Need help with dream/sleeping oddities

I have a list of dream oddities that professional help (for some other things, not specifically this) has not addressed or provided any sort of deeper explanation as to why certain things occur. Without further ado, here's what I'm concerned with...

It's rather long but I kept each paragraph on the topic mentioned in the first sentence so that skimming would be easier.

I started experiencing sleep paralysis when I was 18 and it's increased in it's frequency since. It happened twice in one night two days ago. At first I would not be aware of the dream but would wake up in my bed unable to move. As time passed I began to remember what was happening in my dream that led to the paralysis. It's always something specific, like taking a drink of water or starting to fall that starts it. I feel my body start to tingle and time slows down in my dream. Like two days ago I was falling back in a chair but never actually hit the ground, once i was half way down the experience of time in my dream had come to a slow halt. This specific incident is the first time I ever consciously started the paralysis in my dream and stopped myself from awakening. In my dream my mother was in the room and I didn't want her to see me like this, I fought as hard as I could to will myself back to sitting upright and it worked. Time slowly started moving again and it felt like I was pushing myself against gravity like it was molasses. I then had it again later that night and woke up from it eventually. The second experience was one of my floating or levitating ones. Sometimes I experience the levitation in my dream (like this one) and very rarely I'll experience it after i've 'woken' up. Sometimes I'm able to control what direction my body levitates to, sometimes I can't. That night I was in a friends house and was lifted upstairs to the hallway where I heard a voice that sounded like three people speaking at once. Weird, but I woke up right afterwards.

I'm at a point where I'm consciously aware of transfering between wakefulness and sleep. I'll start lying in darkness, fully aware that I'm laying in my bed. Then I'll slowly start to see images come from the darkness or back of my eyelids. The most clear time it happened I saw a literally rectangular picture start to form of a viewpoint in a kitchen that I'd never been in. At first it was black and white and contrasted like a negative image but then i slowly began to see whites, blacks, and then red. As the color started to fill the picture drew closer and felt like it wrapped around me. But by 'me' I mean just my floating intangible consciousness/soul or where ever I 'hear' my thoughts. The picture I saw just became my field of vision and I entered the dream. It felt like I had been teleported into this kitchen because I knew a moment ago I had turned my tv off and laid to rest.

I've been conscious in a dream and experienced waking as well. It's almost the opposite of falling asleep. I feel my body start to slowly vibrate and then the entire image of my environment begins to vibrate to a point of almost violently shaking. After a few moments it begins to pull away and I can see darkness filling in the missing space, creeping towards the center of my focus. Once the image has left I become aware of a roundness or presence right in front of me. It's then that I sense my eyelids, or maybe eyes, are very close to my 'thoughts' or brain, again just the place where our thoughts reside. Once I sense that I immediately become aware of the rest of my body and then I start to feel the sheets on my skin. Next I feel whether I'm hot or cold or if I'm hungry. It feels like I'm being slowly walked through turning my body back on. It's actually quite relaxing when I experience it. I feel that I wake with much more energy, as if I've already snoozed a few times, and I feel comfortable with my next thoughts.

I've experienced the sensation of being able to 'see' through my eyelids. It rarely occurs but it normally happens when I wake. It's like I'm only controlling my eyeballs, it's an odd sensation of being very in the visual moment. I'm sort of aware that my eyelids are there but I'm looking through them quite easily. I can rotate enough to a point that my eye muscles would be unable to accomodate, my movement is quite free. I can see my hands, even though they're under my sheet, but I'm aware of the sheet as well. There isn't much color to the image but it doesn't seem to matter, every object is clearly defined. It never lasts very long but the images match what I see when I wake and open my eyes, like the positioning of my hands. Of course my brain is aware of their positioning and what my room looks like, so it's very likely a hallucinaction. It's accuracy and contrast to other pre sleeping and waking images is what intrigues me.

I'm becoming more conscious in my dreams although not always with the power of lucidity. I've had the lucid dreams where I am completely aware i'm dreaming and can control anything in my environment by thought, those are great. But lately my dreams have been playing out normally, without my influence, but I'm experiencing them with the awareness that I'm dreaming. I've made moral decisions in dreams knowing they would have no repercussions on my actual life because I consider my personal thoughts and intentions to be a more accurate representation of myself. If I was given the opportunity to control or live in a world without consequence and the things I chose to do were bad (however you want to define that) then what kind of person would I be? My spiritual beliefs in God also play a factor in that. Knowing that I can't hide anything from Him means I can't hide anything from myself. Anyways, this is the kind of stuff I'm wrestling with in my dream, fully aware that I'm in a dream, but yet still very much caught up in the action. I wake up feeling exhausted sometimes because even though my body's been sleeping I feel like my mind has been awake the whole time. I never get a break from my thoughts.

So what have you tried so far to help cope with these things?

My first thoughts are about medications - are you on any? Have you tried any?

Have you talked to your doctor about this? You don't have to tell him / her all the details - only that you aren't getting enough rest and / or you are having some unusual dreams that are interfering with your quality of life. That would be enough to initiate a sleep study or prescribe something that will help. You mentioned professional help - are we talking medical or psychological, or something else?

Do other family members have similar problems? Does it help for you to sleep elsewhere? Would it help if you slept with a pet? Do you have a spiritual practice that might help you cope?

this brings back memoris as i have had a similar thing but this is my realigous feeling i had once tried to wake up from horribal nightmares (sorry for my spelling) and my mother once told me that it is actully a demon like spirit or witch that stands on you while you have a nightmare and feeds on you this might sound like something totally unreal but in my opionion its very real but can u tell me do u feel like theres a force holding you down ????? if so then please if your a willing to try my advice take some onions and put them under your pillow and take a cross and hang it or put it by your bed i did this for a couple nights and then got rid of them and know i sleep perfectly normal

i hope this helps may peace be with you

hi ok so maybe 7 or 8 years ago(im 15 now) i had the oddest dreams that moving required extreme mental and physical effort i didnt know what was going on and it scared me. i then got awoken by my father and i was still having a real hard time moving so i told my father i wasnt feeling well and he let me stay home, for about half the day i was still having a very hard time moving my body then i tripped and fell on the floor felt fine after that and could move with no more mental effort required then before.


any ideas?

the king

[edit on ampWed, 3 Jan 2007 11:30:08 -0600/02/91 by adamiskthespacepirateking]

[edit on ampWed, 3 Jan 2007 11:30:51 -0600/02/91 by adamiskthespacepirateking]

Thanks for everyone's response so far.

I am currently taking adderall and waiting on whatever my psych gives me next. No one seems to take what I'm saying about my sleep seriously. Or at least they don't want to address it specifically or talk about it. I just started seeing a therapist too, apparently I'm bipolar or depressed or whatever they can't figure out.

The spirit/witch/demon thing is, or at least I believe, just a means of describing the sleep induced paralysis. If I can't get up, if i'm pushing my body forward and nothings moving then something must be pushing back right? Well I don't think there is, i mean there could be, but the initial fear or feeling that something is 'near' me has subsided as I've continued to experience it.

Last night I dreamt I was laying in my old bed (when i was 12, 24 now) and there was a bust of a military man on my dresser at the foot of my bed. As I looked up towards the bust it slowly started turning it's head and eyes to look at me. As it did I became angry and tried to move towards it but had the same paralyzed feeling. I was barely able to fight through the feeling as I kept trying to strike the bust, it was like I was completely underwater trying to move. This is the first time in awhile that the feeling or associated images has scared the hell out of me. I felt like that thing was going to kill me if I didn't get to it.

Having difficulty with movement is normal during an intense dream. So, when experiencing a feeling of paralysis, inability to move quickly, or moving only with great effort, keep in mind when you wake up that this is common and there is a scientific explanation for it. (I'll be glad to try to explain it if you aren't already familiar with it. You probably are, so I won't go into it now.)

Some people claim that feelings of paralysis after waking are caused by the same mechanisms that cause an inability to move during a dream. Some people disagree. I can't say who is right as I am not a scientist. Sleep and dream research are merely hobbies of mine, I am no professional.

One thing I do know for sure is that sleep and mental health go hand in hand. Lack of sleep can lead to (or exacerbate) depression and mood disorders, and depression can severely interupt dream/sleep/wake cycles.

Keep seeing your doctor and take your meds. In the meanwhile, do you meditate? I would think that it would certainly help in your case.

Yeah, I'm entirely aware that sleep paralysis is not a completey uncommon experience. I just worry about what's causing it and why it changes. The feeling of not being able to move isn't the same as it is in a bad dream. I've had the whole trying to run away from something but it feels like you're in quicksand. The feeling that I can't move is much different when I experience it through the paralysis. Because the moment before it happens I immediately become conscious in my dream. The sort of shift you experience when you wake up and say 'phew it was just a dream', but I'm still in the dream. And lately the images have become more frightening. I had wondered before what hell would be like if you experienced it with no physical body, no pain, just your thoughts. Last night when I began the paralysis I just started falling through the ground, straight down like out of a plane. I could feeling things swirling around me and hear some sort of chatter, I couldn't pick out one voice because it was all in such disarray. I just had the most uncomfortable personal feeling I've ever had, not painful but just a searing uncomfortable fear. It was different than when I was first fearful and experiencing this. It was, deeper, engrained in me. I don't think I experienced hell or anything like that but it's the best way I could relate it.

I don't mediate but I have before. I actually had an amazing experience once when I meditated out of nowhere and twisted the end of the thickest key on my chain. It was like something hit me when I was listening to music and I just did it. It felt like I disconnected with my body and became a glowing ball of awareness. It felt like bursts of energy where running around where my body was and connected up to 'me'. A very very powerful feeling, i'm still not sure to this day what mentally or physically happened to me but it was awesome. I just have very little patience and never think to do it. It's probably not a bad idea though, thanks for the reminder.

Hello Parabol,

I have two quotes from you that I found very interresting:

Originally posted by Parabol
It's then that I sense my eyelids, or maybe eyes, are very close to my 'thoughts' or brain, again just the place where our thoughts reside.

Yes! I sometimes have this experience my self.

This only happens when my mind is over active, however. For instance once I played a computer game for nearly 12 hours straight, I was pretty much addicted. The game required quite a lot of mental thought and decision making so my mind was very active during the game time. When it came time to sleep (late at night, I was extremely tired, so tired you don’t realize it) I kept thinking of the game. My sub-conscious mind could not let it go and I kept simulating a game within my head. No matter how hard I tried to think of something else. After falling asleep (and actually perhaps even before that) I then experienced the feeling you described, that my eyes were “close to my thoughts”. This is a very stressing experience and I don’t feel relaxed at all. My mind is hyper active.

Originally posted by Parabol
I wake up feeling exhausted sometimes because even though my body's been sleeping I feel like my mind has been awake the whole time. I never get a break from my thoughts.

I felt exactly like that after having the experience I described above. It has happened to me mainly whenever I become overly engaged in for instance a computer game or something similar. It's HORRIBLE to wake up like that, feeling that your almost more tired now than when you went to bed in the first place.

[edit on 24-1-2007 by VladTheImpaler]

Parabol,

First, you should not be taking any medicine unless this is absolutely freakin’ necessary. Medicine generally just dulls you down; it is rarely a good solution to any mental problem.

Second, I think you need to realize why you are afraid. You have to ask your self why you are afraid in your dreams. I understand that it is stressing to have the feeling of being paralyzed while frightening things are happening around you. I’ve had several of those dreams; I’ve lain paralyzed with the feeling of some sort of dark presence around me that I cannot see. The only way I’ve been able to break free of the paralysis is through anger. The few times this has happened it has been an awesome ride. By channelling all my fear into anger and rage I’ve broken through and basically completely taken control of my dream. It’s a great and powerful feeling. I’m generally not very conscious during these dreams though.

If you are experiencing a dream where something’s frightening is happening and you feel completely conscious you need to try get writ of your fear. The best way is to say to your self consciously before you fall asleep that “if something happens in my dreams now there is nothing to be afraid of. These are merely dreams and they cannot in any way hurt my physical self, therefore I should not be afraid. In fact I am immune to any evil in my dreams; after all, they are my own creation.” Additionally consciously set your self a goal for the next time you have such a dream. For instance, if you can persuade your self that there is nothing to be afraid of within your dream (when you’re consciously dreaming) you can attempt to focus on just closing your eyes within the conscious dream and just relaxing your body instead of fighting it. Because no matter what happens you should know that there is no reason to be afraid, because it’s just a dream. Don’t fight the paralysis, try to see everything in a different light, relax and see what happens. If you’re conscious during these dreams you should be able to make such a choice.

Best wishes,
Vlad

The problem is that when something starts to frighten me it happens very immediately and coincides with the beginning of paralysis. So I have no means to fight anything in my dream. Like once I felt as if I floated out of my bed and went downstairs. But I would float to the end of a hallway, turn, go down the stairs, etc. I couldn't go through walls but I was following a walking path. In a normal dream I'm never frightened, I couldn't tell you the last time I had a normal nightmare. And right before the paralysis occurs I gain lucidity but without the realization that I'm in a dream. It feels as clear as the morning but I've woken up with the fear like someone has a gun in my face. I understand there's nothing to be afraid of now and I'm not scared to fall asleep. I'm a psych major and incredibly interested in how my mind works so this bothers/perplexes me. I'm at a complete loss of control and these experiences only became frightening recently, after years of being used to it.