Sleep Paralysis

[Mole]

Sleep and Trance

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!

Yes, it helps to know how sleep evolved over many millions of years and how it works today. In particular we turn off our senses one by one, until we can't see or hear or move.

And what we know about sleep is true of trance as well. For in trance we turn off our cognitive faculties one by one, but rather than falling asleep, we turn on our creative faculties.

So in sleep we turn off our senses one by one until we are paralysed and asleep, while in trance we turn off our cognitive faculties one by one, and turn on our creative faculties.

 

[Xann]

 

[Dyslexxie]

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?

I experience sleep paralysis quite frequently but it's also somewhat cyclical. I can go months where it doesn't really happen, to months where it happens nearly every night. I would say that the frequency of it doesn't necessarily make it less terrifying, but it does make it somewhat more easy to tolerate.

Different factors increase the frequency of it, but it is generally caused by an overactive CNS, and is somehow worsened by sleep deprivation and an irregular sleep schedule so if this is it for you, just get more sleep (and make sure it's the kind that really knocks you out)! I find if I really wear out my body prior to sleep (like going for a run in early evening), I'm less likely to experience sleep paralysis. I've also taught myself how to wake up from them, although it requires insane amounts of effort and you feel so messed up after that good luck trying to sleep again!

In regards to the sleep paralysis versus lucid dreaming question, I would think it would be difficult to cycle from one to the other but here's an interesting TED Talks about it however. I wouldn't have thought the transition possible, but I'll have to try next time. I have however somehow experienced an OOBE and astral projected while having a night terror and that's a fucked up situation I wouldn't recommend to anyone (although astral projection and I have never worked well regardless of what occurs).

 

[Luv Deluxe]

Different factors increase the frequency of it, but it is generally caused by an overactive CNS, and is somehow worsened by sleep deprivation and an irregular sleep schedule so if this is it for you, just get more sleep (and make sure it's the kind that really knocks you out)! I find if I really wear out my body prior to sleep (like going for a run in early evening), I'm less likely to experience sleep paralysis. I've also taught myself how to wake up from them, although it requires insane amounts of effort and you feel so messed up after that good luck trying to sleep again!

Thanks for your thoughts! Sorry for not seeing this a while ago. I don't hang out here much. Something about this place makes me bored and anxious.

With regard to waking oneself up from sleep paralysis - I actually did snap myself out of it once I realized what was happening to me. The demonic-looking thing took about four shambling paces toward my bed before I had the sudden clarity of understanding that it wasn't real, effectively cancelling the whole hallucination. I didn't know that it was supposed to be hard to do, but every time I've felt my body slide toward sleep paralysis since then (so long ago!), I've had similar success.

The kind of sleep I get seems to be the variety that knocks me out, even though I don't need much. I work out a lot too, though I'm uncertain how much that does for my thoughts hours after I've left the gym.

Does sleep paralysis ever happen to you when you're not in the supine position? Have you found that it happens more often when you're going through periods of anxiety? I was extremely tense, though suppressing or ignoring it as is my tradition, when I had that first episode and posted about it here.

About two years ago, I was once again struggling under a lot of mental strain when I did more intense reading on lucid dreaming (which I'd experienced before, just not skillfully). At the time, I found the topic really fascinating, and ever since I've had regular experiences with it.

They say you can induce lucid dreams, but I've never been able to really will myself into one from a state of wakefulness. I always become aware from inside of the dream itself. I have gotten to the point where I can will situations to change as long as I resist the temptation to just go exploring. Everything is so bright and vivid, and I can feel the substance of my subconscious world as powerfully as if it were actually happening on a very real plane of existence, so that part's...amazing.

What does an OOBE feel like, in general? Sorry you had to have one during a sleep paralysis episode - that sounds truly godawful!

 

[Fate]

I've heard you'd see "shadow people" when you're in sleep paralysis. So far, with my rare experiences of these, I never did.
Most of the time, I successfully got up (head and torso in vertical) with few to moderate force while waiting. When forcefully trying to get up, it's somewhat painful and won't work.

 

[Dyslexxie]

With regard to waking oneself up from sleep paralysis - I actually did snap myself out of it once I realized what was happening to me. The demonic-looking thing took about four shambling paces toward my bed before I had the sudden clarity of understanding that it wasn't real, effectively cancelling the whole hallucination. I didn't know that it was supposed to be hard to do, but every time I've felt my body slide toward sleep paralysis since then (so long ago!), I've had similar success.

That sounds absolutely terrifying! Depending on the situation, I generally have to fight myself quite hard in order to wake up from it or to at least dispel what's occurring. The last time it occurred (a few months ago now thankfully) I knew fully well that it wasn't real but it didn't stop for so long. When I finally woke up from the whole thing, the entire sequence had played out despite my best efforts.

Does sleep paralysis ever happen to you when you're not in the supine position? Have you found that it happens more often when you're going through periods of anxiety? I was extremely tense, though suppressing or ignoring it as is my tradition, when I had that first episode and posted about it here.

I would say it happens more commonly in supine position for sure, but I would think it has happened to me in prone as well since that's how I find myself sleeping most commonly. I do believe there is a link between sleep position and what occurs during the sleeping state and there are studies that show an increase in both dreams and nightmare variations when sleeping face up.

Mental state is a HUGE factor for me. The more stressed I am and the more chaos I have in my life, the worse it is. One weird thing I found is that when I'm going through particularly rough bouts of depression however, my dreams become more vivid and the terrors all but stop. I think it's my mind's way of coping, sorta like trying to help me through lol.

What does an OOBE feel like, in general? Sorry you had to have one during a sleep paralysis episode - that sounds truly godawful!

Many people have good experiences with them and enjoy them to the point where they try to and can manage to induce them, but I'm not one of those people lol. Because I'm so prone to nightmares as well, I find OOBEs terrifying.

The idea is supposed to be that you take small steps and explore your space one room at a time, but because there's nothing tangible on the astral plane, I find you get this sense of complete exposure to everything, like you're standing in the middle of a dark auditorium and you feel you can be seen from far away, but you can't really see too far yourself. To me it's a feeling of total exposure, and although it's not as terrifying as sleep paralysis, there are still so many similar elements...shadows, voices, movement that you can't quite pinpoint to something or to somewhere...if you've ever seen the movie Insidious, the sensation (as well as so many of the elements present) are quite similar to that.

That said, the lightness of it feels really cool and you basically float from place to place, and can move pretty much anywhere. During one experience I know I wanted to be on the beach in Key West, and "ended up" somewhere that looked similar, except because this was nighttime, the beach was dark and eerie. It still felt really cool, but yeah, if that eerie sensation can be managed and if you can learn to manipulate your environment I can see it being a really amazing experience.

 

[Hitoshi-San]

not actually sleep paralysis, and I think I talked about it in another thread, but still scary and not something I wish to fuck with again. I've been taking Zyrtec for seasonal allergies and sleep problems including sleep paralysis and nightmares are a side effect the company will actually own up to (100/10 would not recommend). 3 nights ago, I had just closed my eyes when I heard someone whisper/shout "mommy" into my ear. I am not a mom. it sounded like someone trying to imitate a little kid. later on I felt my face being rubbed. the next night I heard voices by the door of my bedroom but couldn't make out words, and felt my leg being squeezed. every single night I've been ridiculously paranoid and feel like there's someone right there staring at me whenever I close my eyes. one morning I woke up from a nightmare and couldn't move or feel my right arm (no reason behind it, I wasn't sleeping on top of it or anything). I've been sleep deprived from being too scared to sleep so that doesn't make it any better. I stopped taking Zyrtec last night, because fuck that shit.

 

[Norrsken]

This is my greatest fear, honestly. Don't think I've ever suffered from sleep paralysis, thank god.

 

[Roseanna Jacquez]

I had sleep paralysis several times. The last time was last year when we were out of the country with my family. I Googled it and I got this one.

 

[Noll]

I used to experience it a lot during periods of anxiety and sleeplessness in my early teen's. It was the worst when I hadn't slept for two days and finally fell asleep in the morning. What's the scariest thing for me is being unable to move, it always fills me with panic due to feelings of claustrophobia.