Thread: The opposite of Sleep Paralysis - Who else has experienced this?

Had an unusual experience this morning, and on reflection it seemed to me to be the inverse of sleep paralysis.

Basically here's what happened...

I'd woken from a dream, nothing particually eventful, then fallen back to sleep.
I found myself in a false awakening, i was laying in bed looking at the wall. I noticed a mosquito walking around on the wall just in front of my face, so in the dream, i reached out to squat the mosquito, and just as my hand made contact, I awoke due to the sensation of my real life hand hitting against the wall in the same spot. The only physical difference was my hand was closed and my knuckles had made the contact on the wall, rather than in the dream where my hand was open, palm facing the wall.
Obviously the physical shock of my hand hitting the wall with force woke me up.

So it seemed to me in this case, rather than as with sleep paralysis, where you awake but the body is frozen, i was dreaming and my body was still under mental control.

I was wondering how common this is and who else has experienced similar things?

This sort of thing happens for me rarely, but enough to notice. Often in the very last dream before waking.

So, anyone else?

It happens to me when falling asleep sometimes, almost like a hypnic jerk except much more related to what's going on in the dream forming when I first pass out (either for the night or after a brief awakening, but these are not lucid dreams). I've never hurt myself really badly but I have smashed my arms into the wall/bedframe hard enough to wake up in pain (I have a twin bed and also like to sleep pretty far against the wall.) I've always wondered if it was just strong HH I was moving to, or actually a dream forming, because I typically have a lot of trouble remembering what just happened as far the hallucination/dream (probably due to the shock and adrenaline).

Could just be an extremely vigorous action that defies all reduced muscle tone of NREM sleep where you're not always actually paralyzed; slapping bugs is often like that in real life... all this tense muscle as you track it with your eyes that releases in one huge attempt to smack it out of existence. There's always RBD as I know you must be aware. I haven't read very much on that but it seems to happen much more commonly and rarely awakens the dreamer, so I don't think it'd be that. I'm not sure if RBD typically has smaller motions, like a single arm moving, or if it's more elaborate and encompassing of movement of the entire body, but I've always thought the latter.

I have had something similar happen to me, but I was trying to move my dream body but it was paralyzed. at the time my bed was against the wall, and I rammed my leg into it because I was trying to walk, the shock woke me up also.

oh and it was after trying to sleep in. I find that very strange things happen when you try to sleep too much.

It's pretty common really, that sometimes paralysis fails and you act out your dream. I've been punched by my girlfriend in the past (she was dreaming of punching her Mum LOL) so it does happen.

Well it's not necessarily that rem atonia fails, it could also be that you're not in a stage of sleep where it even exists yet.

It'd be interesting to see what actions correspond with reports of this. I can never remember mine but so far it is punching and smashing a mosquito, both of which are relatively quick and high energy motions. Trying to walk while paralyzed also seems like it would involve an outburst of energy.

What would also be interesting is to see at which point in sleep the most occurences of this behaviour occur.
My initial thoughts upon awakening the other day, punching the wall, was that i've experienced this kind of thing mostly when i sleep in a little later than usual, basically oversleeping.

It may be some kind of "wake up" mechanism.
Perhaps the mind uses some kind of system to test which point in the sleep cycle the body is in, maybe trying to assertain if it is time to wake up and face reality. Generally REM is going to occur when we are at a stage in the sleep cycle closest to waking. Perhaps intense physical dreams are more likely the later we sleep in. The mind starts charging the nervous system with more and more intense signals, testing or perhaps waiting, for the body to reach a weaker, less inhibited state, at which point the physical body responds to this nervous system bombardment, and reacts in a dramatic movment enough way to wake us up.

Just a random theory really, but it could be a mechanism to override the lazyness of us little hairless monkeys wishing to sleep in longer than is good for us.

Originally Posted by Adam

I've been punched by my girlfriend in the past (she was dreaming of punching her Mum LOL)

I know someone who says she's punched several people in her sleep

Uh, hey there, first post.

I just wanted to say that this happens to me all the time. It has become somewhat less frequent over the years, but it used to occur almost nightly. I have problems getting comfortable and falling asleep, often tossing and turning, which may or may not be connected to this phenomenon.

Anyway, as an example, the image of a cobblestone path appeared, the first (and only) image of my dream. I tried to lift my leg to take a step, but instead lifted my real leg and woke myself up. It wasn't a high-energy or jerky movement at all. I simply tried to take a single, calm, step in my dream but was obviously not paralyzed at all.