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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
Negative energy eh?
After reading this article and all of the comments, I am rather confused. I've experienced this several times in my life and aside from the first time it hasn't been that scary. After the second time I was pretty sure that my mind had just woken up before my body had. As a person who loves to sleep, I felt that this was an opportunity to enjoy more realistic and creative dreams. I've never experienced any of the evil and frightening hallucinations described here, nor have I called upon any deities to save me. (that I can recall)
Most people would describe me as an optimist so maybe there is some truth to the idea that negative energy causes these frightening hallucinations. I can't imagine what this condition would be like if you were prone to horrific nightmares like a friend of mine. I shudder to even consider it.
happened a few times
im only 14 and had this happen to me about..10 times. its usually the same dream everytime, when i see a ghostly figure in the corner of my eye, just staring at me and i feel like it is really evil..i cant scream or lift my had to hit it away , but when i do eventually lift my hand to hit whatever it is(straining every single muscle in my body) , i wake up sweating to find my hand in nothing. i dont believe in the bible or the devil, but whatever the hell that thing was it scares the crap outta me. but now the next time im going to try to ignore whatever it is and wake myself up.
God is real
You say you don't believe in the Bible. If God isn't real, then what's the purpose in life? And who created this world?
Thank god i am not crazy!
Thank god i am not crazy! this just began happening to me about two months ago...but its a little different for me...i wake up scared and cannot move, my vision is blurry but then my eyes begin to dart around, i cant breath and i hear a loud rining in my ears! the weird part is that its begginging to happen to me where i actually CAN MOVE right away but the other symptoms continue! after about 5 minutes into it, my vision will be better but then i see a creepy old man on the edge of my bed. Then i can shut my eyes, open them again, and its over. but around 10 min later it repeats again. The last 3 times this has happend to me i called my boyfriend to make sure i am really awake....AND I AM. i dont know why my symptoms differ from everyone elses! can anyone tell me what this is????
THIS IS HAPPENED TO ME!
On the early morning of 18th February 2010 at 6am, I was sleeping on my bed. I was little bit aware. Then suddenly my body got completely unmovable. I was aware and could realize what happened! I couldn’t move my hands; I couldn’t open mu eyes and mouth. I even couldn’t even scream! I felt if someone has tied my body and someone has been sitting on my chest! It took about 1 minute to release. I was very scared!
This happened 4th time to me. I have experienced it before. When I was free to move my hands on this morning, I decided to ask about this in the “Safari” magazine. But then I remembered that the internet service is already available in my mobile phone! I quickly took my phone and searched about this in the Google Search Engine. I found the link from the website “Wikipedia.org”. This situation of the body is called “sleep paralysis”. Physiologically, sleep paralysis is closely related to the paralysis that occurs as a natural part of REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, which is known as REM atonia.
THYROID NODULE PRESSING ON
THYROID NODULE PRESSING ON THE WINDPIPE
THE TEMPTATION TO DRIFT
Does anyone know what happens if you just let yourself go and drift off back to sleep? I know that feels like the worst thing to do, to be honest I feel like I am going to die if I don't shake myself out of it, but it is just so tempting to drift off at the same time. Does anyone else feel like this? like something is luring you to drift off, something is persuading you to? I am curious and I want to try it. I have had the experience since I was about 8 and am now 22. It scares the crap out of me but I am so intrigued with the temptation feeling that I get. I also don't think saying God's name works but that might be because I don't beleive in the bible. Any thoughts on not shaking free of the feeling and succumbing??\
I often feel like I will die
I often feel like I will die if I just let myself stay in the suffocating paralysis. It scares me, but I have often thought "what if this is my time to go and this is the way its going to happen. should I?"
sleep paralyzed
i thought i was being possesed or something because i feel like i see things. sometimes i feel like im having a bad acid trip. sometimes my tongue sticks out like my face is having a spase.its very scary!!! when its happening i sometimes curse at it and try to fight it lol its funny now cause i khow whats happening. when im too tired to "fight" it i just let it ride but it seems to intensify when i do that. this has been happening to my mom and i for a very long time its a releif to khow that we re not the only one experincing it.most of the time before a go to sleep i can feel it coming then sure thing, it happens. i wish there was a cure for this. it is very annoying.
you should try it, ive
you should try it, ive experienced this alot and sometimes i am too worried and sometimes i am not. if you try and keep yourself fully aware that youre entering a dream you can have pretty interesting lucid dreams. but then again, your mind is not the same when youre barely awake to how you are fully awake so you might be too anxious when it actually happens
I've tried to fall asleep
I've tried to fall asleep after waking up like this, it was really interesting. My dreams were very realistic and not nearly as erratic as they normally are. I rather enjoyed the experience. However, the longer I stayed that way, the harder it was to stay asleep. After maybe 20 minutes I 'woke up' again feeling fine.
It helps if you can remember whatever it was that you were dreaming. Just relax an concentrate on that, after a while you'll start to dream again. I'm not quite sure if I was completely asleep or not, but I was definitely still dreaming!
And in response to the religious connotations, I've never had any 'evil' visions that needed any god's name to banish so I don't think that it really does much more that calm you down while the sensation passes.
The dream continues and
The dream continues and becomes more real and intense. It feels like eventually your dream will become your life, like the twilight zone or something. The more u drift and the longer u stay in that state, the longer it takes to come out of it. While trying to wake your literlly in two places at once, your room and your dream. Its agonizing there have been times when its taken me what seems like five minutes to completely come out of it. When u do u have an extreme headache and a jet lag feeling, and i often feel like the presences in from my dream are still there but i cant see or hear them.
you will astral project if
you will astral project if you let go, i did it once and it was bloody scary, although ive been told its completely safe! I has this happen last night (18th Feb 2010) again, this time i tried to let myself go and I was aare of it happening, but i heard such loud buzzing in my ears, so loud it almost hurt and in the end i was getting so tired i gave up. Does anyone else ever hear these noises? i also find it only ever happens if i sleep lay on my back fcing upwards.
This is true, I am trying to
This is true, I am trying to project myself long time ago, the only thing I got is the vibrational state and some dreams about letting the body and being kinda stuked in the wall.. and when I was trying to look back to see my bed it was not possible (was the same feeling when you try to read something in your dream.. no word comes clear to your eyes) but I think it was just a dream, due things I read in astral projection forums, it use to be very lucid as if you were fully waked up, and not this dream feeling. But I also remember to search for the "silver cord" that they say it can be from your nabe or from the navel and that it links your physical body to your extra-physic body. And I really felt some 'cold glass' matterial cord 'not silver' starting from behind my head... but as I said it was not so real as a sleep paralysis, perhaps I created that scenario from reading a lot about astral projection.
When I feel secure about trying the sleep paralysis in order to have the astral projection I just lay on my back and start the relax exercises (slow breathing and thinking in good things) but it is not so easy and when it begins to happen the first thing is to 'hear such a loud buzzing noise, so loud it almost hurt' that moment I become scared and stop with the process. But some day I will do it fully aware, and I hope write here a better experience.
I suggest all people that can feel a sleep paralysis to read more about astral projection and good things that we can do in 'the other side'.
That´s it.
i dont know nothing about
i dont know nothing about astral travel but i do get the loud buzzing or sometimes bangs.there was also scratching at the wall when i was awake but yeh i thought it was a mouse
yeah i heard the buzzing...
yeah i heard the buzzing... it gets really painful i agree, actually experienced myself come back into my body to. do you still hear the buzz? hasnt me left since my first trip outward.
When that happens to me I
When that happens to me I have to wake up completely, otherwise I will fight the sensation. I usually feel that I cannot breath, move, etc. I scream for my wife to wake me up. Sometimes it takes a minute of her smacking my face before I can wake up. I also see her going from the other side of the bed to pull my on the floor, but that's all hallucination because she is till on the other side. I've had this for the last 20 years and it's always terrifying experience.
Still confused
This is a a lot of good information but im still not satisfied. My first time was a few months ago. I had woken up during a mid afternoon nap and I could not budge. A dark shadow almost like a cloud of smoke covered me and made it really hard to breathe. I finally could move and sprung up gasping for air. Last night it happened again. No shadow, I just couldn't move. I heard my furnace running and when I finally could move my furnace really was running so I know I was not asleep.
I don't like it at all, its scary.
Anyone have the dark shadow?
yes ive had the dark shaddow
yes ive had the dark shaddow along with a feeling of something very heavy on my chest, its so scary
Yupp me too.
I had times where I seen a dark shadow. One morning, I remember I was in my bed asleep facing my white wall. I remember seeing the sunlight shining on the wall making it bright. I was awake but I couldn't move. As I was trying to get myself to move, I saw a dark shadow behind me. I saw the dark shadow on the wall, it felt as if it was evil. I had this problem ever since I was little. I even had a experience where I saw my mom walk right into my room and I tried calling out for her, tried screaming. It seemed as though I was screaming my head off, but mom didn't hear me. She just walked back out of my room. After that, I was able to move. I hate having sleep parlysis. I wish I don't have it. I'm currently 19 years old
This seems to be getting more and more frequent.
It is now 8:46 pm on 2/21/2010. I just woke up about 20 minutes ago and I expierenced this horrible feeling. I could hear the tv going and my child talking. but I could not move or open my eyes or talk and I could barely even breathe. This is so terrifiing. It eventually passes and i can move gasping for air, I am not sure how long this actually goes on for but it seems like forever. I go through this probably 3 or 4 times a week and have for the past 7 or 8 months now and it scares the hell out of me every time. I will awake in the middle of the night, most of the time I can't even open my eyes but I feel a presence and feel someone choking me, and in my mind I am screaming out for my wife to help me. Once this feeling passes I feel so relieved to be alive. The first few times it happend I didnt say anything to her, I thought she would think I was crazy. After several episodes I told her what was happening and that I would try to scream out for her to help me, but she swears up and down I am laying there asleep. I know I am not asleep I can hear things and feel something there ( or what seems to be something there.) I had a doctors appointment on 2/18/2010, for unrelated health issues, but I thought I would ask my doctor about it anyways, and when I did ask, I was kind of blown off and told it was probably stress causing this to happen.
So my life-long condition has a name!!!
I've had this condition since I was in my late teens. I am now 51. I experience the usual physical paralysis, awake in mind in that I am fully aware of my surroundings and that I am asleep. I hear voices and sometimes music and think someone has walked in the room and I try my hardest to rouse myself and open my eyes. On the odd occasion that I have succeeded to rouse myself, I wake up gasping and in a mild panic state, and hear none of the sounds or sensations I had during my previous paralysed slumber.
This seldom, if ever happens during my night sleep. It mainly happens during a very long and restful afternoon nap. The longer the nap, the more likely it is to occur. I would like to stress also that is is not in any way alcohol induced! ;-)
Just comforting to know I am not alone in this!
This happens to me like twice
This happens to me like twice a year. I had a really good dream (sexual) and then I woke up and could not breath or move. I thought I was being punished for having a sinful dream, because this always happens to me when I had a really good previous dream. Anyways I woke up, feeling like I was dying. Trying to yell for help, but I couldnt. And I fell back asleep, and dreamed that I called my best friend and shewas like STOP PLAYING ON THE PHONE, I'M ASLEEP, but that was an actual dream, because if I were awake, I wouldnt be able to grab the phone. I woke up again, damn, it is happening again, I see these two red eyes looking down at me, but they are extremely blurry, and the harder I try to yell for help, the more my neck seems to be "squeezed, compressed?" and I fall asleep again, and I am in this really bright church and people are singing the Lord's Prayer and they tell me to join in, so I'm tramautized and I start singing, and of course I wake up again, and instead of saying help, I sing the Lord's Prayer, and miraculously wake up. And everything is back to normal... I'm sweating and crying, but everything's back to normal.
Two things of advice:
1. Sleep with your Bible... It just stops it!
2. Do NOT sleep on your back! It's so much more comfortable for me to sleep on my back, but I just can't risk it, these things scare me so much
Sleep paralysis and OBE/LD
When I was a teenager I was able to learn to use sleep paralysis as a gateway to lucid dreams and out of body experiences. When I was a kid sleep paralysis was absolutely terrifying because I didn't understand what it was. I thought I was some sort of freak and was afraid to approach adults about my experiences. But as I grew older I started going to the library to research the topic and realized that it was related to other strange, spontaneous phenomena, namely out of body experience and lucid dreaming, that I was experiencing. I soon learned to embrace these skills as gifts rather than abnormalities and have even learned to have OBEs and lucid dreams at will. As I grew into an adult, other concerns took over and I'd experienced fewer and fewer episodes of SP, OBE, and LD. Now I kinda miss them since I spend a third of my life sleeping, and I feel that a lot of that is going to waste if I cannot harness these abilities.
if you interpret this as some
if you interpret this as some sort of spiritual experience then youre only fooling yourself (but who am i to say?). however, as an occasional lucid dreamer i must say this experience is pretty intense and i definately want to learn more about it.
For me its been a long time suffering and it gets worse
Unfortuanetly i am familiar with this "disease" or whatever. I first had it at the age of seven years old. And i have continuously had it and i am now 26 yrs old. I have never hallucinated more like i hear everything that is going on around me as its happening. I would hear my father walk in and look for a hairbrush in the morning and i would be screaming for him to help me wake up and swear that i was making verbal sounds but i was not. I use to panic which makes it worse for real. But now that i am older i am calm i take shallow breaths because u cant really breathe in that state and i try to 1,2,3, move 1,2,3 move repeating over and over until my body snaps out of it. i eventually do but sometimes when i do awaken it pulls me back down into a deeper sleep and now its more suffocating its a repititious viucious cycle. One time when i was 20 yrs old that cycle of waking up then being to heavy limbed to jump up and run to wake up, i just get pulled deeper i dont know if i really actually would awaken free of it then get pulled down again, otr my brain just made me think i woke up well in either case it would happen again and again for about 45 minutes. well any way now it is getting worse for me because even with my daughter sleeping next to me kicking me touching me stimulating me i cannot move i suffocate and that so scares me especially knowing that a few yrs ago physical stimulation wud trigger my awakening and now it does not.
wow, me too
As I read these comments, its ERIE... I have pains in my chest just thinking about it. The lady that was saying she used to be able to say 1,2,3 and try to sit up but failed, then 1,2,3 and try again....and eventually wake up...that was me too...and like her, it got worse (why I now looked it up tonight) I will keep trying to sit up over and over while suffocating, and finally I do awakenand gasp, sitting up or at least I think I am....then I feel sucked back down to the bed and go through it again. I hear a dog bark loud and wake...or screams or yells... its very unnerving..I cant stay awake in the day, I fall asleep while typing on the computer, Ive fallen asleep while on the phone. I wonder why its always evil and dark things that are present in everyones night terrors and never good things. I am concerned I will die in my sleep sooner or later. I dont know what to do. Knowing others have the same thing brings some comfort but very little, as I am not reading about acure yet... hope Ill find out asI keep reading....my heart feels sore afterthese episodes...
Happens to me.
This has been happening to me since I was 14. It used to happen to me very, very consistently every other night until I was 19 (21 now). It got to the point where I could set my watch to it. It's not so bad now, as it only happens once a month if that but I'm really curious.
I'm not into paranormal beliefs or anything like that, and I have never seen images nor heard sounds. I've never traveled outside my body or anything... I just lay there unable to move or breath.
I concentrate on remaining calm and focus on moving a part of my body to wake up. I have tried not moving and just going back to sleep many times but when I do that I just lay and suffer longer lol.
I notice that the more strenuous of a work out I do during the day the worse it is during the night (on the occasion when it does happen).
Also, I notice that if you concentrate really hard on something before you fall asleep, and do it consistently enough you can do anything in your dreams! Sounds really sketchy right, but I can now double jump in any dream and fly, and I often end up arguing with characters in my dreams over the fact that I am dreaming and I can do anything I want.
I am 21/male/white.
I workout everyday, I eat healthy, and I go to school full time for engineering, business, and accounting.
It's weird that everyone else has been seeing and hearing things and traveling around outside of their bodies; I have never had an experience like that and I have had hundreds of these episodes. It has got to be a chemical imbalance or neuron relapse of sort.
It's happened to me in every sleeping position (both sides, face down, face up, curled, body hanging over edge of bed, etc).
When I was younger I set a clock next to my bed so I could record the time of each episode (duration, time of night). Normally it would happen for 2-7 minutes. After 10-30 seconds I would be able to breath, but not move. It would almost always happen between 1:15 and 4:30 at night.
If I did not try to move my body I could remain paralyzed for over 15 min, though I started losing my ability to breath after getting it so I stopped doing that.
For a while I thought it could be religious reasons, and what helped me was Revelations: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty; who was, who is, and is to come forever and ever. Amen". I dunno relaxes me I guess but worked none the less.
Perhaps those fly experiences
Perhaps those fly experiences are already the astral projection... you just need to work it out to it become more real.
how do i make it stop?
im 14 nearly 15, this hasn't been happening to me for long but it is getting worse. i havn't had any wierd dreams or seen anything funny iether but it seems to be every morning and i realy start to panic when i am awake but can't move. i am quite healthy and am of an average size for my age. i sometimes just realy try to open my eyes and then i wake up. im just wonering what i should do because it is occuring to me a lot just lately. any suggestions? lol
My first experience
I've always slept normally, up until I was 7 years old. I remember waking up suddenly, sweat on my brow, almost gasping for air. And that's when I saw it. It was strange, like something out of a low-budget horror movie. I was frozen by fear - and I was unable to speak nor move nor avert my eyes from what towered over me. It was a furry creature, almost bear-like and it slowly crept over me, rubbing my head before doing what I know now is rape. It doesn't last very long and before I know it, the experience is over. Since that time, this same vision has appeared before me, though it stopped once I was 15 or 16 years old. I tried using google to come up with some depiction of what I saw and I found something very similar:
http://i46.tinypic.com/1zpsdfo.png
OMG! LoZ FANS MUST READ! FREAKIEST THING EVER!
I dreampt I was captured by Ganon. I felt weird, so I tried to wake up. Instead, I was pinned onto my bad with chains, Ganon looming over me in an evil cackle. I could not move, nor think. Everytime I tried to move, another bar pinned me. The guards from Phantom Hourglass moved in, surronding me. I all of a sudden felt something on my chest, and I could not breath. Suddenly, Vaati appeared, moving the thing off my chest and holding his sword over my neck threateningly. I would've grabbed a teddy bear and thrown it at him, but I was paralised. And anyways, I was pinned. Just when death loomed over me, I felt the weight lifted, and blood splatter on me. I could not move, but hear voices, screaming, and death. A sudden hope loomed, clashing with death. All of a sudden, my leg was slashed. I felt this stabbing pain. I then felt myself washed off, gazing into these deep blue eyes. That lasted a heart beat, then it was over. I got up, scanning my mind for deep blue eyes. Link? It makes *some* sence.
So, there are other people besides me and my friend who get this
YESSSS!!! I am so careless that I had never researched this disorder before today and I have had the sleep paralysis over 10 times now (throughout my life). Last one was around 30 minutes ago:) pretty shitty feeling but its all good now:) Thanks for posting this my friend and I wish you all the best. About Ghosts and Evil spirits? I AINT EVER SCARED!!!:D
-Adeel
more then you think answers are comeing
o.k. sorry about the subject line i don't know the answers but i've done alot of research -
on average 1/4 of the people i have spoken to have experienced this in some form - aged 16 - 80( i haven't asked children)
They all say very similar things without coaching & many have never spoken about it as they thought people would think they were crazy. I usually start asking them by saying the weirdest thing happenened to me last night and i've never been so scared, i can tell straight away if they have experienced it because of the look on their faces.(fear/hope)That you've experienced the same.
There are several regular things
1.) can't move /talk
2.) evil figure - usally sitting on chest but not always
3.) children laughing
4.) A spider
5.) something comeing from the door
6.) People sometimes discribe an alien abduction
7.) God / Praying to end it.
8.) a dead relitive there as a calming force
9.) a static or strage noise
i've experienced something else which i'll tell you about in a bit, i also have physical effidence
The sience - yes we know we dream during sleep and some dreams are similar falling / flying / teeth falling out
Fine so when we experience this we can expect similar things after all we are all human.
The Questions
Why do so many people who don't beleive in god use that power so effectively? (it does work to end this if your stuggleing to regain power over it)
Could all the people who claimed alien abductions just be suffering from what we suffer from. (yes)
are there ghosts? well if evil can come for you why can't your past family members protect you.
If its evil whats it after? some say it feeds on your fear/others have mentioned it is after sex or your sole
out of bodie experiences during operations or other times are very similar - however they claim that its them looking down on their own body or trying to get back in - almost the reverse of what we've experienced.
my experiences
this has happened many times to me and i've experienced most of what others have i did receive an injury during one fight when the figure smashed into my face - i now have a slighty twisted tooth - I also had the children jumping up and down on the bed (i could actually feel them going through me) and that was during the day after an afternoon nap the sun was still shining in the room.
possible answer -
We are all asleep and think we are awake, what if its our own sole or (whatever you want to call it) like in an out of body experience comeing back just we wake up to soon and catch it comeing back in.
one thing i know for certin is that it is impossible for so many people to experience this and there to be a straight forward sientific answer if it was just awake dreaming i'd expect the experiences to be way more veried.
What next - talk to people your not alone and the more people talk about this the more answers we'll get, i haven't been able to find medical research on this however a doctor asked one of the people above if they had experienced any of these things, maybe they'd had something similar or maybe the medical profesion know - another asked a cleric in the church - they didn't seem suprised by the experience either.
Good theory!
I was telling a fortune teller about it and he said that my soul leaves my body when im asleep and it happens because I wake up before my soul comes back into my body!Last night I heard whispers telling me what order my friends would die in, I could feel the bed shaking too.....FREAKY
cheers for showing me this...
cheers for showing me this... it first started happening to me when i was like 10 years old... im now 13... and it happened today but no worries now i know why but do you guys remember the first time you got it? i do and i was really scared but now what i try to do is focus really hard and try to move my whole body at once... you might have to do it a few times but it eventually worked for me after 20 seconds or so hehe im glad i dont hear voices or see thing though touchwood wont heh
Finally an answer
This has only happened to me once in my life when I was probably 18 or 19 (I am currently 22) and I am so thankful to finally have a legit answer to something that has plagued my logic for so long. My feet fell asleep and then it started slowly creeping up to my knees and I remember thinking how strange it was that I could feel it traveling upwards, then at the knees it stopped and suddenly shot through my whole body, I couldn't move anything it felt like I was being weighed down. I was laying on my back like others have said and I was so close to falling asleep it was difficult for me to convince myself that it couldn't be a dream. I had to be literal seconds from passing out. The fear was so real I knew it was reality, I was breathing in choking/gasping as I tried to scream for help to my sister whom I knew was awake in the next room. I couldn't move even my eyes but right in front of me at my upper chest was a greenish/yellow bright orb thing buzzing at me. It was probably like a foot in diameter if that. After a few seconds it disappeared I returned to normal as soon as it was gone, with tears in my eyes I ran so fast to my sister's room. I though it was my Grandpa or something because I was in his old room sleeping in his bed. (I had stayed the night at my Grandma's house) My pants were super staticky so I thought, and still do, that the static electricity caused it all, seems to fit perfectly with everything that happened. Never been so afraid in my life, but it has never happened again.
Maybe the static was the
Maybe the static was the result of the experience rather than the cause?
My first experience of sleep
My first experience of sleep paralysis happened late last year. All I remember was lying in bed trying so hard to open my eyes and snap out of it. I felt excited about what had happened and at the same time terrified. I didn't want to have sleep paralysis again, I felt anxious about going back to sleep. I remember some kind of presence being outside my field of view. I could see my closet and remembered thinking how alien my bedroom looked. It was dark in my room and I think it affected the way I felt.
My theory is that the environment affects you just the same way as psychedelic drugs do during sleep paralysis. When I was a kid I was scared of the dark, but I used to stand at the end of the hallway and taunt the 'monsters' all the while thinking 'Damn, I'm gonna pay for that'. It's kind of like a snowball effect, you feel vulnerable, and your imagination is extremely heightened in your dream state. It's a natural response to arrive paralyzed and thinking 'what now?', that's when images of monsters and evil things invade your mind.
I had two more episodes of sleep paralysis after this. Both were not very pleasant experiences, but each episode got longer. Although my perception of time during paralysis seems off, so I can't be sure. I sometimes slip back into my normal dreaming while it happens, and sometimes it's even as if I'm dreaming and experiencing paralysis in my room at the same time. But the two don't overlap i.e. hallucinations, I wonder if the brain has the ability to parallel process like that. It's actually quite hard to explain, I seem to stop dreaming visually, but continue in my mind while I look around my room.
My last experience of sleep paralysis was a positive one, although a little nerve wracking. I suddenly became aware that I was paralyzed, however my cat was sleeping with me. This gave me great comfort, my muscles were also extremely relaxed and I had no desire to move them. I did try to move them though, and after a few failed attempts decided it wasn't worth the effort. I decided to go back to sleep, and let my mind wander, I found I was super aware of my body. Then I suddenly became anxious that something was coming to get me, but then I thought about my cat, and imagined him protecting me. I closed my eyes and saw this flashing in the pattern of lightning on a black background. I felt like I was moving at an impossible speed and the flashing got faster and faster. Then I thought I must be having a seizure. I arrived back at my dream state and starting having a dream. But it was strange and non linear like the dream I was having before I was paralyzed. My mind showed me single images in quick sucession, a bridge, and many others I can't remember, the very last one was of myself. Then I woke up feeling absolutely brain dead, I feel like my attention is scattered. I'm excited for the next time I get sleep paralysis, I feel as though I have control of it, but honestly I would prefer it if someone was there to wake me up if needed. Willing yourself out of the paralysis when I begin to panic is difficult.
I thought I was the only one
Seriously, I thought some devil was trying to torture me or something. 1st time it happened last year. I thought I heard someone screaming,"HARRY POTTER!" and then sp hit me. It scared me to death. I went straight to my mom and CRIED. 2nd time was yesterday's yesterday, thats why tonight I decided to check on it on the internet. THANK GOD theres a scientific explanation about this.
When I had this I almost believed in ghosts
This happened to me as a child, and a few more times during high school. During high school it was the same thing happening over and over again for nights, so I finally got used to it so I can fight it. I would wake up, open my eyes, and couldn't move at all. I heard noises and felt that someone was in my room. I faught with all my strength to turn on my lamp next to my bed, and my arm would be shaking a lot. It wouldn't turn on at first. Then I would try to calm down and when I could move a little more I dragged myself to open the door, just to find that it was locked. Then I would wake up to find myself paralyzed on the bed again. And try to turn the light on, and the whole thing repeats 3-4 times before I actually woke up and could turn the light on.
At first I was terrified and wouldn't tell anyone because it seems so crazy. But then I learned to get out of my dreams when I realized it, though it takes a lot of concentration and sometimes made me sweat. I used to wonder if there was some sort of evil spirit in my house. It has been haunting me for two years already, and now I'm relieved to know that I am not alone. And more to that, there is actually a scientific explanation to it.
Nothing moves but my tounge
I started to hear aliens and there control panel why they where looing over me. Wierd I know ,but I could not move anything but my tounge. I woke up thinking I had been abducted. I am so glad that I have found this page because it really helps. I was thinkng about making a device that will shock you to get out of the S.P. but how would I move my fingers to turn it on.
Thanks
sleep paralysis veteran
I'm sad that some people leaving comments here, are still CONVINCED it's a ghost or spirit. Science explains that it's a hallucination, why do people underestimate the human mind! One person said something like "why are all our experiences scary, why does no one have a good experience with it?". It's the same thing that happens when people are dying. The brain copes with death, pain, and yes, even paralysis, in surprising ways. But logically, being paralyzed and unable to scream is always going to be a negative experience and more than likely, trigger terrifying hallucinations.
I've suffered from this since I was a child, about five or six years old. It's been over twenty years. It was worse during my teenage years. I think I was more anxious and paranoid as a teenager, which explains why it plagued me more at that time, than any other time. As a child, I thought there was some kind of evil spirit haunting me. My very logical mother thought the entire thing was in my imagination. A few years ago, she began having similar episodes. They say this can be genetic. I just wish she had experienced it first, so I wouldn't have grown up thinking I was insane.
I read some comments stating that you could "fight back". Though some of these statements referred to fighting witches and spirits, there is some truth to this. When it happens to me, I can feel my heart rate slow, and I cannot breathe. I often worry that it will eventually kill me (SUNDS). When I have an episode, I summon all my strength to snap out of it. It's difficult, but if you FIGHT to move your leg or arm, eventually you will snap out of it. For me, it still takes my body a while to adjust, and move normally again, and it takes me a long time to catch my breath, but at least I can open my eyes, and roll over/sit up.
I would like to know why everyone sees/feels/hears ghosts and spirits. I'm a secular humanist, who does not believe in ghosts, and yet, I see them too. Why does our brain create these specific images?
i dont think it has anything to do with science
Question: if it were just hallucinations wouldn't the image apear anywhere? Ex. Victims of this are laying on there stomach why do they always have to look back to see a shadowy figure. I would think hallucinations would be random and apear anywhere.
I've had this a few times but this is the first time I heard breathing coming from behind me. And I felt it on the back of my head.
In response, I believe in
In response, I believe in Jesus ... therefore the angels and demons but I do NOT believe in ghost. I find it interesting that you see the same images although you are "secular humanist." Well ... if God is real ... and I believe he is ... we all have souls. Our flesh and spirit fight on a daily basis. Regardless of what our flesh knows, our spirit is of God and knows the secrets, if any, that our flesh cannot comprehend. It makes no sense why you should have the same experiences ... if these are not manifestations of a "religious" person. I am not religious but I did have this happen to me two years ago ... but I was actually shoved half way off the end of my couch, opened my eyes and didn't see anyone, I felt myself being moved, heard something whisper clear as day in my right ear ... I knew it was real and could not believe it was happening to me. I said "Jesus help me" three times and I jerked myself almost off the couch. I remember everything. My arms were totally numb like someone had been pinning me down. The voice was not evil and it didn't feel evil ... what I didn't like was the fact I couldn't move my body, heard someone talking to me who wasn't there ... and had my lower body shoved down half way off the end of the couch ... it took a lot to figure out what I thought had happened. I think God allowed it to happen so that I could finally see how strong we are, through Him, against the evil around us that our flesh does not see. So, for a believer and an unbeliever to have the same thing happen ... its not our perception ... its something that is there ... that we have no control over. Something innate. I believe spiritual warfare and a way to harass and try to cause fear in our lives. I always thought people were weird... the ones I heard of that had this happen and I never though it would happen to me. It did. Now, I know.
Thank God I'm not the only one!!!!
The first time I experienced Sleep Paralysis was about a year and a half ago, and for a while I was convinced I had had a small seizure but I was too afraid to go to the doctor. Since that time I have had a few more episodes. The most recent happened to me today. This one was different from the rest. Usually I will just become paralyzed for a few seconds and it is a very hard struggle to keep my eyes open. Each time this has happened I have tried very hard to fight it off. Today's was different because I hallucinated for the first time. First I saw my dog barking in front of me then I was one the floor (even though I was really laying in bed still) and I hallucinated my dad was there yelling "Whats wrong??" When it passed I was lying in my bed again. Earlier today I started thinking that this could be a paranormal activity until I jumped on Google and found that my symptoms are just like everyone elses.
Well, the day before sleep
Well, the day before sleep paralysis happened to me. Me and our friends talk about really scary things and after a day before i go to bed i was really thinking about the things we are talking about the last night. but i really wasnt scared because i dont believe in this kind of paranormal activities. I slept 12:30 am and i am the only person in my room then suddenly i woke up about 2am and move at first and try to move again to change my position in bed but here it comes the thing that causes me not to move. It feels like a dwarf is holding my hands down and not letting me move he was laughing so hard and yelling at me. my eyes are open so i tried to move my eyes and suddenly i saw a creature wearing a white dress and i can barely see her face. and then suddenly i can already move again. i wasnt scared but i was praying. when i tried to get back to sleep my left hand moves without me moving it. And so i decided to sleep with my mom and dad.
It was really horrific. And deciced to search it out on google after i woke up at 9am. here is what i see.. sleep paralysis is the reason. and it was scientifically explained to me... THANKS GOOGLE. :)
i wasnt the only one who experienced this and i really feel ease with it. hehe.. so it means that the moment that i woke up was the moment that the REM is occuring.and that is the reason why.. hehe.. i really wish it would happen to me again. it was kinda fun and frightening also. haha..
spiritual and neurological?
I get sp very often. my worst expereince was when i was on holidays with my girlfriend. we were with her family and were forced to take a single bed each in the same room. I awoke to being choked very strongly, i coudnt breath, my adrenaline was thumping but my body paralysed. i realised that i had to somehow wake my girlfriend up for her to see my situation to waken me. i was screaming in my head which let out little murmours which thankfully woke her. I was freaked out and this happened three times that night. Each time i became fully awake i could still feel the same presence in the room and so could my girlfriend we both looked to the same places to expect someone being there.
On other occassions i have not had sp but something similar. I would awake but still be drowsy and see the spirit that was in my dream or someone/something unrelated to my dream altogether. i would see and feel them, one grabbed my hand and tried to pull me out of the bed but most disapear. The strange thing is im still kind of in a half conscious mind so im very relaxed and not afraid by my surroundings.
Im not a religous person, im from a catholic family and have very open beliefs and would always try to explain things through science but some of my experiences i simply cannot explain and i have read so many neurology and psycholgy books to help but none have explained them. They only expalin half because i always find a loophole to my experiences that cannot possibly be explained by science. The presences i feel also are not always evil so these are not night terrors and they are not an over active imagination as i have seen family members whom i did not recognise until i described the person to an old member of the family and they would get an old photo album of ancestors from 100 years ago or more and they would be in it but most are strangers and some unhuman.
So this shit cant kill me
So this shit cant kill me ever..?
Cause like it happened to me like 3 hours ago and it happened when I was 13 I'm nearly 17 now I also thought it was ghosts trying to choke me in my sleep freaked the shit out of me my god!
someone choking me
once when i slept over my cusions house.we had all went to sleep like at 11:00.i had went to sleep.then i woke up out of my body. and i could have sworn i saw someone walk into the room.and started choking me.but thanks to google.i know im not the only ine that has this.i know that im not going crazy.