A Sleep Paralysis Thought

**plazzyd** · 05-21-2011 11:07 PM

On this forum, there are horror stories of SP. People complain of being traumatized by hallucinations of spiders and demons. Horrific things, really. Why is this? Perhaps it could be some kind of chain reaction. Let's say that Timmy had a bad experience with SP. He decides to get on DV. He posts about the horror he was forced to experience. Now, we have Jack. Jack gets on DV. He is reading all about WILDs and SP. He comes across Timmy's post. This post shocks Jack. It is all he can think about when it comes to SP. He is afraid of WILDing due to this. When he does, he experiences similar terror. In the same manner as Timmy, he posts about it. Bob reads Timmy's post. The cycle continues. Could it be that SP is only scary for many because many are taught to believe so?

**TeaSea** · 05-21-2011 11:45 PM

I think this is definitely possible.

However, in my personal experience, I, Timmy, haven't had a bad experience with SP. I had read a lot about it here, so I knew quite a lot of what to expect, so I could go through it confident that what was going on was normal and nothing to be afraid of. Others might have the opposite, but I definitely think knowledge of the subject was beneficial.

**A_Citrus** · 05-21-2011 11:52 PM

If you go into sleep paralysis feeling scared and anticipating what might happen, this is what will happen. If you go into SP expecting nothing particularly bad to happen, then it won't. As in dreams, something only happens if you expect it to happen. Before I knew about lucid dreaming once, I had SP for the first time, and it was freaky, then it got scary because I couldn't move. The second time I had it, later that week, it was much more scary than the first time, because I was anticipating what might happen, wondering what it was, scared that I couldn't move.

ShockWave.

**Reclypso** · 05-22-2011 02:34 AM

It's just due to anxiety, just like when you take certain drugs you can have a good experience or bad experience depending on your mind set. I had a great experience when I had it.

**Puffin** · 05-22-2011 05:36 AM

This video on youtube called The Science of Sleep Paralysis explains that a certain part of your brain is more active during SP, and this is the part that causes the frightening hallucinations.

As for your question... Myself, I'd get episodes before I even knew what sleep paralysis was, and some of them were absolutely terrifying - the feeling that a knife was being run along my neck, someone whispering that I was going to die, feelings of suffocation, and the feeling of being stung by a bee. Of course, now that I know what sleep paralysis is, when I get scary hallucinations it's not much of a worry.

I too have thought that, just maybe, SP hallucinations are scary only because the person has read about them being scary, but I'm certain that isn't true.

What about the numerous people who've gone through years of SP and frightening hallucinations, without knowing what it was all that time... you know?

**MischiefManaged** · 05-22-2011 06:11 AM

I had 4 episodes of SP. The first one was deliberate - I was attempting WILD, before that I've read, I think, all the threads about SP, about hallucinations of all sorts and watched all the documentaries on youtube, and yes, I was dreading it and it turned out to be extremely terrifying.

But other three were accidental, during an afternoon nap and all were exceptionally pleasant. Two of them I ended deliberately, because I thought that it can get scary again, but the last one developed into half-successful WILD (half because of false awakening X))

If I'm not mistaken in the video that Puffin mentioned, was a point that the part of the brain that controls our fear is active rather than part that cause hallucinations directly. But the fear, unreasonable panic feeling cases the hallucinations. It's similar to what happens in dream and in the process of falling asleep. Once you remember something bad, all the horrible things that you've ever seen or thought of instantly come to the surface and won't go away easily. And it's even more intense on the edge of falling asleep - now makes sense why.

**pepsibluefan** · 05-22-2011 06:25 AM

I had my eyes open during SP many times and I never experienced hallucinations. If most of the hallucinations happen because people expect them to happen..Then why can't we say that these terror of hallucinations are just myths and they won't happen? If its disregarded as a myth then people won't expect it to happen those never happen. Although it might sound stupid, might actually be stupid. Just a suggestion.

**SleepParalysis** · 05-22-2011 09:14 AM

Heya!
I've had alot of encounters with SP. I get em 2 or 3 times/week. When they first started coming I was scared shitless because I had no idea what was going on. I thought I had a breathing or heart failure. This completely changed after I found out what it really was. I haven't experienced any hallucinations or anything like that but often when i'm having a SP I feel an urge to check my room for monsters

I'm not really scared of the dark or anything but when you can't move, and start thinking about zombies or whatever the idea roots itself to your brain and you become almost 100% certain that there's a zombie in your room. That's when things get freaky and ''waking up'' from an SP is really hard