Sleep Paralysis has anyone had it?

1. How old was you when it first happened / which area was you located?
I was 12. I lived in Edmond, OK

2. How long has it been going on/does it still happen?
It still happens to me off and on, I'm 31 now.

3. What you saw (if anything).
even though my eyes are closed I see flashing lights. Almost like if your eyes are closed and someone flashes a light on or off you still know a light is being turned on or off.

4. What happened?
Awoke frozen in place. Hard to breathe. Couldn't scream. Saw the flashes of light through my eyelids. I started hearing these whispers. They started off quiet but got louder and louder. I also began to here a high pitch frequency type sound, like when you turn on an old tube TV. But it got so loud I thought my ears were going to explode. Then I woke up.


5. How long did it last?
Felt like minutes

6. Were you able to do anything to stop it?
Not for the first few years. Then I got really good at recognizing what was happening and willing myself out of it.

7. Are you a religious person?
I was brought up in a christian home. I do believe in a higher/advanced being, but not that they're walking around in the clouds with robes and sandals.

8. Were you contacted by something, if so what did it/they say?
Heard whispers. Couldn't understand.

9. Did the experience feel positive / negative.
Definitely negative.

10. Were you left with any after effects?
Just an increased pulse and grogginess.

One last thing. Over the years I've found a link to making it happen for me. If I take a nap at 3PM for at least an hour, it will happen to me when I go to sleep that night. 100%.

ive had it once and i hated it it was horrible especially since i had no idea what it was. Sometimes i can feel myself go into it and so i move my body to wake myself up

First off im very religous! and the first time i ever had it was at my grandmas living room and i awoke with the paralysis and it felt as if someone was pushing down on me.

the next i was in my friends house/bed and i awoke with the paralysis, and i thought i heard all my friends in the hallway looking pointing and laughing at me for some odd reason. and i slipped off the bed a little bit, and then i dont remember , then awoke later.

I experience SP at least once or twice a month, and if I happen to go a month without any 'night terrors' i get sp twice as hard the next month. From what i read this is almost a rare occurrence to have reoccurring sp let alone having experienced it ( i think only 10% of the population has been through it once)
I am shaking just thinking about the whole thing especially from my first experience. Saying 'Jesus Christ is My Lord and Savior' seemed to make the episodes go away quicker but recently ive felt like something is covering my mouth, and now i gotta to think it out loud but this episodes do seem to getting progressively worse i can barely think now when they happen i just buzz so hard that my sight goes into a blur and i dont even want to get into what i see when this happens.

All the time when I was a kid: A bunch of little black things would swarm around me and I couldn't move or say anything and I would wake up puking.

As an adult it only happens every once in awhile and it would be a man standing over me looking at me and of course I couldn't move but i could hear myself yelling but nothing was coming out. I would just wake up scared as hell.

1. How old was you when it first happened / which area was you located?

I was about 11 or 12 that I am sure of but I have some memories from around 6 are faint but I think the same. Specifically I remember being very small and sitting up in bed and screaming and no sound coming out.
This was in eastern Tennessee.


2. How long has it been going on/does it still happen?

It hasn't happened in several years but from the time I was a teen until around 22 it was all the time.


3. What you saw (if anything).

most of the time I saw nothing but felt a very strong (only way i can describe it) horrible presence standing behind my shoulder just out of view.

A few times I saw things, a very tall (6ft) figure in a wispy robe, another time a typical gray face staring down at me.


4. What happened?

I would usually awake to the bed feeling as if it was vibrating and quickly realize I could not move. Sometimes I would try to fight it because I was so scared but I would eventually black out. I could always see the room around me within my field of vision and after I was married I could see my husband lying next to me asleep. I would have sworn that I was awake, that is how real it was. The next morning I would awake very upset.

The last time I was sleeping on my stomach and awoke to what felt like a hand around the back of my neck and a knee in my back holding me down and pressing me into the bed. I thought someone had broken in my house and was attacking me but then I realized I couldn't move and I blacked out and awoke later. That incident happened in North Carolina.

5. How long did it last?

I'm not really sure, it was a short time until I would lose consciousness.


6. Were you able to do anything to stop it?

No.

7. Are you a religious person? (elaborate)

I am Jewish but I converted. My upbringing was not particularly religious although my mom claims to be religious and remembers things quite differently. LOL

8. Were you contacted by something, if so what did it/they say?

Nothing I ever saw spoke to me.

9. Did the experience feel positive / negative.

Overwhelmingly negative and extremely scarey.

10. Were you left with any after effects? (Feeling sick or different in yourself)

Thought I was losing my mind when it first started happening and I can say that it definitely sparked my interest in the unexplained. Still not quite sure what to make of it.

1. How old was you when it first happened / which area was you located?
between 6-10 as best i can remember i would have this alot
2. How long has it been going on/does it still happen?
its not as bad as it used to be but sometimes yes it does happen but the way it happens now is i cant open my eyes or move when i was a kid i could open my eyes
3. What you saw (if anything).
nothing but the feeling of being watched and being very afraid was there
4. What happened?
couldn't move looking around very scary i hope you never have it happen to you
5. How long did it last?
hard to say i was
6. Were you able to do anything to stop it?
no
7. Are you a religious person? (elaborate)
no
8. Were you contacted by something, if so what did it/they say?
no
9. Did the experience feel positive / negative.
negative
10. Were you left with any after effects? (Feeling sick or different in yourself)
not really

now let me take the time to explain a few things
i was on ritalin at the time it was most severe so perhaps ritalin makes it worse
2i once had a very vivid dream at my grandmothers house where i was abducted i can remember every detail to this day and i had this dream when i was like 7 i woke up on her couch went down the hall the whole hallway was lit up i open the back door and saw a ship then i woke up covered in my own piss do i think i was actually abducted idk but i have a strong fear of aliens i cant look at pics of greys without feeling uneasy i also have a strong fear of uncovered windows at night time i always feel like something will be looking in at me and what i think is looking is an alien when im home alone be it day or night i feel like somethings in the house its very strange and its even worse at night i cant be alone at night period i dont think i could handle it i watched the forth kind awhile back and while alot of you on here say it sucked it scared me to death i think that and fire in the sky are scarier then alot of movies

so ya it has happened to me and i have had abduction dreams take it however u want

1. How old was you when it first happened / which area was you located? i was 13 and i was sleeping on the floor . 
2. How long has it been going on/does it still happen? Since it started at 13 up to now , i. Am 21 years old now , it usually happens once every few months . In fact i just had one last night it felt like something was messing with me ,drilling my head , touching my neck .
3. What you saw (if anything). Ive never seen anything ive just heard sounds like radio waves and if i try to move they start to sound louder,sometimes i feel things touching me (not in a perverted way) 
4. What happened? I got very scared ! And i always try my best to wake up, but i cant move or scream . 
5. How long did it last? It seems like it lasts for 5 minutes 
6. Were you able to do anything to stop it? I dint know what to do when i was younger ,but now i just try to move my feet and i wake up.
7. Are you a religious person? I used to believe in jesus" now i believe in enki ,but im not very religious .sometimes i dont know what to believe anymore.
8. Were you contacted by something, if so what did it/they say? Okay, im not even sure if i was having a sleep paralysis when this happened ,but i remember saying that i wanted to help the good aliens  on their quest lol silly , i know.i was 16 , i went to sleep that night and i woke up in a sleep paralysis state flying dirrectly up to the sky, i could feel the air on my skin ,  i could see the night sky around me and my house ,it felt so weird something was taking me , i remember thinking that i dint wanna be taken and what i was experiencing was real and i had to let people know it was . I evntually woke up in my bed , i,ve never experienced something that intense eversince .
9. Did the experience feel positive / negative. ^that experience felt positive, the rest of my sleep paralysi's felt negative.
10. Were you left with any after effects? (Feeling sick or different in yourself) just scared to sleep lol 

reply to post by RevelationGeneration


1. 19 years old NJ
2. Occasionally over the past 8 years. Hasn't happened in about 2 or 3 years.
3. Occasionally a dark shadow
4. The first time it happened I woke up and it felt like something was holding me down. I was sleeping on my stomach my head to the side facing my alarm clock. I could actually see the time. I struggled moving, fell back asleep, and woke up in the same position. The next 2 times it happened I saw a dark shadow. The time after that the lights were on and I could clearly see nothing was in the room with me. Every time after that I haven't seen anything, anytime that I start to see something if I focus on it it usually disappears. I'm sure it is just a hallucination. Once my mind starts to wake up a bit and I become more familiar with my surroundings, any shadows or figures dissipate. I'm definitely awake too, I've watched tv while its happened, its also happened when I was sleeping in unfamiliar places. I can't move until I fall back asleep. Sometimes I can roll a bit and wake myself up but it doesn't feel good and is really startling. I feel really anxious, everything feels tingly (like when your legs fall asleep), and it feels really weird to move anything.
5. Only a minute or 2
6. Either fall back asleep or rock myself awake
7. Yes
8. During sleep paralysis, no. When I was younger in other circumstances, maybe. I had a UFO encounter when I was 10. And a few other experiences after that.
9. Usually negative. Sometimes I have the feeling like I'm not breathing.
10. Not really unless I wake myself up in the middle of it (see above: doesn't feel good and is really startling. I feel really anxious, everything feels tingly (like when your legs fall asleep), and it feels really weird to move anything.

I don't think I have ever had contact with any one/thing during this. It's probably happened about 10 times usually when I'm stressed, or having trouble sleeping.

Yes, have had it occurring over the yrs latest was a few yrs ago, started when I was very young, around 6, just laid there, couldn't move, wide awake, One time I was trying very hard to wake my wife up, couldn't move a muscle, very unsettling, also one One occasion, last time it happened, could see a Red glow like a fire in the background.
Weird as I have had a few episodes where something has grabbed my arm quite strongly, couldn't move just frozen, One time when at a Karate Camp, Dorm was full of Instructors, and I had the frozen moment and something hairy grabbed my right Arm, was able to move this time, grabbed hold of it, hard to explain, was all hair like an Ape, lol, no wasn't doing drugs or alcohol, no one else woke up as I fought to remove the hand from me, when it let go I was wide awake and a bit shaken, again that strange glow.
Am 59 now and it doesn't bother me as much as it did when I was small, used to have this thing grab me by the arm all the time, even though my bed was against a wall and had 3 brothers in the same room, a long room.
This was in Australia
Am a Christian now, when all these things happened I was not really a believer not atheist, just had no clue.
Nice to know I am not the only One that has experienced this.
No after effects from the episodes, just uneasy

I used to have a "sleep paralysis" episode every month for about half a year when I was 10. It was quite frightening for me as a child. I remember awakening from a nap or in the middle of the night-- not being able to move, and hearing a loud ringing noise in my head for the period of time that I could not move. Once my sister observed me this way since we shared a bed when we were small. She told me I had sweat beads on my forehead, yet no emotion in my face. Once I awoke from a nap in the middle of the afternoon to find myself in this state of paralysis, which was more eerie than the night episodes. I remember seeing a figure of someone or something flash by like light in a room across from me. No one was home except my grandmother, and I could hear her downstairs! It was WEIRD and creepy to say the least! I learned about sleep paralysis as I got older, but the experience still haunts me.

I experienced sleep paralysis today. In my dream I was falling with my eyes shut but before that I heard voices. Even though there were voices around me in my dream I was unable to look at them. Anyway, after shutting my eyes in my dream I start falling very very fast. Then I come to a hault. I still do not open my eyes becasue I am terrified. Next, my dream stops, but I cannot get up and move I feel completely paralayzed and unable to move but also it feels like someone is pulling my intestines or something in my stomach. It is very painful, it felt like someone was holding me down or staring at me and putting me into a trance. I felt paralyzed for about ten minutes. I was laying on my back waiting for my alarm to wake up me up. What felt like a very long time the alarm eventually went off and that was when I was able to open my eyes. This was the first time it has happened to me and it was very scary to say the least.

reply to post by PTPer


That's not SP in my opinion.. Maybe just a dream.

reply to post by RevelationGeneration


When I was a kid, probably about 12 or 13 I had a whole week long episode of sleep paralysis. It started with a regular Monday night, early to bed at about 9:30 or 10:00, school the next day, had a bunk-bed back then and I would usually sleep on the top bed but this night I was really lazy so I slept on the bottom bed which felt kinda weird for a while because I never slept in a made up bed and the bottom one was all neat and made up. Anyway, I can't remember if i had a dream or not but all of a sudden I felt like the darkness around me was really really thick and my eyes felt almost forced closed by the darkness so I managed to open them eventually but the room looked unnaturally dark which was really strange because my bed was next to a window which I always kept the curtains open and the moonlight usually illuminated my room quite a bit but this night it was really really pitch black. At first I wasn't really sure if my eyes were open or not because it was so dark I couldn't even see the bottom of the top bed so I tried to move my hands towards my head to try and see if I'm dreaming or not but I couldn't move. I suddenly realized that I am completely paralyzed. I couldn't feel any part of my body except I felt really heavy as if the darkness around me actually weighed something and it was completely smothering me so I panicked. I panicked so much that I became a aware of my breathing and I actually had to focus just to get my lungs to suck in air because of the pressure on my chest and just as I was about to totally freak out I sprang loose and I leapt for the bedside lamp but it was a really crappy "power saver" fluorescent lamp which took a while to kinda warm-up or something so really panicked at this stage. I could move but was to scared to get out of bed to run for the light switch way on the other side of the room. So the light eventually went on and all was gone. All of the heavy darkness was gone and I felt like I could breath normally again. Up until that day I was never ever afraid of the dark. Even when I got up to pee I'd walk all the way to the toilet without any lights, sometimes I'd even go outside at night and sit a bit in the cool breeze without any light. Another thing, I did notice the time when it all stopped, it was around 3:15 and it seemed like forever but it the whole ordeal couldn't have lasted for more than 15 to 30 mins.

The same thing happened the next night and even though I was vigilante this time, I kept the crappy bedside light on the whole night, it was switched off when it happened and I struggled again like the night before to get the thing working again. I told my mom about this by Wednesday but she figured it happened once or twice with her around that same age so it's probably a childhood thing. This carried on for the whole week and every night I'd go to bed feeling calm and relaxed thinking it's probably only something lame and I should just try to get some sleep and think of really cool things to dream about before I fall asleep. Also, I can't remember if I had any dream before I'd wake up with the dark choking feeling.

As for religion, I was baptized as a child but we were are really crappy Christians to be honest, only went to church every now and again and even at a very young age I found Christianity to be lacking in answers to who God really is and the whole deal about heaven and hell so I was very reluctant to go to Sunday school.

This happened in my old house which wasn't a really old house, I mean we were the second family to ever live there so it was a fairly new part of town plus I live in South Africa which usually don't get so much UFO attention that I am aware of. I'm not going to tell you the exact town and everything because of healthy paranoia but it's basically quite north, almost the northern most town in South Africa before you cross the border to Zimbabwe.

Almost a week after this strange event I had a series of positive dreams, three nights in a row. I dreampt some dude who kinda reminded me of Morpheus - from The Matrix movies, I saw the first one when It came out and even though I was to young to really understand the movie at that time it really captivated me and as a kid I tried to move "faster" than my arms or hands would allow like Neo - anyway in my dream Morpheus was white and he had a long black jacket and he took me flying around town, the one night we even visited my one friends house and we looked at him through the window and Morpheus said something along the line: "Look at your friend, sleeping peacefully, unaware that each person you (Me) meet was born with a gift waiting to be unlocked" and so I asked him if everyone has a gift and he said no, in time I'd meet more people with "potential" and they'll have an impact on my life... But first I'm running out of chars but bare with me to the next post

My dad has it. Sometimes he wakes up and he cant move,
and he has this feeling of complete fear! Sleep disorders
run in our family. I have restless leg syndrome, which is a
nightmare in itself!

reply to post by RazcoTheInsane


I'll have a neat little conclusion at the end of this one, it's just I've never really talked about this before and it's coming back so vividly and I had to switch on the light because I can feel the little hairs standing up as I type this out.

So, I had three of these dreams where the dude took me flying and it was awesome. Today I cannot remember most of it but I can still remember that it felt very real, the town looked exactly like I would imagine it would look at night from the sky and I could really feel the cold wind on my face and hands plus I can vividly remember the grip he had on my one hand.

As for recently, I had a strange event a few months back, probably about Aug/Sept of 2011. Again I felt a strange thing inside my room and I had trouble opening my eyes which I never really opened. At one stage I could only see a slither of the real world but my dream quickly and cleverly incorporated my whole room into my dream world so I'm not 100% sure if I was awake with my eyes open or dreaming because my room looked exactly right except in the dream world it was a bit brighter, which again hinted to me it was a dream because I'm cool with the dark again and I sleep best with no lights what so ever. But back to the half dream, again I couldn't move but this didn't bother me that much this time, I felt fairly calm and I thought to myself "whatever this is I want to see how it plays out, I don't really want to wake up completely, I need to see it through this time" and this time it was truly amazing in a grayish type way, not really positive or negative, like I said I felt fairly calm. This time though I saw a sort of a black winged thing, like a shadow I could only make out the outlines, but I could clearly see things that looked like wings, constantly shifting and slightly blurring at the edges like I or it was vibrating, it clung to the ceiling and it spoke to me and said, "You think you follow a path of light but you are truly a follower of the inverted sun/son" I say sun/son because nothing he said made any sense really and I kept on thinking did he mean inverted sun as in a black sun or inverted son as in maybe the opposite of some important son. Maybe some of you can clarify this bit for me as I would really like to know what inverted sun or son might mean. I joined this site basically just for this reason so please help me to understand. I know with every part of my body that this had happened and it was real and I need some clarity on this matter because I know that this will become very relevant quite soon.

Here's a quick recap:

1. How old was you when it first happened / which area was you located?
Pretty young maybe 11 or 12. I live in South Africa and this happened in a small town in the northern part of the country close to the border of Zimbabwe

2. How long has it been going on/does it still happen?
it went on for a whole week at that stage, 5 times in total, never happened before then and I had about 3 strange dreams a week after that. It also happened once about 5 or 6 months back accompanied by a strange dream of a black, shadowy, winged, thing that stuck to the ceiling plus I now live on the West Coast a stones through from the sea

3. What you saw (if anything).
As a kid only very thick, unnatural, choking darkness which filled the whole room and it felt like a really dense gas/smoke of some sort and it seemed to have weight. As an adult I saw a black, winged, shadow thing but no choking darkness and I'm not sure that my eyes where open but again I was completely paralysed throughout the whole ordeal

5. How long did it last?
As a kid about 15 to 30 mins, at least that's about the time between when I became aware that I couldn't move up to the part where I could move again. As an adult it probably about 20 mins or so

6. Were you able to do anything to stop it?
As a kid, nothing, I had trouble breathing and I had to wait for it to go away on it's own. As as adult I kept fairly calm and it also went away by itself

7. Are you a religious person? (elaborate)
Baptized as a baby but never really felt to excited about Christianity. Today I feel quite connected to a larger view of what God might be, not in the Christian sense. I like to think we are all God's sensory organs experiencing the universe through our own unique view-points, constantly summarizing and gathering information through ourselves through God and that in some way the experiences of others are my experiences and everything they know I know or we all know and that's how God knows, not apart from us but we make up God in all the good and bad ways

Crap, even my summary is too long... Anyway please help me with what "You think you follow a path of light but you are truly a follower of the inverted sun/son" might mean.

Thank you all very much for reading, it means a lot me

To the poster above me, perhaps inverted sun/son could mean a much smaller and changed view of the actual truth hat in your mindset at the time was perceived as true?
Just my thoughts...

Now I've been researching this for awhile, after my doctor told me I had a Hypnagogia Sleep Paralysis experience... he said if it happened once or twice it was due to stress. More than once narcolepsy...I've only had it once. Then, I read alternate theories about a year later...

1. How old was you when it first happened / which area was you located? I was 21 and in Florida. The 4th of July actually, so almost 2 years ago.
2. How long has it been going on/does it still happen? It happened once.
3. What you saw (if anything). I was weightless, floating in the deepest blackness I had ever seen awake or asleep. Meteors were flying by me, I was terrified I would be hit and crushed. I was convinced I was in space. What was more terrifying was that I could not move in my dream, just float in zero gravity & I couldn't move in real life.
4. What happened? I was sleeping next to the guy I was dating at the time and was having a hard time falling asleep, then suddenly I seemed to fall into a dream, but to my horror I could not move, except to mumble a few words to my friend about how terrified I was. I will say I had a drug problem at the time, which could have influenced it (even though my doctor doubted it) I was addicted to pills to be blunt. Over a year sober now though. I had a panic attack (which I had experienced dozens of times) yet was unable to move or communicate well. It really freaked the guy out, he was holding me trying to calm me down but says he couldn't snap me out of it to this day.
5. How long did it last? 3-4 hours, my friend confirmed this
6. Were you able to do anything to stop it? Not that I recall, I just kind of snapped out of it
7. Are you a religious person? (elaborate) As a child and young teen I was, but grew to despise the hypocrisy of the church and went in the opposite direction. At that point in my life, I was too numb to be spiritual even although I have since become veryyy spiritual again in the last year, actually do to a positive OBE through meditation. but I do not affiliate myself with one religion, even though Christianity, Buddhism, Taoism, and Hinduism have all influenced my belief
8. Were you contacted by something, if so what did it/they say? No. I felt eternally alone.
9. Did the experience feel positive / negative. Negative, I was terrified and was scared I wouldn't come back
10. Were you left with any after effects? (Feeling sick or different in yourself) I felt sick, and was scared I had gone completely mad. I now realize that may have been a good thing in the end... maybe it pushed me towards the light?

I've thought of dozens of scenarios, the very few friends I told have said it sounds like an alien abduction, my mom thinks it was because the guy was a Svengali lol. He does have a lot of power over minds of others but I doubt he could do that, anyway he was more freaked out than me. I don't think it was a demon even though there was some pressure on my chest. I hope I never have another one, I like to be in control if I visit another plane...realm...whatever...

1. How old was you when it first happened / which area was you located?
>>>>>>>I was around 9 or 10 years old. i was sleeping beside my mother at the time
2. How long has it been going on/does it still happen?
>>>>>>>Ever since it originally started. i happened last night too lol ( its no big deal to me any more)
3. What you saw (if anything).
>>>>>>> I have seen various dark fast moving shadows, and i have also heard chanting, growling, and talking ( i
never could understand what was said)
4. What happened?
>>>>>>>The typical sleep paralysis state where i cant move or talk; i could only move my eyes
5. How long did it last?
>>>>>>>I don't know (it feeling like forever tho lol)
6. Were you able to do anything to stop it?
>>>>>>>At first, i use to just try and move my arms around to get me out of it, but nowadays, i just concentrate.
7. Are you a religious person? (elaborate)
>>>>>>>I believe in a creator, but i am not part of any congregation
8. Were you contacted by something, if so what did it/they say?
>>>>>>>I never understood what the hell i was hearing. sometimes i don't hear or see anything at all
9. Did the experience feel positive / negative.
>>>>>>>Both positive and negative, now that i am not scared anymore
10. Were you left with any after effects? (Feeling sick or different in yourself)
>>>>>>>My heads hurts, dizziness, weakness and shaky

I can say ive had sleep paralysis dreams quite often when i was young i used to think it was something evil but as i grew older i began to learn that this is just a way of letting ur soul into lucid dreaming nevertheless the realest dream was when i woke from 1 dream only to think i was awake and wake up again as if i was in 2 dreams or something anyways heres what happened, well the first dream was in what looked like an apple store surrounded by white walls and all sorts of technology and it was like i was floating around on a platform with 1 of these apple workers or something and we then we got off and he started talking to these other employees on computers for a minute then they began giving me attention as i was scared and thinking of a way out they talked about the telephone and one finally said if u want to wake up just tie your shoes and i was like well okay and as soon as i looked down i noticed there were 3 purple shoes which caused me to scream as in the illusion of the mind i guess i freaked out but the strangest part about that was that i dont have any purple shoes and i knew they were gonna be purple b4 i even looked but anyways as soon as i "woke up" and i was sleeping on my side i heard a voice behind me say turn around if u want to see me and knowing i was awake i knew it had to be my parents or something but as soon as i turned around there was this exotic floating fish of some sort that was had the weirdest shape ive ever seen of course as soon as i seen this i screamed again thinking i would wake up but it kept going like as if it was reality it began to talk to but me being dominated by my fear i forgot most of the things it told me i also saw what was a man wearing the fishes skin as a vest or something and then a skinless four legged beast of some sort the only thing i remember from the whole time it talked to me was the end when it told me the reason ur special is because u were always in ur classmates minds