Does any1 else suffer from "Sleep Paralysis"?

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I've been having sleep problems at times for the last 7 years. They started around the time I was having a mental breakdown. I've talked to docs about it before & they mentioned "Sleep Paralysis" & "Night Terrors". I've researched that stuff a little & I think I do suffer from them sometimes. The problems wer a lot worse when I was on meds thou but I still have problems at times. I've only been getting about 4/5 hours of sleep a nite/morning for a week now. I don't seem to have problems falling asleep any worse than usual but I wake up after a few hours & even thou I'm tired; I don't want to go back to sleep. This morning shortly after I went to bed around the time I was starting to fall asleep; I saw a shadowy figure standing over me & I was unable to move. It only lasted a couple seconds & then the show figure disappeared & I kicked my sheets off my bed. I fell asleep after. I woke up a couple hours latter & I didn't remember the experience till a little while ago. I'm kind of tired & I'm scared of going back to bed rite now. I really do NOT want to sleep by myself. Does anyone else have problems similar to this & does anyone have any tips or suggestions

Last edited by nick007 on 18 Aug 2010, 5:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I occasionally get sleep paralysis, it's the most horrible thing in the world. I really, really hate it.

And I am terrified, but can't produce adrenaline to wake me up.

I used to have it all the time (a few times a week or more) when I was depressed.

I was just thinking about this earlier today how since I've got my mind straightened out more that it went away. I probably haven't had one of those dreams in 2 or 3 years.

I've never experienced sleep paralysis, but I have an interest in such things. I've heard many accounts of the shadowy figure. My friend regularly experiences this, but never once have I heard or read of of any harm occuring... so it seems that it is a frightening but not dangerous experience.

I would thoroughly research the subject to put my mind at ease. If you know what you are dealing with that might help you relax.

Have you checked yourself for implants?

Had several bouts of it and it's very alarming to say the least: I would feel a presence hover over me, and press downward to the point of breath paralysis- I swear it felt like a 1000 lbs.> weight.

And once I awoke from this and all tactile sensations were 'down' ; I got up and took a bath (thinking this could remedy it) and I couldn't feel the water or temperature .
I couldn't feel or sense the weight on my feet as I exited the tub, so then I instinctively threw my shoulder into an outside corner of a wall- and immediately I regained all 'touch sense'. At this time I thought I was up chocolate creek , as this is something that is very serious(obviously), i.e. tumor.
(I have a theory that this instance was a manifestation of executive dysfunction ).
I haven't been afflicted since my early twenty's as this must have self corrected.

There wasn't any markers that I could correlate with this ,as it was unpredictable, and the onset 'mysterious'.

O.P. I had dysfunctional REM sleep as I would enter into Dream Sleep immediately , and this is backwards or out of phase. This is a hallmark of clinical depression.
I would sleep walk too and could even hold conversations

But I outgrew all of this .

I dunno if this is sleep paralysis, but the name makes this sound relateable...

Sometimes when I fall asleep, usually this happens once every few months I get "locked" into my sleep. What this means is that either my eyes are open or closed, and my entire body is completely frozen. There's no dream going on, but I cannot move it at all and to make it even more scarier I cannot talk or breathe. I just lay there, locked in and unable to do anything. The only way i can wake myself up when I do this is to hyperventilate and it's the most annoying and scariest of things that happens in my sleep...

No satellites come out when I fart so I think I'm clean



It could be more detailed memories of sleep paralysis but I could be wrong.


I don't usually remember anything Moog. I do wake up very startled & confused sometimes. I toss & turn a lot at times & I occasionally wake up with certain body parts completely numb like my arms. Sometimes body parts hurt or feel stiff when I wake up; I guess cuz I slept in a very awkward position. I occasionally wake up with the sheets or pillows off my bed. I also have phases where I feel tired but feel kind of nervous about going to bed but I'm not sure why. I sometimes remember that I had nightmares but I don't usually remember dreams; my dreams tend to resemble shroom trips(I've never done that but from hearing about it from my online freinds who've had & from vids I've seen) I don't usually remember much thou except being chased & fear. I also occasionally have vague memories of feeling unable to move but the figure is very much a rarity for me. I don't have sleeping problems all the time thou & lots of these things aren't often.

I know my mind is causing these problems subconsciously & I think the cause is related that relationship I was in years ago. I started having problems sleeping cuz I wanted to be with her instead of sleeping by myself. I think it manifested into a hatred for sleeping alone. I know & understand that relationship is OVER & I know I'll never see her again & I know that we wer both much better off without each other by the time it ended. I accepted & understand that is is OVER & the best thing I can do is move on. I'm doing that but I hate sleeping alone at times. I'm not sure what I can do about this

I read that sleep paralysis is a good state for getting into an OOBE. The shadowy figure is called 'the dweller on the threshold'. Next time, why not try taking your astral body for a trip outside?

Everyone gets sleep paralysis every time they sleep. This morning my arm was still paralysed when I woke up, felt weird

I actually made myself conscious during sleep paralysis on purpose once. It's easy enough to do. When you have an urge to turn around or move while you're laying in bed, don't do it (it's your body's way of seeing if your mind is asleep). If you stay completely still and calm, you'll eventually go into sleep paralysis while awake. It's a good way to enter a lucid dream.

Last edited by Asp-Z on 19 Aug 2010, 1:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I used to get it all the time. It would happen when I fell asleep alone in the house, or in a public place like a library. One time I fell asleep in the cafeteria at school, and the creepy waterlogged girl from "The Ring" was shuffling over to me while I was trying to wake up and go to class. Now that my husband is just about always around when I'm sleeping, it doesn't happen anymore. The last time it happened, he wasn't in the house. I forget why. When I was a teenager, even having my parents or roommates somewhere in the house helped. So I've concluded it probably has to do with how safe and cozy I feel while sleeping.

Ooh no thanks, don't want that again.
I had a bout of sleep paralysis. Waking in the morning to the radio, staring at the ceiling, wide-awake not drowsy, but not being able to move anything, usually 5-20 minutes, but up to 45 minutes. Horrible experience. Connected to a really grotty job I think, but trying to explain why I was being late for work just made it all worse, so it kept happening and lasting longer each time. Had to keep setting my alarm earlier in order to get to work. In the end, I was so stressed out by being late on top of the other cr*p, that I was going to bed in the evening, as soon as I got in, and getting up at 4am to fix my 'evening' meal etc. When it got really bad, I even had a couple of lucid dreams that I'd woken up and couldn't move, only to then wake up and realise I was even dreaming about it, as well as having it really happen.

No shadowy figures though. Just a real nasty boss-lady.

Not having anyone around to point out that something's going a bit wrong can be a problem. It took a few months before I realised my solution wasn't a very good one.

I had a few night terrors not too long ago, where I was definitely asleep, but because of 'something' needed to wake up, so I was trying to scream in my head, which had made me lucid, but not awake. So I had to keep trying to scream louder, until finally I managed to physically yell out loud, which woke me up (and maybe gave the neighbours a shock). It felt really important to wake up, so I don't know if it was a nightmare or maybe just stopped breathing for a moment. Puts you off going back to sleep though.

My girlfriend some times gets nightmares, but she only had night terrors while on Cymbalta (she was on it maybe a week at the most). They knew right away that Cymbalta wasn't going to work for her.

I don't think I've ever had sleep paralysis. I've had periods of time where I tell myself that I should get up, however I just stay in bed, but I don't think it's because I can't move, it's just because I don't want to...

I think the safe cozy feeling has a lot to do with it for me as well but it's not something I can change. I wouldn't feel comfortable sleeping with anyone unless we wer in a serious relationship & the odds of me finding someone are next to impossible.
I've been sleeping better the last couple nites. I think my mind got so tired it couldn't fight sleep anymore. I go true phases so I'll probably start having these problems again but hopefully not for a while.

Wow.. now I know what it's called and it used to afflict me as a child. I get it once in a while. It was like soemthing would wake sharply in the pitch black of the middle of the night and I couldn't do anything. One time I was sleeping with my mother and couldn't move to hit her or scream to wake her up. That was the worst when I was helpless to move and could hear everything around me, which meant I could hear the air rushing out of me as I tried to scream but couldn't make a sound.

On a slightingly off topic has anyone else ever experienced a visual sensation where it's like you're laying in the dark and it seems to get darker in layers like veils coming down around you one by one?

I have bouts of sleep paralysis. Crazy stuff, no? I do not recommend it...

I have found that when my stress levels are lower, I have less problems with this. I also seem to do better when I sleep more often... which is shameful as I tend to have insomnia... sleep and I... we have a dysfunctional relationship at best. I also think there is something to be said for the feeling safe speak as well. I know that once I can get part of myself to move, I can usually start to reach over to try to find my husband. I always feel better once I can grab onto something 'real'... it helps me to pull out of myself and back to reality. If I have no person near to me, a familiar object (like the corner of my favorite pillow) to the divit under my nose can do the trick... anything I can hold onto that is not me...