Sleep Paralysis? Hypnogogia?

Greetings ATS, this is a thread relaying a group of experiences a close friend of mine has reported over the course of two years. I don't necessarily have any paranormal implications in mind, but out of curiosity I thought that I would post them and see what the community here had to say. The friend's name is Marc, and he's in his mid-twenties without any known medical conditions. He lives in a single-story ranch house, and to my knowledge has no spiritual implications of his own (although he doesn't mind looking at Tarot cards, don't know if he puts any stock in them though). So, I'll relate the experiences as I recall them.

01) Nearly two years ago now, Marc and I worked at a major retailer. We did weekend closing shifts together, and after one such shift he told me about an experience he'd had that morning. He had woken up in his bed, lying on his back, and heard a soft, lilting music drifting through the air. Nobody else was home, and his house is on the corner of a street, so it could not have been any neighbors. At the time I was not thinking about sleep paralysis or it's concomitant conditions. I did not ask him if he felt paralyzed during the experience. So I cannot say much more than what I already have about the event.

02) Roughly two months after the initial musical experience Marc talked to me after work about a second event. This time he said that the music had returned (soft and lilting once more) but that now he noticed vague shapes floating in the air directly above his head. He thought they may have been "eye floaters," even though he had no history with them. After several minutes of observation the vague shapes just vanished.

03) He also related how, later that afternoon (before work) he had been pestered by an annoying, high-pitched buzzing noise. When he asked the others at his house if they heard it they all said no. Eventually he discovered it's source: an ultrasonic mouse repellent his family had been doing. Typically those things operate between 32 and 65 KHz... which is well above the 20 KHz average which humans can hear. I wasn't sure if it was possible for human beings to hear the buzzing of the repellents, but he was; so they threw out the ultrasonic repellent.

04) At the beginning of this year Marc related another waking experience he had. This time he awoke, but not to the soft music. Instead, there were five figures in his room. One was a woman, wearing a variety of white-blue gowns, who seemed to "float in the upper-left corner" of the room. Two more seemed to be adult males, standing side-by-side at the foot of his bed. The final two were "children" as he called them, crouching down right beside his face. None of them seemed particularly harmful, although the "children" made him extremely nervous. He made a variety of sketches of the figures that morning, I've just e-mailed him (as I'm writing this) to ask if he still has them, and wouldn't mind my posting them. The experience ended naturally after about 5 minutes of awareness when all of the figures faded into sunlight as it entered his room.

05) The latest experience (which he told me about only a month ago) involved the "floating lady" from the previous. Once more he awoke, but this time the "floating lady" was alone. As he studied her he became aware of a blue haze covering everything in his room. Shifting focus from the "floating lady" he focused on the blue haze and became aware of waves, like a sea, cascading across his roof directly above him. He was so entranced that he completely forgot about the "floating lady" and instead tried to test the waves. First, he rolled his position so they filled most of his vision (which is evidence he had not prematurely awakened). Second, he began to close one eye, and then the other. He became aware that the waves were only visible in his left eye, as they disappeared from his vision when only his right eye was open. Finally, after roughly 15 minutes the visions faded and his room returned to normal.

He's not worried about the experiences. He's actually kind of curious about whether he can bring them on at will or not. It's me who's wondering if this fits the common criteria for Hypnogogia, or sleep paralysis. In most of my experiences with sleep paralysis you cannot move, and any type of direct focus tends to drive away the auditory and visual hallucinations, such was not the case with Marc.

So, ATS, anyone have any insight on what's happening?

~ Wandering Scribe

points 1,2 and 4 sound like classic cases of sleep paralysis! i have had similar experiences myself which in my head feel like they last for anything between 3 minutes to 15 minutes but in reality its much shorter, according to my doctor anyway! Not uncommon that during this time that the person can have visual and audible hallucinations!
Its horrible and sometimes scary when it happens and i've had to force myself to make a noise to get my partner to waken me properly! (much to her amusement) She too, also hears ultrasonic mice deterrent devices, she drives me insane complaining about noises from the tv and other electrical equipment! must have super sensitive hearing!!

Can't help on the last one though! maybe someone else can shed some light?

Not sure about #3, but the rest of those experiences sound exactly like hypnagogic/hypnapompic hallucinations. I've never experienced such things myself, but given some of the descriptions I've read around ATS, those seem to fit the bill.

My sleep paralysis experience...

must be 10/12 years ago now, it was a weekend not sure Sat or Sunday..??
I was sleeping on the couch with the TV on...I woke or maybe i didn't, but i was pinned to the couch...totally paralyzed, like a weight was holding every inch of my body down...i could see and hear everything around me, not sure if it was in my peripheral vision or my eyes were the only thing that i could move, but i could see what was on the TV, (Time Team) so it must have been a Sunday.......but for the life of me i couldn't move.

I tried getting up, nothing, i started to panic and can remember trying to thrown my arms over the edge of the couch to see if i could roll onto the floor..nothing....I was scared man, dont know how long it lasted it seemed like a few minutes or so.
I think i just gave into it eventually and decided if i can just get back to sleep maybe things would be better when i wake up again, i know, a stupid thought when you believe yourself to be paralyzed, but it seemed like a good idea at the time....honestly the freakiest thing that's ever happened to me....though there was this one Girl called Fiona..

Got the whole sleep disturbance gift set.

The ones you get falling asleep are generally really bad. That's the ones where something starts pulling the covers off veeeerrry slowly. Or sits on the bed. Or if it's going to be really bad, I'll seem to wake up and it'll be something dead that wants to get into bed with me.


The ones you get waking up are generally good. Those are the ones with the "nice visitors", blue doctors, music, and things/people who talk to you about various stuff, often work related.

A really bad session leaves you confused as to what was real and what was a dream. I generally wander the house for hours afterwards, wired to the max.

I suffered from chronic sleep paralysis for many many years from as early as I can remember as a small child until I reached 30...mine manifested in the "waking" transition also which is classed as a hypnopompic state.

I have seen many many thing's during all those year's I suffered with it, most I wouldn't care to even discuss and drag up again and with a regularity I would not boast about....it dictated my life and left me and kept me in fear to some extent ....so you see I say suffered because it was NO joy!

Although some of what is described sound's like sleep paralysis there also seem's a lot of detail's lacking which for most people who experience SP would commonly be a factor......

This said, obviously you are just relaying an experience that a friend as had and the thing's he spoke of to you..so it isn't necessarily a full and comprehensive version of the thing's that as happened to him.

I know another poster as said that the experiences you get while waking are usually the "good" ones.....but I beg to differ! Most people I have spoken with personally who relate the same experiences as me have also suffered from this whilst in a waking state. Although I'm not saying that experiences whilst in the falling asleep state are exempt from being the "bad" kind........