Thread: Have you ever experienced this in the onset of sleep paralisis?

So last night i was in bed doing affermations in my head that i was going to have a lucid dream. After a while i felt my self start to drift and i think fell asleep for a time or atleast lost presence of mind, but it felt like only a fraction of a second and when i regained conciousness, it felt like i was tilted back and into my bed on a small angle and it felt like someone was sitting on my chest and it was difficult to breath, i tried to remain calm and go with it and i was able to for a while, but it was taking a lot of concious effort to keep taking in air, eventually i could hear my lungs taking the air in very loud in my ears, and i could hear how i was struggling to draw breath and i panicked and snapped into conciousness and sat in bed. Are there any suggestions on how i can keep myself calm, or what measures i can take to prepare for this in the future?

Sometimes I like that I can hear my breaths because I just count my breaths to keep my mind off other things. Just think about it, It's not like you are going to forget how to breath so as long as you know you're fine, you're fine.

Originally Posted by Inceptor

Sometimes I like that I can hear my breaths because I just count my breaths to keep my mind off other things. Just think about it, It's not like you are going to forget how to breath so as long as you know you're fine, you're fine.

thank you, i'll try this next time.

Originally Posted by Foul

I love when people tell me it felt like someone was sitting on their chest. Check out the etymology of the word nightmare.

glad you got a kick out of the way that i described my experience, and it is interesting information, but i must wonder how knowing the etymology of the word nightmare will help me get through the onset of sleep paralysis?

Originally Posted by Nikkonic

thank you, i'll try this next time.



glad you got a kick out of the way that i described my experience, and it is interesting information, but i must wonder how knowing the etymology of the word nightmare will help me get through the onset of sleep paralysis?

Having this knowledge may help you stay calmer during the experience if you have the perspective to see these things as they are, products of your mind.
Not sure how much sense that made.

never purposly, but i have experienced sleep paralysis. probably 8-10 times total in my life. i remember it at a very young age, and being absolutely terrified. ive never experienced the hallucinations that go along with it however. i just remember a span of maybe 5 or 10 seconds in which im completly awake, but i cannot move. its as if im being sat on and having my eyes forced shut. it happened for me last maybe a lil over a year ago. it'd be pretty cool to embrace it and enjoy the effects..ill have to research more.

Originally Posted by Nikkonic

glad you got a kick out of the way that i described my experience, and it is interesting information, but i must wonder how knowing the etymology of the word nightmare will help me get through the onset of sleep paralysis?

Nice attitude you have there.

Originally Posted by Foul

Nice attitude you have there.

Sorry if it came across that way, it was just a stream of consciousness, and i admit upon re-reading it, i could have worded it much better. It was meant as a serious question i was looking for your feed back, and would still appreciated it if you'll still give it.

thanks to everyone else for their input i really do appreciate it

I love when people tell me it felt like someone was sitting on their chest. Check out the etymology of the word nightmare.

Online Etymology Dictionary
Night-Mares: Demons that Cause Nightmares

nightmare
late 13c., "an evil female spirit afflicting sleepers with a feeling of suffocation," compounded from night + mare "goblin that causes nightmares, incubus," from O.E. mare "incubus," from mera, mære, from P.Gmc. *maron "goblin," from PIE *mora- "incubus," from base *mer- "to rub away, harm, seize" (cf. first element in O.Ir. Morrigain "demoness of the corpses," lit. "queen of the nightmare," also Bulg., Serb., Pol. mora "incubus;" Fr. cauchemar, with first element is from O.Fr. caucher "to trample"). Meaning shifted mid-16c. from the incubus to the suffocating sensation it causes. Sense of "any bad dream" first recorded 1829; that of "very distressing experience" is from 1831.

The mare in nightmare is not a female horse, but a mara, an Anglo-Saxon and Old Norse term for a demon that sat on sleepers' chests, causing them to have bad dreams.

Dialect variants, as explained below, include the forms mara, mahr, mahrt, mårt, and others.

In High German, the demon who causes bad dreams is most often called an Alp, a word that is etymologically related to elf.

A mare-induced bad dream is called a nightmare in English, martröð (mare-ride) in Anglo-Saxon and Icelandic, mareridt (mare-ride) in Danish, mareritt (mare-ride) in Norwegian, and Alpdruck (alp-pressure) or Alptraum (alp-dream) in German.

Originally Posted by Foul

I love when people tell me it felt like someone was sitting on their chest. Check out the etymology of the word nightmare.

Apparently, this is a common hypnagogic hallucination.

Nothing that happens to you in sleep paralysis is anything more than a hallucination. Think about it; you go through it every night completely unharmed, being aware of the process doesn't change that.

this is how i wake i wake in to deep paralysis this is my sleep disorder what i do is shut my eyes and stay calm relax.. and even try and get your self to go bk to sleep but just keep thinking About something nice ull wake bk up but only your dreaming its really weird its just like the dream was in my bedroom happening while i was wide awake white infront of my very eyes

The key is to allow it to happen.

No I'm sorry I don't have much to add. Truth of the matter is I haven't experienced true, terrible, nightmareish sleep paralysis. I've only ever induced a mild sleep paralysis while I was attempting to WILD. I just love the etymology of the word Nightmare and thought that, given you'd said it felt like someone was sitting on your chest, you might get a kick out of it as well.

Each time I see someone post about terrible sleep paralysis episodes, the advice that I see given is that you have to realise it's just your mind, it's not real blah blah blah. I'm sure this is rather hard to do while a shadowy demon is ripping your soul out through your belly button.

Best of luck with it.