Sleep paralysis

Babybuff

Motivated by the alien thread, I'm curious to hear of other peoples sleep paralysis experiences, what they perceived during it and if it has had long lasting effects.

I suffered sleep paralysis on and off over a ten year period, the latter years they faded out to mostly buzzing arc sounds and tremors while falling asleep or waking up.

I noticed other people often have the "old hag" experience, where there appears to be someone present in the room or pushing down on the chest sensation, which I fortunately never suffered from. (they were bad enough without having an added effect!) I endured the wonderful exploding head syndrome instead. :pac:
Most of the time it felt as though there was an earthquake and the room was shaking violently, accompanied by the paralysis. (although my first I thought I was being beamed up by the mothership ) The exploding sounds, like an electric arc used be so strong that I thought my eardrums would explode and it physically ached to endure it.

Having educated myself on the subject I can in hindsight look back and pinpoint what might have triggered them, my first being a couple of months after a bereavement. I also found that if I lay on my side I was less likely to suffer the symptoms although I do remember the stage where I began enjoying the sensation and sometimes miss the buzzing as it signified I was just about ready for sleep and it was almost calming.

So, over to you...what was/is it like for you?

charlemont

I'v had S.P. on and off for years, My Dad gets it too but I'v never felt there was any other entity present. Its crazy being awake and not being able to move though, That was scary enough till I realised what it was but doesn't bother me now.

Although I must add, Grey aliens scare the ****e out of me obviously I'v never seen one but even the drawings/pics of them leave me nervous, I know if I ever saw one without being warned first I would die on the spot.

I get it alot , i am very comfortable with it. Regards to the alien thread and Sleep paralyses .

People who suffer from Sleep Paralyses never report seeing aliens. They do say dark figures and an old Hag.

People who say they get abducted by aliens say its not sleep paralyses.

Sleep paralyses cannot account for mass abduction storys.

The very first published abduction story of betty and barney hill happened whilst they were driving and they both experienced it.

castor 1

I frequently experience (or should I say suffer) Sleep Paralysis - maybe every 1 to 2 months or so.

It was frightening at first as I could not move, for appeared like a minute or two, but I have gotten used to it now and just relax and tell myself calmly to waken up.

Usually I feel I am being physically assaulted by an evil spirit / devil, in the sense that I am being pushed up against a ceiling or wall - probably my subconscious reacting to me watching too many Dracula and horror movies in the past !

On one occasion I had a partial out of body experience during SP, which was an ineteresting experience.

Maximus Alexander

I had an experience a few months back, and I'm not sure if it was related to sleep paralysis, or something else entirely, but it was quite unnerving at the time and I would be interested to find out more about it.

I was having a distressing dream, where there was an intense sense of forboding and unease along with feeling of being watched from outside of reality. I became aware that it was a dream and desperately wanted to wake up. I'm not somebody who scares easily or often has nightmares, but this was a feeling of dread like nothing I have ever experienced. I thought that I could hear my girlfriend talking to me in the bed beside me (although this turned out to be part of the dream also), so I tried to tell her to wake me.

I began vocalizing (in reality), at first just making mumbling noises and moans, which woke her up. I finally managed to utter the words "wake me". She tells me she just gave me the lightest of taps on the shoulder and I bolted awake. I had scared the crap out of her! I was a really bizarre experience and I'm not sure if there's a name for it.

Edit: It just occurred to me that this is the paranormal forum, but I do not think this was a paranormal experience. Rather an interesting quirk of the brain that I'd like to know more about.

Babybuff

Deleted User wrote: »

I get it alot , i am very comfortable with it. Regards to the alien thread and Sleep paralyses .

People who suffer from Sleep Paralyses never report seeing aliens. They do say dark figures and an old Hag.

People who say they get abducted by aliens say its not sleep paralyses.

Sleep paralyses cannot account for mass abduction storys.

The very first published abduction story of betty and barney hill happened whilst they were driving and they both experienced it.

Actually it's very commonly associated with sleep paralysis.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_paralysis#Symptoms_and_characteristics

In addition, the paralysis may be accompanied by terrifying hallucinations (hypnopompic or hypnagogic), perceived deafening loud noise and an acute sense of danger.[9] Sleep paralysis is particularly frightening to the individual because of the vividness of such hallucinations.[8] The hallucinatory element to sleep paralysis makes it even more likely that someone will interpret the experience as a dream, since completely fanciful or dream-like objects may appear in the room alongside one's normal vision. Some scientists have proposed this condition as an explanation for reports of alien abductions and ghostly encounters.[10] A study by Susan Blackmore and Marcus Cox (the Blackmore-Cox study) of the University of the West of England supports the suggestion that reports of alien abductions are related to sleep paralysis rather than to temporal lobe lability.

I know from my own experience that was how I perceived it and while I didn't see any humanoid forms, I was genuinely convinced I was being beamed up. I felt like I was being sucked out of my body. :pac:

LeighH wrote: »

Edit: It just occurred to me that this is the paranormal forum, but I do not think this was a paranormal experience. Rather an interesting quirk of the brain that I'd like to know more about.

The reason why I decided to discuss this thread here is because more often these kind of symptoms generate interest in the realm of the paranormal and for all intents and purposes without access to understanding, most people do believe they are experiencing something "paranormal" when they occur.

I felt this way initially too as I was unable to comprehend those experiences (I was much younger) and I recall the topic of obe's being discussed and was able to relate as I definitely felt as though I was leaving my body.

I'm not sure if I ever did but in a way I suppose it did serve as a reprieve from reality during a very difficult time in my life. If ever there was a time for leaving my body then that would have been a good time but I did manage to learn to look at things from a very different, albeit interesting angle.

Babybuff

LeighH wrote: »

I had an experience a few months back, and I'm not sure if it was related to sleep paralysis, or something else entirely, but it was quite unnerving at the time and I would be interested to find out more about it.

I was having a distressing dream, where there was an intense sense of forboding and unease along with feeling of being watched from outside of reality. I became aware that it was a dream and desperately wanted to wake up. I'm not somebody who scares easily or often has nightmares, but this was a feeling of dread like nothing I have ever experienced. I thought that I could hear my girlfriend talking to me in the bed beside me (although this turned out to be part of the dream also), so I tried to tell her to wake me.

I began vocalizing (in reality), at first just making mumbling noises and moans, which woke her up. I finally managed to utter the words "wake me". She tells me she just gave me the lightest of taps on the shoulder and I bolted awake. I had scared the crap out of her! I was a really bizarre experience and I'm not sure if there's a name for it.

Sleep paralysis usually occurs in an awakened state, at least half of you is very awake. Personally I would be very lucid and aware, in that I mean I am laying there with my eyes wide open just unable to move and experiencing sensations that were outside what would be considered normal range of awakened state. I'm not dreaming I'm awake, I am awake. It can be frightening because you are so aware of what's going on and you know you can't do anything about it.

What you are describing sounds like lucid dreaming.

okioffice84

I get SP all the time. Did a bit of research on it a few years ago...apparently it is very common in those who keep 'odd' hours e.g. nurses on shift work. Looking at the time the OP posted at I might assume that odd hours are kept there...

I also experience 'exploding head syndrome' quite regularly....I actually try to let it go on as long a possible to see how far I can push it.
I don't experience visual hallucinations, which is a good thing as the grey alien really freaks me. I do sometimes get the feeling there is someone in the room and sometimes hear footsteps on a carpet floor... there is no malevolence there though.

Elrollo

Had an odd one where I was having a quite stressful nights sleep where I had a dream where I was pottering around my apartment in this kind of inky blackness only to head a kind of scraping and crackling sound from my bedroom, I walked into my bedroom to find complete darkness and I was looking at myself prone on the bed, a sense of panic and dread filled me as the sounds got louder seemingly coming from behind me now at this stage, at which point I felt the only thing I could do was fall back to my bed, I then fell(as I saw it) back into myself, at which point I woke up. Freaked me out to no end really, was this some sort of sleep paralysis or was it something else?

ghosthunter73

Babybuff wrote: »

Motivated by the alien thread, I'm curious to hear of other peoples sleep paralysis experiences, what they perceived during it and if it has had long lasting effects.

I suffered sleep paralysis on and off over a ten year period, the latter years they faded out to mostly buzzing arc sounds and tremors while falling asleep or waking up.

I noticed other people often have the "old hag" experience, where there appears to be someone present in the room or pushing down on the chest sensation, which I fortunately never suffered from. (they were bad enough without having an added effect!) I endured the wonderful exploding head syndrome instead. :pac:
Most of the time it felt as though there was an earthquake and the room was shaking violently, accompanied by the paralysis. (although my first I thought I was being beamed up by the mothership ) The exploding sounds, like an electric arc used be so strong that I thought my eardrums would explode and it physically ached to endure it.

Having educated myself on the subject I can in hindsight look back and pinpoint what might have triggered them, my first being a couple of months after a bereavement. I also found that if I lay on my side I was less likely to suffer the symptoms although I do remember the stage where I began enjoying the sensation and sometimes miss the buzzing as it signified I was just about ready for sleep and it was almost calming.

So, over to you...what was/is it like for you?

Thanks for sharing that very interesting

lisatiffany

(new to the boards so i'm wandering through some of the older posts to see if i can add to them = )

For a long time i suffered a lot from S.P. but the good thing is when it happened the first time i was so read up on the paranormal i had a very good idea what had just happened ..it still was no less terrifying at the time. the worst time it happened i was staying in a very old house (definitely haunted by something very negative) i was laying in bed staring at the ceiling when it felt like something came through the door (the door was closed but it still passed through) and started to make its way towards my bed, once i felt its presence in the room i lost the ability to move and believe me i wanted to bolt. it did the usual pressure on the chest thing but then came up to my face and i could feel it breathing on my face and then it started to whisper in my ear but at the same time i could hear a snarl all around the room. it left eventually but it felt like it had been there an hour.

at the time i'd put it down to the house. it started off as small things like not being able to keep the place warm even in the summer - the bathroom door pounding and the handle going crazy - asking my partner at the time if he believed in spirits and when he said no a light bulb beside him blew up - a voice in my ear like a quick whisper saying my name - and finally the one that really made me up and leave was one minute going into the living room from my bedroom then coming back about 3mins later, when i walked back into the room it was black with really ugly big black flies. now i'm no stranger to the paranormal and spirit activity usually doesn't bother me but the energy in that place along with my own experiences were too negative to stay. i still get S.P. every now and then but its never been as horrifying or negative as that place. it was the flies that got to me, they came out of no where and the building was checked top to bottom for anything that would have them buzzing around but nothing was ever found. i personally think it was down to a bad death in the house, possibly a suicide where the spirit or energy didn't or couldn't pass on. the S.P. i did experience there was by far the worst and it felt a lot like whatever energy was there used S.P. in order to get up close and personal.

NiallFH

Got it about a year or so back and had it on and off for around a month or two.

Mostly I had the pressure on chest, inability to move and the sense that something was in the room, I could never see it though.

Other times I didnt feel there was anything in the room I just felt like I had to be terrified, no real reason why it was just like my brain was sending a message saying 'be scared'

The one time I did see something was when I fell asleep with the window open, I woke and people were climbing in through it, I had a feeling I had to stop them but couldnt move, it got quite vivid.

Havent experienced it in a long time now.

Sync

It happened me a few years back... come home from college, watching a tv show on the laptop and fall asleep, upon waking up I found I couldn't move... but I was awake... and I was struggling to move... after (what felt like) a few minutes I realised there was someone slightly behind me watching me, but I couldn't turn to see who.. then it felt like they were getting closer... and I began to panic... (i was on my side) then I fell off the bed and could move again... and there was nothing there

More recently, I was sleeping, and the bed is in the corner of the room... I was facing the corner and I remember seeing a weird figure there... which frightened the life out of me... I *apparently* screamed and punched... ended up hitting my gf in the bed next to me... lol... was scary at the time tho!

rpmcmurphy

had it again last night after a few months without it. Seems to happen when I sleep alone more often than not. Sleeping on back and eating cheese late at night can bring it on for me. Started off as the usual feeling of dread and/or evil presence in the room. Tried to shout out and imagined that i did but musnt have as would have woken the rest of the family. Then it went to something on my back shaking me up and down and the whole room banging really hard.
By the time the paralysis ended I realised what was happening and turned over and went back to sleep. It has gotten to the stage where I am almost always aware that it is s.p at the time which reduces the fear thankfully.

lisatiffany

oh i forgot to mention the scratches, when i lived in that house i noticed about 10 times that strange fingernail like marks appeared on my back. they were really thin and started on my shoulders but went more than half way down my back, at first i didn't think much of of it and thought i'd done it to myself in my sleep but after i moved it never happened again. a while after that i learned from a friend that she had the same thing happen, she said a man who was accused of rape and abuse had died in her house in her room under mysterious circumstances. i naturally thought she watched nightmare on elm street and was being silly but the more i learned about her house the more i realized she was 100% serious. she doesn't live there anymore, the door would fly open during the night and one time they were all in the kitchen and the glass front of a big wooden cabinet cracked on its own. this was really sturdy glass and not at all thin, the crack went all the way down it.

Reamer Fanny

I experienced this a while ago, felt like I was asleep but conscious and heard this loud ringing noise in my ear like radio static which gradually got louder and louder and I couldn't move at all :eek:

zenno

I think I mentioned this before somewhere but I experienced the sleep paralysis a fare few years ago which was quite a shocker for me and also had that feeling of 'my head was going to explode' which was a nasty feeling to say the least.

I remember this clearly even though it was a few years ago.

I was asleep but then I woke up and could not move at all. I remember I was lying on my left side. It was dark in the room and I felt a hand grab my hand and it started to pull me out of the bed but i couldn't see anything but I damn sure knew I was awake as it was the same as being awake and then I pulled my hand back hard and could move again. at this time I sat up and lit a cigarette thinking about what just happened but it was as real as me typing this now.

One other time after this I had that paralysis again and I was on my side but I woke up and it was a bit bright i'd say just after dawn and I looked at the window and at this time again I could not move any part of me but I got a feeling of extreme fear that I never got before, I mean really bad fear but I could not see anything but I could feel that something was there. the fear was that bad and I felt like something was coming closer to me that I couldn't see but I then wriggled out of the paralysis and could move again. that one was the craziest as I never felt the feeling of fear like it in my life.

Well that's my 2 main ones. they are damn strange when they happen and it would not surprise me in the least if some people have died in a state like this and it was just put down to a heart-attack especially older folk as they can be extremely frightening when you get a bad one.

Almost forgot...about the feeling that your head is going to explode while you are asleep, well the way it happened to me was...I was in a dream and all of a sudden I would be walking in a park or square and my head would feel like it was going to burst/explode and i'd fall to the ground in agony holding my head and as the pain got to it's fullest I then woke up in a bad sweat. one time I could hear that static electricity sound in paralysis like what the above commenter said. haven't experienced any of this now for many years. it all seemed to go on and off for a few years but then it all just stopped haven't had sleep paralysis since.

krd

justryan wrote: »

I experienced this a while ago, felt like I was asleep but conscious and heard this loud ringing noise in my ear like radio static which gradually got louder and louder and I couldn't move at all :eek:

The electric shock. It can be painful, but it's supposed to be harmless - there's a medical name for it - which I can't remember.

lolo62

ive had all kinds of bizarre experiences over the years while sleeping...buzzing in my ears which sounded like a modem, ringing, swishing whirling sounds

ive floated around my room, fought a demon once while floating! had the hag thing and incubus

twitches, electric shocks etc

i put it all down to energy...it manifests as electric charges in the body which can manifest in all kinds of wierd and wonderful ways..some of which i have listed in my experiences

ive never had an experience with an alien though

Reamer Fanny

krd wrote: »

justryan wrote: »

I experienced this a while ago, felt like I was asleep but conscious and heard this loud ringing noise in my ear like radio static which gradually got louder and louder and I couldn't move at all :eek:

The electric shock. It can be painful, but it's supposed to be harmless - there's a medical name for it - which I can't remember.

Tinnitus?
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tinnitus

shizz

This happened to me once. It is very weird but in no way would I put it down to anything paranormal. If anything I would say that people get the sensation of someone being in the room i.e. The old hag, is just the brain trying to make sense of why it can't move the body. Something must be holding it down.

SunnyDub1

I get SP and it scares the sha*t out of me

I go in and out of the dream but when I'm out of the dream I'm not actually out of it (if ye get me)

I can never seem to wake myself up out of it and fall straight back into it like someone is holding me down and I'm unable to move my body like I'm paralyzed, I was trying to scream but nothimg would come out - It's like someone is in the bed with me.

I find I get SP when I sleep flat on my back so I try and avoid sleeping flat on my back.

Can be quite scary - don't envy those who have it quite frequently.