Sleep paralysis

Iv'e experienced sleep paralysis (night terrors) since i was a child , i personally think it's linked to overtiredness & insomnia ,but astral projection also comes into the mix, i do remember being in the walls & on top of my wardrobe but seeing myself still lying in bed, there are different connected states i feel, but the overwhelming sense i get is that you have tricked your body into thinking you are asleep but you are actually on the cusp of sleep & in different rem states .
The paralysis can still now be frightening & ofc the visions of which iv'e had many strange/scary ones, also the feeling of something in the room coming for you ,or immense pressure on your chest like somebody pushing you down can get hairy scary , i always try to fight the paralysis , try to shout & move , occasionally breaking out of the paralysis & waking up & being annoyed that my partner did not help me haha
Iv'e always had a very active dreamlife even psychic dreams , deja-vu factor is off the scale where i find myself thinking wtf this is connected to my dream & iv'e had dreams where i feel i have swapped dimensional lives because they feel so real, but iv'e also heard some people think alien/greys visit them of which i would not dimiss but my experiences are not like that.
The most defenite thing that i feel that is going on is some kind of tapping into other dimensional places, i'm probably going off subject here but all these things intertwine to me & can't help but make the connections & try to understand what is happening , coz personally i love my dreamlife , i mean i must be learning something by paying attention right?

The most terrifying experience I had in my life is an astral projection, not going into details but basically... my soul floated through my room and when it reached the door, a woman with red shinning eyes and pale skin was waiting there, I felt something I can't describe it in words but it was somehow similar to how the dementers take the souls in Harry Potter, she "sucked" my energy and I screamed internally without nothing else to do, it felt like an eternity.
Since that day I can't do astral projections again, I'm blocked :/

I frequently have sleep paralysis episodes. I'd say over the course of a year I'd probably experience it at least a dozen times, and usually it comes in clusters of frequency.

I am more prone to experience it during afternoon naps and when my usual sleep patterns are a little out of whack.

I have had various manifestations of it, on rare occasions accompanied by frightening hallulicinations or some sort of feeling or presence of pure, shadowy evil nearby... which despite one's strongest efforts is completely inescapable due to being paralyzed.

I've done a fair amount of reading on the subject, as it can be quite frightening and often anxiety-inducing even without the hallucinations. My current science-based understanding is that the phenomenon is likely tied to certain brain chemicals that are released during REM sleep that prevent the body from moving while dreaming -- like as in, if in your dream you are rolling around to avoid spikes in the floor the chemical inhibits your muscles from acting on that and making you roll out of bed. What happens is that a part of your brain which controls your consciousness wakes up, while another part of your brain is still inhibited from control -- thereby, you have waking consciousness but have no control over your body. As the brain is still in a sort of quasi-REM state, there can be varying degrees of hallucination or dream aspects still going on, and with the panic and anxiety one feels over not being able to move ones body it creates those types of nightmare hallucinations as a side effect. I believe that this phenomenon could likely scientifically explain a lot of those "alien abduction" stories and other such things, as I actually remember having a sort of poltergeist-like alien abduction paralysis nightmare once before when I was in my teens, and before I had a better understanding of my sleep paralysis episodes.

Over time, I've become more experienced in controlling my anxiety while I am encountering a bought of sleep paralysis. The two tactics I usually employ are to 1) just fully accept my situation, realize that no harm will actually come to me, and just try to calmly let myself fall back to sleep again without fighting it and 2) to concentrate and focus all my energy into a burst of energy that will jolt myself awake. Jolting awake sometimes fails, or when I do actually awake I am so groggy that I can't actually sustain it and I fall back into paralysis mode. It also comes with the potential for feeding the anxiety of the situation and leading down darker paths... so can be a bit of a tricky one to navigate. The worst is when it comes with a sense that I need to be awake because I may be missing some deadline or appointment or something, but that is often not actually the case and making sure to set an alarm usually makes it possible to avoid that kind of "have to wake up" anxiety.

The calm acceptance of the sleep paralysis situation is usually the safer route, and sometimes it also allows me to become semi lucid in my dreams if I do end up back asleep and in full REM state. I also think that people's experiences of astral projection are actually this -- people who are lucidly dreaming that they are floating out of their body and have consciousness of it, as well as an intense feeling that their surroundings are real despite it actually being a dream. They may even have actual audio cues for whats going around them to further reinforce the feeling that their astral projection is real. For what its worth, every time I've just let the sleep paralysis happen and calmly allow myself back to sleep without fighting it I've woken up alive, able to move, and refreshed afterwards. In my experience with it, the old adage of "there is nothing to fear but fear itself" rings quite true when sleep paralysis happens.

I have sleep paralysis. Haven't in a long time. It's where my body cannot move, but I am aware. For me, I get this almost seizure-ish sort of thing too where my brain feels like it's making an electrical jolt really fast while I go through it. I hear a cicada sound in my mind too... I have to kind of focus on breathing, since lung function isn't really working either, and all your muscles are useless... and wait for movement to return. You cannot scream out for help, or anything like that. It's pretty crazy stuff. That's my own personal experience with it. Had it happen over 50 times in my life at least. My best guess is anti-depressants caused it originally. They are extremely dangerous in my opinion, yet psyche people throw them at people like candy without any solid testing first. No specialists I see will do that... and these mess with your brain chemicals/neurotransmitters!! Started when I used them as a teen, and after not being on them for years, it's been gone, but I still have lasting effects on occasion.

The interesting thing about it is if I get it once, and I try to just drift back to sleep, it will continue to happen until I get up and do something else for a while. My brain gets stuck in that cycle of the REM cycle problem. I have a ton of disorders though (20+) and I'm currently looking into the possibility of Kleine-Levin Syndrome being in there too. My sleep tests have all come back normal, since they schedule you ahead of time, and you don't go in when you are actually having problems. They only really check for sleep apnea anyway, and the exotic ones are not really able to be diagnosed in one night or whatever. The very first test I took actually said I had depression!! That's a real laugher. Yeah... this sleep equipment detects depression. Since my symptoms were so severe, I had to be depressed to have that causing it... Maybe they should have checked all my doctor records before informing me of that. Thanks for nothing, idiots!

I had sleep paralysis one time. It's a bit shocking at first. I could hear people talking in another room, but was unable to fully wake myself no matter how hard I tried. I focused on trying to move but couldn't. I was conscious of where I was, but just couldn't move. Can't recall if I was able to open my eyes or not, but I can remember hearing. Ultimately I realized what was going on and fell back asleep because I couldn't do anything else, but yes, certainly can be scary when it happens.

I later learned that if you find yourself in that state, focusing on something simple can sometimes break the state, like trying to move a toe or finger or focus on breathing. I've never had it happen again though to test that out.

EDIT: I was taking a nap when it happened, not my regular sleep time. I can't recall if I'd been sleep deprived, but it was in college and I was studying long hours and irregular schedule.

I suffer from sleep paralysis almost every night and it never gets better, it's always scary/unpleasant. It happened to me first when I was a teenager and has continued to happen for the last decade. It seems to come and go in waves, sometimes it's bad, sometimes I'll go for a month without it happening. Usually stress or insomnia makes it worse. Lately I've had it almost every night. The first time it happened I thought I had died, or that my house had collapsed on me or something, but at least now I know what it is when it happens.

As a seasoned expert who has suffered through sleep paralysis for a decade, I have some tips that might be useful for anyone suffering from it. I've found that during sleep paralysis if you concentrate extremely hard you are able to get a tiny bit of movement out of your brain/body and you can use this to your advantage to escape from it. For me, if I'm unable to escape, it can take ten minutes or longer before I regain control of my body and that can be terrifying, especially a blanket/pillow is over my mouth, it can feel like I'm unable to breathe.

The first option works if you have a partner gf/bf with you in bed. If they know about the problem you can try to alert them and get them to shake you awake. If I concentrate really hard and try to scream in terror as loud as possible, it comes out as a quiet whisper and that can be enough to wake up the person next to me; that person can then violently shake me to bring me out of the paralysis. I've also used my cat for a similar purpose, and I think a dog could be trained to do the same thing too. I sometimes scream/struggle and my cat will jump on me or lick my face and that can get me out of it.

I've also developed a more reliable technique although it can result in injury, still though when you're struggling in that situation you'd happily suffer a couple bruises or cuts rather than to be stuck there any longer. If I'm having a particularly bad period I position myself right on the edge of my bed on a balancing point and fall asleep like that. So then if I fall asleep I can sleep normally, but if I go into paralysis, I can just use a tiny bit of movement to shift my weight slightly off the balancing point and crashing onto the floor, which will always wake me up.

I hope this is helpful for someone, and I hope no one ever has to deal with this!

What I experience most often is that feeling of falling, where you jerk awake just as you're about to fall asleep. Usually, I just feel the falling part, but the last time--a week or so ago--I actually felt like I stepped on something that rolled out from under my foot.

I sleepwalked twice in my life that I know of: got up, went to the bathroom, flushed, washed my hands, and went back to bed. The next morning, my grandmother confirmed it wasn't just a dream. The other time, I fell asleep in my chair, and my mother tried to wake me up to go to bed. According to her, I said, "Don't add too much." When she asked, "Too much what?" I said, "Don't add too much Slytherin," and then got up and went to bed. XD

I used to experience sleep paralysis every so often, but it hasn't happened in a while. When it did happen, I'd be a little alarmed that I couldn't move, but mostly I just felt annoyed that I kept smacking myself in the face when it finally wore off. >_>

However, I do still experience it to an extent when I have a nightmare; it's not foolproof, but a lot of times when a dream turns into a nightmare, I recognize it and enter an almost-lucid state where I wake myself up by literally opening my eyes--which is really freaking hard to do when you're asleep. And at least once it's faked me out by "waking up" into another nightmare. T_T

I've experienced sleep paralysis once or perhaps twice in my entire life, but never any hallucinations. It happened to me during the day though, and while it was somewhat disturbing experience being conscious and able to see but not move, I suppose it could have been worse. As I recall I fought it as hard as I could trying to get my muscles to move again and was able to do so within a minute or two I would say.

I don't think I ever had any of those, but I had hypinc jerks, which is that falling sensation when you falling asleep that just wakes you right up.

A hypnic jerk, hypnagogic jerk, sleep start, sleep twitch or night start, is an involuntary twitch which occurs just as a person is beginning to fall asleep, often causing them to awaken suddenly for a moment. Physically, hypnic jerks resemble the "jump" experienced by a person when startled, sometimes accompanied by a falling sensation. Hypnic jerks are associated with a rapid heartbeat, quickened breathing, sweat, and sometimes "a peculiar sensory feeling of 'shock' or 'falling into the void.'" A higher occurrence is reported in people with irregular sleep schedules.

The "falling into the void" sounds correct, imo.

Yes I have experienced it multiple times. Recently a lot.
Once it almost made me believe that ghosts do exist. It started with waking back at my room. Nothing unusual everything at its right place. After a moment I could feel something cold and strong pressing my chest. Suffocating, unable to breathe, I started to panic. Tried to move my body... failed.. tried to cry for help.. failed again.
Then I started to float. This made breathing a bit easy. It was slow and subtle rise in the air, I began to relax. Then I start to realize something fishy was going.. examined the situation and found out I was in a dream. So I tried to wake up or control it.. managed to open my eyes guess that was dream or hallucination itself.. everything more clear than ever. But this was the moment when the subtle rise into air went haywire. Something cold moved from chest to the legs. Then I was thrown towards the ceiling then dropping back to the floor. The constant bouncing back and forth to ceiling and floor got me confused. I thought I was in a dream but waking up was unsuccessful attempt. I got thrown in the top right corner of the room banged my head and body with strong force. I was like a bouncing ball constantly being thrown and bounced back.
This was the moment when every attempt failed to end the dream or control the dream, I began to think it's real.. after-all everything is vivid more lucid. Facing the supernatural problem at hand I began to think ghost might exist. After that I even said "I will believe you exist from now on, please end this". After few second I woke up, unable to process what the fuck did just happen.
Some research and discussions lead back to sleep-paralysis. That was my first noticeable experience. I still laugh at it now because of the fact that it almost made me change my mind.
Recently it is happening a lot to me. Because of work I stay all night to morning almost to 9-10 AM and sleep at the day. Might be because of light, heat, diet or even the pattern itself, I am facing a lot of sleep-paralysis and continuous dreams.

I have ready recently that there is no such thing as sleep paralysis (it's scientific name, but it's very misleading), many people who can experience OOBE easily agreed with that statemant. There is only state of very very deep relaxation, which can lead to lucid dreaming or OOBE.

I used to be really into lucid dreaming. I got to the point where I could easily get into it, control most of it, and remember most of it.

Then I woke up with sleep paralysis and literally thought I was dying, I had never heard of it before, I just thought I was a vegetable.

That was the last time I ever attempted lucid dreaming.

When I was a kid, I sleep-walked for about a month. It randomly started, and randomly ended. My parents never really knew why or how, and we couldn't find a reason for it.

These days, I get sleep paralysis every now and then, but only if I sleep on my back. If I sleep on my sides, then everything is fine and dandy. Again, I can't see any real reason why sleeping on my back would cause me sleep paralysis, but I guess I should head to a sleep clinic someday and inquire about it.

There was no other option, I chose sleep like a dead person but I am a light sleeper. I typically can be woken up pretty easy or to certain sounds.

I had some sleep paralysis episodes past year, it is weird not being able to move your body and almost can't breathe. One of those days I also had an allucination, there was a fairy on my wall, but I knew it was not real. It is like being half slept half awake, weird sensation. And not being able to move is kinda scary.

The creepiest thing is when you do notice something on the environment in that state and confirm it's position/state after waking up from paralysis/sleep hallucinations. When no remembrance of previous awareness of the object remains, it is startling.

I had my fair share of sleep paralysis experiences .
One time sleeping in a bunk bead i saw on my right side someone turned away from me and just standing there doing nothing , each time i tried to talk/scream nothing happened . Then i tried to move or get out of bed and each time i tried i kept getting pulled back in bed on my back like i was stuck in tar or something sticky . In the end my heart started to race and before i knew it i broke the paralysis by moving a finger in real life .
To make your perspective more fun u should know i went through all that while hearing constant whispers/words slurred all together in my ears non stop till it ended (i assume my brain was archiving my day on fast forward :)) )

Sleep paralysis accompanies dream sleep because otherwise your body would replicate all the movements you are dreaming about. That wouldn't make for very restful sleep.

Generally if you experience sleep paralysis it means you are on the cusp of a lucid dreaming state since you are still partially conscious. When I was actively trying to induce lucid dreaming, sleep paralysis was a very common experience that cropped up as the very last step to getting into a lucid dream state or not. And while visual imagery was often murky during sleep paralysis, sound was very pronounced. I'd often think of it as "sound-only dreaming".

Once last year i had sleep paralysis. I dont think i will ever forget it but it was horrible.
My body was probably getting ready to wake up which is when this occurs.
What happened is i was able to see my room, i was able to imagine hearing my housemate's voices screaming to get out because the house is on fire and i can see my room exactly as it is with fire around it and 2 of my friends next to me screaming for me to leave my bed but as hard as i tried i couldnt move. I honestly thought i was going to die, the fire was spreading the screams in my head were getting louder and after a bit of that i woke up immediately and i couldnt go back to sleep. Was hella scared for few nights.

It is because my bedroom is small, but a couple months ago, I suddenly felt like I was suffocating, hitting my chest to force breathing, and had to fight off an acquired claustrophobia. I had the door open and fan blowing through my room, but the darkness convinced my brain that I was locked in a tiny space. I opened my closet door for more airflow and did some mental exercises to calm down. It felt like a chemical imbalance in my brain and learned about how my body prepares for sleep.

Wait till you get a dream-reality loop, f*cking crazy as hell! You wake up normally, and just as you're about to get up, you find yourself sleeping again. I've had this loop for about 5 times before I truly was awake.

Can't sleep sideways now, as when I sleep that way for about 2 years ago, I always have sleep paralysis even when I sleep on a right time like 2230 or close to it.

I do get sleep paralysis, but only if I sleep with my neck bent, head tilted forward. I used to fall asleep in class that way and it was scary waking up, not being able to open my eyes or move when the lecturer calls your name, you tend to panic, but when I realized what was going on, I would calm down and wait it out. It never got any worse for me luckily.

Sounds like dreaming during a sleep apena

3 kids. remind me what is sleeping?