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Sleep Paralysis: Awake But Still Asleep
Biology 202
2000 First Web Report
On Serendip
Sleep Paralysis: Awake But Still Asleep
Hiro Takahashi
A person may wake up and find himself unable to move or speak as if he is frozen. He also may hear footsteps, see a ghost-like creature, or feel someone sitting on his chest. Throughout the history, people considered this phenomenon as work done by evil spirits. However, the modern science can explain the terrifying event as a Sleep Paralysis.
A Sleep Paralysis is possibly a hereditary disorder in which one experiences very frightening seconds or minutes of total body paralysis with little respiration and eye movements (1). A victim in this state feels awake, but he cannot move or speak (2). In addition to the immobility, the common symptoms include feeling choked or suffocated, hearing strange noises like footsteps and voices, seeing beings or dark shadows, and feeling an existance of someone in the room (1). Although these symptoms often direct the victims to believe in ghosts, mistransmission of neural signals in the brain causes Sleep Paralysis. When a person sleeps, his brain sends signals to inhibit any muscle contraction (3). If he comes into consciousness before the brain sends signals to activate muscle contraction, he cannot move his body, and consequently, become "paralyzed"(2).
In order to understand how a body becomes paralyzed while the person is awake, it is necessary to understand sleep cycles. In a mammalian sleep, the brain activity undergoes two different states called non-REM (NREM) sleep and REM sleep, which differ very much from wakefulness (3). NREM and REM sleep alternate cyclically through the night; in human, about 80 minutes of NREM sleep starts a night of sleep, about 10 minutes of REM sleep follows, and this 90 minute cycle is repeated about 3 to 6 times during the night (3). During NREM sleep, a body produces few movement, but the body has capability of tossing about in bed and producing some other motor events, such as sleepwalking and sleeptalking (3). The cardiac-muscle contraction and breathing occur at a uniform rate, and the eyes move slowly (2). During REM sleep, on the other hand, heart rate, respiration rate, and blood pressure vary (3). The eyes move rapidly because most dreaming takes place in this period, and the sleeper probably "look" at the moving objects in a dream (2).
The brain's control over muscles during REM sleep points out that in this period, a body is normally in the state of total paralysis, called a "nonreciprocal flaccid paralysis" (3). Probably to prevent a person from "acting out" a dream, the brain sends signals to inhibit any muscle contractions (2). Although some peripheral muscles, such as the muscles of the fingers and face, still twitch, the large skeletal muscles become relaxed, or "paralyzed" as a result (3). Some evidence supports that the motor paralysis of REM sleep protect against the acting out of one's dreams. A patient who suffers from rare syndrome called REM Sleep Behavior Disorder lacks the normal nonreciprocal flaccid paralysis, and he acts out violent dreams during REM sleep, often with injurious consequences (4). For example, a 60-year-old surgeon dreamt that he was attacked "by criminals, terrorists, and monsters who always tried to kill [him]" and fighting against them in the nightmare, he was actually punching and kicking his wife who slept in the same bed (4).
A nonreciprocal flaccid paralysis during REM sleep is accomplished actively by postsynaptic inhibition of motorneurons (3). Although the exact process of motor inhibition is not clear, some neurotransmitters and hormones are known to generate the many components of REM sleep. Aministering physostigmine, an inhibitor of the catabolic enzyme, increases the concentration of acetylcholine within the neurons in the pons, making it possible to artificially generate and start REM sleep in the middle of NREM sleep (3). Carbachol, the cholinergic agonist, produces a period of REM sleep in cat when directly injected into the pontine tegmentum (3). The hormone melatonin, a "master hormone" (5) that mainly controls circadian rhythms, also seems to play an important role in enhancing the REM state; the level of melatonin secretion by the pineal gland reaches its lowest during REM sleep (5). Such neurotransmitters and hormones probably activate or inhibit the activity of second messengers, which then activate or inhibit the third messengers, and so on till the last messenger inhibit the synaptic transmission or cause hyperpolarization of the motorneurons. And if, for some reason, the nervous or endocrine system continues to release the neural inhibitors, a person may experience Sleep Paralysis as he enters awakefully into or awakens directly from REM period (2).
While the modern neuroscience can describe the state of Sleep Paralysis as some errors of the neural transmission in the brain during REM sleep, a person who has seen or heard ghost-like figures/voices may easily believe that eveil spirits fully controlled his entire body. However, the images or noises, which the victim believes that he has seen or heard, are most likely hallucinations; and hallucinations, too, can result from the brain activity. In the 1960's, the Canadian neurologist W. Penfield introduced that electrical stimulation of the temporal lobe can cause the auditory hallucinations in the wake state (5). The buzzing or ringing sounds in the ears and other auditory hallucinations are closely associated with the activity of the auditory cortex and involves the temporal lobe (5). During the early period of sleep paralysis, the activity of the temporal lobe increases significantly, sometimes inducing hallucinatory sense (5). Similarly, the visual cortex generates internal visual stimuli, causing the victim to "see" terrifying figures during the paralysis (5).
How an episode of Sleep Paralysis induces visual or auditory hallucinations is still not clear, but it seems to have a significant relationship with anxiety (5). For anxiety is a neurocognitive event closely related to both psychological and physical processes, the extreme anxiety or panic may cause the release of several different signal molecules that trigger all kinds of physical events (5). A person experiencing Sleep Paralysis feels mortal fear or extreme panic, and hence, the brain generates and releases internal visual or auditory stimuli, producing hallucinations.
Also, hallucinations during Sleep Paralysis may happen, for one keeps dreaming even after some parts of his brain wakes up directly from REM sleep. Since the nervous and endocrine systems continue to release the neural inhibitors which sustain the paralysis, it may be possible that those systems keep releasing the neural activators that stimulate dreaming. Thus, a person continues to "see" the images and "hear" the noises produced in the dream that he has just had in REM sleep from which he has awaken.
Understanding more neural concepts of Sleep Paralysis, some researchers now hypothesize that a very rare condition called Sudden Unexplained Nocturnal Death Syndrome (SUNDS) may closely relate to Sleep Paralysis (1). Upon the death, a SUNDS victim produces no body movement even though he experiences a myocardial infarction and strong breathing difficulties and should straggle in agony (5). The death may be caused by the extreme muscle atonia during Sleep Paralysis, which is so severe that even the cardiac muscles and the diaghragm paralyze (5).
Until I started researching on this subject, I have believed that the total paralysis of a body is due to an evil taking absolute control over the body. However, the interactions between neurons in the brain can explain this seemingly mysterious phenomenon in a scientific way. Although the explanation is not complete yet, for there are many unclear processes about Sleep Paralysis, the current hypothesis appears to reject the possibility of ghosts on this matter. Of course, it is impossible to completely disprove the existence of "spirits", "minds", or "God" affecting one's behavior. Nevertheless, like Sleep Paralysis and SUNDS, many or the mysterious conditions and behaviors which are only explained in supernatural terms probably result from brain.
WWW Sources
1)The Evil's of Sleep Paralysis
4)REM Sleep Behavior Disorder: A Neurologic Dissociative Sleep Disorder
5)Recurrent Isolated Sleep Paralysis
Comments made prior to 2007
I have been trying to figure out what was going on in my sleep untill i read this.Now i am happy to know what my body was expeiencing. It's quite scary your first couple experiences of sleep paralysis but now i'm gonna stay calm when it is happening to me and try to get my own understanding of the experience ... Jeremy, 21 March 2006
I have had sleep paralyisis at least once per month for the last 8 years. I am 29 as of this writing. I just had the experience about 1 hour ago and thus has caused me to do reasearch about it on the net. I noticed that many Dr.'s contribute this to anxiety, stress and other factors. My question is ... why is there always an evil presence in that concious yet body is still asleep phase? Today I heard a loud static sound, and opened my eyes to a spider crawling all over my arm. When I prayed to God, or said His name (Jehovah) the spider would start to disappear. I finally went thru my mental prayer when I awoke. This leads me to believe that it is more of a spiritual occurence, because I never have positive images while in this paralized state. I know there are many things in which our ancestors thought it was demonic rather than scientific, only to find there was a scientific explanation. However, I think this is different and cannot be simply written off as "scientific". There is not enough proof to show that it is scientific.
About a month ago I had another episode of sleep paralysis and I saw a small presence in the room with me. It was dark, and I could not see it's face (I am getting chills typing about it right now). My question is, why is there always an evil presence not only associated with my episodes, but so many others I have read about? ... Abel, 24 August 2006
i was thinking it is evil who do that during night but now i find out why. I am suffering from sleep paralyze possibly every nigh spicily when i have dinar ... Salah Nasser, 28 January 2007
I used to have this sleeping disorder when I was a child. It has come back once or twice with adulthood, but otherwise, it is in the past. I used to, with great effort, move my hand to my face and pull an eye open, which would wake me up, but sometimes the struggle was too much and I would go on into a deeper sleep.
Since the brain can do this to me, can it also cause me to get migraines just as I am about to wake up?
It seems, as I have discovered, if I get less than 4 hours sleep a night, I do not get migraines. If I get 6 hours or more, it's about a 90% chance I will wake with a migraine. Later in the day, I get an hour or two nap and that is the routine as it works. Doctors just sort of treat the migraine and don't get into the sleep thing I have. I take MaxAult for the migraines when they do get me.
I woke one time, and just as I woke, I felt this white-hot needle going into my head... bingo. A migraine in 5 seconds. That is how they can occur. I wake with them otherwise. I figure it my brain doing things it shouldn't. I have a clean bill of health otherwise.
Thanks for your time. Have a good day ... Jay, 11 February 2007
I have a question, and hope someone out there has an answer, it has been months and I have thus far failed to find one. Has there ever been a record of anyone receiving the effects of sleep paralysis without having been asleep? The reason I ask this, is a while ago, having not slept in a few hours, I was sitting at my computer, and it seemed to have happened to me. Within seconds I was too tired to hold up my own head, and my breathing got very difficult. Then I began to feel a sort of dizziness as my limbs lost feeling, and dropped to my side. after this, the dizziness turned to near blindness. I could see, but nothing would focus, and everything I tried to look at seemed to dart around like a mosquito. By this time I had no feeling in my entire body, could move nothing without quite a bit of concentration, and I could barely breath. My mother heard me try and make out some kind of cry for help, and found me there spilled into my computer chair. She rolled me to my bed, and poured me into it. Within about 10-15 minutes I had regained everything I once had, but my sea legs did not ware off for another ten or so minutes. I went to the emergency soon after. I had an E.K.G. and a C.A.T. scan, with no results, and I piss less in a week then the amount of blood they took that night. After basically telling me I was lying, the doctor told me that my symptoms did not fit anything at all. What I do know, is I have been researching the issue ever since, and can only base my problem on Sleep Paralysis. All the symptoms match. And again, my question....Has there ever been a record of someone under the effects of sleep paralysis without ever having gone to sleep? I hope you can shed some sort of light on this subject, as it,...well, it freaked me the hell out, and no one has been able to answer me! Thank you for your time ... Mitchel Henderson, 7 December 2007
I used get this "evil paralysed me" feeling when i was paralysed and usually saw a ghost. i tried to shout or move but no sound escaped my mouth and couldn't move at all. it happened again yesterday and was almost convinced that ghosts/evil spirits were getting the better of me. But, me being a practical and logical guy, erjected this theory and started researching on this phenomenon. I came across this research paper on Sleep Paralysis. This greatly helped me in alleviating my fears. And next time i "see" a ghost during sleep paralyses, ill just laugh at it ;-) Thanks for the research ... Siddarth, 10 December 2007
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| This paper reflects the research and thoughts of a student at the time the paper was written for a course at Bryn Mawr College. Like other materials on Serendip, it is not intended to be "authoritative" but rather to help others further develop their own explorations. Web links were active as of the time the paper was posted but are not updated. |
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Comments
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I have sleep paralysis on a regular basis (at least once a week) and I have also had occurrences like you describe. Always include some kind of auditory hallucination. The last one I remember I was laying in my bed and I couldn't move and kept trying to wake myself up (when I have regular sleep paralysis my method is counting to five and trying to move over and over) - Finally I was all the way awake and I got out of bed...feeling like you described, just really heavy and tired. I walked into my bathroom and tried to turn on the light and couldn't get it to work to I went back to bed...then I wake up and still couldn't move. Finally got myself out of the episode and was awake for good. My husband who was awake told me I never left the bed. This is the third time I've had a episode that is almost a mix of dreaming and sleep paralysis. Usually it is just the sleep paralysis.
Spirtual
This is not a scientific phenomenon. Sleep paralysis definitely has a spiritual component. I just had another major event last night and it was very horrible and evil. The only thing that broke the paralysis was commanding the evil entity to depart "in the name of Jesus." The Bible is clear that we have authority in His name and this was proven true yet again last night.
Repent and trust in the Lord and you will be protected.
Still terrifying after 32 years...
I have been having this paralysis since I was a kid. I've gotten a little better at realizing that it is not real when it happens, but it still terrifies me. I often have multiple episodes in a row, which I now know unless I get up out of bed after coming out of an episode, I will go right back into it. So scary! It's oddly enough the same topic as nearly everyone else. Intruders that I can't see really, but I "feel" their existence and I hear them and they touch me. Often they come out of closets and into my bedroom.
I have two cats now and I can feel them/see them sleeping soundly too. so I know it's not "real" but boy is it still scary. I've tried adding more light to my bedroom to try to help myself wake up. it seemed to have worked for a while, but now they are creeping back. I lose a lot of sleep due to these.
Oh wow
The exact same thing happens to me. I don't have intruders but I constantly "wake up" in my bed but am still dreaming and cant move. This feels like it lasts for a long time in the dream but it only lasts a few minutes in reality, and this always happens when I'm trying to get to sleep. I have spent many nights scared to sleep because every time I try to sleep during one of those nights it goes straight to sleep paralysis.
Intermittient experience
I ve had these experiences before but lately i am having these regularly.
My experience is just that i am aware of my surroundings and i have partially open eyes and know that i am awake but not able to move my muscles and cant move at all.....its really frightening. can i do anything to make it go away?
Waking up again and again in a nightmare
I've had sleep paralysis before, except I believed it was something more of an evil encounter because it's terrifying being conscious in a dream where evil intent surrounds me and I cannot scream, move or breathe.
Well this morning, was probably one of the worst experiences because I woke up in my bed next to my husband in our room seeing his car through the window wondering why I can see his car in the driveway when our room is on the second story...then a mad lady rushes in through the window screaming and yelling as she aggressively walks toward me, as I'm frozen in bed, I look toward my husband and realize that whatever the image was that looked like him was not him and I closed my eyes shut to try and wake my physical body up.
So I wake up in my room again and now it's dark and I look toward my husband and he's dark as a shadow and his eyes are almost black and I realize I'm still asleep! It's eerie and cold and I'm not liking this feeling. I want to get out of this situation fast. Again, I attempt to wake myself, I pinch my arm, try to scream, think of ways to wake up and close my eyes again.
When I "awake", our room is lit up and it looks like morning, I think I'm finally out of it, so I look toward my husband to my left and try to tell him what happened but he gives me this blank stare and I know that it is not him. Damn, I'm still dreaming so I grab a water bottle I usually have next to my bed and try to pour it on myself to wake me up and this imposter husband grabs my arm, as I pour the water I don't feel anything and I'm frantically thinking of ways to get out of this demonic nightmare.
He does not speak but he looks at me in this creepy evil way and I say to him, "You are not my husband...you are not him!" He slowly leans toward me and bites my fingers literally trying to eat me! I lay on my back trying to scream, nothing-I feel a pressure on my chest and I cannot breathe,I try to use any bit of energy I had left and I'm trying to not think of being eaten alive. I was able to nudge myself off of the bed and I try not to look directly in to it's eyes for fear of being more scared than I already am. As I lay on the floor, he crawls off the bed on top of me but his body is deformed and twisted and his neck turns 360 degrees as I try to kick him he bites my foot and all I had left to do was Pray. I closed my eyes and Prayed to God to lead me out of this evil nightmare and help me wake up. Next thing you know, I wake up FOR REAL and it's morning, in my room with my real husband and I almost feel as though I've just gasped my first breath of air-I'm relieved.
The fact that the only thing that got me out of this nightmare was prayer makes me believe there's much much more to this "Sleep Paralysis" and now, I know the first thing to do the next time this happens.
Hey everyone, I am so glad I
Hey everyone,
I am so glad I am not the only one going through these things. I have had them happen for years but, last night was the first time it had happened in a long time. Last month I moved into a building that was built in 1906. Some very weird things happened to me last night. I am sending you a message I sent my boyfriend this afternoon.
"Hi honey. Okay, so I was having the most intenese dreams ever last night. But I couldn't even tell you if it was an actual dream because I was awake, in my bed, but it felt like I was dreaming..sort of. All I remember is waking up in the middle of the night and feeling like I had been frozen. I couldn't move, lift my arms, talk...nothing. At first it felt like someone walked in the room and all I could feel was this weird, kind of sad/mad/intense but non-threatening presence.
Then It felt like someone was pushing down on my bed and I couldnt move my body. Since I've had these things happen before, I have become kind of desensitized to it so I though, 'okay...maybe I should just listen'. Then, I started hearing all of these weird messages about people who used to live in the building saying. It was a ton of murmur, clear voices, and very closely strung-together words telling me to be careful with the electrical, and to know that there was a series of painful experiences that happened to those who used to live in the building.
The entire time my eyes were open and I could clearly and comprehensibly hear my neighbor talking on the phone next door. Then, even though I couldnt move my arms, I heard a voice say 'Sleep and think about what I have told you' and it felt as though someone had pulled the covers up over my shoulders'
Babe, it was the weirdest thing ever. lol I think I'm going insane. After I finally went to sleep and knew when I was actually dreaming. I had some really weird dreams as well where I was walking around the city and no one was giving me the time of day because they thought out I was strung out on drugs. In the dream, I thought that I had been drugged. I was lost, incoherent, I had a lack of control over my body and I desperately tried to get help from people around me. It didn't matter how much I tried to convince people that I was normal it was like they didn't even see me as a person, just some mental case. So nobody would give me directions. Then the dream switched, and I was normal again (like, me) and people were so much nicer and more responsive.
It was TERRIBLE! Hhahaha I'll explain later on the phone. This was more or less me trying to remember what happened in it! xos"
Okay so that was the message I sent this morning. I found out this morning that the building used to be a half-way house in the downtown east side of Vancouver for individuals who had drug addictions or living in poverty with mental disabilities.
Do not tell me that my mind simply made this up. I woke up with more sympathy for those who struggle with drug addiction, mental disabilities, etc. etc. It was a hauntingly beautiful experience, to say the least.
Wow, That is really
Wow, That is really incredible! Just reading your post was a reminder to keep compasion at the fore front of our dealings with all people. Would you say that you have had several "odd" types of experiences such as this through out your life?
P.S-I live in Edmonton, Vancouver is my favorite Canadian city, love the old buildings.
im not sure... ?
I remember having a dream i was with my family. I woke up but my eyes just wanted to close so badly , so i thought maybe my dream wants to tell me something? I closed them and my eyes were blinking every tine i tried opening them , i tried moving my legs but they would just shake , and i tried calling my sister but I couldnt speak . I didnt feel anythinq touch me or any of that. But wen my eyes were blinking and I could sort of see a women very pale with black hair . But this was my first time experiencing this . And im only 14. I dont know if i should prepare for the worst or just ignore it .....
It is definitely something outside our world!
I have experienced few times, but two of them were the strongest. Once I felt that someone was sitting on my chest and paralysed me completely. I could not open my eyes or move! Then steadily it started to disappear. Second time was quite recently when I was sleeping, but concious at the same time. I felt that something was tightening me in the blanket and trying to stop me moving and make me suffocate. I was trying my hardest to fight to it, I even felt pulling the blanket away from me. At that moment I thought to myself that I am stronger than then and they should be scared of me. I started winning over and then I woke up praying feeling my body being slowly released. I was very scared, I felt there is something in the room, I could not even open my eyes or look around I was that scared. I just pulled the blanket over me and tried to go back to sleep. My mum had similair experience when she felt something is sitting on top of her! She was even once fighting with it and she felt how her hands squeezed that something on top of her! Now. I am religious and I believe in ghosts simply because I saw and felt them before. I live in UK, where there are loads of old buildings full of hosts.I would love to believe in scientifical explanation here but it simply cannot be explained. I can assure you that there is something from outside world involved. It is not simply a ghost it is someone who is trying to take over our soul! Also as you might all now huge change is coming (26.12.12 they say) that is why it started happening more and more often! All you need to do is think that you are stronger than them and prey! Even if you don't believe in God you will see that prayer helps! Hope it helps. Thanks for sharing your experiences. I am glad I am not the only one.
yeah..... i have had the same
yeah..... i have had the same experience.. but i also felt that somebody is touching my hair too.......but the rest of things was same as you stated..... i think its just not a sleep paralyzing .. its something else..... anyway....... i read somewhere that its on brain coz it gives signal to the whole body....but i dunno.. what is it infact......
sleep paralysis
I have experienced sleep paralysis quite a few times but everytime only when I have slept out of routine. my experience has been a bit different than what others have experienced. it has occured every time at end of my sleep.
when I wake up I can open my lids only partially and have never seen any figure or personality in my room or on my chest. it is just that I can't move my limbs and feels my muscles stiffened. I am very well aware of my surroundings even the lighting of the room and have confirmed this after gaining full control of my body. everytime when I undergo such situation my extreme effort is to some how at least move my head and few times I have succeeded in doing so thus resulting in the end of my paralysis. but if unable I just go to sleep once again. I have never ever got panicked or frightened during such situation.
I had similar experiences
I had similar experiences when I was a teenager, but only if I fell asleep accidentally or took a nap. I didn't see any evil or scary looking things. I could see a little bit through my eyelashes and could hear the conversations going on. When this happened to me for the first time, I was 14 and thought that I had died or was in the process of it because I could not move. It really panicked me and I tried so hard to move or scream or be heard or noticed by the others in the room, but it was to no avail. Eventually, I woke up. When I tried to explain what happened to my father, he didn't believe me. My mother ended up taking me to the doc and he said that I probably had a lot of school stress going on and felt guilty about falling asleep when I had other things to do. He thought this may have triggered this terrible sleep paralysis. I am 36 now and have not had any problems with this since I was a 16. Best of luck that this will not happen to you again. I am glad you were able to cope with it better than me.
shadows
i see shadows moving on the ceiling. I always have a flashlight next to my bed, and every 10 seconds i use it and point it to the ceiling. Then i fall asleep, wake up, and i can't move because i'm terrified to get up. it last's a few minutes but it's really scary. I thought i was going insane until i found this article. Is there any medication for this?
since its almost the end of
since its almost the end of summer ive had to get back on my schedual for school. its only been two days waking up at 7. my mom wakes me up and takes me to my dads. yesterday i decided to stay up the rest of the day. but today i went to sleep in front of my sisters bedroom door(dont ask why cause i dont know). but i fell asleep and i had this wierd dream of a cat and dog screaming. the scream was like piercing my ears. i tried to wake up but i could only open one eye and i couldnt move. i tried to scream out my sisters name but nothing came out. then out of nowhere i could move again. i thought it was wierd but i didnt think to much of it. it happened about 4 more times this morning. im 13 and this is the first time this has ever happened. i am so scared right now.
i had the same thing
i cant remember the last time i had this like a few months ago i tried to scream but i could only mumble and i couldnt move, i told my mom and bro and they said its prabobly a nighmare or something i dont want to believe this because i can see my ceiling, i tried talking crap to it or whatever it was i think everyone should try this just incase it works i tried i think it helped i havebt had any of this thank god
I just had this happen to me...
I dreamed I was lying in my bed in bedroom with lights switched off.I started hearing continuous buzzing sound and took a look outside the window,I noticed it was dark with a very tall radio(or was it television tower) tower at distance.I could'nt see towers base,only middle body and its tip.I was sort of looked at the tower with strange but vague feeling(probably because there is no tower of any kind in my real life home's window).Then,
Whooshhhh!!!(probably that sorta sound) and I felt like whole room kinda shook like hit by some blast and I fell to ground,oddly or conviniently, in a way that first thing I saw was the tower outside my window with its tip glowing brightly and I could actually see the radio or whatever waves it was emitting,the waves were similar to ripples on water surface except they were in sky.The tip of the tower glowed very bright and emitted very bright and pulsing radio waves at regular interval (regular waves I could see were kind of faint and transparent and they did not emit light).One such bright wave came toward my window and all went intensely bright all of sudden and I sort of half wake up,I could hear my mom next room talking to domestic helper.I tried to sit up and felt dizzy all of sudden and all went dark.
When I opened my eyes I was still in bedroom.It was well lit with fluroscent tube lights.I was lying on my back and my head was tilted to left but I was staring at ceiling.I remembered about the tower and tried to move my head to right to look at the window and I found out I could not move..at all.No movement in hands,legs,head what so ever,I could only move my eyes.At the moment I could find buzzing sound intensified.I just lay there thinking what could be radio tower be looking like then I thought how would my family react when they find me in this state.At this thought,immediatly my family were there in the room doing things like administering medicine and putting the wet cloth on my forehead(like they do in fever and it was still a dream because my brother has moved to different city in real life).BAMM! I blinked or passed out.
When I opened my eyes I was in same room with same position,facing away from window and still paralysed and alone.I tried again to look at the window but still couldn't move.I tried calling mom in next room ,I could move my lips but only air came out.I lay there thinking about my predictament and a thought came to me about burglars.I realised how vulnerable I am and immediately right side of my peripherial vision went dark and I could see a shadow blob with vague shape there(rest of my vision could see the room well lit).It moved close to me and probably tried to smother me,I don't know for sure because I immediately put up resistance.I sort of blocked it with both of my hand held out in front of me,at the same time feeling both my arms paralysed at my sides.I am still not sure how could I raise both my hand in front of me at the same time feel them paralysed at my side.Then the second blackout occured.
Same room,same condition,same posture.This time I managed to move my head straight toward ceiling and it sort of lulled to right.But my eyeslids were now starting to get heavy,I tried to see the tower but remembered there is no tower outside my window then slowely I woke up and could move and found out I had displaced the rug on me and was feeling the cold.The mom was still next room doin some work.I got fresh and immedietly fired up google and ended up here.
this is not scientific
im typing this right right after i woke up, and im really scared now, something just happened to me that pretty much proves that its not scientific, or a disorder )at least in my case, in my previous comments i told u that in the dream there is an old woman sitting on my chest.. she returned but this time its so unexplainable that it frightens the hell out of me, and i dont believe in ghosts or anything paranormal untill now
i was going to bed, and most of the time when i get the attacks i can feel it coming, before it even starts, and i had that exact feeling and i was little nervous, so i let my dog in the room to sleep with me, he always lays by the door and goes right to sleep when i shut off the lights..
i watched some tv and got pretty tired.. i thought the feeling was gone so i turned off the tv and tried to sleep, and what do u know, the earbuzzing started.. from my past expiriences i knew that if i fight it it will return seconds later. and to be honest im done fighting that feeling so i ´´let it go all the way´´ the earpressure got so intence, and after like 20 seconds my body went numb, i felt a presence around me, so i tried to look (without being able to move my head)
and suddenly i saw her, in the corner of my room starring at me. i tried to scream but it didnt work, for some reason i could only whisper without using my voice out loud,she walked up to me and stood at the end of my bed, i can clearly remember saying: who are you, and then she awnsered: bruja... i felt a burning on my chest and stomach, it hurted like hell! (ive never expirienced pain in a dream) but this was real pain! she walked away from me and went back to the corner from wich i saw her first. then i woke up with a shock, why? because my dog was barking.. with his head facing that corner, in total shock i came up and tried to calm him but he kept barking at that spot like he saw it too, his hair was standing straight up and he wouldnt stop showing his teeth, my dog almost never barks and he has never acted like that before, in shock i ran outside into the yard untill i calmed down, i just couldnt believe it. when i came back the barking stopped but he was still sniffing around in that spot.. and then i looked at myself in the mirror and noticed that my skin was slightly red (on my chest and belly) and if i touch it it still feels weird, not painfull, but not like normal! i didnt know what to think, the only thing running through my mind was fear, and the word bruja.. i didnt knew what it ment (im dutch) so i looked it up on google. and correct me if im wrong but if i search bruja it says that it means witch in spanish, that ofcourse freaks me out even more. right after founding that out i started writing this comment, and i feel tottaly hopeless because if this is true, then im fucked (sorry for my language but ill hope u can understand) i dont believe in witches or magic souls or wathever but now i cant help but believing that she is real, i dont know what to do now, and i know for a fact now that this has nothing to do with a sleep disorder or something like it, and ill hope you all will believe me because i know it sounds strange or even funny to you guys, but im shivvering and sweating like a pig while writing this. i dont know what to type else.. but this kinda calms me down .. ive seen in some movies that witches are burnt to death, so thats why i think she let me feel the burning sensation, im terrified to go back to sleep, or to even enter my room, i think my dog is still there so im going to check on him. i hope i get some usefull replies to this, or maybe some person who expirienced the same (i highly doubt it) also when you feel the earbuzzing, snap out of it, i will never let it get a hold of me again (i hope) and to the people here who have pets, let them sleep in your room and let me know if you notice anything strange about them too because i know i didnt dream the part where he was barking at her. i was fully awake at that point. And my skin is still red
iv seen her to but just in
iv seen her to but just in dreams she hasent come to me in life yet
SPIRITUAL
Hey I too believe this have something connected with spiritual things.
Its hard to explains, but i had lot of sleep paralysis every months
It tired me out.
Hope we can share more of our opinions.
hi
Hi Kenneth, while i had been through the similar experience but with multiple figures trying to harm me. i had been facing since many time in childhood, but as i grew up i thought that i myself have to fight this as i could not explain this to anyone. Now i have come of it. i understand how disgusting the feeling is once you go with such experience. What i would suggest is to keep a book of Jesus or any god you believe beneath your pillow & while you go for sleep chant god's name. Also when you see any such figure start chanting god's name to give you strength. Just try this once & let me know..
Book of Enoch
Hi Kenneth, I've had some of those dreams too, once it was in a house were an ex viet was living, he said he could never sleep because the ghosts of the people he killed were hunting him, so I had a lot of experiences in that house, you know, evil presence, shadow looking at me... couldn't move, couldn't speak. I haven't had any experience since a long time ago, but just this morning I had one... let me tell you that if you made a research on the Book of Enoch 1, they talk about the fallen angels on the time of the flood, it says about how they came to earth and got women for them, had children who were called the giants and taught women all secrets of the stars... and brought a bad time of oppression to human beings, so Raphael the angel talked to God, God said to destroy and kill the fallen angels sons and chained them on earth until the judgement day, and those where then called the evil spirits who will be traying to lead us away from the ways of God. You know, God made us perfect and pure like angels, but we got corrupted on the way. On the new testament you read how Jesus had the power to release demons, and gave that power to his apostles, so i think it is important to pray God because this is real stuff that is happening... all of us who have experienced this know it! Good luck man, search for light on scriptures and may God be with you!
sleep paralysis
Please pray or get somone to bless the house and you . Praying jesus name over and over will help to wake up .
It's more frequent
I'm having similar dreams / nightmares and they are happening more often and getting strange. After reading all the posts here glad others are experiencing similar or I should not say glad but interesting I'm not the only one. I just woke up from one about a hour ago . I was upstairs and my son was downstairs , I could hear everything going on in the house , but in my bed I couldn't move or talk , tried calling out to him to come up but couldn't move or talk and I was in slow motion while everything else was normal speed. There was a dark shadow next to me and I heard howling wind . Then I felt arms around me from underneath holding me down. As I tried to get up the arms held me down almost felt like they were tickling me to make me weak. For some reason I started to recite the lords prayer , the voice then whispered ' you know how ' then was standing beside by bed and I sat up quick . I turned the light on and got out of bed ASAP looked in the mirror and I had dark circles under my eyes and I was a bit shaken . For some reason I have a picture of a small figure in my head standing next to my bed with a big head and a large mouth with yellow dirty teeth and like war paint on it's face , just standing there looking at me , kinda growling .
I have started acupuncture for a surgery I had a couple years ago and my therapist says it's past pain working it's way out . What ever it is it's scary
I've been getting this for
I've been getting this for years. It's the worse thing ever, and only the people who get it know the feeling. One question I have - the person who wrote the above article and researched it, has he or she ever experienced this? Because let me tell you that if he or she has then he would not think that explaination he/she gave was correct. What we experience is pure evil. Sometimes I think I won't be able to come out of it. I'm afraid I'll die like that. If my husband is beside me in bed and I get that, the only think i can do is move my toes (so i try to keep my feet near his just in case) and touch my husband. Or I breath really hard and he knows I need him to move me so I get open my eyes / wake up. although I'm not sleeping. I'm awake. I wish someone could find out what this really is and how to stop it. Old wives tales have a prayer for this. I have said it, but it still happens. During it, I try to pray in my mind as well and sometimes it doesn't even let complete the prayer. Now a days, its gotten worse, where I am actually dreaming and having it in my dreams.
will get back to u guys
alot of people have replied to my experience, but im at work now, so i will reply to all of you in the evening. hang in there scared sleepyheads :P
Recently started experiencing...Plz help
i do not believe in ghosts..but at the same time i'm scared of them.I experienced it recently twice..when i was sleeping and felt as if somebody was on bed wd me.and then i losing control over my body.plz explain if its ghostly act or sleep paralysis.
ghosts
i dont think its an evil spirit, because when you are scared, the dreams that will folow are usually scary too, because the earbuzzing is a frightning expirience, the dream that follows is scary too, but i do think its strange that almost evrybody sees a woman, child or cat staring at them, without giving you any attention, with me its an old woman sitting on my chest, i will write more about it tonight. bcause im at work now
greets
sleep peralzed
this happened to me when i was 17 i was sleeping on my back and my brain was awake and i can hear everything that goes on around me but i cant move or speak at all but i can see someone standing over me but i can see from the shoulder down but not the face of the person, that person was dressed in full black gown and trying to hold me down and i was trying so hard to fight to wake up and i would not move it is so scary and it happened to me a few times after that and i just stay relax and then i wake up and sometimes while i am awake it happens to me also my body would not move atall i have to try to fight to get out of that position that i am in, its like my brain just zones out and i cant move i am so scared to go to sleep at night please help me if theres any medication that i can take for this please let me know i dont know what to do should i go to the emergency room or what please let me know thank you
had this for 7 years
ive talked about this on another health forum, but this one seems more up to date, btw the researched helped me alot!
this is one post, 1 night of the many terrified attacks:
i had it again last night after partying with some friends.
i used to think that i was the only one who ended up in a bad dream, but the person above me expirienced it too, this time i wrote down evrything right after it happened (because dreams mostly fade away right after waking up)
this is what happened:
at 5.00 pm i was lying in bed, really tired but i couldnt sleep, the buzzing and ear contractions started again, and i knew i was gonna end up in a horrible dream (expirienced it many times before), so i tried to snap out of it, it always works in the beginning..
but the buzzing starts again after like 10 seconds, snapped out of it again untill i was so tired of fighting it, so i let it go all the way.
the buzzing, (in ears and eyes) got so intence and suddnly i was in the dream, i saw an old mean woman staring through me, i was so shocked but couldnt snap out of the dream, like the person above me said its always a dream of someone looking at you but the person doesnt give you any attention, its the strangest dream u could possibly have, and i only have those after i the earbuzzing.
the woman kept staring at me and it felt like i couldnt do a thing, its like seeing a ghost, your just so shocked that nothing moves or works anymore, total shock and awe..
i dont remember how i woke up, but when i tried going back to sleep evrything was normal again.
i have this 'thing' like 1 time evry month, and its getting so annoying, mostly because i hate the feeling, and i know that the dream that follows is really scary, not like scary movies or nightmare scary.. but a feeling of fright and lonelyness, i really hope we can keep this topic alive because this is the only place on the internet that is related to the subject, and most of us epirience the exact same thing
if someone found a way to snap out of it so that it doesnt return for the night i would be really happy
excuse my crappy grammar, greetings from holland
Read more: Sleep Disorders Forum - Ear Sensations - pressure in my inner ears
Sleep Positions?
I noticed I am a state of sleep paralysis when I am sleeping in an awkard position in a vehicle (close to a 35-75 degree angle). However, when I was closer to a 90 degree angle, I would be ok (maybe because my head leans forward, and my brain immediately takes me out of this paralysis).
Secondly, I have insomnia, and feel this is also a cause of sleep paralysis.
I gotta admit, what scares me the most, is when I see my kids trying to play with me, and I am afraid, that I won't wake up. I try so hard to move, but it really sux.
After a few mths without this condition, I just received it again tonite. I fell asleep around 11:11pm. I was totally awake and moving by 12:02 am (past midnight). Prior to this though, I thought I heard someone trying to break into the house, then seen shadows near my computer screen. I guess when u do panic, it really takes over your brain, because you just want to get up immediately to stop the intruder, or discover the spirit. Your heart pounds faster, your breathes are quicker, and you don't want to close your eyes again, because, just as I felt, that this intruder will try to harm u and/or your family.
I wonder if there is any cures for this, considering Im afraid it may become more frequent.
Fear
I have had this experience quite a bit and it always seems to be the same thing that happens. I don't know if it is sleep paralysis or if I am experiencing hallucinations. It always happens while I'm sleeping. I can feel someone slowly crawling into bed with me. I feel it and I am to scared to open my eyes. I can feel my heart racing as the feeling that someone is crawling closer and closer too me. Maybe I am just crazy:(
Awful feeling :-/
I've been having these awful feelings as well I'm 27 and this has been happening for yrs .. I'll be half awake & feel such a strong negative energy in my rm and feel it get on top of me , that I can't move and feel as it goes threw my body . How are u dealing with this ?
you are Not crazy
You are not crazy.I have suffered a similar situation when I was 7 years old.My mom died from a brain aneurysm when I was 6 years old.My brother and I was home with her when she collasped.But getting back to the point,I was trying to go to sleep one night until I felt the bed shake and shrink,as though somebody was getting up on the bed with me.I turned,thinking that it was my older brother.Nobody was their.This happened about several times before I got up and cried to my family about the bed moving.They didnt believe me.These were No hallucinations.When I gave my life to Christ,I have never suffered from sleep paralisis again.I am 16 years old now and this is my testimony.I suggest to all you who reads this comment to accept my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.He will change your life.He will protect from hurt,harm and danger.For those of you out there who is going through this problem,I am praying for all of you and one more thing.The next time you you go through this problem,pray!Call on the name of Jesus,and just watch how God starts to move.Just some encourgement from a friend!God bless and take care.
this just happend to me
im 16..... i was up a lil early.. just browsing the web, and i start to get tired. so i layed down on my bed. and book like 10 seconds later i tried moving , and i cudnt move.. i was really scared...........tried movin evrything but only my eyelids moved a bit....then like 10 sec later i was normall.. i thot it was just something weird at fits. so i went back to lay down.. and it happend agen.and i cud really breathe good. i tried screaming my sisters name but nothing came out.... but inoe m brain was working (: because i thought to m self that when this stopped ima going to get on google and searc" when i layed down i couldnt mve or speak at all" and this came up.. thanks very much! but now im scared to sleep.. and im really tired tho......
Sleep Paralysis
Hello,
Ive been suffering from sleep paralysis for just under a year. Like you I was 16 and since then I have been experiencing more attacks now I have turned 17. I read through this particular Sleep Paralysis study and found your response the most interesting. The reason for this is that you mentioned that you call out your sisters name, something I also do. And like you I can not feel the name leave me but I feel as though I am calling to her. My other symptoms are more general such as straining my eyes to open and flickering blackouts while my body tries to catch up with my mind.
I was just wondering if you found a solution to the problem. If you could contact me on my email
Laura x
Alex T.
omg i feel you this happend to me so i went on google search because i thought it was really wierd .. i thought that if i would shut my eyes i might not wake up again and im only 16.. im way to young
Looking for answers
Im 23 years old and memories of my childhood are raw i have never understood certain aspects of my life and although my life is closer to normal now my childhood memories still haunt me and i will always wonder what it all meant. When i was 5 i was diagnosed with a rare form of epelepsy. I wasnt responding to treatments for the first year and my epelepsy got progressivly worse. befor i can remember i would dream about these girls who would torment me in my dreams and do unthinkable violent things to me i remember sometimes i would wake up and have seizures i remember one in particular i was about 6 or 7 and i couldnt move but i could hear and see my mother was screaming and my dad was craddeling me in his arms running down the stairs at our old house and saw my wrists were bleeding i thought that the "mean girls" had gotten me yet it was like i was parralised no movement not even any emotion but still aware of what was happening. I woke up in hosptial and my wrists were fine I told my dad about the mean girls and he spent the next few nights with me in my room i woke up screaming and felt pinned to my bed by both of my upper arms and torso i could move my legs and head but oddly my dad just picked me up with no effort and i remember i ran to my bedroom door and curled up watching my dad as he screamed, cursed and told them to leave.
After this incident the mean girls dissapeared and i started responding to a certain medication for my epelepsy which kept it under control i still struggeled with siezures from time to time till my 9th birthday. Then the siezures just stopped. But my connection to the spiritual world has never stopped as a child i never knew what to make of this experience i ignored it for most of my childhood things i would remember, see or hear. Memories of the mean girls was abit conflicting as a child i remember having a discussion with my family members about a particular memory of them thinking it really happened and they explained that the memory was from my dreams. I guess im searching for answers as to what it meant. Can something that bad just leave someones life i feel like even though they left me they never really left me.
Since then many unexplained things have happened but i only remember being restrained once and i woke up opened my eyes i couldnt move or breath and then after a few seconds i was gasping for air.
Im scared. What do i do.
It just happend to me about 20 mins ago for the second time. Unfortunately this time it happend worse. Same as most. But i dont remember any spiritual happenings. Also my ex just so happend to be into witchcraft? and i told him about it and he said it was a spiritual meening and i was in danger but i diddnt know how that was true.... Each of the two times. i loose my breath for any amount of seconds. I cannot open my eyes nor move. i tried speaking during the first time it happend and actually got a hummmm out but nothing loud enough to alert anyone out of the room. i was doomed. Is there any cure or pills i can take from this ever happening again. I felt like i was dying and had no air to breath. please help me.
The best thing to do is make
The best thing to do is make yourself calm down you will come out of it a lot easier , I am not religious so don't use jesus name or prayer as many on here seem to , maybe it works for them because it makes them fell calm .
Get away from withcraft
Well first of all,get away from withcraft.Second of all,try to see a doctor about any sleeping problems you may have.Third of all and most important,I would strongly suggest that you accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and your saviour.Your ex might be right.Satan is working in this world,and my Lord and saviour Jesus christ will protect from his evil works.I know this might sound crazy to you,but the next time you expirience an evil spirit,just close your eyes call on the name of Jesus,believe and have faith in Him and He will deliver you from evil one.I speak from expirience but also my older sister can testify about the goodness of our most high God.Also try to get your ex to turn to Christ,and beleve me,He will change your lives.Just some suggestions from a friend.God bless and take care!
same thing just happened to
same thing just happened to me im scared.. imm only 16.. and i wasnt even sleeping.. i just laided down. to go to sleep and booom...... it haapend
So Sleep Paralysis is what its called
I was about 14 years old when I started to have this sleeping disorder. There was one time that I had sleep paralysis for 4 days straight and I would see and feel scary stuff. Once I saw many spirits in one sleep paralysis night. There was a half body walking(from waist to feet only), there were dwarfs, there were fluffy white things that goes through my arm to my ear and a lot of things. It was very scary. I even remembered me praying mentally but I couldn't seem to finish the prayer.
I thought this was because I wasn't a religious person that's why they were bothering me. What even scared me most was my previous classmate's brother died because of this too and since I was experiencing it quite often back then I though I was going to die early too. When I grew older, I'm 19 now, I started to ignore this disorder. I thought to myself that there's no use struggling so I just let it and sleep the hell of myself. :) Works for me that way.
Happened to me a few times to.
I looked up this due to it have happened to me before and a friend of mine.
I'm pretty sure it have happened more than these times but there are two I remember the most.
The first one were I felt I woke up and saw a shadow-like figure standing on the chair I sit on when I am on my computer. ( the computer and chair is on the back end of the bed so you can see directly to it. I tried to move but felt I had no strength in my arms and when I finally felt I went a few cm up from bed I just fell down again. I could hear my mother from the kitchen and tried to scream but didn't work. Not that there weren't any but my mouth just didn't want to open. Then I "woke up" for real I think. And saw my mother looking into my brother's room and mine ( they beside each other on each side of a corner.) I was so afraid she might be the shadow figure due to the light was behind her so I saw more darkness than her face etc. Then when she had moved out of sight I ran out of my room :P.
The second one was I woke up. And heard voices of ghosts like females like they were flying by my ears back and forth. Small then the sound got higher then down again and so on. I tried to block my ears with my hands but nothing moved. I couldn't move at all when I tried to hit the wall to warn my family or something like that I felt I just had to do it. Same here I tried to scream but didn't work. Soon after I saw a female like shadow figure beside my bed. She laughed or something and I felt my chest were heavy like she pushed me down or so. I tried to move my legs but didn't work and I tried to hit the wall again but didn't work that either so I tried to kick a few times and after 4-5 times I were able to kick the way the shadow like figure stood and around then "I woke up". Sounds gone. Figure gone etc. I just sat on my bed a minute terrifed. ( The sounds were the scariest )
I'm Scared to Sleep on My Back
Most nights I can sleep, and relax but its when I turn to sleep on my back that scared me. I'm 29yrs old, male and latino, I also tend to sleep on my side/or belly, sometimes unknowingly I must turn and sleep on my back and this is when I start to go into Sleep Paralysis, and even though I'm sleeping, I when I'm going into Paralysis, I am aware of whats happening and where I'm going. its pitch black, I can hear, and feel where I am at, and for those that are around me during this time, I ask that when I hum/or move my toes or fingers during my sleep I'm really asking to WAKE ME UP! During Paralysis I cannot speak, or swallow, I feel as though I am focused on trying to wake up, hold on to the saliva building up towards the back of my throat, I then multi-task myself to start moving my fingers, toes, head, sometimes... I try to turn myself using my shoulders as though I'm pushing myself to the side.
When I wake up... I breath
I am so glad I found this artical
I have had the same exact experiences. It's always when I am on my back; I try to wiggle my toes or hands to wake myself up. I hear growling when I start to go into sleep paralysis, yet I know while I am hearing the noise it is an audio hallucination. I never see anything while I am witnessing the growling as I am sleeping. As the years have passed, I have progressed to waking up to a ghostly figure, yet it disappears quickly. I have woke up to my cat's eyes looking at me, it took me awhile to figure out it was the cat. I go to touch the cat only to see my hand go right through the figure. Then I look to my side to see my real cat sleeping nice and sound. I have awaken to a male work associate looking at my from my bedroom door. I know it is not a ghost because the man I know for a fact is alive. The manly figure disappeared in front of my face, so I know he was never actually there; it is really creepy. I am an atheist... so I am hoping it’s just my brain that is still asleep. I think I am passed the age where schizophrenia would develop. I am 27 female
Dark entity
I've had this happen to me right as I woke up and started moving my toes. I suddenly saw everything in the room darken and a dark wispy entity was standing over me holding me down. I honestly don't know why I feared it because all it was doing was standing there. I was afraid and trying for dear life to call out to someone but it came out so quietly that it was a mumble. It finally moved away from me and everything blacked out and I sat up a minute later fully awake.
I personally find it weird how this topic focuses so heavily on one (1) event relating to "dark spirits". Every person that writes an article on this field always mentions dark spirits as the only real hallucination that people are concerned about. I don't mean to disprove science, nor come off as a religious fanatic. But wouldn't a spirit be able to offset the chemical(generalized term) balances in ones head simply from being so close to a creature of another build?
Food for thought more or less.
dark entity
i agree with you i've been having this problem for a long time and it scares me to death i could tell when this entity is in my room he wakes me up when i am in a deep sleep but i know when he's there cause i can feel him so i pray in my head and he goes away but i can move when he there in my room im just too scare to look at him and also this entity tries to pull me into a deep sleep and i try and fight soo hard to stay awake cause it seems like he wants to take my soul i dont believe is sciencetifical i believe there is something evil because why soo many people experience this evil entity
exactly d same thing happens
exactly d same thing happens to me like u said it try to pull me into deep sleep ...what it is ..it should be seriously researched ..
scared
This has happend to me 3 times. It is the most scary fealing in the world :( when it happens i dont no what to do or if ill ever wake up i try and yell my sisters name but nothing comes out. every time this has happend to me i was on my tummy and i felt like a animal like a cta was walking on my back i had also lost a cat and i was very upset about it so i think it might of been his spirit coming back to see me or i just have a disorter v.v i hope it doesnt happen again.