Sleep Paralysis

[Jester]

I've never had what you describe, but I have on many occasions woken up with one of my arms completely numb from a weird sleeping position. My arm basically "fell asleep" like your legs sometimes do if you sit weird, but we are talking completely asleep, completely numb, and the only way to move it is to move your body so that the arm follows. And worse than that is when feeling starts to return to the arm.....major owie there.

But I think that is rather normal, and probably not related to what you were going through.

[JLG]

I have gone through what you describe since I was about 10 years old. It seems like it happens more to me when I am not relaxed before I go to bed. Like if I have a lot on my mind and I start tossing and turning. I also imagine things that are not there and it makes it worse. When somebody is sleeping next to me it sucks that I can see them and I can't scream to them to shake me awake.

I feel for you and I hope it doesn't happen to you again. When it happens to me it helps if I just relax and try to stay calm. It does seem like it is a long time when it is probably like a minute.

[Boozy]

This happens nearly every night to me. Evidently my brain doesn't make enough of the chemical that keeps you asleep, so I remain sleep-paralyzed but begin to wake up.

It happens to me all the time, too. It's just an oddity with my brain chemicals/sleep cycle, and I've gotten very used to it.

I can see it being frightening for someone who isn't used to it.

Some things you can do to prevent it:

Avoid excessive caffeine.

Get plenty of sleep, and try to do it on a regular schedule (difficult for shift workers, but this is the best preventative).

Don't sleep on your back! It is far more frequent for people waking up on their backs. If you find yourself constantly waking up on your back, duct tape a tennis ball to the back of a snug t-shirt and sleep in that.

Relax, and don't fight it. Personally, I've come to enjoy the unworldly experience of feeling divorced from my body for a few minutes. If you know what it is that you're experiencing, the accompanying frightening sensations that some people report (the sense that an evil presence is holding you down, for example) will be less frequent. Your unconscious mind is trying to make sense of the paralysis, and invents things that aren't there. If your conscious mind is aware of the chemical reasons for what you are experiencing, you're less likely to hallucinate.

[Broomjockey]

One thing no one's addressed is the weird concurrence in dreams, and since the sleep paralysis itself has been covered fairly well, I figured I'd take a crack at it.

Dream time is not like real time. It can move as quickly or as slowly as it wants. Thus, when you started giving off signals you were in distress, the mumbling, probably your body temperature rose from trying to exert itself, sweat, pheromones, what ever, he picked up on that, but he was too deeply asleep to actually wake up, so his dream morphed in to what he'd do if you were in a distressed situation. The entire dream could have played out in seconds while you went through your ordeal.

I don't think I've ever had the sleep paralysis happen to me, and I rarely lucid dream, so I get no control, but I am able to wake myself up during a dream. I don't even think to myself "this is a dream." Nightmare scenarios, I tend to think "Fuck this, I'm out of here," and wake up, or if it's just time to wake up, I'll think "time to go," and I'm up. Not sure I'm even aware of it being a dream at those times. It's kind of odd.

[sarasquirrel]

he only caffeine i get is from chocolate and im not consuming large amounts of it everyday.


i do sleep on my back though. i can not sleep on my stomach its just not comfortable whatsoever. sometimes i can sleep on my side. sleeping on my left side has always been more comfortable to me but ever since i had surgery in august on my left breast its not always perfect.

im tired, i think its time for bed lol

[RecoveringKinkoid]

I remember having sleep paralysis several times; in each case I was wide awake but I don't recall seeing anything out of the ordinary. .

Well, listen, you don't know how lucky you are.

I am frankly shocked I didn't piss myself. I'm not even joking. I'm talking some Stephen Frigging King stuff, right here.

Okay, here is a question. I at no point thought or think I was abducted by aliens. Let's just make that clear here. However, why, when people hallucinate during this thing, do we all see the same thing?

People all over the world see the same thing. Explain that. Except in my case, it wasn't standing. I was sleeping on the floor beside a bed and the damn thing was UNDER THE FUCKING BED NEXT TO ME. It had an arm around me, pulling me. I shit you not, how did I even manage not to pee or vomit?

I'm freezing cold just thiniking about it, you should see the hair standing up on my arms.

Here's the thing...I can often take control of my dreams. It's not that big of a deal for me to avoid a nightmare by simply gaining some lucidity. However, the problem with haint is that you JUST KNOW YOU ARE WIDE AWAKE. You can't get control of a dream if you are so convinced that you are wide awake that every detail in the room is exactly as it should be. I mean, I actually woke up with start, wondering what woke me up.

Except for, you know, the gigantic hulking shadow monster with no face, wrapping arms around you as you lay there paralyzed. That part kind of strays a bit.

I mean, I actually woke up with start, wondering what woke me up. I turned my head on the pillow to go back to sleep and there's a fucking faceless monster reaching for me.

Clearly, that ain't what happened. but it was as real to me at the moment as anything else that's ever happened to me.

[Broomjockey]

However, why, when people hallucinate during this thing, do we all see the same thing?

Er, you don't. What you just described is completely different from what was in the OP. You had a giant arm, she had a cat.

As for similarities in things like the alien abduction hallucinations, it turns out the "Roswell Greys," if you drew that on paper and showed it to an infant, it'd respond to it like a normal face. The exaggerated eyes, and placement on the face are what's important, so if someone's imagining a tormentor, they go with the simplest face recognizable as one. The Roswell Greys are created.

If you're talking about various monsters and spooks, it's all about the prey instinct. Your primitive brain takes over, and because you're incredibly vulnerable in being unable to move, and your primitive brain can't grasp why, and your higher brain's still asleep enough to not be able to take over, the fight or flight response kicks in, you can't do either, your adrenaline shoots through the roof, you panic, and start imagining predators in the dark, and your tormentors are what are keeping you pinned. Since it's all in the dark, and based on prey instinct, of course they're going to be similar events.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Well, true, there are exceptions, but the overwhelming majority see threatening, shadowy, humanoid beings.

Believe me, there was a humanoid being attached to the arm. He didn't seem to have a face, though, that part seems different.

It was like the dark "opened up" like there was a portal in the dark (I don't know how else to describe it, the darkness under the bed was almost solid and a door opened up) and this grey, dim light was inside, and this humanoid THING that was made of darkness was leaning out of it towards me.

I was wigged out most of the rest of the night...at the time, I'd never heard of this. I thought I had lost my mind.

[Broomjockey]

Well, true, there are exceptions, but the overwhelming majority see threatening, shadowy, humanoid beings.

Again, prey instinct. In modern life, what you've to fear more than anything else is other people. But since you're not actually seeing anything, it's just your mind putting them in and it's dark, it's light on details, thus shadowy. Threatening, again, because you can't move. You're in a threatened position, so everything is threatening. And it's not people, because again, dark, not really there, your mind is filling in, so it twists. It goes primitive. It's just psychology, not mysticism. It's natural, not supernatural.

[NightWatch]

I have mild forms of sleep paralysis from time to time. Like I'll be dreaming that someone tells me to look at something and all of a sudden my eyes slam shut and I can't open them for the life of me. Or I'll have a dream where I need to flee or pursue someone and suddenly my legs are like lead weights. I discovered this is a good thing, as irritating as the "PANIC!" sensation is, because one night the paralysis part didn't kick in and I decked my poor bf in the face...

Although last night I dreamed I had a pet frog and someone was trying to take him away from me and it was horrible cuz it was this epic uphill battle to get my little frog back. I woke up in tears. Lame huh?

[Misanthropical]

I hate getting sleep paralysis. Its very scary. Yet at times I crave for it. Strange huh?

The first time I got it as a child and thought for sure I was dead or going to be mistaken for dead and buried. Yes, I have a phobia about being buried alive, deal.

Yes, I am a basket case with all my phobias.

I get Sleep Paralysis about once a month or sometimes more. I try to wait it out and not freak out by what I'm hearing around me.

I have found that sleeping with a Bible under my pillow keeps it away, which is weird since I'm not really all that religious.

[Broomjockey]

I have found that sleeping with a Bible under my pillow keeps it away, which is weird since I'm not really all that religious.

Have you tried other books of similar size/shape? If those work, it'd just be a positional/comfort thing. If it's only the Bible, it's either psychosomatic or you're actually having visits of an otherworldly nature. Knowing you, I'm actually leaning towards the latter.

[Misanthropical]

Have you tried other books of similar size/shape? If those work, it'd just be a positional/comfort thing. If it's only the Bible, it's either psychosomatic or you're actually having visits of an otherworldly nature. Knowing you, I'm actually leaning towards the latter.

You only think you're funny!

My sons have never mentioned having it, but my daughter gets it. It seems to run in our family as do all the other weird things.

I have heard it referred to as "Old Hag Syndrome" but I have never seen or sensed any such person when I have sleep paralysis nor has my daughter. I have had the sense of a person in the room, but they didn't seem to have much interest in me either good or bad, they just seem to be there.

[Lachrymose]

Pretty sure I've mentioned it before, but I have narcolepsy and experience sleep paralysis usually at least once a night.

Just last night, I was sleeping on the couch with my jaw resting against my hand.

I had a bout of sleep paralysis and the weight of my head was pushing pretty hard against my fist and I could feel my jaw being pushed out of place but I couldn't do anything.

Luckily, I woke up before any dislocation happened.

Thinking back on it, I find it pretty funny.

[Broomjockey]

You only think you're funny!

Well, yes, I admit, usually I'm the only one laughing.

Thinking back on it, I find it pretty funny.

Well, certainly the looks you'd have gotten from the doctors would be funny.