Comments on: Sleep paralysis

By: Sarah

Sarah — Tue, 12 May 2009 15:23:27 +0000

I’ve only just recently experienced my first episode of sleep paralysis and …the noise!… I’m so glad to have stumbled across this posting to see that I’m not alone. I was really upset by the whole situation and since then I’ve found that if I meditate and try to enter a silent state, I now can hear the noise consciously. I can’t seem to move past it.

By: C

Mon, 23 Mar 2009 01:09:24 +0000

Wow – my episodes of sleep paralysis are very undramatic compared to others but the first time it happened I was completely freaked out and thought that I was in an irreversible coma. I haven’t had one in a few years and when they were happening they were very infrequent.

They always happened when I was napping and on my back. It always happened when the day outside was bright but I don’t know if my eyes were open. It just felt like they were and that I could see everything. I’ve never heard noise or dark shadows. I would try and shake my head a bit in order to wake my body up. Boy, is that hard.

Perhaps related, perhaps unrelated, both my sister and I hallucinate spiders. I can often see them crawling along the ceiling when I’m in bed but then realise that it’s the middle of the night and I wouldn’t actually be able to see them. I had a very nasty experience of a huge furry spider descending onto the bed a couple of months ago during a daytime nap (sleeping on my back again) and by herculean effort managed to wake up and run off. I thought it was absolutely real until I thought about it a bit and put it down to being just another hallucination.

By: Hermes

Hermes — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 07:13:21 +0000

Its 3:08am right now, I had my first episode of Sleep Paralysis in months just 20minutes ago and I can’t return to sleep.

Normally it happens to me when I’m laying on my back, and I feel like there is something or someone else in my room with me, but not much as far as anything visual, sometimes my roof appears to swirl. In all cases i have total paralysis from my neck down and trouble breathing.

This time, I fell asleep in a right lateral recumbent position (laying sideways facing my right). Within minutes of falling asleep I simply opened my eyes and realized I couldn’t move anything and I then realized I was having SP. I started trying to yell but only heard myself moaning, thankfully I physically woke up within seconds. This time I didn’t feel a presence with me, it was actually the opposite, I felt totally alone and I felt so much loneliness and fear.

I can’t go back to sleep now.

By: Len Willis

Len Willis — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 22:04:19 +0000

I am so encouraged by everyone here. Last night (thats 3rd March 2009) i had a struggle getting sleep and the last time i looked at my clock it was 0516. What seemed like short time later i felt as if someone or thing was slowly working their way up the inside of my legs on the outside of the bedcover and before long whatever it was seemed to stop and pinned my arms against my sides (i was laying on my back) and pinning my top half of body down as if it was sitting on my chest. I believe i could see a faint watery outline of an object – i could not say it was the outline of a person but it seemed quite bulky. I remember not being able to move but had just enough breath to well, sort of shout at it to get off me but my shout wasn’t very load as i didn’t have enough breath to. The next thing i remember is sobbing to my wife about what had happened as i thought i was awake. THEN the next thing I know is actually waking up what seemed to be second time with my wife asking if i was okay – and yes i was actually awake then but totally breathless and bemused at he whole episode. I write this now knowing i will going to bed soon hoping there will be no repeat tonight as i never experienced such a thing before (did wonder if it was spiritual as we live in 16Th century Old Quaker House in the UK)??

By: Jenna

Jenna — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 01:38:40 +0000

I used to suffer from sleep/dream paralysis all the time – the trick I taught myself when I was in that state is to force my mind back to sleep. It does work – what ppl have said above (to try and move a finger and to force ureself awake seems to do more harm than good to me – with mega thumping pain in the back of my head amongst other things). No one has mentioned it above but I can actually feel physical pain when I suffer from SP. For example, I had one episode where there was someone next to my bed screwing something into my stomach – I felt that pain so vividly! The strange thing was I knew it wasn’t real (because I have suffered SP for so long) but I could do nothing to escape it – the more I thought about it and feared it, the worse it seemed to become. PS I do recognise that I suffer more if I have been drinking the night before – maybe this creates a weaker or disillusioned/dissfunctional state of mind?

By: Bluesfrau

Bluesfrau — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 22:18:11 +0000

Yep, I’m familiar with the SP as well as the shadow people, Steve. When I had my first couple of episodes I was freaked with fear. Eventually I tried communicating with the odd and uninvited seeming visitor, and that worked. My shadow man walked through the wall out of my room upon recognition.
The question is, are they really uninvited? Or did one call them subconsciously? If they are governed by an outside force and not projections, then it would seem logical to me that one could have called them oneself, yet possibly one forgot or didn’t realize one was doing so. The feeling of unprotectiveness comes from the learnt behaviour against that which one doesn’t seem to know, I think, and therefore one reacts panicky in the first place. Since learning and perceptional changes help dealing with these situations, I feel that it’s really the dreamer/experiencing person themselves who are projecting fear onto that which they don’t know (anymore).
Dreams in general are a great tool to learn pretty much anything one wishes to learn, and the interim body situations are part of this learning (or maybe the word should be “rediscovering”).
I also like to leave an edge of surprise to the dream happening, not trying to be completely in control, because I realize in awake life that some things are out of my direct conscious control and I need to let things fall into place through “flow” instead of “forced force”. Btw, this “forcing the force” (as a friend of mine calls it) seems to make the forced force conscious about itself, and this seems to have the effect for quite a few people to be catapulted back into their bodies. I’ve been wondering whether this could be a sort of “protective shield” for the lodged soul not to wander “too far”.

Cheers,
Christine

By: Emma

Emma — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 11:03:38 +0000

Hi Steven

Thanks for your reply. Yes, I am suprised that this is what I have, all these years and I have never ever looked it up, thinking it was just me. I can only recall maybe 3 times when I have been experiencing SP and have seen like a dark shadow next to me, or even feel a strong sense of something / someone standing besides me.. apart from that its always the screeching noises and paralysis and knowing I am awake. It used to frighten me a lot, but now I am not so scared of it, I just let it happen because I know eventually I wake up. And as you said it does make you feel like you are entering into another world or even dimension.

Thanks for clarifying this for me.

Emma

By: Steven Aitchison

Steven Aitchison — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 20:47:47 +0000

Hi Emma

Thanks for your question.

This is definitely a symptom of sleep paralysis. I have experienced something very similar only not with the screeching noises, i have had a ‘white rushing noise’ which wasvery loud.

I think it’s important that you mentioned that you get this when falling into a ‘deep sleep on your back’. I have never experienced sleep paralysis if i have been lying on my side or my stomach, i don’t quite know what this means, if anything.

Anyway I still like the feeling of sleep paralysis, although scary sometimes, it kind of makes me feel as if i am entering another world which i am just trying to get a hold on.

By: Emma

Emma — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 14:30:38 +0000

I came across this website by just googling what happens to me when I sleep, after all these years of experiencing it have only thought about checking up on it. I never knew it was SP… my experiences is as follows. I am now 28 I have been having these experiences since childhood ever since I can remember.

It usually happens when I am falling into a deep sleep lying on my back. I can feel myself dozing off when all of a sudden I get (and this is the only way I can describe it) sharp, loud noises in my head. Sounds crazy but thats how it feels, I get these sharp, and by sharp I mean it sounds like someone cutting a piece of metal with a electric saw, and these noises get louder and louder. At this point I know I am not asleep, yet I can’t move a single inch of my body. I become completely paralyzed I try my hardest to open my eyes but its such a struggle and I can’t, and I try to move any part of my body, my arms, legs, and I just can’t and these sounds are really loud in my head, but at the same time I feel so tired and just want to sleep. I do eventually manage to move when the noises stop but then its like a big relief and I usually turn on my side and go to sleep normally.

I have had these as I mentioned since childhood I have never really told anyone. It doesn’t happen as much as it used to however it still does happen, I had one few weeks ago.

Can anyone tell me if they have experienced anything like this, or even know what it is?

Thanks

Emma

By: Thomas

Thomas — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 19:18:17 +0000

I have suffered from sleep paralysis for a number of years now, I am 38. It usually occurs when I’m overly tired. I work nights & days alternatively so it upsets what sleep regime I have.
The strange thing is I actually find it well exciting is not the word but I don’t find it scary at all, I can pull myself out of sleep paralysis at any time I let it go for a while just to see where it goes. I know I’m conscious & kind of aware of my surroundings but if you can assure yourself that all the strange noises & movements around & on you are not real its actually exciting.