A new way of looking at sleep "paralysis"

This I feel is the best place to put it. Even though all of this happened in the waking world, it is best seen from a perspective only Lucid Dreamers have. There is questioning of my state of reality, sp thoughts, and reality checking... so it fits I say.

This is from my Dream Journal this morning, but its too funny not to show everyone here...

Morning of March 27th, 2008. Thursday

This has little to do with dreaming, but it definitely was interesting.

I woke up late today and turned over to where I was facing the bed, holding myself up on my elbow... or one of them anyway. I am groggy, eyes barely opening, and I feel no pressure or sensation in my left arm at all.

I look down, and I can't see my forearm. From the angle of my upper arm, it looks as though my arm has gone THROUGH the bed. And because there is no resistance, apparently, I must be dreaming.

I do a reality check really quick by slapping myself in the forehead with the hand that wasn't submerged in my mattress. Ow. I'm not dreaming afterall.

Imagine this moment... I know I am in reality, but my fucking arm is inside my mattress. What the fucking hell, mate?

I try to pull up, and continue feeling no pressure... but then I see my forearm, folded, slip out from under my pillow XD It looks odd, because my fingers have no "life" to them and hang limp. Whats more, I can't even move anything below my elbow. Its not that "oh, my arm's asleep, it feels heavy." This was like a lead weight that was impossible to lift. Or, like my will to lift it wasn't even getting through (which, realistically, if you understand nerve pathways, was actually the case).

I could move my shoulder, so I flopped my arm down in my lap as I faced away from the bed, and waited for the feeling to come back. Eventually it does, and I think "wait until the people at DVs hear about this."

...


Anyone here had a simillar experience?

That happend lots of times to me... ones i woke up and thought that i lost my arms :O its sure is a weired feeling :S

did your arms fall asleep? did the skin on your arms feel dull and unresponsive along with muscular control? It could be because you slept on your arm. I've had that happened to me a couple times and usually a few minutes later, I feel the familiar pins and prickle of blood flow returning to my arm.

the dead arm thing used to happen all the time to me when i used to sleep on my stomach... what's worse is when both arms have it! then you can only roll over or inch like a caterpillar! :shock: very helpless. but it is the lack of blood or something.... and it comes back... in time. but it does suck looking at your *dead* limbs. good thing i never knew about LDs at that time! and now i never sleep on my stomach... only my side.

Happens to me occasionally, but it goes away pretty fast and I've never thought I was dreaming from it, I once thought it looked like someone elses hand for a secound, It also takes alot of effort to lift the hand. Usually my left from when I lay kind of on my stomach, with the arm making the pillow rise so I can breath properly on my stomach.

Yeah, I know my arm jsut heavily fell asleep. It probably has to do with that major nerve in your elbow, because my entir elbow and anything lower was affected.

Just the positioning and having it hidden under my pillow, coupled with just waking up made me thought I was dreaming my arm was inside my mattress XD pretty funny.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by analyst

the dead arm thing used to happen all the time to me when i used to sleep on my stomach... what's worse is when both arms have it! then you can only roll over or inch like a caterpillar! :shock: very helpless.

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Arg. I've had it happen with a single arm, but I don't like to imagine waking with two dead arms. Imagine you're sleeping on you're stomach and you manage to sit up using your leg muscles... then you'd just have these two arms flapping around limply... arghh

I just wanted to mention that my experience of dead arm is different when it occurs during sleep paralysis from when it is just a case of waking up and having a dead arm from laying on it. When it is the case of sleep paralysis I will wake up laying on my back, hardly able to move, and lift my arm up from my side, usually my right arm, feeling so heavy it is nearly impossible and in surprise at the effort required I suppose, lift it into view in front of me, I will look at it and though staring straight at my forearm, it appears quite invisible from the elbow down, I know it is there, and I am awake as far as seeing everything around me, however my arm is not visible to me and I see straight through it. Pretty weird stuff I have to say! One time just after this moment, at the end of my bed a dark cloaked figure shot out a branch at me which tapered towards my chest and struck me there, and I grappled it to the best of my paralysed ability with my two hands. Then I just remember looking around the room and realising that I would just cause more of the same type of visions because everything I looked at was on the verge of manifesting, and I was still paralysed, so I didn't look at anything too shapely and eventually I was awake. Incredible.