Mystified Newbie

Hi,
My name is Ken and over the past two weekends I have had four night-time experiences which have both terrified and mystified. I hesitate to call them dreams because they did not have the same tone and feel of my usual dreams. I felt myself in my body in these 'dreams' rather than being a spectator, like at a movie house, as in my normal dreams. Also all of my normal dreams are in color. These were not. I was also 'aware' of what was going on and actually attempted to get out of the situation. To no avail. But you will see as I tell the dream.

All of them, but the last, took place in my room and within minutes after falling asleep, before deep sleep set in.

I am 62. Single and have a male roommate, 65, who stays in the room next to mine. I go to sleep to music from Pandora. It was about 1:00 am.

#1. I am in bed on my back in my room. All the features of the room are in tact and it is dark like when I supposedly fell asleep. But the house is a female acquaintance of mine who is not home at the time. It felt like I was awake and I was paralyzed and I could hear the music on my computer. Couldn't move. I tried to get out of bed but couldn't [at this time I am not aware I am 'dreaming'][I wanted to call out to my roommate but out of habit I had locked the door.] I was terrified for I felt like there was some 'force' in the room and I wanted out. At one time above my head there was a slight wash of white light that quickly receded. Finally I woke up and got out of bed, but it didn't seem like I had been asleep nor did it feel like a dream. It was too real.

Next night.

#2. Same setting but there was a bed next to mine where my brother slept. Suddenly I heard weird sounds I couldn't describe and they began distorting. I climbed on top my computer desk and found two pink fans. I got back in bed and I couldn't move. The music form the computer began distorting. I felt like I was going crazy. A figure in a white sheet arose form my brother's bed. I called out for my roommate. I told my brother to go and get him. I tried to lift myself up to grab my cellphone to call my roommate, but again I was paralyzed. I woke up when my roommate , who had been awake (he's a nightowl) knocked at my door and called my name. He had heard me calling out.

These two occurred this weekend. During the week I had had no such experiences.

#3. Again I am in my room on my bed and on my back. I hear voices whispering around me but see nothing and I can't understand what is being whispered.. Someting is tugging on the covers at the foot of my bed. I am frightened. I am paralyzed. I tired to reach for the lamp to turn on the lights. In real time the lamp is right beside me on the night stand, but in the 'dream' it was more than an arm's length away. And I couldn't reach it. Couldn't move. All during this dream I seemed to know what was going on. In fact I told myself while this was going on to 'relax and go with it' but it was all too frightening. In fact I kept telling myself to wake up. My roommate heard me calling out 'Wake up! Wake up!' and then he came into my room [this time I left the door unlocked] and woke me up.

#4. That same night after I finally got back to sleep: I was taking an exam in college under some trees and suddenly these large bizzare nettles or growths started falling on me and sticking to me. I felt terrified but powerless to move, as in the other dreams, and woke up crying out.

I must not neglect to mention that unlike in my usual dreams I did not have mobility and couldn't move away form the scene as usual. Also these all occurred within minutes of 'falling' asleep. I know it couldn't have been more than a few minutes because I my computer is set to shut the music off 30 minutes after I retire. And each time the music was still playing when I awoke. But it never seemed like I was asleep at all like waking form a 'normal' dream.

If anyone would care to ease my mind about this I would appreciate it. And if this is the wrong forum then could the Mod please redirect, if possible.

Thanx,
Ken

I'm not an expert but I'm pretty sure that the experiences you are having that consist of you being "paralyzed" are what is called sleep paralysis. It is a normal body function that occurs every night, however usually the mind is asleep during it. Theres absolutely nothing to worry about, the "force" and dark figures are just hallucinations that sometimes occur during sleep paralysis. The reason why this is happening could be for many reasons, maybe if you are stressed out or something. Sleep paralysis can acually be a usefull method to induce lucid dreams too. Hope this helped

I am also not an expert, this seems to be sleep paralysis and "Hypnagogic Hallucinations" dead on. Like the poster before me said, it's normal and something that happens every night but our mind usually shuts down before the body does (the paralysis). The Paralysis happens so we don't act out what we do in our dreams (I guess sleepwalking happens when it doesn't happen properly but don't quote me on this)

Here's a wikipeida link that should explain it better than me. :P

Sleep paralysis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia