Sleep Paralysis

[feelingblue]

It seems like a dream but it feels so real. Almost like a outer body experience. A weird sensation of not being able to move or scream. It usually would happen when I sleep on my back and I could feel a force on me trying to choke me. At one time I had these episodes every night and would wake up three to four times a night. Lost lots of sleep from this and thought I was going crazy. I did some research and its also known as "witch riding your back" . It seems to be quite common. Its the most frightening thing ever Has anyone experienced anything like this?

[Inturmal]

Yep, it's fairly common and it happens to me too. I usually hear an intense wind rushing past my ears, while I'm laying there unable to move, as a monster eats me.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_disorder

edit: oh, and inside my head, I'm screaming the entire time. yep, it's a lot of fun.

[meggiehamilton]

My boyfriend experiences this. I am afraid to be alone with him if we sleep together. I always have one eye open.

[FreeSoul]

Oy...
This is now the third time I've seen this topic since I've been here.

I've had it happen before. Yes it's weird.
Think of it as a complete reversal of sleep-walking

[brokenlight]

I used to get this a lot, sometimes 3 or 4 times a night. I have had some strange sleep disturbances. One time I heard someone whispering something over and over to me. Another time I felt someone tapping me. I haven't experienced any of these things in a while, though.

[SebFontain]

If it happens again, and you live alone, after you experience it, wake up, stand up out of bed, walk into the bathroom and look in the mirror and scream at yourself. Yes scream at yourself. Also when you are experiencing it, try blinking you eyes at a rapid pace and make yourself cough. All of this sounds weird i know but the screaming at yourself should keep it away for the rest of the night and the coughing and blinking helps you snap out of it. Well I hope it helps.

[OneIsALonelyNumber]

I've had this happen quite a few times, the last time being maybe a week or two ago.

Most people think someone is choking them, or holding them down, but I always thought a spirit was trying to force entry into my body.

When I learned about sleep paralysis, I did some research on it and found a good way to handle it. You've got to understand that sleep paralysis is your gateway to lucid dreaming (being able to control your dreams). Next time you experience sleep paralysis, instead of freaking out, allow yourself to fall back to sleep. Think about a kind of dream you'd like to have, and make yourself have it. It's great.

Sleep paralysis is not something to fear.

[D.B. Cooper]

Yes, hallucinating and thinking someone is in the room with your or trying to get into the room happens during this alot for me. I've had full blown hallucinations during it where i actually see someone/something.

The scariest time i can remember was feeling myself being lifted off the bed and thrown at the wall. This woke me up straight out of bed and i had quite a hard time convincing myself it didnt happen.

These sorts of sleep paralysis hallucinations are generally considered what people are experiancing when they talk about stuff like alien abductions.

[carousel]

so why is this a cause for people with sas???

[My_Shrink]

Sleep paralysis is not something to fear.

Yeah.I had this happening to me a few times in my teens, but not
with hallucinations, only the paralysis and seeing the room around
me much clearer than in a normal dream.
Eventually i was not worried at all, i just focused on trying to tense
my muscles and try to wake up, the strange thing is that when i
eventually woke up i was just lying there, i wasn't tensing my muscles
at all.

The experience also made me realize that that some nightmares i had
when i was a kid was also sleep paralysis.I was lying in my bed trying
to scream for my parents, but i couldn't move or get a word out, quite
terrifying.

[Meee]

I've never had that happen, thank god. I do apparently talk in my sleep if i'm really tired though, and i've had it happen once or twice when i'm just nearly asleep that i get the sensation of falling, then my leg jerks suddenly and i wake up. That's supposedly quite common. No sleep paralysis though.

[Bon]

I would be scared to death if something like this happened. I would be going through the phone book looking for a priest to perform an exorcism, and I'm not catholic;-))

[Panic Prone]

Yes This started for me about 2 years ago. It felt like some force was over coming me. I felt and saw my body slide off the bed and couldn't controll it. I would start shaking and the most overwhelming fear came over me like I wanted to scream like a lil girl but I felt speachless. I couldn't talk or move. I can't tell if it's a dream or i'm awake. It's very confusing. I haven't had one recently but they are very frightening. I'm also a lucid dreamer. I never wake up refreshed. I think it's partly due to the fact then even when i'm sleeping.. my mind never fully is at rest. Even my dreams stress me out! LOL.

[orpheus]

I used to have night terror which made sleep paralysis (which I started having in my early twenties) a walk in the park.