Sleep paralysis Created 14 years ago2009-12-15 21:31:44 UTC by Soup Miner

After taking a nap today and having a particularly intense sleep paralysis episode, I'm wondering how many of you experience sleep paralysis from time to time. I do on a fairly regular basis with napping.

If you don't know what it is, you've probably never experienced it. Or maybe you just didn't know that's what it's called.

Physiologically, sleep paralysis is closely related to the paralysis that occurs as a natural part of REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, which is known as REM atonia. Sleep paralysis occurs when the brain awakes from a REM state, but the body paralysis persists. This leaves the person fully conscious, but unable to move. The paralysis can last from several seconds to several minutes "after which the individual may experience panic symptoms and the realization that the distorted perceptions were false".

In layman's terms, your conscience wakes up, but the rest of you doesn't. The result is basically dreaming awake.

This probably sounds fun, but it's often quite strange and usually frightening thanks to a mental conflict of knowing that you're not dreaming, but are experiencing dreamlike imagery, sounds, and feelings (which are often not pleasant to say the least).
Pressure on the chest is a common feeling, but I've never felt it.

What I do feel as a predecessor to the hallucinations every time, however, is an intense pulsing sensation in my head accompanied by ringing sounds. At this point, I make a choice to either go with it or try to break out by forcing a body part to move (which can be very difficult).
The pulsing can be best akinned to saying "ooooooo" and quickly but loudly saying "WA", where the oooo represents the ringing. It's also unpredictable.

Ultimately, though, it's harmless and far too interesting (albeit scary) to pass up every now and then.
UHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH long post is long.
Go ahead and share your sleep paralysis experiences.

I used to experience that quite often, but that was years ago. I didn't know there was a name for it.

I get the oooooo when it's quiet sometimes, and it's usually acompanied by a
WA---WA----WA----WA sound which is the blood in my ears, (this is when I'm awake fully) but I've never gotten sleep paralysis. I do sometimes wake up half-way while I'm still dreaming, and that makes me very disoriented, because those dreams never make sense, yet I know I'm in bed, and... you know. "WTF am I? I'm in bed. No, I'm in _____."
But as I've said, never had the actual paralysis part.

hmm.. this makes mour sence than a theory i had awhile back.. I awoken from a nightmare (maybe 3 years ago?) with this awkward sensation running through my nerves, that made my hair stand up on end.. and though I could feel this occuring I couldn't move or call for assistance.. after about a minute and a half I managed to throw myself off of the couch i had been resting on, causing my body to naturally react catching myself before i hit the ground and regaining mobility..

at the time I had just chalked it up to ghosts :/

Most people do. The symtoms seem to be similar to that of quite a few ghost experiences, according to some of the books I've read.

I have never had a sleep paralysis experience. Either that, or if I have, I didn't notice.

Never experienced this. Although I do remember getting out of bed before being completely awake, with amusing consequences such as falling to the floor or walking into a wall. But that's not quite the same.

This has happened to me before, it scared the shit out of me.

at the time I had just chalked it up to ghosts :/

Yeah, a lot of alien abductions and ghost encounter stories and whatnot are attributed to sleep paralysis and people who don't know what it is.

with this awkward sensation running through my nerves, that made my hair stand up on end.. and though I could feel this occuring I couldn't move or call for assistance.. after about a minute and a half I managed to throw myself off of the couch

That'll be it.

Hey Soup Miner, if this condition of yours increases in severity, you should talk to a doctor so he can refer you to a specialist. It's probably nothing serious, but you should cover your bases anyway.

I've never been paralyzed in my sleep, but I have had visual and auditory hallucinations upon waking up in the middle of the night.

if this condition of yours increases in severity, you should talk to a doctor so he can refer you to a specialist. It's probably nothing serious, but you should cover your bases anyway.

I appreciate the concern, but I assure you it's not as serious as you may think. Not with me, anyway.
Like insomnia(only an example, folks), everyone experiences SP at some point or another whether or not they even remember that it happened. If you absolutely, positively haven't yet, then I can guarantee that you will eventually.
It's only a disorder when it becomes chronic, like anything else, and I don't get nearly enough episodes to start worrying and I've been noting episodes for years due to it being such an interesting experience.

Although having another person in the room certainly makes things worse.
My episode earlier today involved me taking a nap in my computer chair while my roommate was napping in his bed behind me. [He woke up early for an exam and was making up sleep while I just felt like taking a nap]
The chair faces away from his bed. My hallucination was that he woke up, so I only heard the rustle of bedsheets for a while, followed by footsteps walking in my direction. Then I felt a hand come down on my shoulder, which I inexplicably knew wasn't my roommate's.
I had to break out of that one for being too intense. He never actually woke up in the first place. I guess it sounds stupid now, but it's a whole different ball game when you have no control.

Like I said, it happens on a fairly regular basis with napping, and I attribute that to the way I nap vs. the way I sleep. I nap supine, or otherwise face up. I sleep face down or on my side. Something to do with pressure on the back of the head or something, I don't know.

I've read a lot about it but never experienced it myself. Apparently most people will have a sleep paralysis episode at least once in their lives. Can't say I'm looking forward to it

A friend of mine had frequent sleep paralysis when he was younger, and he found that it went away when he slept on his side without a pillow. You might want to experiment with different positions, it might help:)

On an unrelated note, I have lucid dreams very often. It usually happens when I encounter something in a dream that's so bizarre that I go "oh yeah, I'm dreaming". After I realize this I either wake up or stay asleep, with the difference that I now can control everything in the dream. It's really cool

sometimes I sleep on my arm, jelly arm.

I've never experienced hallucinations or anything, but a lot of the time I seem to wake up oddly, being able to listen to what people are saying in the room several minutes before even being able to move. I don't think it counts though, I've never had any hallucinations.

And lucid dreaming can be awesome, but most of the time realising I'm dreaming just makes me wake up.

On an unrelated note, I have lucid dreams very often.

... I've only had them once or twice that I can remember...

I don't sleep enough to experience sleep related phenomena.

Sleep? Ahaha, I don't sleep, I just drink coffee. I've never slept that I can remember...

What an interesting idea, this sleeping. Do people do this a lot?

On an unrelated note, I have lucid dreams very often. It usually happens when I encounter something in a dream that's so bizarre that I go "oh yeah, I'm dreaming". After I realize this I either wake up or stay asleep, with the difference that I now can control everything in the dream. It's really cool

I've occasionally had this when I was little. I remember a particular one where I was standing on the tracks and the subway was racing towards me. One day I realised it was a dream and stood there. It just passed through me like a ghost and I overcame my fear of standing in the way of a moving train

Now it just doesn't happen anymore. Despite sometimes knowing stuff will appear in front of me if I think about it hard enough, I just don't come to the conclusion it's a dream anymore. Therefore I can't make the most of them

I use a telekinesis test. If I can move something with my mind, I'm dreaming

The real test is to be able to remember to perform a reality check. If you want to start questioning if you are dreaming you have to ask yourself if you are dreaming during the day, even if you are sure you aren't, then do some reality checks.

Our brain is truly a fucking complex processing unit. It's a wonder it works very well.
Now, "fucking complex" is a powerful attribute, and I'm not going to explain why it is because the majority knows, and there's Wikipedia anyway.

I don't know if we can call this sleep paralysis, but I often "wake up" during the night when somebody walks near me. I just open my eyes, without actually moving myself. And I distinguish the reality from the dream, but half of me is sleeping.

But I did experience something hardcore. And that just showed me how powerful is my brain and that I'm unable to control it: I can use it to control every last detail of my body, yet I don't know how. I experienced this 3 weeks ago, when I was dreaming....having sex. And guess what, I had an orgasm and ejaculated. The awful moment was at the end of the ejaculation when I realised "hey, this is reality". I was like "omg...wtf?! oh no! SHIT! SHIT!". Believe me guys this is good, because you can shower immediately and such. It's much worse when you don't wake up, and the sperm stays there and when you wake up you don't feel it because it's ...well...mostly dried out and warm, but when you get up " WTF STINKS LIKE THAT?". And you look down... "OH NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO".

Other thing that happen to me in the moments after I go to sleep are small dreams. I dream I'm falling from high places, or I just stumble upon a stone, the exact moment I hit the ground is me waking up, but the moment I hit the ground the pulse just accelerates. It's worse than being scarried.

Now, I do believe in something. I believe I can fly.... sorry...
I believe you can induce different moods. I don't know if this is true, but these days I've watched on national geographic something about...a hormone or what, "serotonin"... I think. This is responsible for you getting in a good mood. You just feel happy. Before going to bed, I insisted on this thought "tomorrow I'll have a high level of serotonin". And the next day I was "high".

What an interesting idea, this sleeping. Do people do this a lot?

I had just experienced this 'sleep' phenomenon for myself. If calculating correctly, I had just recently slept for 20 hours successfully..

..needless to report, I was quite disappointed apon awakening.

The night after I played half-life for the first time, I had a terrifying dream

I believe the first night I slept (2 days after) after playing half-life for the first time, I had one of those experiences similar to what the(c)_striker was describing.

Err, cool story br- Striker.

This disappointing. I was hoping a lot more to say they are familiar with SP.

I kind of partially woke up and could hear them coming for me, but at the same time, I knew i was dreaming...

You didn't know, you hoped.

I believe the first night I slept (2 days after) after playing half-life for the first time, I had one of those experiences similar to what the(c)_striker was describing.

Cool...story...bro?
TBH, I haven't had a sex dream in a while. It's weird. And sad, because when I actually dream, I can smell, feel, ect.

I haven't had a sex dream...ever...

Is this weird?

not if you don't have a gender or sexual organs/orientation

I think so.
Then again, maybe not. I guess it depends how much hormones your body is producing.
All I know is that they're dreams. About sex.
And sometimes leave a mess.

Totally worth the mess.

Anyway, I thought this video was a really good summary: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDpA0MJx780

Totally worth the mess? I don't think so. I hate both getting back to sleep on the wet spot or changing the sheets at 4am. I'm much happier when I can hold it in long enough to drop it somewhere safe.

@Striker: Do you believe you can touch the sky too?

Reality test: Punch your little sister. If she calls the police and that lands you behind bars, you get ass-raped and still don't get up, that's pretty f'd up because you weren't dreaming after all.

Meh, just chuck your soiled undergarments in the washing machine and take a shower. All's well.
Unless you sleep nekkid, in which case it sucks to be you.

Detailed discussions of wet dreams? Just another day at TWHL.

"Hey, I've never had sleep paralysis, but I have had a wet dream! That counts for something, right?"

Thanks for that disturbing piece of information, Striker

It's not something special. Most adolescent boys experience this at least once...

Most adolescent boys keep it to themselves xD

Agreed, why the hell do you feel the need to tell us about the most personal aspect of your life? And no, this isn't you being mature and intellectual about it. It's just... uncalled for. And downright creepy.

dreaming....having sex...guess what, I had an orgasm and ejaculated...The awful moment was at the end of the ejaculation...the sperm stays there...mostly dried out and warm...

Come on, man, that's the kind of shit you don't even tell your closest friends, much less the entirety of the internet. You need to keep stuff like this to yourself.

I haven't laughed this much reading a thread on TWHL ever.
Stirker, your story made my day, that was very random, thank you.

Wow Striker. Say what you want about him people, he has balls. Massive fucking balls. Or maybe he just doesn't realise what he has done yet?

Oh well, bravo!

[quoteand it's usually acompanied by a
WA---WA----WA----WA sound which is the blood in my ears,[/quote]

Wait, so THAT'S what that noise is?

EDIT: Goddamnit striker, you made me choke on my sprite, made my stomache hurt, and made me waste my sprite (sadface)

Haha, damn, I'm really not a very private and prudish person, but Striker, well.. bit too detailed, my friend.

The difference between friends and people at TWHL is that you're still relatively anonymous on the internet.

In all likelihood, you'll never meet anyone at TWHL.

Unless you're Urby/Huntey.
And its...To much information.
We didn't need to know that, he could have stopped at

I can use it to control every last detail of my body, yet I don't know how.

Instead of giving an example.