Ya, woke up with a a etheric octopus stuck to my head with its tentaclies going down my spine, i grab it and all the little tuby things on the tentacles start popping off. funny thing is i didnt wake up out of a dream and was able to touch it, but not after i initially grabbed it. that a paradox

1. How old was you when it first happened / which area was you located?
I was 19 and sleeping in an Army barracks in KY

2. How long has it been going on/does it still happen?
It still happens to me off and on, but mostly only during stressful periods

3. What you saw (if anything).
a shadow blocking out a light coming down the hall and I know it's looking for me

4. What happened?
I woke up and noticed my radio was on but the music was distorted and impossible to make out what song it was. When I tried to turn my head it wouldn't move. Then I tried to sit up and couldn't. That's when my eyes picked up movement from the doorway that a shadow had blocked out the light and was coming towards my room.

5. How long did it last?
Probably no more than 30 seconds

6. Were you able to do anything to stop it?
Not for the first few times. Once I researched and learned about SP the occurrences still happened and but they became shorter when I recognized what was happening.

7. Are You a religious person.
I'm a Christian, but never felt this was a religious experience

8. Were you contacted by something, if so what did it/they say?
Just my distorted radio sounding like it was on. Which was always off after the event.

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

10. Were you left with any after effects?
It was rough going back to sleep for a few minutes.

I also noticed that if I lay on my back with my arms crossed like I'm a mummy then fall asleep it will almost certainly happen. I can almost bring it on by will now. Sounds crazy to have experimented but I thought it was interesting. The Army did a sleep study on me when I told them I kept getting SP. The doctors doing he study almost wet their pants with joy when I told them I could do induce it and made me do it like 6 times that night. I hope that by me subjecting myself to dozens of electrodes and forcing myself into bursts of shear terror that night that maybe it will help the medical field understand and treat this problem for those that it affects.

first time i was about 12 woke and there was a shadow person above my bed couldn't move or speak so in my head i prayed and it disappeared me and my family had many encounters with shadow people around that time.
second time it happened i was 21 visiting my family back at home and in my dream there was a Sasquatch looking creature pacing around my bed so i reached for its neck an was going to say i rebuke you in the name of the father but i couldn't get the words out at that time my girlfriend woke me and said i had my hands up and were speaking backwards or gibberish i had felt like there was negative energy in the house the week i was home prior to the dream the encounters were in separate homes

Yeah I've had sleep paralysis before. When I was in my late teens living in LA a relatively small earthquake (like a 4.5 or something) woke me up from a dead sleep in the middle of the night. I had sleep paralysis through the quake and then for sometime after. (no more than a minute or two) I lay there in my bed with the bedroom door still shut from when I went to sleep, staring at the ceiling paralyzed. I heard my family shout through out the house "everyone ok?" I think I managed to say "I'm Fine" but i don't remember. Nobody came to check up on me which I guess I was expecting my mom to go around the house checking up on the kids. But nobody came. while laying there still paralyzed I had a horrible thought which I believed to be true for a minute.

What if that earthquake was the big one. the part of the house I was in had collapsed killing me. I only thought the earthquake was small but it wasn't, I'm dead, those arte the voices of my family and nobody is checking up on me cause the house has collapsed.

Anyways that was one of my sleep paralysis experiences. I usually got around that time more hynogognic hallucinations than slep paralysis. but man it's a hell of an experience if you've never felt it before. you literally can't move much more than your head or eyes. you wouldn't know you had arms if somebody showed you a photo of yourself with arms, because you can't feel them. like you never had arms. it's hard to explain but no amount of will would allow me to move my body. it was like I had to let the chemical that induces sleep paralysis to wear off for a moment. later I got up walked around the house. my sister said hi and to my relief I found that I was still alive.