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Sleep Paralysis: Awake But Still Asleep
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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
Comments
I have had it for quite a
I have had it for quite a while,i'll be 18 in a week. And this thing has been happening all the time now, and its only getting worse. the other night when it happened my heart was racing, and i could see a womanly figure strange because it's nomaly a young man. and it felt as though she was on top of me with her hand pressing hard against my heart. I have got to were i go to sleep at 2 with my light on, and night light and my door open, and i wake up for school at 5.
I can't keep doing this, i would like peace, when does it go away?
Sleep problems
I understand what you are going through. I prayed hard for the Lord to heal me from this and also give me peace. During one of those experiences I heard an inner voice inside of me cry out "Hossanna in the Heighest" and immediately I was set free. Hossanna in the highest is praising God and it also means save us now. Call out to Jesus or speak out inwardly if you can't say it out loud Hossanna in the Heighest. You too will also be set free. Also, if you have not accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. It would be a good time to open up your heart and invite Him to come in. All you have to do is tell Him that you are sorry for all your sins, invite Him to come and live inside your heart and be your Lord and Savior all the days of your life. You won't be sorry. He will fight all your battles, for He already did at the cross on calvary. God Bless You.
SP
Praise the Lord! That was so incouraging. God is good and He protects His children. Ive had this happen to me since I was 6 yrs old, I am 29 now and seldom have it happen to me. But when it does i know who to call on. Jesus Christ my Lord and Savior! He will come to your defence from any attack from the enemy. As long as you believe that He died on that cross and His blood covers your sin. Our God is Awesome and Mighty. Satan and His demons can try to mess with your mind, but they can't hurt you if you belong to Christ.
yep this made me believe in
yep this made me believe in God even more i now seek him for EVERYTHING and he makes me feel safe. i get really bad anxiety, and one day i was at my friends house and there were some other people there and i got it and started panicking i felt like i was going to faint and almost threw up i just kept swallowing it. i started talking to him and i felt better. i've had this i think about 3 times my dad said he has experienced the same thing when he was young (he said his house was haunted) and i think my mom had the same thing but she said no because her eyes were open and she would have demonic dreams , she said her house was haunted too. now i have it and hopefully this will work. how do you pronounce it? oh and when they moved out, it stopped. maybe it has something to do with where you are. (dad said hes had it once where we live now) ew i hope theyre not spirits and clinging on to me because i had it at my friends house too. and it grabbed me. but i just let it because it's all in my head isnt it? reply back please i want help. thank you
sleep paralysis
I recently had an experiance of sleep paralysis, I dont think its the first time and believe I suffered from it a lot when I was younger (i'm now 20) but have only just realised I suffered from it.
This morning I awoke, had a few glasses of water then headed back to bed. I felt as if i was nodding off, my limbs became heavy and I was unable to move, my chest was tight and convulsing. My shoulder was twitching uncontrollably and I was unable to talk. I could hear voices outside my window discussing drowning somebody, and drying them selfs off. After a minute of struggling to awake I came to, believing I had a bad dream.
A few minutes later I began nodding off again. Same symptoms took over, I believed my mobile phone was ringing and I struggled to answer it (although I was aware that my arms were both parallel to my body, it felt as if I had my phone to my ear). A friend who unfortunatly passed away 2 years ago was on the other end, explaining to me who he was, and that his older brother needed me home for something, I struggled to say "hello," repeatedly but all I heard afterwards was crackling/static.
This is one of the most terrifying experiance I believe a person can have, I instantly typed the symptoms I had into a search engine and found this site, i'm happy to discover I'm not the only one! Although still knackered i'm going to stay up now and hope I get a good nights sleep tonight. Since awaking my chest still feels tight and i'm sneezing uncontrollably!
hi
I had my first experience when I was doing sit-ups. Suddenly I could not move. I don't know how, but I felt like I was bending back-wards. reaching for the door, too get out of my room for help. then things got normal. I finally was able to move. confuse I was. thinking what the hell.
More than a year later. The second time, 5:00 a.m. I was dreaming of a black human shaped thing( it was not human).Then I woke-up getting choked. I made a smile because I know Ju-jitsu and im very good at it. I heard a laugh. but it was weird. I can't feel myself move. but I saw myself move a little. I was able too see a face popping out of the wall. I prayed berlly. Feeling only wind of my voice coming out my mouth. Then things were back to normal. I was free.
A month later, I had it again after a dream of dead people(somehow). I can't move at all. BUT, i see myself sicking down to the ground. So, I prayed and fromthere i was free.
I happened a couple of times after. All i do is pray then it gone.
When I was back home. I had another nightmare of my mom. getting crumppled. then i woke up. looking for my mom. but i felt like something is grabbing me. but i still manige to move. I felt like i was flotting, then i went through walls, all the way to my moms room. she wasn't there. then I felt like i was getting pulled. all the way to my body. Now Im awake.
I ran to my moms room. and she really wasn't in her room. so i went to My younger brothers room. and she was there sleeping with my younger bro. I am very glad, both of them are safe. Then I went down stairs screaming very loudly, "WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU!! SHOW YOUR SELF!!" Im a hand to hand fighter so I want to fight. eventhough its impossible.
One of the last time. I saw someone dead at Iraq. a woman. the next morning. I woke up. someone was on my shoulder wespering at my ears. In arabic like she was crying too. I looked around and saw my friend. too bad i cant call him. I cannot move anything again. when i finally did. She was gone. And i saw my friend still doing what ever he is doing. That time it seemed like a spirit needs help. I cried. thought i was curse or something. but i really cared for the woman more. so i prayed for her. and prayed for answers.
sleep paralysis
I have experienced sleep paralysis for most of my life, and would have to agree that when i am most anxious i am affected more by it. It is so terrifying,and my last attack this week the most terrifying yet. I believed that there was something small and evil in the room and felt it bite my arm. I Lay paralysed screaming but to no avail. Totally soundless efforts until finally i managed to get my husbands name out who was lying directly beside me. I have checked my arm thoroughly since which is free of any bite marks, but the reality of the experience is chilling me to the bone. I wish i could be strong and make light of it, but unfortunately this is not so. I am terrified of having another attack, and it prevents me from relaxing as i should for a good nights sleep when i go to bed. Im so glad that its not only me that experiences these attacks of sleep paralysis. Mo 24th Jan 2008
am from india.i first
am from india.i first thought that it was some kind of curse that i have with me.only now i knew that it was a disease .am also happy that others in this world are also having this symptom.
Awful Loud Voices and Screaming
I have experienced sleep paralysis for the past 4 years now. It usually occurs after a weekend where I have not had enough sleep, usually on the Tuesday or Wednesday. The first time it happened I was absolutely terrified and convinces there were ghosts in the house. My first experience involved a baby crying and sreaming, gradually getting louder and louder and of course I can't move. My muscles feel really tense and I am sure I am clenching my jaw. I struggle to open my eyes and pull myself out of it. Everytime I experience sleep paralysis it happens between 3 - 5 times in one night, always as I am trying to get to sleep. It appears that my body skips the NREM stage and plunges me straight into REM even though I am not properly asleep yet.....
Since the first time I have heard screams, loud music and deep lud chanting. It is terrifying. I am afraid I am going to scare myself into a heart attack and die, I wonder if this is possible. I seem to haev these epiosodes about once every 6 - 8 weeks. I know I should just relax and not worry, but I can't help but try and struggle to pull myself out of it every time.
Screaming..
I was reading through the comments waiting to see someone with similar episodes to mine. I was so young, about 5 or 6 when this would happen. It would always happen while I was on my back. I would start to hear a soft noise, soft chattering which I just thougt was my parents in the other room. But it would get louder and louder until the voice (which was always male) would be literally screaming at me. So loud I always wished I could put my hands to my ears. I couldn't move anything except my eyes. Because I was so young I don't remember how the episodes ended..
I've kept it to myself for years, I told my partner about it recently but she didn't understand and couldn't think of any explanation either.
Thank you so much for this article and all these comments. Very reassuring that I (and we) are not crazy :)
sleep paralysis
Finally! It is so refreshing to read these comments and to learn that I am NOT alone in my experiences with sleep paralysis.
I am a 49 year old white male who has been experiencing and/or suffering from these awful experiences for most of my adult life.
When I experience sleep paralysis, which is usually twice a month, I am usually totally paralyzed, but I am able to moan, which is my signal to my wife to move my arm and it usually wakes me up. This is how I cope with sleep paralysis.
Sometimes sleep paralysis will occur just when I am drifting off in a sleep. I never talked to a doctor about it and Im curious to learn if anyone here has.
Please let me know.
the Mind Awake/Body Asleep prison aka SP
I have experienced this sleep paralysis since I can remember, definitely before age 10, and am now a 45 yr.old mother of 3 boys. No, I never did consult with a doctor (as a nurse, I believed meds would be suggested, after the typical "plan your sleep, etc..."). But I identify and empathize with most on here. And I have lived through the terror, the horrifying realization that "oh,no, it's happening again"; knowing that by the time I 'know' it's happening, it's too late to get up or move. I have tried so many different ways to stop this-from staying up til I am mentally AND physically exhausted, to sleeping pills, to avoid any kind of dream state (REM). The pills work, but I never felt rested-and the sp would happen with a nap. I too pray when I'm in that state of feeling awake, but can't open my eyes, or move any part of my body,to calm myself down, and even fall into a deeper sleep, where I won't be conscious of my paralyzed body. I've come to brink of waking up, even thinking I AM awake and moving, only to actually wake up minutes later, struggling. I hesitate to tell anyone, because when you explain it, it sounds much more benign than we know it is-traumatic. I finally told my longtime boyfriend about it, because I figured out what others here already knew-that by someone touching/shaking you brings your body into wakefulness. The first time it happened after he knew what to do. I was in that mind awake/body asleep prison-I STRUGGLED to get the words "help me, help me, help me"; It took a huge amount of effort-and I could hear myself talking, feeling and sounding like a stroke victim. To confirm that this all really did happen, since I never have been able to verify my recall- I asked him "what was I saying, how did I sound?" He said you said help me, but it was slow,& slurred. I do feel safer going to sleep now that I told him what to do-apparently before, he just thought I was just talking in my sleep(i never specifically called for help, he'd just hear parts of a prayer, etc..). Now he too,know the signal.
I was and continue to be what the world defines as a "religious" or spiritual person, becoming "born again" in my 20s, but not by any stretch of the imagination, living at all times in line with what I professed to believe;(I've since decided to follow what had been put in my heart,as a child, and instill this in my children, as a Christian). I haven't ever felt like there was a demon in the room, but no matter what is going on, I ALWAYS have a very bad, creepy, dark feeling-and I too "feel" someone "touching" me, but never see the face. sorry for the length, but Thank you for listening, I never realized how many others suffered.
All of these comments I can
All of these comments I can relate to. Mine started when I was 12 and the first time was by far the worst and I beleive I "opened a door" the night before when I met a self proclaimed worlock who explained witchcraft to me in depth. I became a Christian at 19 but was still living in grave sin until about 5 years ago. At that point they almost completly stopped. When the SP happens to me it can vary in intensity and length, but after reading these postings I can see how it happens most likely after something stressful during the day and I did not confess some sin. I am no longer afraid just annoyed. I know what ever this is it can not kill me, I am child of God. I also take a light sleeping pill, it helps. Also SP is nothing new hundreds of years ago they called it being "witch ridden." I have gone in the past months even years without an occurence, if they get to intense or frequent I pray (I always pray) and I turn on Christian radio that is usually broadcasting a sermon and I know this scares the demons even more then they have ever scared me! It flees every time.
sp
Take tofranil, is a medication someone that had sp EVERY night is taking and he's being free of sp for nonths now!!!
I have my first sp experience when I was like 12 years old. After the episode was over,I turned on my stomach and continue to sleep, then this force twisted my legs towards my head, so please guys don't turn in your stomach!!! The worst episodes I had, was after I gave birth to my baby and I started to have them every day..one time I fell asleep while sitting down and then I heard this beep, then got really dizzy and right before the episode started...I opnened my eyes...I was able to see the room, but I couldn't move,I wasn't breething, I thought. I was dying...I called jesus in my mind and that's how the horrifing episode ended....last night I had several episodes...but there was no beep, just this dizzines then black shadows only when I closed my eyes...I felt that I was falling to an empty space...I foght so hard until I finally moved my hand and woke up. I turned the tv on and put the catholic channel were they pray n sing to God all night and that let me sleep like a baby....today when I woke up and my body aches sooo much....all of my muscles are sore...I wonder if anyone else wakes up in this much pain...and also I would like to thanl everybody to share their stories because is not so easy to talk about what once it was our dark secret...
Sleep Paralysis scariest thing ever !!!!
Let me just start by saying, I was never one to go to church, and what not. Not that I don't beleive in God, going to church wasn't ( and still isn't) my thing. I had my first experience with Sleep Paralysis when I had my daughter at age 20 ( I am now 27). I was in the spare bedroom watching tv and my daughter was about 2 weeks old. She started to cry so as I went to sit up to pick her up, I felt like I was being choked, I couldn't breathe, I couldn't move my arms, legs, fingers, nothing...... After what seemed like 5 minutes of this it stopped. I was horrified. The next day I mad a doctors appointment, and they basicly told me I was nuts. It happend to me again during the day about a month after that. Every one I told thought I was crazy except for my mother in law. She said I needed to pray & that it was evil or "witch on the back" she called it. I thought this was nuts, because I don't believe in ghosts. Although at this point what did I have to loose ??? for a while praying kind of helped, but it seemed as though during these episodes I heard some one laughing at me, it was such a evil laugh, or when I would try to talk it sounded as if I was possessed. My husband once heard me at night struggling and said I wasn't breathing right, and I sounded weird, and woke me up... I was panicking, so he called his mom at like 2 in the morning to pray for us. As I said, I am still not a believer of alot of Holy stuff, but these episodes are truely frightening and evil. I am now 27 and havn't had one in about a year. Sometimes at night if I start to feel uncomfortable for no reason at all, I turn on the lights & watch tv ( my husband hates that, but oh well...). It does happen more when I sleep on my back, so I try to avoid doing so. Also not to mention, when I had my second episode of sleep paralysis when I was 20 I woke up with a huge scratch down my upper right thigh and was bleeding... I have no clue. I am glad to see that I am not crazy, and other people have been though it to know what I am talking about.
evil sleep paralysis
this only happend to me once but about 3 or 4 years ago i went to sleep when i awoke the only thing that i could move was my eyes i could look up down left and right but i tried as hard as i could to move my arms and legs nothing would move then about 20 sec later i felt the presents of the devil behind me looking down at me although i couldnt see him cause he was just out of my sight i new he was behind me looking down at me he felt about 7 feet tall of course i felt scared then about 10 sec later i started praying when i was about half way threw the prayer my body came back and i was able to move
NOV 23 2008
RUBEN C
11:24 p.m
I have had similar
I have had similar experiences throughout my life. In last experience, I woke up at around three in the morning, fully awake and unable to move anything. I could see and hear but couldn't move any part of my body. As this is quite common, I just laid there thinking how to wake up. I was thinking, "I will have to make my groaning noises to wake my wife up. She knows this is her que to wake me up as I can't do it myself. But the last time this happened, after I woke up I said to here " if I moan and groan, just let me go, I will have to work this out myself", bad move.
All of a sudden I became aware of a noise just like a diesel engine running at full bore. This really freaked me out, nothing like not being able to move and listening to noises that you don't know where they are coming from. I started to repeat the word to "relax". I just kept saying it over and over again. Finally the noise started to subside. Once I got the noise down to a more tolerable level, I started thinking about how to wake up. At this point, for whatever reason I decided I needed to shift my sleeping position from laying on my left side to laying on my right side. As I thought of this, I started moveing backward. My body stayed stationary while something moved to the right. Once again this really freaked me out. As I got instantly scared, the diesel engine started back up full throttle. At this point I thought I have to moan and groan even though I said what I said the last time she will just have to wake my up, I will moan and groan until she does.
Finally after what seemed like a half hour, I woke her up. I actually saw her reach over and shake my right shoulder. When she did this I started to wake up. The strangest thing then occurred as I started to awake, my sleeping consious mind started to wake up, and I actually became aware of my present consious mind fading out to allow my conscious mind full powers. It was like one mind goes to sleep and the other wakes up.
I have never had another episode of whatever you might want to call it after this one. I have had some pretty strange dreams thought.
All of these experiences occurred after drinking wine. Don't know why other than it seems to really put me out.
I too have been having the
I too have been having the same thing happen to me for about while know but when this sleep paralysis occur I get this weird feeling like a rush of emotions and then it gets really cold and then sometimes it feels like someone pass by, me when its good its cold when its bad its always loud and scary and sometimes I hear whatever it is crawling on my walls theses experiences never happen for more then six or seven mins and always seems to happen to me around 230-330am never fails always the same time lately they been getting stronger but I'm able too open my eyes know and move a little but know I hear voices it seems as if they are talking to me know but I cant understand and I feel when they touch me when they do it feels like the that is air around me is blowing right through me and they speak very fast when I wake from this sometimes my skin feel like it is being poked with thousand of needles from the inside out and my heart is always racing and i could everything in my apt and outside I'm sorta kinda use to it know i just want to know if anyone else out there is feeling the same way if so please help me understand more about this
Sleep Paralysis/ Devil or Demon?
My experiences with Sleep Paralysis started just as I got into high school. I would feel an evil presence and tried to move or shout to wake myself up. It happened pretty regularly when it first started. I actually learned to sleep on the edge of the bed and if I heard the "noise" start up I would let myself fall to wake myself up. It stopped for a few years then came back with a vengeance when I was married to my now ex-wife. At the time I felt probably the happiest I ever felt in my life so I would rule out stress. I started having the paralysis feeling about 2 or 3 am it hit so suddenly I didn't recognize it fast enough. I saw shadows moving around me and immediately got frightened as I felt they were there to harm me or my wife. I remembered that making a noise woke me up when I was younger so I tried screaming but only managed a faint humming noise, that I actually heard myself make. This went on for at least 30 seconds but felt like forever. I finally managed to move my neck and woke up. When I was fully awake I noticed my wife was looking at me with this horrified look on her face. I asked her did you hear and see that and she said yes. She said it looked as if I was getting possessed by something and I was fighting it. I explained if she ever heard me moan again to immediately wake me up. It started happening so often that she confided that she was even scarred to wake me because of the horrible sounds I was making. I thought it was something strange that was only happening to me. We soon split up and continued having sleep paralysis until I finally moved out because the lease expired on our apartment. It's been 3 years since my last experience. I don't look forward to the next one.
It hasnt happened to me since I moved out
I lived in a rent house and I would experienc sleep paralysis. I have been moved out and havnt experienced them in 3 weeks. It used to always happen around the same time, but I have had them living other places to. Its almost like it follows you. for me from AZ. My boyfreind caught me in a episode just as I feel asleep. I saw him watching me and I was scared making noises and shaking to wake up. He had never saw me do that before but he knew about it. I belive it is another demention because it is the exact same room but a different feeling and things that are not real happen. But when you get out of it you have a secure feeling about the room. I think it might be asociated with demonds not ghost. EVP has happened to me in the extent of lights being turned off and on in the house and tv static after experemting with listening to dead people in the grave yard talk on the computer after warning my freing that went to the web sight. It followed my to my old appartment where all three night lights on each on of my little girls wall burned out durring the night. I woke up about 1:30am wondering why her room was dark and descovered each one had burned out.
Whatever this stuff is I dont think it is just our mind.
So what did you that it
So what did you that it stopped occuring? would like to know.
Thanks,
lisangel
Its obvious isn't it; he
Its obvious isn't it; he moved. When, at 19, I moved out of my parents house, it immediately stopped happening...
sleep paralysis
I've had sleep paralysis and the attendant feeling of suffocation and an entity in the past - and the paralysis by itself occassionally. The scariest episodes also never returned after moving. I'm looking at this forum now because I'm revisiting bad dreams and light paralysis after having been rid of them for over a decade. I do blame my apartment. My roommates joke about black mold in the bathroom (covering the ceiling- we've had it removed twice by the landlord) and the beige laminate walls sweating pink and other funny things in the bathroom - we joke it being haunted -but, I reluctantly think there may be something to it as I've been plunged into unpleasant sleep episodes I haven't head in decades. I think moving does work. I had pretty decent sleep and happy dreams before moving here - and my life doesn't reflect the stress for things to change this drastically in my dreamscape.
I read somewhere that if you
I read somewhere that if you give your life to Christ and pray in repetance sincerely it stops immediately. So I tried it afew months ago, before I went to bed I asked Christ to forgive me all my sins and to save and protect me. I also handed my life to Him. It stopped immediately no more choking and seizures and voices. Please try it and don't go back to other gods or they promptly come back. I slept peacefully not a single attack, no black dogs shown up in my dreams either. If I fall from God then they return, I repent and they go away. I hope it helps.
SP sleep paralysis
heres something to think about. i have been going through
SP for some time now. and most of the time, when i went through it. i was a single male, living alone, but now. im married. and im sure everyone knows the things we hear or sense during these episodes, but heres the shocker, my wife is the one that hears things moving in our room. and senses a person moving about the room. while im experiencing my episode of trying to wake up. so scientifically. how do we explain someone else hearing and sensing what i should be hearing and so on. any thoughts, questions.
sp sleep paralysis
she's your soul mate. no explanation needed. roger and i have that. he seems to sense that something is wrong and helps me to wake up. sometimes touch or familiar sound can break an episode of sp.
I am only 15 years old, and
I am only 15 years old, and i knoe im only a kid but i still think its evil spirits. i have been getting cuts on my arm lately for a year now. But thats not the scary part. The scary part is that im the ONLY one in my family that experience this, so called sleep paralyisis. Every time i tell my family they would always say "get used to it" or "its just your imagination". So im asking, since your comment is ghost related, how do you cope with these sleep paralyis?
In order to cope, I Pray when after becoming conscious....
Okay, I've been looking for a description much like this one. I'm 25 now, but I've been having the so called "sleep paralysis" since about your age and I must say your experiences are the closest to mine. When it first started happening, it would be hours into sleep and only a few times a week, then later on increasing to nightly and starting almost immediately as I closed my eyes. It would beginning with a sensation in my forehead that passed throughout my body within seconds and then sending my entire body into a state of paralysis. Now this is where it gets creepy. In the summer, I was one of the unfortunates that did not have an air conditioner and would have to sleep with my window open and little clothing. This is when I found the paralysis hardest to throw off and, I'd notice fine, needle-like scratches in strange parts of my body (my rear, back and thigh area) the following day. When I told a family member, she believed they were self inflicted and so I tried covering my hands and following the same routine to no avail. Strangely enough, at 19, I moved out of my parents house and it literally stopped happening completely. I've just recently moved back to an area near my parents and I've started experiencing it again. I always say a pray (The Our Father or the 23rd Psalm) to come out of this state. However; this evening, while taking a nap, I found myself unable to move, so I tried calmly without praying to stretch my body out from the fetal position and the pressure only became tighter and more intense the longer I dint pray. I hope this would be of some help. All the best and good luck to everyone.
15
you're not experiencing sleep paralyses;
what you are experiencing is a form of sleep walking in which the subject scatches,bites,veiws(usally)ghostly images, ect... This condition appears a lot in teens due to a chemical unbalance; but over excursion, stress, and even Munchausen Syndrome can cause this -self-attack.
I find that a good remedy is at your age is to wait until it passes, to quicken this reduce stress(obviously) and to improve your diet, the body will eventually self correct. If it continues i suggest sleeping medication for ,in most cases, leads to increased insomnia some years later.
Hi there. I'm 32 years old &
Hi there. I'm 32 years old & have had similar problems, although in my case I do feel I brought it on myself back inthose days becasue I made bad decisions and started to expirament with drugs. When I decided to stop those mistakes was when "The Visitor" started to come - even when I wasn't yet asleep! And, it would be felt by my husband too. I want you to know that it hasn't happened to me in 8 years, ever since I quit all my bad choices. I feel like when I first chose to quit the evil would torment me and try to get me back into the bad choices, if that makes any sense. I feel like that was its goal. Anyway, I got rid of it slowly by simply saying "I command all negative presences to leave my space" over and over again. Sometimes it was hard and I didn't make the words right, as you often cannot speak or scream, but I think even tryin helps as well as brings you to wakefulness. After a few nights of this I felt that when it did come it didn't get as close until finally I would sense it out in the yard and then far, far, far out in the universe and it never came back.
I did a lot of research on this and found that it is incredibly common in SouthEast Asian cultures. They try to cure it by wiggling the big toe, and they say that they notice a trigger for them is eating carbohydrates before bed, such as rice. I myself noticed about a month ago that after years of not having any nightmanres (just normal average ones) I had gnarly ones 3 nights in a row after eating choc pudding for dessert. Just thought i'd share that with you...
I also met friends that would have a demon on their chest trying to choke them, saying, "Im going to kill you" until one day they replied, "No you aren't, you CAN'T" and it seemed to remove its powers and it went away.
I hope this helps you to overcome your situation! 15 is awfully young to be going through this. I was 24 years old and have never been as terrified, before or since. As soon as it would enter the room this wave of anguish would wash over me - not even my own, it would just well up from somewhere deep in my belly and the tears would flow. Maybe it was my fear, who knows. Anyway . . . be blessed, don't invite the dark into your life with bad choices, stand your ground and perhpas you can overcome.
Hey, I'm fourteen and I've
Hey, I'm fourteen and I've been experiencing sleep paralysis off and on, I don't have physical injuries from it, but it really, really scares me. I don't really know how to control it yet, but I did find that it helps to focus completely on one body part, like I try to move my finger and after I can do that I can usually break free of the paralysis. But maybe it will help you to think of other people that have experienced the same thing. I also have realized that it doesn't always happen when I fall asleep on my back because I usually fall asleep on my right side or my stomach and it usually happens when I'm on my stomach. However, I just found these articles and these medical explanations and already I am a little relieved. I hope that the knowledge of others with this disorder will maybe help me the next time that this happens.
It all over the world
I came from Nigeria, and I have had this sleep paralysis many times, though I don't see ghost or any dark stuff but I couldn't move, talk or even move any of my fingers. sometime I successfully moved myself but sometime I was unable. I usually pray, then fall asleep and wake up fine.
hey i go though the
hey i go though the samething but i fugire out how to get out of it. it real easy all u got to do is think of happy thing and think of the person u love the most and u put it 2gether and focus on it u out of it tht wat i do if i go though tht
you need to get theropy &
you need to get theropy & take madication it's related to strees, BUT i
don't know anythig about you getting cuts
C'mon man, some people
C'mon man, some people experience this starting from the age of 6 and 7.. You would recommend stress medication and therapy to a baby... Be real, its beyond that...
im 14 yrs old
this has happened a lot to me and i realized it is normal, it is a spirit i believe.
the buzzing sound and paralysis all makes sense.
you see the buzzing, roaring or bell like sounds mean that a spirit is terying to drain your life force, however this cannot harm you, it just makes you feel uncomfortable and sad, the music and noises such as singing or laughing means that a spirit is not trying to harm you or drain life force but is trying to communicate with you, however this almost always fails because scientists and other people who don't believe state that it is nothing supernatural and it is just your brain playing tricks, i now know this is not the case.
it happens a lot to me and is quite similar to "astral travel"
astral travel is basically your spirit leaving your body, and the reason you cant move is because when your spirit is trying to get back in you become conscious but not yet fully conscious almost in between, but if you get comfortable with it you can do amazing things, travel and fly and go to other planets and remember it as if it actually happened, this is not a dream because it feels much different, and dreams you cant really remember but this you can remember for the rest of your life! the best thing to do when a spirit is trying to drain your life force is to be calm and try keeping your eyes closed and go to sleep as if it isn't happening, this is hard i know but you will get used to it. basically ignore the spirit.
I Got the same problem, I'm
I Got the same problem, I'm 16 and my parents just say it's a dream. It's scary shit and mine have been getting longer than a few seconds. The only thing that seems to make it go away for me is if I bring up God. Even if you don't believe in God just pray to him or say, "In the name of God, Satin leave" and it seems to go away soon after. I don't know if it' evil spirits or not but this works. Good Luck.
i would but i can't even talk in mine. . .
all i can do is move my eyes. . . . it's so terrible. . .
You dont have to talk
Just think your prayers as if you were saying them aloud. this works for my rare moments of SP, i'm a pretty strong dreamer though, thru practice of lucid dreaming. usually i can get out of it before anything terrifying appears, but when terrifying stuff comes along it's straight out of ghost-movies with eyes like tunnels and charnel voices and sometimes even smells.
remember just think the name of Jesus or Jehovah in prayer, loudly as if you were shouting at the entity, and repeat the prayer if it dosent work the first time.
the sleep paralyss thing ha.
i have them too and im only 16.i had one along time ago an it felt like some one was suffocating me an i couldnt move.i had one again and could see clearly but couldnt talk or move.i even thought i saw a evil thing or someting. but yeah i have woke up with weird cuts on my arms and stuff too.nice to know im not the only one
**i had only started getting
**i had only started getting these "sleep paralysis" stages when i moved in w/ my boyfriend...it would happen to me about 3 times a week and it went on for a few months its been about a yr since i've gotten one though...but i dont see how the scratches i would have on my arms and sometimes my chest can relate to this sleep paralysis.......if any of u have any info on this plz let me know....glad to know i'm not the only one w/ this
Hey, I'm 36 years old and
Hey, I'm 36 years old and have been getting them all my life....I to did believe-maybe still do a bit-that there are spirits involved in these crazy nightmares. the best way that i found out to deal with them is to not be afraid...i was told to pretty much confront the evil entity-if you can call it that-by cursing at it...in Catholic religion the use of bad words to evil spirits makes them leave, and sometimes forever...So when I have one of these paralyzing dreams and start to feel someone is there and cant move to see them, I begin to curse at them and tell them to leave...the dream seems to finish faster and then I wake up fine, with no fear...Hope this helped!
It's not just me!!
hey, I'm 20 years old and i've suffered from this "sleep paralysis" about 3 times, two of the times happenned the same night while the other happenned just recently during my finals for college. the first time this happenned scared the hell out of me, I "woke up" from lying down on my back, not being able to move, with a ghostly woman floating above me and i heard like, a noise, the closest thing i cud think of is how the tv sounds if it's on alone with no cable, nywayz, i eventually ccame out of it and began, then as i tried to sleep it happenned again, with the same noise but i woke up abruptly, prayed and slept on my side...scared to death of course.....the last time it happenned, about a week ago,i was having all sorts of dreams, and it came to someone talking to me while i layed on the bed, all of a sudden her face turns possessed or something and two other figures from other dreams appeared and held me down, they were also chanting some crap....i cudn't move, or speak, i tried to yell out and pray, but was only mummbling, i eventually started trying to move and was twicthing, the things holding me down started to dissappear one by one, and as i move my hand and dug one of their arms (felt sooo real!...) i jumped up from my sleep......this time too i was sleeping on my back, i never spoke about it much and really hope it's just "sleep paralysis" and not anything evil, because it feels soo evil, i normally pray a few times, then try to sleep again.....hope we would find out more about this soon.
JEHOVAH
BEFORE YOU GO TO BED, PRAY TO JEHOVAH THAT YOU DO NOT HAVE THIS EXPERIENCE, WORKS EVEY TIME! ALSO IF SOMEONE IS IN THE MIDDLE OF ONE, KEEP TRYING TO SAY JEHOVAH, WHEN YOU CAN IT BREAKS THE HOLD.PROVERBS 18:10 "THE NAME OF JEHOVAH IS A STRONG TOWER. INTO IT THE RIGHTEOUS RUNS AND IS GIVEN PROTECTION."
I AGREE THAT THIS SHOULD BE
I AGREE THAT THIS SHOULD BE DONE. I DO NOT BELIEVE THAT ALL OF US WITH SLEEP PARALYSIS SHOULD FREAK OUT AND BE SCARED. BUT LISTEN: "FOR WE ARE NOT CONTENDING AGAINST FLESH AND BLOOD, BUT AGAINST THE PRINCIPALITIES, AGAINST THE POWERS, AGAINST THE WORLD RULERS OF THIS PRESENT DARKNESS, AGAINST THE SPIRITUAL HOSTS OF WICKEDNESS IN THE HEAVNLY PLACES. EPHESIANS 6:12
WE ARE NOT CRAZY, AND AT THE SAME TIME WE'RE NOT REFUTING THE SCIENTIFIC THEORIES THAT COULD POSSIBLY EXPLAIN SP. BUT FOR THOSE WHO HAVE SP, THERE IS SOMETHING UNDENIABLY EVIL ABOUT IT. I DRAW TO GOD. AND HE TELLS ME THAT THE ENEMY CANNOT TOUCH ME. I AM UNTOUCHABLE AND SO ARE ALL OF YOU. THAT'S WHAT I KNOW.
i know this all to well
i am 33 now but this started for me when i was 12 so i know what your going through. i feel that they are evil spirits that science has to try to find an answer for. when i was younger i was a into mother earth , oils,and well the wiccan way of life (witchcraft done for good).when i was into that i would have demons by my bed every night, they wanted my soul i sware and people thought i was crazy . but i waould have marks on my body....and it was so scary noy being able to move out of this...as i got older i realized that bad spiris come to you if your depressed, or into some alternitive lifestyles....check to see if there is somthing you need to change,since i try to keep my life free of neg. it only happens 2 times a year. you will always be claravoint, but you should just learn to control it..good luck
I have been reading
I have been reading everybody's comments with great interest. I have "suffered" from this sleep paralysis thing since i was about 7 and i am now 34. My last one was just this morning, and i got one last night. So yes it is a regular occurence. Like most people, this appears to have some weird spirits attached to it. I can often tell when i am about to get the paralyis but unfortunately i am never fast enough to move or anything, so it just attacks me. It doesnt scare me anymore, but i find it down-right annoying!! I find that if i pray (or at least try to.) this goes away. But i have to agree that it is a traumatizing experience mainly because we dont really know what it is! I am not scared of it but i want to know what it is. Before it happens I normally feel a presence around me and its almost like this thing holds me down and then i cant do anything but mumble (or may be i think i am...LOL). When i was young i used to scream....once i got my voice back!! and then i went to boarding school, and i used to scream and freak out the other poor kids!
Anyway, I grew up in 3 different continents. In Africa, this phenomena is normally attached to witchcraft. So i had this embedded in my mind. And when i was younger and i got sleep paralysis, i always thought there was some witches around. Even now, i have a hard time taking myself away from that thought process. Sometimes i wake up and i kick (hopefully kicking the blasted thing)..
In England this is just sleep paralysis with some scientific tags to it. More research is needed for this thing as so many suffer and as we know it can be a traumatizing experience.
Fortunately i have never woken up with cuts, but i hope whatever it is that attacks me gets something from my kicks!
lets keep sharing our experiences and may be one day...one day we will have the answers and find a way to control this paralysis.
hi im like you.im 34 and i
hi im like you.im 34 and i have been suffering with this since i was young,it was really scary at first,it felt like something was holding me down or sitting on me.as ive got older my experiances have changed,i know wen its going to happen to me now.i get a tingling sensation all over my body,and i know its going to start.i can feel a presence but the majority of the time it feels like im floating around the bedroom,but something is always tring to pin me down,i crnt cee anyone but i can feel it touching me and not in a nice way.i dont mind the floating sensation but the other is a little unnerving.i believe there is a scientific axplanation,but i also think there is a little more to it,wat it is i dont know.
My name is Sabrina, I am 30
My name is Sabrina, I am 30 years old. I started having these awake nightmares when I was seven. I remember every detail, you know how scary they are, imagine being 7 and having one. I kept it to myself for years, dealing with the most terrifying hallucinations. I told my older sister about it, and found she too had what we call awake nightmares. We found a way to control them.
I took note of everything I was doing the day and night that I would have them. I'm sure everyones triggers are diffrent, mine seemed to occur when I was under extreme stress, and I noticed if I slept on my back I always seemed to have them. Sometimes still on my side not often though. I paid attention to what went one when they would start. Mine start with a soft music I can barely hear, it's calming and sways my to sleep, or better it traps me in that state of un-awakeness, because it starts to get into a nasty chanting, that scares the life out of me. I open my eyes to find I can't move, and there is always a scary visitor ready to get me. It took a few times to notice how they started but when I did I was able to control it. When I start to hear the music (it's hard to do but you can) I turn my body, I either touch my partner (it helps me feel safe, reminds me I'm ok) or flic on the TV. I have gotten better at it over the years and I start to have them, but now I know the soft music I hear is the start and I can pry myself awake. I also noticed that if I rearange my sleeping quarters sometimes I will start to have them, and I'm sure u understand, I will move everything again until I don't have them. It all sound crazy but so do awake nightmares so I'm sure you know. Good luck I hope I helped. I know how bad they are.
Sabrina E.
Everything you said in your
Everything you said in your experience is identical to mine,the baiting chanting music,then it turns into the music from the movie The Entity..Sometime I feel a presence so strong standing behind me that I am afraid to look at it and this happend to me when i was in a hotel room by myself with the lights and T.v on..This can't be some coinsidence..