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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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Comments
dreams and reality, eletromagetic metaphysics
I've been thinking about some physics concepts in this and have reached an interesting theory
at a metaphysical level.
"To tell dreams from reality, would be to always be correct. as in in a dream, you are always correct. and in reality, you aren't."
when I realized that over the summer but realized something amazing now, in order to be correct the such would have to be perceived. And for something to be perceived, it would require certain atomic particles. The electrons allow the screen to be seen and in the electron clouds that sustain the perception (when hit with a photon and resulting into quanta= light) are in a quantum environment. Basically, allowing an infante number of results of perception. But furthering this, an infante number of results to be perceived due to the electromagnetic hold they have. (literally, at a metaphysical level, every1 having different opinions.) But it is also these infante number of metaphysical RESULTS.
In this understanding, if you agree, you would do somthing, if you didn't, you wouldn't. Also furthering Freud and how our dreams would tell how we feel in what would appear as a GUESS. In the same way the electromagnetic electron cloud is in that quantum state and is hardly feasible for a way to say "there is an electron here" why IN THE SAME WAY if you tell som1 that you've listened to them, they'll seem to change their mind.
But this goes further. If you imply the electromagnetic metaphysical concept, you can realize that som1 is able to think clearly when they feel connected and KNOWING OF their surroundings. In which, to feel contus and knowing, the self would have to be feeling electromagnetically connected to it, simply, to have memory of what's going on and feel SAFE. But in which, if som1 would feel completely connected and feeling correct, the self may regard the surroundings as DREAM *also not to mention, in the quantum environment of the electrons, TIME is literally "fluid".* But if the self cannot handle uncertainty, literally *I my self at times* a control freak, likely they will feel controlled by other surroundings. Resulting though, a lowered sense of what the person perceives as SELF
*eg- god, spirit, alternate personality, other person in the room, any other source of perceived electromagnetic activity
(yet I fear that this theory may make all love frivolous and pointless... o_0...)
:D
For as long as I can remember
For as long as I can remember I have have strange waking dreams. Started out as a large shadow man watching me at night, a small weird man sitting on the end of my bed watching me to now,30 plus years later,ghosts,objects,humming,small humanoids and large spiders. My dr thinks I have a chemical imbalance. My hubby has strange waking dreams and ``attacks`` at night too. His didn`t start untill we moved into an old apartment 12 years ago. We moved about 3 imes since but we feel like something is following us. My kids have strange occurances too,my daughter especially, she tells me she sees a tall dark shadow man watching her and buzzing. She has floated in the air a couple times over her bed and just like I used to do, astro projects herself. Quite often we see deceased family members and things move by themselves. Friends who come over think it`s we have ghosts but it`s fun when we are trying to sleep. All the scary stuff happens after 3 am but not later than 5 or 5:30 am
Your dreams
My name is Zachary Hicks and from what I have heard from your story these "dreams" are affecting not only you, but also your husband and your kids. It is not your fault in any way because of these weird things happening to your family as well as you, bad and good things happen to both bad and good people. Pain and suffering are impartial and affect everyone. In your case and the case of others I have found that there is something much more than just a dream going on with SP victims. I'm no expert by any means but what I have read and heard lead me to believe that there are spiritual forces involved. I encourage you to think not about these forces (with your own realization that these things may exist) but instead about who is stronger than demons: God. At no time am I suggesting that you have to believe or take my advice. I merely want to give what I can to help, realize God is stronger (and this is shown in the Bible) His power over demons so I suggest that you call on his name when having these occurances mentally or out loud if you can. Go to God in prayer and I will pray for you also. My e-mail is if you need anything.
A soundless explosion of light in my head
I've suffered from sleep paralysis off and on over the years. I can't pin down why it comes on. When it does happen, I am usually able to snap myself out of it by sheer force of will. It does take a lot of mental effort to break myself out of it. Usually this means I try to turn over and I have to really mentally strain in order to do it. But at some point, something snaps and suddenly I'm able to move again.
Not sure if this is related, but on occasion I'll also experience this sleep-related effect: I'll be drifting off to sleep and suddely there's a flash of light accompanied by kind of a weird burst sensation in my head. It's painless and there are no ill effects. The best I can describe it would like like a painless, soundless explosion going off in my head. This soundless explosion of light does nothing more that startle me awake.
About the burst of light/
About the burst of light/ sensation in your head, i can relate.. in a way i guess. Sometimes when i'm falling asleep, right at the point of being asleep, i'll get this jolt in the middle of my chest and in my head, i can describe it as a surge of electricity hitting me, it doesn't hurt though, it startles me and i'll be fully alert. I don't know if this is related to sleep paralysis, i've only had it happen to me once (the paralysis) and it scared me to death, lasted for like 5 seconds and i tried my best to move, my heart was pounding and there was something under the covers that was coming towards me, then i woke up with a jolt, as i described above.
The soundless explosion
I felt something very similar. It was almost like someone took a camera flash right to my face while i was sleeping. The difference is when i felt it, it wasn't completely soundless, a very sharp sound just like "*click* ZIP" when through my head and made me wince a little. Nothing extremely painful but enough to wake me up fully.
Did you ever find out what the cause was?
I found a name for it:
I found a name for it: Exploding Head Syndrome. A quick Google search will bring up lots of relevant results. I'd post a link, but I don't know if that's allowed since I didn't see any others.
i think that I have sp
i t all started last year on my 47th birthday ,I was always happy with my life , until this sweetheart of a girlfriend touched my life. I think that she is more in love with me than I am because I am a very light sleeper anything like noises outside will wake me up. I didn't have this problem my whole life until last year like I said, I think A m scared if she leaves me I will be so heart broken that I feel like killing myself , but there is more in life to do sometihng like that. the spirits are with me all the time e ven in the daytime when I am working and when I am at home relaxing ,but I don't feel it as much when she is around me ,I wake up some night in a cold sweats or hot ones or sometimes my right side of my face will feel hotter than the other side ,I aways had cold hands all my life but it seems to go away when my girlfriend is around me and I am more relaxed with here. i feel like there is something like you see on those tv Frankienstien show when someone is up on the body stretcher and is getting pulled apart that is how I feel like when i wake up in the morning .
it feels scary and I am frightened been by myself somedays
I wish that it would go away and leave me alone so I can get on with me life the way it used to be before I met my girlfriend.even those she loves me and I love her as well but mainly I have visoins theat someone is in the room with me an dI feel like telling them to shut up , My whole life I had split personality , like my first name is ALAN and my seconfd name is Roderick ,alan is a calm cool and colitive type person that is easy going and relaxed , but when I get lose my temper on doing something like working on a project that isn't going the way that is when Roderick get s in my way and loses everything and gets out of control with his life and I don't think that you want to be around Roderick at all , thatis all I have to say for now please response to this comment and put it up on with the rest of the posts ok
SP! but alot of shaking
last night i went to bed a 3 and woke up like at 5 and had a panic attach i was trying to call out for my sister but she couldn't hear me. i kept trying to move but i couldn't. i was so scared i kept trying to sleep but i kept seeing things and hearing weird things. then when i got up to go to the bathroom i started to shake so badly. i couldn't even use the bathroom. so i went down stairs to drink water and the water slipped cause my hands and feet were shaking so much!
did this happen cause i took a nap earlier in the day. then didnt sleep till 3 am? im so confused and scared please someone anyone help me!! you can email me at lorjonali@yahoo.com
i just want to know whats happening to me. ive never shaked that much in my life. i was walking like a robot and i had trouble breathing also :(
Similar SP
Ive had this since I was a small child and I dont have the spiritual element to it. I seem to get SP when ive had a dream or if I want to go back to sleep again. Its as if my mind had had its fall 7-8 hours worth of sleep but my body is still tired and thats when I going into a state of Paralysis. My body just freezes up I may be able to move my finger but thats it and the calling out. Your terrified of whats happening so your calling for someone and you can hear yourself speaking but they cant. It was at its worse today as I have a cold so my body was in paralysis and my breathing was awful so it sent me in a real panic, which made things worse but its the fact people cant hear you thats the worrying bit as 1 time it may be so bad you do need help
Scared Of Sleep
This has been happening to me quite frequently over the years. During some of these "episodes", I will feel as if I'm being spun around and my body will feel as if it is floating, and just being spun around and around. I'll hear the wind as if I'm moving at a high rate of speed. Sometimes it is frightening and I'll fight it. When I'm laying in my bed trying to snap out of it, I'll think I'm actually screaming but I'm not making a sound at all. At other times, like if my husband is in the room with me, I will tell myself to just go with the flow, to see what would happen. I always feel as if I'm about to have a revelation if I just go with it, but the sensation of flying always freaks me out too much to give in to it for too long. Sometimes I think I hear voices and will feel a presence and it feels like it takes sooooo much effort too scream for help or even move for that matter. Last night was the worst episode to date. I was just drifting off, when I woke myself internally screaming (again, trying to scream, but I'm not making any actual sound). I couldn't shake the feeling that something was right next to me. Everytime I would start to drift off, I had the sensation of my leg or arm being pulled. I ended up trying to fall asleep for about an hour. Its weird cause, just when I feel myself going under, I can feel the fear start up again and I would end up fightng to stay awake. I was too frightened this time to even turn on my light. There are times when I think I feel the bed shaking and a loud noise as if a plane was taking off or there was a locomotive going by right next to my bed.It wasn't until after I did a little online research, that I actually began to calm myself down during these states and see where they take me. I wonder if these aren't something more spiritual, since science hasn't been able to fully explain this yet. I feel much better knowing that I'm not going crazy or just have an overactive imagination. Sweet Dreams to the rest of you out there.
need help?
What if your partner had it and she got out of it well i was a wake i felt her kick me like a little kick i looked at her and she couldent speek eyes open and i can see in her eyes something was wrong like she was trying to move it took 40 secz intill she got up and said im scared she dident tell me what happen....maybe becuz i wouldent beleave, so she goes back to sleep im still up trying to sleep trying to think what happen to her time past and i think im sleeping i start hearing this loud bussing in my ears and cant move i force my eyes open everything looked like i had 3d glases on so 3 colors on everthing last for a wille tryed to scream but only screaming in my head. was on my back trying to move but on can move my finger just so little untill i tryed forseing my arm to move intill i snaped out of it and just hit the wall from the side of the bed woke up my partner and told her she said thats what happen to me....so is it like a yawn were if one person does it the other one will? i beleave in ghost and i rember her grandma came over with a doc ppl that do all the witch craft stuff but it cant be that but is it contagious?
SP
Okay. So, I don't get sleep paralysis as often as some of you do. But I do get them on a regular basis such as, 2 a month or 1 every other month. Now, some I don't really recollect but I do remember the first 2 SP I ever had.
First one:
I was sleeping, I had just laid down and closed my eyes. Like any other person, I was thinking about what I had to do tomorrow and what I wanted to do etc. I don't remember falling asleep but I eventually did. I ended up waking up shortly after (btw I was sleeping face up with my hands on the side of my face) with a feeling of someone chocking me. As I starred in front of me ,completely freaked out, a black shadow began to form and it had it's mouth open as if it were yelling/screaming at me. I remembered trying to call out to my sister to wake me up but no sound would come out whenever I did. I tried to move but my hands felt like they were pinned to the mattress and I couldn't move. Eventually I woke up and I don't really remember how the last part played out, but as soon as i felt like I could move I sat up and started screaming, I blinked and I was sitting up in my bed ,with my mouth open as if I were yelling. I was scared (pardon my language) shitless. It was horrible. I couldn't go to sleep after an hour or so.
2nd experience:
This one ,I gotta say, was just as scary. I laid down, taking a nap before I actually fell asleep (I was gonna take an hour nap then finish some house chores up etc then sleep) when a thought crossed my mind. I hope I don't have an SP. I ended up falling asleep on my side. Suddenly I woke up and I felt like someone was right behind me, leaning in and breathing in my ear. I tried to move but I couldn't. I looked at my bedroom door and I saw my parents, brother, and sister taking right outside the hallway and I tried to call out to them but I couldn't speak. I started to freak out because I couldn't move my hands anymore (I had them near my face, crossing each other) and felt as if someone were pinning them down. I ended up waking up and going to my mom's room to 'relax'( to feel more safe with my parents) before going to bed again. I swear I looked completely freaked out, I had told my parents and they told me it was an evil demon or something (my parents are catholic and my mom is extremely religious) so she told me to pray 'Our father' whenever that happend.
Okay, anyway. This time I'm going to talk about my most recent SP and the strangest because it didn't follow the regular pattern from all my other SP experiences. So this time it was 3:30am-4:00 AM and had just finished studying when I went into my room and tried to fall asleep, almost instantly I fell asleep but next thing you know, I'm awake. I start to move my eyes around but I can't seem to get my body to react. I try to call out but my voice either doesn't come out, it comes out as a raspy whisper, or I was hallucinating said 'raspy whisper'. I ended up freaking out (mentally) and was just thinking to myself that this was going to pass soon. It felt like someone was holding my legs and head in place (of course the rest of my body aswell but I felt the pressure in those areas greater). Minutes later it was over and I was so relieved. So I'm thinking I'll wait like half an hour before I go back to sleep when suddenly my body completely disagrees. My body shifts lightly, so that I'm sleeping up (with a slight angle).I try to fight it(the sleep) when I feel my eyes suddenly move rapidly(from side to side?not sure it was like they were shaking, my lids didn't move or anything) and I literally FELT them roll into the back of my eyes and fall asleep for a couple a minutes before I wake up again, while the rest of my body is still paralyzed. What freaked me out was the weird eye movement thing because it felt like I had no control over them and although my body was paralyzed I could still feel the cold air etc but like in a weird 3rd person point of view, like, as if I were only feeling through my skin, I couldn't control my eyes so that I could open them. So yeah. Just wanted to share my story. Thank you for reading it.
PS. Does anyone know a way to prevent these or to stop them as soon as it starts? I usually pray or try to focus on something when I'm under SP. Does anyone have any tips? Thank you.
What I Know
I've had S.P. since I was a child, now 36 years old. I decided to reply to your post because you mentioned feeling breath on your ear. In the beginning, I experienced all the usual symptoms, footsteps, presences in the room, but now, have mostly mechanical sounds like a frequency with many voices like being in a packed reception hall, but you have to allow yourself into the later phases which I don't recommend if your experiencing increased heart rate, sometimes I listen in for as long as I can stand. I've heard old ladies gossiping, laughing, once a male voice said, "you can't win and I could feel his hot breath on the back of my neck. Unfortunately, we are experiencing the physiological effects of sleep when we shouldn't be. Here are things that help me control it: putting a pillow in front of me with my arm tucked around it, also buy a small night light and put it on above your head, also sometimes falling sleep with your arms touching in some way. To stop repeat sessions, get up walk around, also this will happen more if your overtired, try an over the counter sleep aid. My question to anyone out there is, has anybody exp. Premonitions especially in the awakening sequence of it. Don't be afraid.
is it p.s or is it something else?
im currently 14 it all started after i watched the movie "End Of Days" (1999)and i fell asleep pretty late. I remember wakeing up and petting the kitten i had at the time and then something really bright was behind me like a god or goddess and i heard buzzing noises around me... the kitten got scared and scratched me and ran off, and i started to hover above the couch and my eyes were open and i could blink and move them but when i tryed to scream for help but my mouth was sealed shut and i couldnt say anything the rest is blurry... i do have bad memory i think ive blocked alot of stuff out of my life when my parents divorced in a violent and tragic way...alot of fighting and screamin and argueing... i was only 7 or eight at the time i cant remember ive been smoking weed for a few years so my memory isnt that well...i remember the second time i had this strange feeling i was at my well... it was either my grandmothers place or my sisters ex bf (current at the time), i cant remember very well wat place it was but i remember the bed... i was on the inside near the wall and my sister was on the outside.. when i fell asleep i woke up and looked at the alarm clock to see what time it was and it was 3:30 am, just like the first time.. all of a sudden i started floating and i was screaming for help to my sister n nothing would come out so i screamed as loud as possible and still nothing happened.. my mouth was sewed shut and then i started to haluceinate ... it is blurry but ill try and explain what i saw( i was in a van.. like a mini van and there were kids in it with me and the door was open and the person driving it stoped and said "jump out here so you can correct what you did wrong in your past"....or something like that.. and i did something... i know i sound crazy and anytime id mention it people think im crazy or just trying to get attention or scare them... but i truly experince this ... ive had a few others but thats all i can remember....
A mild Form of Sleep Paralysis?
The night it happened, i didn't get to sleep till around 3:20 in the morning. When sleep did occur, it happened quickly and i remember dreaming instantly. Though i was asleep, (i think) i could feel my heart pounding in my chest. I remember the dreams so vividly it was like i was there, then i woke up, from the feeling of my racing heart ( or so i thought) I was in my moms room laying in her bed, though she wasn't there. I couldn't shake the feeling that there was something in that room with me, i kept focusing on the edge of the bed, then i felt something touch my leg, I couldn't move, i tried very hard, this made my heart race even more, then i woke up (for real) with a violent jolt and my mother was lying beside me on the other partof the bed. I looked at the time and it was 3:40 am, this occurred within the 20 minutes of me falling asleep, very frightening. Has anyone else had this experience?
Want to ask a question
Thank for your providing information above.I have a question that need you to give some advice and comments.The problem is :
When I sleep at night, suddenly I will wake up and my brain started repeat one situation again and again and I heard may people agrue. Just like a person talk to me that i must do this whereas other person ask to not to do that. So, my brain and ear will feel annoying & confusing and i want to stop them by talking.The situation is like i'm going crazy. This case happen during my primary school year. I think is around 9 or 10 years old. Yet, I don't have this problem again now. I'm 19 years old now. Then,now, my dad has the same problem with me.And this issue often happen to my dad now. My dad is 51 years old now.
In conclusion, i want to know what& why it happen, how to cure this issue and does this kind of problem affect our body. Thank you!
Thanks
It is nice to hear about it ... I was wondering about this problem since last week as it returns after a 2 month break.
I feel like an airplane taking off when trying to wake up, or evil scaring me without allowing me to wake up.
The worst part is oneday I cooled myself down and said "dont panic, it is the usual one, and you will wake up soon" it really stopped the evil thinking, but worst enough it was so damn quite in bed for more seconds with me trapped in my body. that scared the **** of me!
thanks again for letting me know more about it!
So Scared
So I just had my first ever experience with Sleep Paralysis at 9ish am on September 15, 2010. I searched it up, and I had all the things it said. Could not move, or talk, inside I was screaming for help. I do have problems sleeping which in the end causes me to sleep in very late. I felt so much weight on me, and I thought something was in the room with me, I even heard something say my name before it all happened. Now I am up at September 16 at 2 am can't sleep, as well am afraid to anyway.
sleep paralysis
no worries man...ive been getting it for years. read up on astroplaning. the dream like state of slepp paralysis is a good jumping off point for some trippy sh*t. The more you know about it, the more you can use that knowledge in your dreams....ive been having fun with it, although after reading what I wrote, it sounds like advice from one of the kids on Elm Street!!
A peculiar experience
I have had sleep paralysis only twice in my life, both times with awful auditory hallucinations and feeling crushed. After the first time, I was really freaked out and like most people thought it must be a ghost. Then I read up on it and felt reassured that it was in my mind. Since then I've been in medical school where I gained a much better understanding of the human body. My second experience of sleep paralysis went like this: I was dozing off, wondering whether I had locked my back door and vaguely worrying that someone might come in. This worrying made me come out of my sleep and that's when I realised I couldn't move. Then I felt the panic start and I felt a man come into my room, he came very close to me, crushing me, and said in my ear, loud and clear "leave him alone" Which made no sense whatsoever. It was weird because it was almost as though I could feel my eardrum moving by itself to create the sound and of course we have muscles there so I wondered whether my brain could actually do that... Anyway. The point is, this man coming in was exactly what I'd been worrying about seconds before it happened, and I don't think it's a coincidence. I also strongly believe that the majority if people experiencing sleep paralysis feel an evil presence because when we experience anxiety, our primal side makes the assumption that there must be a physical threat, so we create one - to correspond to whatever it is we fear. At least that makes some sort of sense to me!
BODY ASLEEP SPIRIT AWAKE THEORY
I have had these episodes as well...very similar to everyones elses stories. I believe these experiences are both scientific and spiritual. I am a christian who believes each of us have a spirit (soul) within our bodies. When we die, only our body dies but our spirit lives on within a different veil of existence called the "spirit world". Once i learned what SP was, I stopped feeling a demonic presence and simply had these experiences without fear knowing what was happening each time allowed me to control my fear more and thus eliminate the evil hulicinacions. Once i learned i could somewhat control these episodes i started experimenting within the episode testing my boundaries and perimiters of control. There were times when it seemed that when i tried to lift my arm i knew my arm was not working, however i was able to lift my arm up to my face but could not see my hand there. The last time i did this i looked at my hand which at first was not there but upon looking closer i could see as if my spirit hand was in front of me. It was my hand but transparent and when i pulled it up to touch my face i heard this loud un natural strange vibrating noise in my head which frightened me so i took my hand away. Other experiences felt like i was able to slowly lift my body up to sit up only to be sucked back down. I have never been able to get up very far before being sucked back. I am confident that if i ever was able to get up, i would look back and see my body laying there...i dont know if i will ever actually try this because that would be very frightening to see. But my feeling are this. During SP your body is asleep but your spirit and mind suddenly awake, you are able to see the ceiling or wall your are facing even though you are not awake. You are seeing the world around you with your spiritual eyes not your actual eyes. This expains why when you wake up from these episodes you will realize that your eyes were actually closed the whole time because your are just then opening them when you snap out of it. So how were you able to see the wall or ceiling during this episode if your eyes were closed? Its because its your spirit that is seing the wall or ceiling. Next time you have an apisode try lifting your hand to your face and tell me what you see. It will feel very un natural heavy and strange when you lift your hand. Good luck and god bless!
coud it be?
Do you think that the spirit could be coming out of the body? One of my clues to having a sp episode it that I can't turn on lights switches. I see the house as it is, I can't seem to wake my kids or turn on lights, I just start begging God to help me. Do you think we stop breathing long enough that are spirit comes out of our body? I have no clue, just it sounds like our spirit could be walking around while our bodies are a sleep. I know that sounds crazy but sounds like you maybe thinking the same thing.
YOUR OWN SPIRIT IS AWAKE INSIDE YOUR BODY
Jodie...yes i do believe its possible that your spirit has the ability to leave your body during SP. If you look up "Sleep paralysis out of body experience" you will find some interesting info on the theory. I do not think that the reason your spirit wakes up is because you stop breathing. I dont think it has anything to do with almost dying. I just know that your conscience lives within your spirit and i believe that somehow that conscienceness or spirit is awoken while your body still sleeps. That is why people cant get their body to move during an episode unless they wake up their body. Usually people are too scared including myself to force their spirit out of their body...i also feel and hope that the evil halucinations that people experience are scientifically explained by their mind and imagination playing on their fears. Are you actually walking around your house and trying to wake up your kids and turn on lights while your having an episode? If so i would think you could look back and see your body still asleep in bed. I have never gotten far enough to actually sit up out of my bed and look back...your thought?
Dream or Awake
I had a dream where the devil was in my room and It felt like he was pulling me away from my bedroom door. I couldn't move or barely yell and felt very weak and I was scared out of my mind. When I googled this dream sleep paralysis came up. How do I know it was just a dream and not sleep paralysis?
You would know..
With sleep paralysis you are awake as you are now. Just unable to move. It is horrifying alone, but many people also have visual hallucinations as well as hear things while in this state. It is as if the part of your brain that creates dreams is coming into the real world. I have battled with this for nearly 20 years. It seemed like a curse. Especially at it's peak. At one point I was positive that I was haunted by demons. They would visit me every night and it was never pleasant. The lake of actually sleep wake killing me.
Sleep Paralysis
Hi folks been ahwhile since my first post of sleep paralysis and I will try to improve my words and visions to be more clear as far you "picturing" the events.
To begin I have seen many posts,comments and videos on sleep paralysis, and since you have too, I won't waste any time speculating my opinions on what it is.
Earlier this year, I experienced two-20 second hells like non I ever felt, Earlier in the day I decided conciously to stay up as long as I could to complete some tasks for work as well as play online with some friends,(Point being I love the feeling of sleepyness, you know, the feeling where you can just lay down and BAM your out in seconds, versus the original way of just getting in bed and waiting to fall asleep.)
well there i was around 2 maybe 3am that i recall, and of course keep in mind all the aspects of sleep paralysis, I layed on my SIDE not face up or down, I also was thinking about the movie "Close Encounters of the 4th kind" (Yah worst idea to think in bed btw.)
and if you have seen the movie I was refrencing, the exact part in the movie where she was awake and saw the the door open and boom a black object entered and took her.
NOW, when I was thinking this as well, I told my self, "Ha I'm in the same posistion she was with the, door open, in the dark, ready to be taken." And at that exact moment I closed my eyes, but re-opened them....barely so i was either still awake or literally half asleep, and whatever it was just paralyzed me.....
So lets re-cap, Im laying on my side, thinking of an alien movie and I probably haven't fell asleep.
Oh and lets keep in mind too that I felt No pressure on my chest.
Continuing... I can close my eyes and open them at will, even looking at my door, but as soon as I look up at my "bed stand" that has my blue-LED clock, all I see is "Blackish clouds" or something, kind of what you see when you get hit in the eyes/face with a ball.
So as I looked up and saw that blackish thing, I immediatley heard loud drilling sounds, on my temple/ear area, I shit you not it sounded very real, it did a 3-cyclye drill, with each of the sounds getting a little higher in pitch each time, like it was actually getting deeper in my head.
Anyway after that happned I finally saw my clock, as "it" moved away and my eyes closed on me, and immediately I woke up soon after that I jumped and turned on my lamp, and felt as if I have slept for 2 days straight, because I was sooooooooooo awake, probably the adreniline.
And if your wondering the time I remember the minutes but not the actual hour, either "it" was blocking it I'm not sure, 2-3am:30 to 2-3am:36.
Got online and came here of course.
Now The second "Happening" occured when I was dead asleep, so sounds more like SP.
So there I was asleep and of course this time I am face up sleeping, and BAM! paralyzed.
So im thinking to myself "Oh my god what now!", and I can just almost re-late the paralyzing as a drop from a roller-coaster, just so.....scary/weird.
I Closed my eyes(Again im in full control of my eyes)and just think-yell to myself "wake the FUCK UP!" over and over again, and guess what..... I "Wake up".
Now my room is EXACTLY how I left it, so again I jump up and turn on the light, at same time I have this feeling something is looking at me.... I look at my window (I live in 2nd floor house, my window has no roof beside it.)
and there is this well "white" object looking at me,I began to get really freaked out to the point of tears in my eyes, I'm near my closed door in the far corner looking at it, I wanted to convince myself, that it was this "White OWL" from the movie, but denied it, I denied it in thought and voice.
I Started screaming at it,
"I SEE YOU!"
"I'M GOING TO KICK YOUR ASS!"
"YOU WANT IT COME GET IT!!!",
and whats scary it didnt budge, it still kept looking at me..... until then again I fell paralyzed while standing up, with the LIGHT ON!, I heard the drilling noise again on my temple/ear area....... and im almost crying in fear... Until BAM!! that was a dream too.
So I'm Here I am sitting up realizing I just had a Nightmare within another Nightmare. WTF!!!
So now I sleep with the T.V. on almost every night, or go to sleep before anyone else does, so if I go through SP, or anything else at least someone will be up to be notified.
I just hope it really was Sleep Paralysis.
I have suffered from sleep
I have suffered from sleep paralysis all my life. Every episode was brought on by a sudden sound or noise. I learned to ignore it and just go back to sleep. I also learned that by having a loud fan on in my bedroom that drowns out most all other sounds has greatly reduced if not completely eliminated these episodes. Researchers have been trying for years to explain it, but if you ask me, it is an ancient human survival instinct such as when an opossum plays dead. By the way, the last time i had an episode was after hurricane Ike when we were without power to run my fan.
sleep paralysis
Sounds like a Hypnagogic hallucination
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnagogic
I've had them for over 35 years.
Allow yourself to just experience them.
I now enjoy them and am entertained however I could only do this once my fear of such lucid dreams diminished through understanding the condition.
I consider them a gift and am kinda disappointed when I just fall asleep like most people.
Hope this observation helps, good luck
sleep paralysis
Evil paralysis is what we should call it. It all started when I was 9, I thought I was only dreaming 'coz I can't move except for my eyelids, I would see and hear scary objects like something is coming from the corner of my laughing sinisterly. I even saw my dad past by me, i could hear the television, my mom talking to my brother, tried to scream but to no use. What I did was try to move my toes and eventually I gained control of my body. Everyday I have to go thru this ordeal and I'm 30 now, still I'm afraid to go to sleep because even when I take a nap in the morning still this "evil paralysis" is there to pester me. Sometimes this would last for 30 minutes, I'm able to move just a little bit, again it comes back 2 minutes after as if wants to take my life can anybody help me?
Reply
The things you are hearing fall into 2 categories:1. Things that are actually going on around you 2. Altered sounds you are"hearing" b/c your brain is still dreaming some what... You are most likely hearing some sounds, like the tv or your mom and brother discussing things, that bring you out of your deep sleep, into a more aware level of sleep. At this point you are still dreaming yet more aware of your surroundings. Your brain mushes all this input together, dream and reality (hence the sinister sounds). All other things aside what caught my eye the most in your post is when you said "I'm afraid to go to sleep". If you enter into sleep with anxious and scared feelings you've pretty much damned yourself for a bad experience right there. I recommened seeking out a doctor who could prescribe you a medicine like ambien. For me it puts me in a great mood, no matter what had been bothering me stops bothering me. Then the medicine induces sleep after appx 15 mins. This way you go to sleep happy without all these worries. When it's time to wake up, try to wake up in silence or to familair music on an alarm clock. (you don't need brothers and tvs and mothers talking in other rooms where your subconscience might hear them)Try sleeping that for a week and see how you feel.
It happens frequently to me
This happens really frequently to me. Say 2 times in a week or so. Most of the time, it happens when i sleep on sunday afternoons or so. And majority in the early mornings when i am about to wake up. Once it so happened that, I used to stay alone in a single room and I had this sleep paralysis early in the morning. I was struggling to get my body moving or atleast to open my eyes fully. When I partially opened my eyes, i saw a figure standing at the foot of my bed. I was so frightened, still I was unable to get up. It caused so much panic that time..it was horrible. Sometimes I experience pain..so much pain that we cant imagine while in sleep paralysis. But the moment I wake up fully, it will be gone. I dont know if someone can 'feel' pain during dreams. Does any one else had the same? Feeling pain during dreams?
WAT THE HELL IS HAPPNING ???
hi i am yuk .about and hour i just wake up from sp. now i can't sleep coz its so strange feeling . i have this kind of problem since i was kid but from few month its getting worse coz today i was free and nothing more to do so i decide to sleep at 1 pm ,at day i got same feeling so,i decide to go out .when i come back at evening since i enter my room i am feeling someone is in my room but i went to sleep and after few hour i suffer from same problem. can someone help meout from this kind of problem ? there must be some medicien or some phycal therapi ,if anyone have any kind of help plz do write me i extremly need your help...
Hi there, I am really glad I
Hi there,
I am really glad I found this forum, up until today I thought I was the only one with those strange things happening to me at night.
My experience is very similar: I know I am not asleep, but I can’t move, speak, I try but it doesn’t work. I know there is something bad, something black next to me, trying to drag me.
The other thing is it hasn’t come to me for more than a year, has any one of you experience any intervals? Do you think it’s gone for good?
I think I remember when it started; I had a very strange dream about rats when I was 3-4 y/old, it felt very real. I couldn’t move or speak. I saw plenty of them.
And then the dream about rats kept on coming back, rats was gone and the feeling that something bad is coming remained.
If u have any questions please drop a linie.
Marcin
!!!!!
What's up? I too have been fighting this beast every seen I was about 3 or 4. Da'am what scientist say! We're fighting a beast. I'm 36 years old now. I'm so use to it. When it happens it really doesn't bother me anymore. Now to answer your question, I experienced that gap before. I was about 24. I went from 2 or 3 times a week, to twice a month, to not at all. That lasted about a year and half. I really thought the fucka found someone new to choke while sleeping. Wrong! That bastard tried to kill me the next time it happen. But, there's a trick I learn along the way. Opening your eyes or trying call for help don't do nothing but scare the shit out of you. It's all about breathing. The next time it happens inhale deep, while exhaleing, shake or try to move a body part at the same time. I mostly use my arms or hump my shoulder. The bastard normal let go after 2 or 3 tries. Sometimes, I get lucky on the first try. I only met two people in person that goes through this shit on a regular. I told them my method of fighting the fucka and they both said it worked. I'm glad I found this forum. I now know that it's not just myself and 2 others fighting this bastard, but a hold lot of use. Give the method a try if you remember it the episode and trust me that bastard will return.
Hey
Hey man, I would have to agree that these situations are much more than a simple scientific disorder. People who have these experiences can definitely feel a presence near them, I dont know entirely nor can I prove that is just a disorder or a disorder caused by spirits (demons). I've never had this myself but I have been reading about story after story and have found similar and frightening encounters. I want to let you know and others if they want it, that I will pray for you. I don't know that you believe in God or accept that or not, but i do want to do this for you because I want to be strong and know that God has much more power than a weak and pathetic demon. Stay strong man, and look to the Lord Jesus for strength to combat this trouble.
thanx for your reply u scared
thanx for your reply
u scared a shit out of me dude lol i was hoping it wont return at all and this sth is gone for good.
If it returns I ll try your techinque, hope it helps-thanx again for the tip.
tc
marcin
SP
I did not see any ghost in the room. All I felt was someone rubbing my back and a presence in the room... I couldn't move or wake up even though I felt completely awake. Can anybody tell exactly what this means???
It hurts!
This too has happened to me for a few years now. Almost always during the day and up to three or four times in one day. I awake able to only move my eyes. I start to panic thinking its happening again! And it feels so real cause i can hear my neighbors or the tv. I finally manage to move my lips to shout and it seems like im the only one who can hear myself. I was never really able to move but this last one i managed to get up very slowly and it took all my might, only to look down and I seen myself laying there!! I too also feel like im being watched or im not alone. its so scary! During this whole ordeal i will think Im awake but ill be right back where i started unable to move. All i think is "wake up wake up"!!!! Well after i finally wake up and the panic has died down i feel like i just lifted weights and my whole body is tired, like i hit muscle failure or somthing! I jusy awoke from one of those dreams and i feel gross or maybe even violated and my arms are sore like a was doing pullups!
Just Pray about it!
I can tell you all something that you are not ready to hear. To make a long story short. I really shouldn't tell this store again because It's frightening to me and I relive it over again. I was about 7or8 years old, and my mom beat my sister as she always done the both of us. This time my sis was put in the room by herself. It was our room. I cleaned it and there was nothing in it not even a bed. My big sis was 13 @ the time, and nothing scared her. She wasn't afraid of anything. If I got put in there I would have cried my way out. My sis was in there all nite til about 4 am I heard her scream and the hear thumping noises and fighting. I woke my mom and i told her something is going on with my sister and my mom hear the noise and open the door and my sister come out shaking with her fist balled up and say something was on her back and she fought it and she opened her hand and there it was hair, straight cold black hair embedded in the palm of her hand. How can anyone explain this.This was in the 80's we didn't know what tracks was are about fake hair, but I got salt and poured it in her hand and it went away. My mom and brothers are witnesses to this true story. I think we should have had her blessed by a priest at that time. My sis died at age 21. She had a daughter. My great niece is 21 now.
Getting a dog helped me
I have suffered from SP my entire life, I'm 26 now. The most natural aid with this for me was actually getting a dog. For example last night my mind awoke at 3:00am while i could not yet move my body. I could hear POUNDING and PULLING on the front door to my home. I finally gained mobility and was shaking with fear but I looked over and my dog was laying at the foot of my bed. My dog goes crazy barking when someone simply walks through the front yard, so you can imagine what he does when someone knocks on the door. The sight of him being calm made me realize the pounding was just in my mind. I was able to walk through the house turning on lights with my trusty companion right by my side. I've had many episodes in the past where I felt like someone was in the room with me and I would be so terrified I would drive 30 minutes to sleep at a friends house. Finding some way to reassure yourself that you are safe and protected is a key factor in overcoming SP fear, may it be saying a prayer, or seeking out a gaurdian. I went to seek medical help for ensomnia a few months ago and was prescribed a pill for sleeping aid. The pills are extremely effective and as long as I take them I don't have any episodes. The downside here is I cannot take the pills when I have a cold and need to take cold medicine because the sleeping pills have a bad reaction with cold medicine. This is the reason for my episode last night. It had been such a long time since I suffered an episode and reading about other people's experiences really brings me comfort, so thank you to everyone for sharing.
thought i had spirits in my room
Firstly, thankyou for having this site, i had my first (what seems to now be) sp last night. I woke up in the middle of the night with an audible like ringing vibration in my ears, then feeling ice cold i was going to pull covers over me but i couldnt move and they hadnt fallen off me anyway. there was a very strange heavy feeling in the room that terrified me as if someone was in watching me, i was too scared to open my eyes and tried to call on my dog to sleep on my bed (kind of protection) but i couldnt speak more than just 1 syllable, i tried again to shout then to clap my hands (my eyes still closed) i felt like they were clapping but no sound came from them, eventually i managed to wake the dog and he came up, able to move once more i curled up to go back to sleep when the feeling started over again, so i recited the lords prayer and visualised a white light of protection (bearing in mind i am not a religious person)it was a panic idea but it seemed to work., although flashing images of people went through my mind like picture postcards. i woke this morning thinking that i had been attacked by evil spirits until i read this, hopefully if i have another episode i wont feel as scared knowing what i do now.
Really Helen? I'll try to
Really Helen? I'll try to follow what you did because I'm so scared every time I go to sleep, even to take naps in the the day, I can't escape this ordeal, ever since I was a kid and now I'm 30 I might not have the strength to fight it.
Sleep Paralysis
I've read most of the stories here, and i have to say that i can relate to many of them. My story is similar-
I stated having these SP episodes since the end of last year ('09). I had never had them before but i had heard of them as the old wifes tales of an entity laying on your chest, but i just saw those as "stories". It started happening to me, i would see things in my bedroom. I was alone in my room, my husband would go to work early in the morning. I would see something sitting next to me, or hear and see the door open, or a dark shadow laying on my chest, or a dark shadow walking towards my bed from the door. Luckily not every time i would see something; sometimes i would just not be able to move or "wake up". i could hear and see my surroundings but just couldnt make myself to wake up.
Everytime i would get so frightened for i could not move a muscle or have a sound come out of my mouth. I looked it up on the internet, came across its definition and understood the whole REM brain thing. I dismissed it as "something that happens" but it continued happening every single day,, I even went to see a priest. I talked to a friend and she assured me that it's not something that happens just because. I became a bit more religious, and i have to say that that helped me quite a lot! God is good!,, it stopped for a couple months and it occured again about a week ago. I tried not to let it worry me, and it hadnt occured until early today! but this time i didnt see anything "evil", i just couldn't move at all!
I don't really know what to think of it anymore. this kinda worries me because when SP is happening, i feel like i won't be able to wake up, because i struggle so much to wake up and nothing.
I hope that this SP will stop occuring to everyone that it happens to.
Keep your faith in the lord
Man, people can see evil
Man, people can see evil things during sleep paralysis. Thank goodness I don't get any of that. I just had one a couple of minutes ago and immediately got on online to figure this out, because when it happens its not cool. Im wondering though that doctors say its in reference to stress or anxiety, but could the dream itself produce the stress and or anxiety. I remember my dream. was my sister and I walking on some school university and my sister rambling about this and that. And that's when I woke up. But my mind is awake but my eyes are close and I can't move. I could feel though how I was sleeping. My arms wrapping my pillow on top of my head due to the light from my window and on knee bent uncomfortable. It is strange though that when it happens to people they see evil things and figures. Maybe its not those we have to fear, but really our own mind.
40 YEARS EXPERIENCE
First experience took place after a nap at age 25, I woke up and could see my kids and husband in the front room and hear their voices but I couldn't move. I was petrified, tried to yell and no sound, I kept saying to myself over and over to move my arms, legs and slowly I was able to snap out of it. Years passed by and I've had at least 8 episodes and always while laying on my back. Many times I recited the Lord's Prayer to be able to relax and it would help. Last night was the first time that I experienced SP while laying on my side. I also experienced it with the sensation of riding on a fast roller coaster inside a dark tunnel (like Space Mountain, Disney). I was awake and feeling a presence in the darkness in the room and as if someone was in my bed. I was yelling for my mother and remembering she no longer lived in my home (I'm also 65 yrs old). I felt some movement of my arms, and started to fall back to sleep, when the roller coaster experience happened again. I tried to yell, I could hear my moans, finally I yelled and at that time was able to move. Needless to say, I did not rest the remainder of the night. This experience frightened more then the others because I never had that sense of movement through what seemed a dark tunnel, nor while laying on my side.
I just woke up from sleep paralysis
First of all.. I really appreciate the article and I wouldn't mind sharing my experiences since I just woke up from it.
I kind of deprived myself of sleep last night and only slept 5 hours.. and this morning I went to see Quantum of Solace and naturally I knock out... Here's where it gets weird. My sister was in the room and I was half asleep, half awake and shes on the phone and naturally I open my eyes look at her and tell her to shutup.. (lol). So she leaves the room.
5 Minutes later the moving is nearing the credits and i'm 'asleep' but I can hear all the music. And since i'm a producer I was like oh I HAVE to sample this. So naturally the piano got me interested... but for some reason my body wouldn't wake up. I was laying back with my hands crossed and Literally could not move anything. I struggled.. literally battled my body trying to get it awake, my muscles were getting tighter and I my heart beat speeded up some. I felt a little bit of choking but not really, it was more like the urge to get out of sleep.
So I was COMPLETELY aware, about everything that was occurring around me. I could hear the end of the movie, the credits and the piano playing and everything. (this is all taking place between the 5 minutes that my sister left the room.) So if what your saying is correct.. I fell into sleep in 5 minutes and I tried waking up for the next 2 minutes.
After struggling for a few minutes I was able to get my body awake. I actually tried a few things, like screaming or wiggling my toes.. but it didn't work.
-On the side note... NO. I didn't experience no demons or anything (I also didnt hit the dream state, I was somewhere between consciousness and sleeping).. That's just a psychological aspect some people get when they have this. Since I don't believe in all that or anything.. I don't see it. Simple as that. I just felt like my body was shut down but my brain.. was running on overdrive. Like if my brain is usually running at 10%.. it literally was around at 110% because I had a flash of thoughts. I was actually able to run through at least 100 scenarios in less then a few seconds.
This what really got me interesting.. My brain was running like it never ran before and sparked ideas in my head that made me want to wake up.. I have an IQ of 147. Iuno if that contributes to it or not.
Also.. tip of advice to those seeing 'demons'. That's the same when I was 10 being afraid their was something under my bed and in my closet. The only why I was satisfied- if I got up turned on the lights and checked under the bed. It's juss a play of senses, if I didn't check under the bed or not I would still be alive. The brain is EXTREMELY powerful- enough to conjure images of anything into reality. Instead of being afraid of what's not there you can manipulate your brain into doing something else.
Just try this... next time your really afraid. Open yourself to your fears; submerse yourself into the world of your worst nightmares. It might be menacing at first and you might want to run out- turn on the lights or something but instead accept it. After the first 10 minutes you'll realize it's nothing more than yourself. This is the cure to any fear.
Anyways.. I hope people find my post interesting/useful.
Very good post I might add.
Im 19 and I've also had these
Im 19 and I've also had these problems on and off in my life. As a matter of fact i dealt with this yetsterday. I was kinda sleepy already and it was like 9:30 somthin in the morining. I was watching a little T.V. or at least trying to but i was sleepy so closed my eyes for about a minute and they locked up on me. Since i was laying on my back i could see or at least hallucinate at what was in front me. I heard womens voices and noises(it was probably the tv) like something was in the bushes right outside my window, it seemed as if something from the outside was trying to get in. It felt real so i called for my dog Missey who always walks by the bushes but i couldn't get up to see if it was her so i called my sister but as usaul when this happens i can't move a muscle it felt like i hollering for her when my mouth closed and then is when i saw a small black figure and this usaslly never happens where i see another figure but this time i did. It was in my room and i was telling it no, stop, and trying to hollar for somebody and then i woke up. When i woke up of course i was breathing hard and my heart was beating rapidly but everything was normal again. I've had this problem many times in my life this is just the first time i saw something else in it. The crazy thing about these dreams is that you are awake but at the same time you aren't and your room looks exactly the same as when you're fully awake so your dreams look like reality when it is just really an hallucination.
Some advice please
Hi there my name is kimberly and im writing to you all to help find out what happened to my mother a few nights ago, she woke up in the middle of the night frozen and she couldnt move her torso she could move her head and eyes alright, she had a feeling someone was in the room with her so she finally managed to turn and look , she said it was her dead mother and she spoke to her,she was angry with my mum and wasnt the mother shed always remembered , my mum turned away from her trying to hide her face but my granny told her to turn round again that she wasnt going anywhere, in one way im thinking that what you are all experiencing is very similar, but the difference is she actually seen and spoke to someone she knew, im really confused and quite worried, a few nights after that she woke up with the same feeling that someone was in the room she was frozen and cold and couldnt move, but no1 was in the room this time, that was wedensday, nothing has happened since then, but we are both quite scared, we go to a medium quite often now because my father passed away last yr and its just the 2 of us now, so we phoned her up yesterday to get some advice and she said it was real it wasnt a illness but i dunno what to believe, should i make my mum go to the doctors on monday , and ask about sleep paralysis any feedback would be helpful because im getting a little scared even tho its not happening to me.
thank you Kimberly Brodie
if anyone could even email me on id be so grateful
There is an answer
Hi Kimberly, You and your mother should not ever go to a medium. You are opening the door to spirits. You need to kneel down and pray to Jesus and ask him into your life. Then put your trust in him and rely on him for answers. With Christ, all things are possible. I believe that sleep paralysis is not a scientific phenomenon but rather a spiritual experience and not of God. No one seems to have a positive SP experience but rather a dark and scary experience that does not come from the Lord, but Jesus will protect you for even evil spirits fear the Lord and cannot abide in his presence. I know that they have tried to find a scientific explanation for the phenomena but either way scientific or spiritual...the answer is Jesus. Psalm 91 verse 5 Thou shall not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day.
Psalms 91 verse 1 He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the almighty.
verse 2 I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.