Sleep Paralysis
I decided to add a cute picture as the banner to balance this post up a bit as the content may not be as cute.
Two nights ago I had my first sleep paralysis in a long time, it was kinda weird but not as scary or insane as some others who may have experienced it before. If you're not aware of what it is, it can shortly be described as not being able to move or speak just before you are about to fall asleep or wake up, the only thing you can do really is move your eyes.
I was about to fall asleep when I suddenly hear this button clicking right behind me. I was sleeping on my stomach turned to the left side and I had my laptop on the night table behind me, as soon as I heard the noise I opened my eyes. There was no light being emitted from the laptop so clearly this was not my roommate being snoopy and trying to access my laptop but I could clearly hear the sounds of the touch pad of the laptop. It was so surreal, I wanted to turn around and check what the hell was happening but I couldn't move, that's when I realized what was going on.
I've experienced sleep paralysis a few times in the past and some of those times have been pretty rough, especially as a kid when you're not really sure what the fuck is going on since there is hallucination involved. It usually doesn't last long and due to my experience with it before I didn't care about it as much this time since I knew it would be over soon. I was still interested to see if my mind would try and play more tricks on me so I kept looking around without being able to move my head to see if there were any other hallucinations than the touch pad sound. There was nothing, kinda boring I thought. Maybe my mind knows that if something more were to happen I'd be able to know for sure that it's just another sleep paralysis so it was trying to be as subtle as possible to freak me out, haha. That's what I was actually thinking of while this was going on. It was kinda boring I couldn't turn around to see, in my mind I was expecting to turn around and see myself sit on the edge of the bed using the laptop as I do most of the day - now that would've been freaky!
After a few minutes it was over and the noise stopped, a little annoyed I fell asleep and that was the end of that.
I've heard people have some crazy hallucinations during their sleep paralysis' though, is it weird that I'd think that would be kinda fun? I used to sport lucid dreaming back in the day when I used to take a nap for a couple hours after school as I found out that was the easiest time to go lucid. It could be that because of that and realizing when I was dreaming is what makes me realize when I'm hallucinating due to sleep paralysis, not that it happens that often.
Anyone else experienced any crazy hallucinations or sleep paralysis? What's your story?
This used to happen to me all the time and it was just about always coupled with the same hallucination, a completely black "shadow man" approaching my bed or getting in the bed with me.
The first time this happened to me was in my teens. I was home alone. I woke up but didn't open my eyes at first because I felt a presence in my room. I cracked my eyes and saw a black figure walking across my room. Of course this scared the shit out of me because I knew no one was home but me. My mind raced as I thought about who it could be, how they'd gotten in, why the house alarm hadn't beeped, and in the couple of seconds while I was thinking about this the black figure climbed in the bed with me. I could feel the mattress depress and shuffle and everything.
Now I was really panicking. I didn't know if this person was going to stab me in the back, attack me, I had no clue what was going on, but I knew I had to act. I've been involved in martial arts for most of my youth and I had a sword at the foot of my bed, but in that moment if felt like it might as well have been miles away as it felt like I was going to be pounced on any second. So I figured I hit whoever it was first to give myself time to grab the sword then hopefully fight for my life before I was killed. So I spun around striking with all my strength into an empty bed.
Soooooo yea, this was a totally traumatizing experience, and it was months before I was able to sleep well again. I didn't hear about sleep paralysis until more than a decade later as an adult and I thought it had to be a ghost or demon, and I hadn't even before believed in anything like that, but that experience made me a believer.
Over the years, this happened several more times, but I sort of got used to it, and found a hack that if I fell asleep with the TV on it didn't happen, but umm yea...cute cats :)
Damn, lol. Now I kinda wish I hadn't read the comments until a few more nights of normal sleep. :D
Lol. Usually I read people can't force themselves awake in this state, but you seem to have managed it pretty easily with practiced motor control.
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Actually that was one of the other hacks I learned. If I tried to move normally I’d be stuck, but when I flail violently I learned I could “break the spell”.
Woww, note taken. Become a savage cat and ravage the paralysis!
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I use to lucid dream often when I was a kid, (obviously I didn't know that's what I was doing at the time). Its weird how you can realize things like that when you get older and look back on life.
When I was about 9 years old I use to have vivid recurring lucid dreams about transformer like beings traveling across the galaxy. I loved it even though it felt so crazy! As I got older I slowly stopped using my imagination and the lucid dreams started to fade into a distant memory. Maybe there is a connection between the imagination and lucid dreaming? Idk. In any case I havent thought about it in a long time until you mentioned it in this post, then it was like BOOM so many memories came rushing back! Thanks for that ;)
But I have never experienced sleep paralysis, doesn't sound great to be honest! lol..
I experienced sleep paralysis couple years ago while traveling in a van. We were coming back to South Finland from a skiing center in the North, where we spent the Labours day holiday partying hard. I was having such a horrible hangover and sleep deprivation, so I tried to get some sleep in the car but ended up only dozing and having this "seizure".
It made me panic, since I didn't understand what was happening, but thought that I was all of a sudden permanently paralysed without doing anything. I remember that I tried to yell "I can't breath, I can't breath" while being unable to move my legs or turn. And it felt like it lasted several minutes, although it didn't probably take more than 10-20 seconds. I was so relieved when it stopped, but also too afraid to tell any of my friends what happened before googling if that was some serious symptom of something. Anyway, I think it had something to do with drinking too much and not sleeping enough.
It happened to me once when i was trying to wake up.
I couldn’t move and it was frightening and lasted for about 10-15 seconds and this was enough to scare the shit out of me. I didn’t have any hallucination but read some people can have them.
I was reading about this and learnt: sleep paralysis happens when parts of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep occur when we’re awake.
REM is a stage of sleep when the brain is very active and dreams often occur. The body is unable to move, apart from the eyes and muscles used in breathing, possibly to stop us acting out our dreams and hurting ourselves.
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I only recently heard this even exists. It sounds scary, but then, if you know what is is and that is happening from time to time, it will take some of the anxiety away and then, yes, why not have an interesting experience to go with it? As long as you can hallucinate while knowing you are it can be a lot of fun to see what your brain can do with your memories, fantasies, input from your environment.
But, well, there's stuff that can help you get there in any time and place you choose ;-)
I don't have a story like this, but one time I took some anti-nausea medication because of a long bus ride (I always got sick) and at some point I felt like I was hovering above my own body looking at myself being bored in the bus :')
I've only had sleep paralysis once, thank the Gods, because it was terrible. I have PTSD and it was a reliving of what gave me the PTSD in the first place, in a place where that could have legitimately been happening again (whereas if it happened now I would know that I was alone in my apartment). Never again, please and thank you.
I've tried lucid dreaming techniques but so far haven't been able to accomplish that.
Scary as it may be, with sleep paralysis you're indeed really close to lucid dreaming, which is awesome! I've been trying to get to that for awhile now, it's been years since my last lucid dream :-/
Really interesting idea. A very long time ago (when I was routinely getting one or two hours less sleep than I needed) I used to have bouts of sleep paralysis. I suspect it is partially waking up but your body really needs more sleep.
I studied Tibetan Dream Yoga for a bit and tried with that to do lucid dreaming. Never managed to succeed. But the idea that skill with that would allow one to at least know when one was experiencing sleep paralysis is intriguing.
I know perfectly well what you are talking about, I too have experienced many times sleep paralysis and it is a terrifying experience. I remember that the first time I experienced it was barely a 20-year-old girl and it scared me so much that I suffered from insomnia because I was afraid of falling asleep. At that time I was taken to a village witch and she said that it was an evil spirit that had fallen in love with me and that she was not going to leave until she got her job! I remember that at that time I read a lot about incubus, a kind of evil demon that sits on top of people while they sleep. Later on, I understood that there was a scientific reason for what I was feeling and that it was what we call sleep paralysis. Although I have time that I don't feel it, thank God, every time I hear about it, a cold air crosses my back.
I was watching "The Haunting of Hill house" sometime back, one of the characters, Nellie has sleep paralysis. It's quite scary to imagine going through it.