Has anyone experience sleep paralysis?

Sleep paralysis occurs when your mind is awake but your body is still sleeping. In the past, they often occur for me when i'm about to sleep. The experience is like this, you are just lying on the bed feeling very tired and groggy when all of a sudden it feels like your body just froze, then theres this humming noise and sense of dread that engulfs you.

When it first happened to me, I thought I was about to die or that i'm being attacked by some evil force. After doing research, I found out that it is a natural phenomenon that many people experienced. To those who hasn't experienced it before its like a partial dream-state (Hypnagogic state), but the mind is fully awake and thinking.
(Your mind will be thinking, "what the hell is happening?" As clearly as you are reading this sentence now)
Its like being trapped in a dream. The feelings are very real. I experienced a floating sensation and a vibration in my body and it feels like some kind of energy waves flowing through my body (This I can't dispute as to how I felt this "floating" when I was clearly lying on my bed the whole time).

You will also tend to hallucinate. I remembered a floating shoe attacking me once and many times I was in this hypnagogic state and it seems like I can literally see through my hand, or body, like i've become invisible. Different sessions have different experiences but i've learned to ride out and enjoy the waves and vibrations.

A few tips to get out of sleep paralysis: Wiggle your fingers and thumbs (These are movable). Roll your eyeballs. or command your mind to "WAKE UP!", keep chanting wake up in your mind, tell your mind that you know you are awake and you command your body to move.

It is one of the most interesting topics for me on ATS. Your techniques totally work and I often encourage others to use them as well.

I just assembled a comprehensive thread about sleep disturbances here: www.abovetopsecret.com...

And I have another thread devoted to the sharing of personal sleep paralysis experiences here: www.abovetopsecret.com...

It is a fascinating phenomenon!

Iv woke in the middle of the night about 3 or 4 times in my life where I couldn't move but was fully aware and awake in my mind, the last time it happened I remember trying to shout of my girlfriend but I couldn't speak either I could only make groaning noises. Is that the same thing? Its scary at the time because Iv thought at one point when it happened that Id had a stroke or something.

reply to post by ThePeopleParty


What you just described is classic sleep paralysis. It seems to be one of those things most everybody will experience at some point or another. Some experience it frequently. There are a lot of similarities, but each person has a slightly unique episode.

Best thing to do when it strikes is just to stay as cool and calm as possible.

Has anyone experience sleep paralysis?

Yes, it gets mentioned all the time on ATS.

A google search for it...

site:abovetopsecret.com "sleep paralysis"
About 4,080 results

Originally posted by icyboy771z
Sleep paralysis occurs when your mind is awake but your body is still sleeping. In the past, they often occur for me when i'm about to sleep.

Originally posted by icyboy771z
A few tips to get out of sleep paralysis: Wiggle your fingers and thumbs (These are movable). Roll your eyeballs. or command your mind to "WAKE UP!", keep chanting wake up in your mind, tell your mind that you know you are awake and you command your body to move.

I am confused. Awake not awake. Do you begin awake then go to sleep then awake again?

Yes. I have it infrequently maybe every 6 weeks to 2 months. Last I had was 2 weeks ago. Each experience is a bit different but still gives me the creeps. I am now in my mid fifties and my wife knows that when l groan/moan loudly she will wake me by shaking me and I snap out of it instantly. Last experience, I felt that I had woken up, Eyes opened and instantly I saw an image like a fist and felt it punch me between the eyes. No pain but a noise like a low bass drum. I had my eyes open after that and started groaning out aloud. I could see in my peripheral vision my wife sitting up. She said, "Are you alright?" I could only moan. She shook me. I snapped out of it., Strange thing. Might be diet, stress, position or a combination of all those things but I still expect it most nights. Bally001

I posted the following on May 18th 2011 about my experiences in this subject:

post by iwan2ski

Three years ago, I had my first "Sleep Paralysis" episode, or at least that I can remember. While I constantly have lucid dreams ever since I was a child, I have no recollection of "SP" until three years ago when I was forced to take malaria pills prior to deploying to Afghanistan. The first couple versions of Lariam caused some GI's to go psycho, but we were told that the version we got was safe. Anyways, after a few days of taking the Lariam pills, I had my first "SP" episode which is why at first I linked it to the pills. However, it has been over three years now and I still have these episodes from time to time.

What really caught my attention to this thread was the description from some of you that are eerily similar to my experiences. In every episode I wake up in a sudden state of awareness to my surroundings. There is always a rustling of noise in the room, which a couple times I first thought was my dog pacing in the room or my cat going hyper and jumping and moving about. Sometimes I notice a low humming or vibration sound as well. There's always a feeling of some other presence in the room. This is when I start to freak out and decide to get up, but can't. I believe my eye's are opened because I can see stuff around the room but due to darkness in the room, it's difficult to make out what's moving around. I try with all my might to just scream or move my body but find it very difficult. Finally, after much struggling my fingers start to move, then my fists clench and I break through and sit up with a scream. Once I scared the hell out of my wife when I sat up screaming and it woke her up.

Most of my episodes happen around 3am, but not always. I also tend to see things from the corner of my eye when I'm awake. I'm not a paranoid person, but seem to attract the paranormal ever since I was young. My sister has told me many times that she thinks our mother, my oldest daughter and I are "Sensitives", which is weird since my oldest resembles me the most (my wife calls her my little female clone) and we both resemble my mother. All three of us have had experiences with ghosts or spirits and have become family stories we share with others.

So what does this mean? Is it the pills that caused my episodes to start (even though I'm told that all side affects should be out of my system by now), or is it connected to the many paranormal events that happen to me since I was young?

P.S. Also, since I was young, I have had experiences where I awoke (around 3am usually) to a noise. Once it was a strange mechanical bird like sounds from out my bedroom window, another time I was sleeping over a friends house and awoke to a sound of small stones constantly hitting the window. Another time I was at my in-laws house spending the night and a high pitched scream kept screeching from out side the window. I have about 5 other of these type of episodes and used to think I was being visited. When ever this happens, everyone else in the house are in a deep sleep and will not wake up even if I tried shaking them a bit. Has anyone else had similar experiences and ideas to what they think is going on?

It happens to me also from time to time. I always struggle to make my body move, because otherwise it feels like I'm going to die. But no matter how hard I try, the best I can do is twitch it. Scary. But I wouldn't say that my mind is fully awake. After a while I just fall a sleep.

Originally posted by emberscott

Originally posted by icyboy771z
Sleep paralysis occurs when your mind is awake but your body is still sleeping. In the past, they often occur for me when i'm about to sleep.

Originally posted by icyboy771z
A few tips to get out of sleep paralysis: Wiggle your fingers and thumbs (These are movable). Roll your eyeballs. or command your mind to "WAKE UP!", keep chanting wake up in your mind, tell your mind that you know you are awake and you command your body to move.

I am confused. Awake not awake. Do you begin awake then go to sleep then awake again?

edit on 23-5-2013 by emberscott because: (no reason given)

No you don't go awake then go to sleep then awake again (Although that can happen)

Your mind is awake in the sense that it can "think", you are conscious. Not like in dreams where you have no control over what happens. When you dream, you are not even conscious that you are dreaming. But in a sleep paralysis episode, you can try to do things like move your fingers, toes or try to scream (But as many mention, usually you will just hear a groaning sound) You DO NOT HAVE FULL CONTROL of your body, you will feel something very heavy pressing against your body and although you are aware you are being pressed down you cannot say get up from your bed.

The "wake up" chant is intended to tell you BODY to command it to move. Your mind is conscious when you make the decision. Many a times when you break free from a sleep paralysis episode you might think it is just a dream because of the hypnagogic state you are in. Reality and hallucinations will be entwined, there are things you hear that will be real, like people talking in the next room or the TV sounds in your house. But many things will be conjured up in your mind like presence of a being, weird sounds etc...

Originally posted by gmacev
It happens to me also from time to time. I always struggle to make my body move, because otherwise it feels like I'm going to die. But no matter how hard I try, the best I can do is twitch it. Scary. But I wouldn't say that my mind is fully awake. After a while I just fall a sleep.

As said, different individuals have different experiences. For me, I always felt "fully awake" in a sense which is true to my mind only, my body would still be in a sleep mode. It could be that you do not have these episodes frequently thus you were not able to develop the sense of awareness as keenly. I used to have sleep paralysis almost EVERY DAY for like a year till the point that it really interrupted my sleep pattern. When I do really awake, I feel very tired like as if I had spent a taxing day at work rather then sleeping the whole night.

The other spectrum of sleep paralysis will be sleep walking =), when you body is "awake" and moves around, but your mind is asleep and dreaming..Though im pretty sure i've never experience sleep walking before.

been happening to me since i was a kid. usually a couple times a month. scary stuff but i laugh about it.

reply to post by icyboy771z


sleep paralysis has happened to me a half dozen times or so in my life.

every time there is a "shadow man" entering the room. my body is unable to move. the "shadow man" moves from outside the window to the foot of the bed to right next to me. then a pressure on my chest. I try to speak but only odd sounds come out. I sound like a deaf person trying to speak. I apologize if this description offends any one. it is the only way I can describe the sounds. fear engulfs my entire being.

I understand it is the mind and body missing a gear with each other. not quite meshing between a conscious awake and a subconscious sleep. but it still is scary.