Sleep Paralysis: Can you actually not move?

[hisnameistyler]

I was under the impression that when you enter SP, that you really physically cannot move, even if you tried. Is this true? if its, kinda creepy isn't it? haha.

[DuB]

Yes, sleep paralysis means that you are, well, paralyzed. It happens to everybody multiple times every night in order to prevent people from acting out their dreams, so there is really nothing creepy about it at all. Normally you are unconscious by the time you enter sleep paralysis. If you find yourself conscious during sleep paralysis and try to "fight it," you'll probably find that you can break out of it with a little bit of effort and a minute or two - this will result in you fully waking back up.

[jedsmim]

yeah, its just like what the name makes it sounds like. When it happened to me, i was face down in my pillow and i couldn't move for a full 20 seconds. It was really scary because i couldn't see anything and couldn't move my head. I suppose it may have been like that because i was so frightened from the OBE that caused it. I think i told you this story before but oh well.

[hisnameistyler]

haha there you are! yeah I hear you, I think i'm going to be pretty damn scared because I'm pretty sure I was conciously entering SP a few nights ago and yeah, I was kinda nervous lol

[Tasha-d]

Im new here and accidently stumbled across this sight , and to be honest im gob smaked ! Why am i gob smaked ..well i dream every night its like anther life for me , i go to sleep and live again ..weird ?? I thought so as none of my friends or even my husband gets it ..any way the sleep paralaysis , i first had this about 8 years ago and panicked thought someone was holding me down , howver over the years i can relax with it and go with the flow and after a couple of minutes it slowly goes ...... I can wake up and if i try i can go back into it i know im awake but im sleeping its weird .........

[Everlong]

Yeah, I have tried SP only once, and by god it was kinda creepy. Can't move at all, and when you do, you get cramps all down your body.

[WolfeDreamer531]

As you now already know from the comments above that sleep paralysis means that you cannot move. However, this is not as scary as you may think it is. It used to be very frightening for me when I was younger and didnt know what SP was nor what was happening to me, but since then, Ive grown used to it and even fond of it. I realized that SP is only as scary as you make it. Whenever I would realize that Im awake and unable to move, I would panic and try to move in order to wake myself in the way DuB mentioned above. As I would continue to try to move about, I would become panicked in my attempts. Now, whenever I WILD, I always remain absolutely still and realize that SP is not the worst feeling in the world. I always thought SP was painful but realized that it was only as painful as I made it by trying to move while paralyzed. So if you ever catch yourself in SP (which studies say everybody will at least once in their lifetime) then try to relax and really see that its not as bad as a lot of people make it out to be.

[5triker]

When i was first in SP (after a dream) i had to get out of it as my alarm was about to go off (i knew that i was in SP because i had read about it on this forum). All i done was try my utmost to swallow (lol), and it got me out of it really quickly. In about 20 seconds^^.

[EchoSun13]

So I never tried this..But is it hard? And what would I do?

[Jurence]

There is a sleeping disorder in which paralysis is sometimes lost. See: bad excuses for murder (acting out dreams) See: Old guy that had his wife's head in his hands ready to break her neck because he was having a dream he was mercy killing a deer.