Thread: What the hell happened to me?!

I think what you were having was an extreme attack of Sleep Paralysis. Basically what happens is your body is still asleep when your mind wakes up. This means that you cannot move your body because it won't respond, and your mind is fully awake. During this, you will hear and see weird things. This is known as Hypnagogic Imagery and Audio. They are perfectly normal. Some believe it is the result of the brain trying to make up a reason for what is happening. The trick to this is not to think about what's happening too much. The more attention you give it, the worse it is. It's also like a dream. When you realize it's happening, and calm down enough to control it, you can change what's happening.

However, the images being forced into your head is something somewhat new. And as for the gasping goes, it's probably the result of a huge amount of adrenaline being forced into your body. When you have adrenaline pushed into your body, there's extra energy, and it absolutely needs an escape, some way to use it. That's why people scream/ jump when they're scared. In your case, you had no control, so your body used all that energy to make your lungs and heart beat fast, and open your mouth to make noises (which also takes up energy). At least, I think so. It's all hypothetical.

Just know that what you went through is pretty much normal, as much as anything on this site can be normal. There was some statistic somewhere that said 1 in 4 people experience something like that at least once in their life.

That makes a lot more sense. I was seriously alarmed when it happened because i've never had anything like it and i never knew exactly what sleep paralysis was :S. haha that sounds like my brain, im one of those people that tries to have a reason for everything. Thanks so much for the advice, thats what i was trying to do when it was happening but since it was my first experience im not sure whether it made a difference or not.

Really? Everything was extremely vivid, the second time it happened it started that a bag was put over my head and i swear it felt extremely real, i've had lucid dreams before and know whats real and isnt and all this stuff that happened was somewhere in between real and not real.

Yea that sounds about right actually. It might also have just been total shock that made me gasp and stuff, but i couldnt really stop it. But thats all good to hear i think i was most worried about it because my family has a history of skitzophrenia and other mental illnesses which i automatically assumed were the culprit for the disturbing images.

While they may not be the culprit, I imagine they don't help. Even if it's not true, if you start to see any warning sings, I would go to a sleep or mental health expert. Tell them exactly what happened, maybe even going into details if need be. It can't hurt you to have an evaluation done.

Also, let me explain why it might have been so vivid: Unlike a dream, where you are fully asleep and imagining yourself in a dream environment, in Sleep Paralysis, your body is awake. That means that (I think. Correct me if I'm wrong) what you are seeing and hearing is like a hallucination. You're actually in your room. The only thing that you're imagining are the HI and HA, maybe some weird feelings, but you're taking sensory input directly from waking life.

I definately will get an evaluation if these things keep happening. I understand the sleep paralysis now so it would only be for the other things, unless SP is constantly reoccurring.

I understand . Thats very reassurring, im just still baffled about the way it was all forced upon me and what i actually saw :/ i've had a single hallucination once before and im starting to see similarities now. One other thing i experienced was seeing the last image still even after i could move and open my eyes, i could still see it above me and it didnt follow if i turned away, it just stayed in the same spot that i was facing when i was asleep.

thanks for explaining to me so far its seriously great