"Sleep Paralysis" - Or something much more

Sleep Paralysis - This happens when you awaken and are completely conscious but cannot move anything but your eyeballs.

I have had several episodes of so called Sleep Paralysis. However they have been quite unusual.

The first happened a couple of years back. I was living with my parents and had awoken strangely in the middle of the night with what seemed like a seizure. I don't know if you can seizure out of panic, but it was the first sleep paralysis episode I've ever had and tried with all my might to fight it. This sent me into a battle between my brain and body and I basically shook my body in what felt like a seizure.

A couple nights back I had another episode ( I've had a few since then but this one in particular struck me as unusual ). I woke up, I was totally conscious, but the weird part was.. I could move my head. On top of that, I could move my arms! I could only move my arms a very tiny bit and it felt like a force such as gravity was preventing me from doing so.

Why do I think it's strange? I could only move my arms by trying with all of my strength. Otherwise, it would've been useless. However, being ambitious as I am.. I always try to get out of it. This time though it felt more like magnetic restraints rather than some fitful experience with my subconscious brain.

I've had sleep paralysis before and it's quite scary. I don't think it's anything more then that and from what I've heard is pretty harmless. Did you hallucinate at all? Whenever I had paralysis I had lucid dreams of being killed. It was either falling down stairs, getting knifed in the back or getting my neck snapped by an Orc. Very disturbing stuff to say the least.

I have woken up before being unable to move. It feels like your so tired, you can't move any of your muscles. But luckely, I was able to fight it and fully recover. I'm not sure if what I experienced was sleep paralysis, or something else.

Did you feel a crushing weight on your chest that made it very difficult or impossible to breath(if it did, then it's Sleep Paralysis)? It could be sleep apnae which is not harmless, it can lead to heart problems. Try to distinguish between the two it could mean your life.

[edit on 8-10-2007 by sardion2000]

There are a couple of threads on ATS about Sleep Paralysis...search and enjoy


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I have had many sleep paralysis episodes during my life and I also have sleep apnea. When I was being tested for sleep apnea, my Dr. did not ask if I had experienced sleep paralysis. However, now that I think about it, I have had maybe 2 episodes of sleep paralysis in the year that I have been using my CPAP machine (an added benefit I suppose since sleep paralysis terrifies me)

In my experience with apnea, its very easy to distinguish between apnea and paralysis. Without my CPAP machine, I literally wake up gasping for air and at times I can feel my throat "closing off". With paralysis, I simply woke up not being able to move. I would highly recommend doing a sleep study especially if you think you may have apnea. Waking up without a Co2 headache is a blessing. The CPAP machine is a lot easier to get used to that it may seem and has changed my sleeping life.

The next time I go pick up a filter for my CPAP machine, I will try to ask the Dr. about sleep paralysis and any relation to apnea, now I am curious

It can be a nocturnal seizure, as you mentioned, there is such a thing. In addition, there is no hard rule that says that you cannot move at all during an episode of sleep paralysis, sleep paralysis is loss of muscle tone from the chemical the brain excretes in REM sleep. As such, you can wake up with various degrees of that chemical in your system still.
Anyway, if your worried about it get a sleep study run, that should tell you what is going on.

Had it for almost 30 years before I started sleeping with some salt and an iron rod and then I started seeing 'Shadow People', the paralysis stopped so suddenly that I now can't sleep very well at all. Ergo, I think they're related in some way, and IMO, if it was a medical condition, then it would be very unlikely to just stop suddenly. Only seem to get an episode when I forget the salt and iron (leave it in another room) or fall asleep somewhere where there isn't any.

How many of you experienced hallucinations prior to your episode of sleep paralysis?

im not sure if this is the same thing.. but ive had it where im actually stuck in my dream. I will just about to be waking up but still dreaming, and for example i will in my dream be standing facing lets say a tree, i then turn to face say a lake, and when i do this my vision goes straight back to the tree and my body is facing the lake, so its like im stuck in a frame of my visual dream even though my body has moved and is moving, i will then be concious of my self trying to get out of it and wake up, i find myself "stuck" in my dream and unable to wake up i will open my eyes in reality and then suddenly the tree will dissapear "the one in my dream" and whatever is in my "reality" will then be the new fixed frame in my mind but im able to move my body. Its really strange as its like im having sleep paralysis of some kind but the other way around, i cant seem to see and what i do see is a fixed frame of my last visual. Then during this episode ill get a rushing zzzzzep sound with pressure going through my head and a sense of squeezing turning warping feeling in my body, then ill pull myself out of it and wake up a little be overwhelmed and frightened by the whole experience! does anyone know what this type of problem is or has anyone else experienced this?

I've had it about 5 times in the last 3 years or so. It -only- ever happens when I fall asleep on my back.

The first time it happened I really panicked. I thought it had to be either "extra-dimensional" forces at work or I had some weird medical condition.

Then I googled "sleep paralysis" and discovered that it was fairly common and usually only happens once or twice in the average person's life.

What happens in my paralysis episodes is that I really have to use every ounce of will to get out of it. As soon as I manage to move my index finger I snap out of the paralysis.

I'm actually hoping it happens again sometime soon as, someone stated on these forums that, it's fairly easy to induce an OOBE through sleep paralysis. So the next time I'll attempt that instead of trying to break the paralysis.

I used to bunch up all my muscles and then 'leap' out of the bed, it will wake you sufficiently that you can get up, PROVIDING you move within a few seconds, otherwise you will feel extremely tired again and go straight back into the paralysis.

Interestingly, I take strong muscle relaxants for a chronic condition, and many doctors have said it would be very unlikely for me to suffer sleep paralysis, but I did and still occasionally do (as I said above).

I guess you could call it a hallucination, I thought it was very real at the time though. I woke up, could not move at all and there was a white blob floating above my body. It hastily floated into the wall and disappeared and I could move again. I stayed up for the rest of the night and was really terrified.

Thhas happened to me on a few occasions as well. I have awoken being completely unable to move any part of my body except my eyes. It felt like it lasted for some time but in reality it was probably no more than a few seconds. One instance I thought I had glimpses of flashing or strobing light of different colors.

Even though there is a medical explanation for this it is still very disconcerting to have happen to you.

Originally posted by blowfishdl
I guess you could call it a hallucination, I thought it was very real at the time though. I woke up, could not move at all and there was a white blob floating above my body. It hastily floated into the wall and disappeared and I could move again. I stayed up for the rest of the night and was really terrified.

When I was going through the first bouts of Morphine hallucinations in the Hospital when I got into a bike accident I hallucinated I was talking to a devil in the corner that I could only see with my peripheral vision. I also hallucinated I was a POW in some fantastical futuristic war or something and then I tried to check myself out. When the Psychologist game down he took one look at me and told me I was hallucinating and I literally snapped out of it as if he had turned them off by flicking a switch. The point is I was totally convinced that the hallucination I was experiencing was REAL! I have no idea why the brain hallucinates when you are experiences sleep paralysis but I have a hunch that it's a self defence mechanism to get you awake and breathing again.

[edit on 9-10-2007 by sardion2000]

I was going to post a reply to the other thread entitled Sleep Paralysis - Victims, but, though I can find it through a search, it isn't showing on the main paranormal board, so I don't see the point.

I don't believe that sleep paralysis is anything sinister, though it can seem that way when you've had several episodes.

MajorMalfunction gave a good explanation of what causes sleep paralysis, in another thread:

Your body is locked down because part of your mind is still dreaming. That's the normal way it works -- the body is paralyzed during REM sleep so that you don't flail around and hurt yourself during the course of dreaming.

so basically, the "entities" you see are dreams being superimposed over your conscious sight.

I've had several experiences in the past, two of which were very memorable. The first one was when myself and my sister were visiting our adult nephew, back home - there's about eight years between myself and this nephew. We shared his double bed while he slept on the sofa and at some point during the night I woke up, lying on my back which, as far as I know, is normally the postition people are in when experiencing sleep paralysis. I remember looking at the cat [he had a cat] which for some reason was sitting on the dresser. I couldn't move but at this point I don't remember being bothered by this, so I must have been more in sleep than awake, but I must have started to wake up because I was trying to focus on the cat more and I could make out the details of the surrounding room of that particular point; it looked as it would if I'd had my eyes open, looking in the dark.
Then, to my horror, it was as if my eyes suddenly focused as I realised that what I was looking at wasn't the cat a few feet away on the dresser, but a white face, just inches from mine, grinning at me. I couldn't move but stare into this grinning face, and though it was probably just seconds before I could move, it was simply horrible!
It was like your fears coming to greet you. I reckon it had something to do with a memory I have after watching a certain part of the film An American Werewolf in London, as a kid which terrified me, and though I've seen it since, that particular part has always been there, buried deep, associated

Wow sardion2000 I know whta that felt like thats incredible