most often, during sleep paralysis, the brain will try to come up with a logical explanation for what is going on. This is the same reason why you can start to see things that aren't there if you go a really long time without sleep.

You're awake, you can't move, you're probably going to get scared very quickly, and your brain says "Hmm, can't move, frightened, sounds like something scary is stopping you from moving"

This is likely where the various myths of the assorted bogeymen that come to you when you're asleep and steal your breath/soul/lifeforce etc.

Also: I get hypnogogia somewhat often, and it's pretty much universally frightening at the time.

[schoolboysm]

i have sleep paralysis so much that i've become used to it. i've woken up with a demon looking version of myself staring me in the face and all kinds of crazy ****

[Darkslave]

That's some weird stuff...strangest I ever had was probably some dream when you're half awake in the morning that I could somewhat control, as in, steer the general direction it takes. Ended up snowboarding down an endless mountain while lying on my stomach and doing handstands and **** iirc

[PhaeL v2]

i havent but i want to

This.

[Spenner]

This.

If it's as horrible as the ones I've experienced, you'll be afraid to sleep after. Quite the thrill.

[Magic_V2]

I experience sleep paralysis so frequently that I'm used to and even look forward to it happening. I will admit that for quite some time I would panic and during that time it was very uncomfortable, but after some research I found that it can lead to lucid dreaming so I taught myself to just go with it, and try to let my mind fall asleep, while retaining my consciousness. If I do manage to start dreaming it's the absolute BEST substitute for acid or shrooms, as I can go places and do things that wouldn't be conventional or even possible outside of dreaming. The interesting part about it is that your body really feels like you're doing the actions in your dream. I'm not sure if it's common or not, but when it happens to me, ie I wake up frozen, I feel this tingling, or sense that my whole body is vibrating intensly. If you can get used to it you will develop great control over your mind while asleep.

[sjoecool1991]

I experience sleep paralysis so frequently that I'm used to and even look forward to it happening. I will admit that for quite some time I would panic and during that time it was very uncomfortable, but after some research I found that it can lead to lucid dreaming so I taught myself to just go with it, and try to let my mind fall asleep, while retaining my consciousness. If I do manage to start dreaming it's the absolute BEST substitute for acid or shrooms, as I can go places and do things that wouldn't be conventional or even possible outside of dreaming. The interesting part about it is that your body really feels like you're doing the actions in your dream. I'm not sure if it's common or not, but when it happens to me, ie I wake up frozen, I feel this tingling, or sense that my whole body is vibrating intensly. If you can get used to it you will develop great control over your mind while asleep.
Yeah, I have tried inducing lucid dreaming, and have gotten to sleep paralysis, and usually it freaks me out too much and I wake up.

[bender5]

Personally I have incredibly lucid dreams. In my dreams most commonly I'll have the inability to move.

For example, in a dream I'll try to run or punch something and in the dream I can't do what I regularly would because my body is actually trying to move itself not just trying to move itself in the dream.

It's very strange, but it happens on a daily basis. I'm rather used to it