Thread: Newbie and wondering

I've been lurking in the backgrounds reading the various stories about lucid dreaming. It made me think about the kind of dreams I experienced as a teenager, except, I'm not quite sure if it is lucid dreaming or perhaps a quirk in my awareness/sleep stage?

Let me begin by telling you what I remember. I would wake up around 2-3 am in the morning. With my eyes wide open, I realize I cannot move.... but I am awake. Shortly, I feel a pressing felling come over my entire body as if it was pushing me into the mattress. I cannot breathe. My first thought was a spirit or ghost sitting ontop of me. I try to scream, but I cannot move my mouth (or even twitch my toes). About 15 minutes later, I slowly am able to move and the pressing feeling dissappears.

This frightens me for several nights as the same dream/incident occrus repeatedly over a few months (not nightly, whew). I'm almost terrified to wake up during the middle of my sleep.

One night, during this time, I realized it wasn't a ghost at all. While I feel the pressing feeling come over my body, I loose my breath again. I struggle with all my might to lift my arms and legs, hopefully to go and tell my mother something is wrong. All the sudden the pressing feeling disappears and I notice the ceiling is getting closer to my face. I realize I am levitating! I trun my head to look at the bed I was sleeping on and I see my own body!!!

All the sudden I fall quickly back into bed and I can breathe .... rapidly.

I haven't told much people about this dream because it was met with skepticism and/or disbelief.

Maybe it doesn't mean anything, however, if anyone else had experienced the same thing, perhaps I wouldn't feel quite strange about it.

yeah, sleep paralysis is quite common.
It happened to me frequently until I learned about it.

Thank you eppy!

I found a ton of info in search on "sleep paralysis"

I'm not quite sure if I enjoy it very much. Perhaps I would venture into lucid dreaming except, I'm a bit afraid of not being able to control what is going on in my dreams.

I used to have very strange ones about "dreaming I was dreaming" and kept waking up to find out, I was still in a dream trying to wake up.

Originally Posted by justtess

Thank you eppy!

I found a ton of info in search on "sleep paralysis"

I'm not quite sure if I enjoy it very much. Perhaps I would venture into lucid dreaming except, I'm a bit afraid of not being able to control what is going on in my dreams.

I used to have very strange ones about "dreaming I was dreaming" and kept waking up to find out, I was still in a dream trying to wake up.

Oh man, I hate those. And btw, welcome to DV . I've never experienced sleep paralysis except for a small bit of vibrations.

PSPS, Thank you for the welcome. I can't say the whole experience was enjoyable I grew up when the Nightmare on Elm Street movies were in theaters so..... dreaming wasn't something I wanted to do.

I guess now, the attraction of the possibility is catching my attention.