Sleep Paralysis

[Luv Deluxe]

This morning, I experienced my first episode of sleep paralysis awareness. I didn't realize what was happening at the time, but once the sensation passed and I was calm again, I remembered hearing about sleep paralysis and I suddenly recognized what had transpired.

I had been dreaming when suddenly the imagery clicked to a new scene. I was seeing a variation of my own bedroom - it was my bedroom, but everything was bathed in an eerie blue haze. My perspective was from where I lie down on the bed, face-up. An enormous humanoid entity appeared near the doorway and half shambled, half strutted toward the foot of the bed. It looked like a surreal, grotesque version of a man - very tall and very thin, with paper white skin and long black hair. Its features were eerily contorted, and it hovered just at my bedside, regarding me and smiling maliciously.

All of a sudden, I was overwhelmed with a feeling of dread. I had the distinct impression that this presence wanted to rape me or do me some other harm. The only thing that mattered was getting as far away as possible. But I couldn't move. I tried screaming, only to choke on the words and gasp frantically instead. I could look around, but that was it. Then, almost as quickly as it had happened, something snapped into place and I could move again. The entity disappeared and I was left alone in my room. Alone, but still quite freaked out.

Has anyone else experienced this? I googled it this morning and found that it's not especially uncommon, particularly when sleeping in the supine position (something I don't normally do but had certainly done last night). Apparently the evil presence is a very popular hallucination during sleep paralysis, and I'd really rather not see that again. If anyone has dealt with similar experiences, did it happen more often after your first episode? When did you experience your first episode? Did you discover ways to manage it or influence the way it occurs? Do you think certain types of people/personalities are prone to certain sleep disturbances (and sleep paralysis issues especially)?

I've also read that there is a link between awareness of sleep paralysis and lucid dreaming. Has anyone here willfully been able to engage in lucid dreaming successfully?

 

[The Outsider]

I've had one experience with sleep paralysis, it bears some resemblance with what you described. Woke up in the middle of the night, also noticed some sort of a haze covering everything, and then I realized there was someone sitting on the bed next to me, facing away, a large dark figure. First he started talking, quite calmly, but I couldn't make sense of anything he said. Gradually, it went over to a mixture of screaming and crying and even though he was facing away I felt that all the anger was directed at me. I was horrified and couldn't move a muscle, until eventually I managed to turn to my side, away from the figure, which is when I realized what had happened and fell asleep again.

About lucid dreaming.. There are various ways to induce it, and the one that's linked with sleep paralysis is where you basically try to fall asleep while remaining conscious, so eventually when your body is paralyzed you can pretty much step into your dream with complete lucidity. You can see how that can go wrong if you mess up the last steps.

 

[theadoor]

I've also experienced it once, like 3 months ago. I was trying to fall asleep, but I was having random thoughts (this happens sometimes) and I couldn't get them away for at least half an hour or so. I was lying on my left side, and it felt like I'm finally starting to fall asleep, when I suddenly heard that loud and terrible noise of paper sheets falling down on edges on the ground (I have printer in my room). While the sheets kept falling, I started to hear some whispers like spells which later turned into some children screaming and it all together turned into a terrible noise, which of course totally freaked me out. So when it all started, I turned on my back to have a look what was happening, and once I was on my back, the sounds got really loud and unbearable, and I realized I couldn't move or breathe at all, it even felt like somebody's pressing on my chest and neck, but I didn't really feel any physical object's presence. When after like half a minute or so I regained control over my body and the sounds had stopped, I turned on the light and realized that nothing had changed in my room. Since I was alone in my house, I took my pillow and blanket and went to sleep at my brother's room, where I fell asleep immediately.

 

[Malice]

Something like this happened to me once! I'd just woken up abruptly from a nightmare and discovered that my arms/legs/body were completely frozen. All I could do is lie there in the dark in a panic wondering why the hell my body wasn't working. Freaked the hell out of me o_0 I also googled and read that this happens when you're deep in REM sleep and your brain wakes up faster than your body does. Creepy.

 

[Oaky]

I was experimenting sleep. I had gotten all sorts of nice and interesting results with different methods. I was trying another one that would involve whisperings into the ear. That's when I got it.

Happened to me the same time it happened to theadoor. The sleep paralysis wasn't filled with fear as much as what I've heard in the experience of others. Hardly the scariest moment I'd have experienced. The entity was there, though I was far more concerned about the experience and my current standing. If I remember correctly, I was trying to cite invocations during the moment. It was quite pleasant.

 

[MacGuffin]

I only had this once - woke up and could not move or breathe. Only lasted 5 seconds or so, but it was pretty terrifying.

No hallucinations, thank god.

 

[Qlip]

When I was younger I would experiment with sleep. I don't know if paralysis is a result of my experimentation, but I have had it several times. Each time was pretty damned frightening. I can definitely understand how stories of succubi and alien abduction come from this.

 

[Such Irony]

I get sleep paralysis when I wake up every few months or so. I know that it will pass shortly- I will fully wake up and everything will be okay. Still feels terrifying though.

 

[Lexicon]

http://www.nightterrors.org/dis.htm

This is pretty informative, here. I found it when I was researching the causes of night terrors, which I have had since early childhood, though fortunately not nearly as often as some people, and not as severe. I never get up and run around, screaming, but I have on occasion, woken with a start, gasping, blind fear. Some hallucinations or inability to move. [I have some sleep paralysis/night terrors crossover.. unless those terms are just interchangeable with a variety of symptoms, I forget.] Other times are points where I wake myself up with a scream or and once or twice I've awoken with a cry and burst into tears- then there's that blind panic again. Sometimes I don't remember it happening, and unfortunately I'm told about it the next morning if I was sleeping next to someone. But I just go back to sleep, a few seconds after it occurs. The whole thing lasts maybe 2 minutes at most, I'd estimate. I don't feel like it interferes with my life, I realize it's just some weird brain activity. I feel bad when other people are disturbed or concerned over it/treat me differently.
My old roommate just offered to scream with me if I did it again.

 

[Ginkgo]

You've never lived until you've been sleep paralyzed with the silhouette of this guy skulking around your room.

 

[ThatGirl]

I get this when I dream that I am asleep. Its a trip because I have to recognize that I am sleeping in my sleep in order to snap out of it. Which I have gotten pretty good at. Still I hate the feeling. I am usually dreaming when this happens and the state of my room is just a figment of my dream. I am not actually aware of my physical surroundings since I am asleep.

 

[Qlip]

Things I've seen out of the corner of my eye while sleep paralyzed: A spider, my little brother at 6 years old, my mother-in-law.

 

[ThatGirl]

........ my mother-in-law.

Now THATs frightening.

 

[Lexicon]

Now THATs frightening.

I'd be more creeped out by seeing the 6yr old...

 

[Qlip]

Now THATs frightening.

At the time we weren't married, but sleeping in the same bed. I couldn't move.. but she was right there at the doorway.. looking.

I'd be more creeped out by seeing the 6yr old...

Yeah.. that had a greater context. That night was the most terrifying night of my life.

 

[Xenon]

I went through a period in my life when I frequently had weird experiences during the sleep-wake transition. These are called hypnagogic (while going from awake to asleep) or hypnopompic (while going from asleep to awake) hallucinations/experiences. When they first started happening I thought I had a brain tumor or something; they were so bizarre. I never actually had a visual hallucination of an incubus or anything, but I had tactile hallucinations (floating, vibrating, rising up and plunging down, spinning). In one particularly frightening experience, I felt like I was being drawn up out of my body and rising high above my bed, then being violently plunged back down into it. There was this intense sense of horror and dread, like I was truly being plunged into hell itself.

Good info on these experiences here: Sleep Paralysis and Associated Hypnagogic and Hypnopompic Experiences

 

[Mole]

Safely paralysed.

Over many millions of years we have evolved to sleep.

For some, sleep meant death at the teeth of a predator, but others survived sleep and lived to reproduce us.

And those who survived fell asleep in a particular way. They turned their senses off one by one, turning off hearing second last. And the proprioceptive sense was the last sense to turn off, causing muscle paralysis. And those who turned off hearing second last, and the proprioceptive sense last, were the first to hear the predator approaching and so were the first to wake and able to escape.

So when we are relatively safe, we turn off the last sense, the proprioceptive sense, causing muscle paralysis, so we won't hurt ourselves while we dream.

So we sleep and dream safely paralysed.

 

[Lexicon]

This is a really great episode on sleep/functions & dysfunctions of sleep, etc.
You guys should give it a listen when you have some time to kill.
['m somewhat addicted to radiolab, so I'm biased here, but it's awesome<3]


http://www.radiolab.org/2007/may/24/

 

[Jonny]

My first and only experience with lucid dreaming was immediately followed by a frightening experience with sleep paralysis. What I experienced was very much like what you described in your OP, and I'd be happy if it never happened again.

 

[Luv Deluxe]

Thank you all for your stories and informative links - it's somewhat comforting to know how relatively normal this experience is, after all. I know the paralysis mechanism in our brains is there to prevent us from acting out our dreams, but when this function glitches out, the results are very interesting to say the least!

I suppose sleepwalkers must be at the other end of the spectrum (opposite those of us who experience awareness of their sleep paralysis). My boyfriend has mild sleepwalking tendencies; every night he talks in his sleep and sometimes he'll get up to rummage through his dresser drawers. He also tosses and turns constantly, causing any bed he sleeps in to become an absolute mess. Occasionally, he'll have no memory of whole conversations we had before going to bed, even if at the time he appeared to be interactive and aware. It's as though his brain starts going to sleep, but his body doesn't catch up. On the other hand, anyone who observes me while I sleep tells me I'm eerily still, almost like a dead person, and my blankets are scarcely disturbed at all. However, I am actually a very light sleeper and my boyfriend is an extremely deep sleeper. I am the type of person who somehow knows to wake up before the alarm clock goes off (even if it's not my normal sleep schedule), and my boyfriend is the type who gets up to hit the snooze button two or three times and has no memory of it, later. I wonder if these respective traits are common to somnambulism and awareness of sleep paralysis?

The way sleep paralysis sensations vary is fascinating to me, as well. A lot of you report auditory hallucinations. I didn't experience that, but it seems terrifying! To have a mysterious entity then talk to me would probably give me a heart attack! Thank you for sharing your experiences, though, seriously...I don't feel quite so worried about going to sleep tonight.

To those of you who have deliberately experimented with your sleeping, have you had any lucid dreaming experiences that went wrong?