Thread: I'm awake but I cannot move and I feel a presence near me, its always scary never positive

Hi everyone,

I've had these types of experiences ever since I was a child. But I haven't had them in about a year.

Basically what happen is my body is paralyzed although I can open my eyes but I can't speak or move.

My most scary event was after moving into my new place for college. I was exhausted so I laid on my newly moved in bed. My mom went out to get some things from the store and I said I'll just wait here.

I laid on the bed and literally 5 minutes later I found myself in that state. I knew I was in that state and instantly was trying to get out. Usually if I try to scream really hard in my mind in the real world you will hear this "URRRRRRRRRRR" noise. But if I do this long enough I can break from this state.

Basically what happens next is I heard claw marks on the wooden floor like something was running into my room. I then felt a presense. I felt the breathing of something on my neck/ear but I couldn't see what it was because I couldn't' move my head but I was just looking at the corner of the room, my eyes stuck there. I also heard growling noises and then finally I woke up. My body was sweating and my heart was pounding.

My most recent one was I felt something was shaking my head back and forth and when I woke up literally my head was getting jerked side to side and I couldn't help it. I also broke out of this and was super freaked out.


When I was a child I usually found myself in this state of awareness and I felt myself floating to the ceiling with a noise of a hum. I would hear this humming noise first, almost like a vibrator noise. Then it would get louder and louder then I would feel myself floating to the sky. I would never let myself float all the way up to the ceiling because I would get to scared. Once I told myself, I'll just let myself float all the way up and see what happens but my body got overwhelmed with fear and I again broke free.

Does anyone know what this is or why I get these?

That sounds like sleep paralysis, or SP.

Every time you fall asleep and unconscious, your body paralyzes itself to stop you from acting out your dreams. Sometimes, however, there's a bit of a hiccup in the system and you might end up going into SP before you become unconscious. Sleep paralysis episodes like the one you described can often result from poor sleep or an inconsistent sleep schedule, extreme tiredness, or narcolepsy. Sleep paralysis can involve feeling like you're being covered by a heavy blanket, vibrations, feeling a presence in the room, someone walking around or moving on your bed, buzzing, beeping, floating sensations, a rapid heartbeat and a bunch of other things. These are all hallucinations.

SP might be frightening when you get it, but it's also the gateway to having a "wake induced lucid dream", or WILD! Check out some articles on it in the Dreamviews Wiki.

Thanks for the info! I'll check it out! I thought I was being haunted by demons lol, thats good to know!

Haha, no problem! I too suffered from a few bouts of SP before knowing what it was, but once I found out, I felt much better.

This video explains it very nicely:

That's a good video; I've seen it a few times.

Good stuff! Well now I know and it won't be as scary if it happens