Thread: Sleep Paralysis - Have you experienced it?

Yes, but only after I knew what it was. VERY strange things have happened but I was never scared. It was just pretty awe inspiring... I saw like ghostly transparent arms above me when I tried to move them and they responded like a laggy mouse. It was really cool! Then somehow I sank into the bed feet first and rolled myself into tape backwards. SPs and OBEs are strange... it makes me wonder why so if they are just dreams... or ARE they ?

I experience SP quite regularily- it's not difficult to induce it if I simply count my breaths and refuse to move. I find that the experience is still 'frightening', in that my heart rate increases, and in the fact that it hits me suddenly with no warning, but now that I have experienced it several times I can view the experience from a more detached perspective. In contrast, the SP itself is quite vivid and disorienting. Powerful vibrations surge through my body, I hear whirring sounds (much like the sound of a computer fan whirring as it starts up), or murmuring, indistinct voices. Often I cannot keep my eyes closed, the vibrations are so powerful. Afterwards, however, I everything subsides and I feel very much as though I am floating, although there is nothing but blackness in front of my eyes. Two nights ago I lay just staring into the blackness after SP for 20 minutes, but failed to transit into an LD. However, I will admit that even the blackness after SP is pleasant, and not unlike what I feel when I meditate as it becomes very simple to concentrate on counting my breaths. Now if only the transition from SP into an LD was as swift and simple as inducing the SP itself. Then I'd be set!

Benjamin

Originally Posted by westonci

i have SP once and a while, and can say its not scary at all for me, even when i first had it mostly because i prepared for every thing i might experience. If it where up to me I wish I could have SP everynight.

By the way is there a way to willfully induce SP? Like drugs, foods etc

Hey guys, just wanted to give a little insight into my past experiences with sleep paralysis. The first time I experienced this was shortly after I had developed a problem with pain pills. I am in NO WAY saying that people should take pills in order to produce this state as it is a horrible horrible habit. I believe that it has something to do with the lack of serotonin my brain had at the time. Throughout my addiction I would have SP nearly every night that I abused opiates heavily. I don't want to give out dosage or pill names, suffice it to say that I was under the influence of ALOT of opiates sometimes opiate substances other than pills. I had a friend that was on about the same amount I was and never once experienced (to my knowledge) SP. I have no doubt that the two (in my case) were related.

I experienced SP for nearly 2 years before knowing exactly what it was. My first time was the most frightening thing I had ever experienced. I was just falling asleep watching TV when suddenly I woke up or partially woke up, I couldn't hear anything except for a loud ringing, I knew that the TV was not muted but I couldn't hear it. I realized that I could not move and I also saw a dark shadowy figure staring very intensely at me, it was poised nearly 5 feet away from me at the foot of my bed. I had the greatest feeling of dread, I felt as though this "figure" was extremely evil and if it could reach me, it would certainly kill me. I'm not sure how long I lay there, it seemed like an eternity, I know that it was actually no more than a minute or two. The "figure" continued to stare at me intensely as though it was studying me. I felt as though it had some type of hold over me. I felt a great pressure on my chest and it was getting difficult to breath. The ringing continued in my ears and the only thing I did have control over was my eyes, I could open and close them with ease. Eventually I was able to wiggle a toe and just like that, I felt it all let loose. I was desperate for an answer. I had been brought up in a religious household and my first thought was that I had been visited by a demon and that it was God's way of disapproving what I had been doing with the drugs. As silly as that sounds, the experience was so foreign to me that I was willing to accept anything as an explanation. Over the years I was able to anticipate when I was beginning to enter the SP state. I'd feel my body start to somewhat lift up and I knew that it was beginning. I've read people whom have experienced SP and knew how to take it to what they explained as OBE (outer body experiences). While in a SP they'd say you can roll out of your body and free float around the room and all sorts of odd stuff. I semi tried this once and it freaked me out so bad that I never tried it again. Honestly I'm not really sure what you can experience in a state like that but I think there is too much fear in me to really try it safely.

I've recently discovered that I can lucid dream. I'm enjoying my LD's however sometimes they too scare me. I'm really not sure what this other dimension is that we are all playing around in. Everyone has their theories but I don't know that anyone has enough concrete evidence to explain what it all means. Anyway, thats my experience, I wish you all happy dreams.

southmc

never experianced it but it sounds quite frightening

i had it a few weeks ago. I was staying home and trying to get rid of a headache, but it was like noon already so i was having a hard time sleeping. I decided to try to roll over but i couldn't. Right away i knew what it was and i got kinda excited because i always wanted to know what it was like. I started looking around for some shadow thing or whatever,(with my eyes) and all of sudden some black thing was at the foot of my bed, but it really freaked me out. I felt a really intense fear then and it kinda glided or walked up to me got real close to my face and faded away. It was really scary even though i knew exactly what was going on the whole time.

It is scary the first time because it can be hard to breathe or move or open your eyes, but it can be cool because I could see with my eye's closed. Another time that it happened I felt like I was sinking into the bed. It is a very interesting feeling.

I've only had SP once and that was right after having an ld. I woke up but I couldn't move. It was morning and pretty light out so it wasn't scary in that way, more of a nuisance because I wanted to get up and tell people about my LD but I couldn't move. It was actually kinda scary thinking I might never be able to move (there is actually a medical condition where a person can be trapped in the shell of their body, perfectly able to think as normal just not being able to move anything but their eyes, I think it is the result of a stroke damaging a certain part of the brain).

Also, I wouldn't really consider this SP, but one day I woke up and must have been sleeping on my wrist because my left hand was completely limp and I couldn't move it, I got out of bed and as I walked through my room I lifted it up with my right hand it it just immediately fell back down. I'm not really sure why this happened but it only lasted about 10 seconds.

I get sleep paralysis all the time. The most recent was this weekend. I was staying at my mother's house this weekend, sleeping in a guest room. Being in a strange place gave me really intense SP on and off all night.

I woke up on my back, and could see the Indian doctor from the TV show Heroes sitting in the shadows in the corner of my room. I knew right away I was in SP. I could not move, and was absolutely terrified despite my knowledge that it was a dream. The man across the room suddenly had a huge knife he was tossing from hand to hand. He was talking about why he was going to stab me to death, but his voice was muted like he was talking through a balloon.

I knew it was SP, so I tried to calm myself down and see where it went - maybe to a lucid dream. Nothing changed. It was like the scene kept repeating, and I kept getting pulled back and forth from paralysis to dream. This happened for what seemed like 30 minutes, with little snippets of dreams between.

I closed my eyes to ignore the visuals (hard to do when there's a dude with a huge knife talking in detail about how he's going to stab you to death). I was just listening to his voice, and decided I needed to tune that out also. I tried to listen for any other sound to focus on. I heard faint voices that got louder as I focused on them. It sounded like my girlfriend and her sister talking and giggling from inside my pillow. I focused on these sounds, and was snapped into a non lucid dream almost instantly.

I hate how it's always terrifying, even when I know exactly what is happening. I'm not logically scared. I just feel that chemical fear and adrenaline.

I remember my first SP...

I was trying to WILD, and I fell unconcious for about a nanosecond, and suddenly I was sitting up halfway out of my body (OBE type thing) and I remember thinking 'oh shit' and slammed myself back into my body, in which commenced the feeling of SP. pins and needles racing through my limbs, could only move with the greatest force, and a feeling like the barrel of a pistol against my left temple (?). I endured all this for about five minutes, and slipped into a LD .. somehow..
Not really sure what the first part was about, but the latter of the paragraph was SP

I've experienced it a few times, and it's always scared the hell out of me.

I feel a shadow figure in the room, see him in the corner of my eye. Feeling or seeing the figure is what seems to trigger the SP for me. When it hits, I can hardly breathe, all i can to is suck in small breaths from time to time.

I decided to google, and found out that SP can lead to lucid dreams and OBEs. The next time I experienced SP, I tried to relax and will myself into a dream or OBE, but the feeling was too scary. All I could really think about was waking up.

I have gotten to sp twice, first time, after I was completely paralyzed I all of the sudden heard a loud thud like a pvc pipe being bashed on my head, that freaked me out so bad it shook me out of sp and I sat up with my hands up looking for a fight.

second time was much better, I just got a feeling of at first falling through my bed, which changed to my bed being tilted and I was sliding down it...eventually I lost the feeling though and didnt enter a dream...

I really want to be able to wild...I guess we newbies just gotta keep trying

I've only had one LD through WILD but I've never gone through complete sleep paralysis. I don't get how it can be scary.

Like many here I experienced it once, after a long hypnagogia experience. Since I'd read a lot about SP I didn't get scared, all the more so since, apart from the paralysis itself, the only weird thing was the living light spot on the wall that was looking at me. (-:

I've only had clearly-identifiable SP once, during my first real lucid dream. I was laying in my bed, but I couldn't move, my body was numb, and there was a horrible sound like fingernails-on-chalkboard or tearing metal.

Is it easy to slip out of SP if you're not careful? - perhaps if you get too scared or excited. Has anyone done this?

Do you need REM Sleep for SP's?

i used to have SP allll the time, and yes it is scary, but the more i had it the more frustrated id get. not being able to move sucks and you feel like your suffocating due to the slowing down of your breathing as you sleep. id instently panic for like 5 seconds and then relax and relax and to wake my self up id try moving really fast and id usually wake up.

I only experienced it once and it was scary And dude they are so onvious.I mean u cant move and eweewew scary wont try that again lol!!!!

Sleep paralysis is a blessing if you want to WILD!! The only time I am successful at WILDing is when I wake up with sleep paralysis. The only time it scares me is when the blanket is over my face and it feels like I am going to suffocate and die. But other than that problem, I love sleep paralysis because it seems to be my only ticket to lucid dreaming!!

Originally Posted by slothming

Do you need REM Sleep for SP's?

Yes, you do need to be in REM sleep to SP

Originally Posted by FreakedOut

My sleep paralysis was quite possibly the scariest thing that ever happened to me. I am still freaked out till this day about it.

I could not move, my mind and heart were racing and it took me FOREVER to wake myself up.. well what felt like forever anyway. I was praying the 'Our Father .. I thought I was possessed!!

The worst part was that it was my very first time, and it went straight into a lucid dream. All of a sudden I was flying around my room! Thinking back it would have been cool if I knew what was happening and tried to control it but I didnt even know what a lucid dream was until I googled it the next day.

I wont go into the dream but everything was very real and looked the same as reality EXCEPT it had a scary vibe to it.. almost like a horror movie vibe.

its a shame because now when I slip into that sleep paralysis(never trying) its always unpleasant. I think as soon as I feel that paralysis it triggers bad thoughts of being scared that I won't be able to wake up like the first time and it ruins the whole lucid dream part. The only euphoric feeling for me is flying but it feels like im trying to get away from something.

Everything you said is exactly how i feel about it...my friend asked me did i see the excorsism of emily rose because thats what the girl experienced b4 she was possessed i havent seen it but she scared the hell outa me!!!!! so yeah i thought i was possessed too.......

Originally Posted by randomhero4521

i used to have SP allll the time, and yes it is scary, but the more i had it the more frustrated id get. not being able to move sucks and you feel like your suffocating due to the slowing down of your breathing as you sleep. id instently panic for like 5 seconds and then relax and relax and to wake my self up id try moving really fast and id usually wake up.

ME TOOOOOO.................i got really frustrated alot of times when having SP didnt even want to go back to sleep even tho i went to bed exhausted.........SP seems to happen me alot when im on holiday/vacation.....maybe when im overtired coz when on holiday we do tend to stay up really late and do too much during the day..................and being out of routine probably has something to do with it, other ties when it happens would be when im 15 mins into a sleep.........then i wake with a shock but feel sick because i havent fully woke.............

Hmm, my friend who is an experienced lucid dreamer, and intermediate astral projector says that sometimes sleep paralyzation could be related to astral planing... he said the feeling of your spirit leaving your body is similar to that of SP. whether you want to believe that is up to you, but the main reason why I am even learning to lucid dream is in order to achieve astral planing eventually.

I have only experienced SP once and it was extremely frightening for me. I was in 10th grade, and it was a school night... I was asleep in my room... probably around 2AM when this happened. I'm a REALLY light sleeper and usually the slightest thing can cause a stir in me... so anyways, I was asleep and I suddenly wake up. Not because I heard or saw anything, but it was really strange... almost like someone asked me to come awake. It felt like something had entered my room and wanted me to become awake. I realized I was in my room and awake and tried to get out of bed when I realized I coudln't move at all... I tried to yell or say something but nothing would come out. Now, before I learned of all this, I was told this feeling was something trying to posess my body...

so of course, I started freaking out, trying to move or "snap out of it". This lasted for about a minute, when I suddenly feel pressure on my chest... like something pushing down on me. Maybe I was hallucinating or something but I saw a light smokey figure appear above my body.... no shape, but I saw a face... mainly just the eyes. it smiles at me. I start screaming with every bit of me, physically and mentally, I was so scared thinking I am about to lose my soul.... then I snap out of it, the pressure and smokey figure dissipates and I regain control of my body.

Definately a very scary experience. If it happens again though, I will try to embrace it and see if I can project myself.

The idea of Sleep Paralysis scares the crap out of me.

But I will try it if it means getting lucidity. My curiosity alone is enough motivation.