Thread: a terrible, terrible LD?

Hey man,

From what you described it seems like the symptoms of Sleep Paralysis... check it out in Google. I saw a BBC documentary about this once; maybe you could download it somewhere. - Its NOT dangerous so don’t worry!

The basic idea is that when we go to sleep we have 2 major mechanisms snap into action. One is responsible for disengaging our motoric activities, which is important so you wont react to what you dream (i.e. you wont start punching your g/f when you think you are in a boxing arena) the other mechanism is responsible for letting our nerves go to sleep (i.e. disable our sensoric input).
Sleep Paralysis means that the two mechanisms are not in perfect sync, thus causing the nerve mechanism to awake but keeping the motoric mechanism still asleep, which then causes the feeling that we are wide awake but can't get up!
this quasi wake period could be very frightening and sure enough a lot of people reported strange hallucinations like dwarves sitting on your chest (due to the lack of ability to breath deeper than the mind wants to).. or burglars running through the house (due to manifestation of sounds and sights that are interpreted wrongly).. . Remember this state is a temporary state just before you fully wake up! it is not dangerous! The only thing to remember is not to panic and wait it out...

Hope this helps a bit...

the above poster about summed it up.

unless yours is a very rare,different case, it sounds like prototypical sleep paralysis.

i have experienced the seeming inability to breath many times, and can assure you i have never been truly unable to breath. i am pretty sure that you/i are still breathing, but we just can't feel it normally, so it feels like we aren't.


sleep paralysis can be disconcerting and a little scary (especialy when it feels like one is choking or asphyxiating), but it is nothing to fear, and natural.

actually, once you conquer your fear of it, you may learn to love and be grateful for your propensity for sleep paralysis. if you are interested in lucid dreaming it is one of the best gateways there is, as you are basically on the threshold of dreaming.


i used to dread episodes like the one you describe...however, after a few times of staying calm during this sensation, i real-ized that i would not die from lack of oxygen, and that if i concentrated, i could actually enter a lucid dream!!

i hope your mind can rest easier now

Hey tusmechmes, where do you find that documentary? Think you can make a link for me?
Thx

Beautiful! thanks you guys, i apprecate it very much. and it defintily puts my mind at ease a little bit. Thanks again

That's odd. I occasinally have SP and I've never had trouble breathing during any of my episodes. There has been one where I felt like I was being choked and suffocated, but the whole time I wsa breathing really fast (and aware of that).