Sleep Paralysis

[AZChiroNeuro]

Okay I just had this last night. It was the most terrifying experience I had ever had. I woke up to find a VIVID black shadow staring at me on my bed (1 foot away)! I wanted to scream and run but I couldn't... I was completely paralyzed! Now this wasn't a dream... I was wide awake and conscious of all my thoughts and everything that was in the room. I was only able to move my eyes I couldn't move anything else. It lasted for about 1 minute... Has anyone else experience something like this??

 

[yonkapin]

Have had this happen to me a gang of times, intense stuff.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_paralysis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnagogia

 

[Grace]

Yeah i suffered from these nightly a
Few years ago... I would get thrown off my bed at night or what it felt like and completely paralyzed and these two videogame people that looked evil as hell were standing next to my bed and talking and it was terrifying.. At the time i didnt know what sleep paralysis was and thought it was real so i hung a cross above my bed but then told my mom and she said its just sleep parysis and nothin to worry bout.. But i noticed it happened mostly when i fell asleep on my back? Havent had one in a longgg time.

 

[Willie]

I've heard a lot about that and lucid dreaming. Some intense stuff.

 

[cullenbohannon]

I use to get this a bit. When I started using melatonin I started getting more. I'm use to it so it doesn't really bother me but sometimes can feel it happening like I feel my body start to fall asleep but my brain is working weird thing to try to explain.

 

[Alex Senkowski]

Okay I just had this last night. It was the most terrifying experience I had ever had. I woke up to find a VIVID black shadow staring at me on my bed (1 foot away)! I wanted to scream and run but I couldn't... I was completely paralyzed! Now this wasn't a dream... I was wide awake and conscious of all my thoughts and everything that was in the room. I was only able to move my eyes I couldn't move anything else. It lasted for about 1 minute... Has anyone else experience something like this??

The creature is commonly referred to as 'The Old Hag.' I read about the phenomena in my encyclopedia of monsters. Apparently, MILLIONS of people have experienced it over the last few centuries and across many different cultures.

 

[Willie]

WAIT NO I TAKE IT BACK I THINK I HAD THAT THIS MORNING.
So I was awake but I couldn't open my eyes or move my body it was so weird tbh. I sorta freaked out when I fully woke up, lol.

 

[cullenbohannon]

So this happened to me last night, I had sleep paralysis and my t was unbelievable how loud I can't explain it my whole body heard it and felt it. I think it was exploding head syndrome anyone get this before?

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploding_head_syndrome

 

[Grace]

No but most likely it was just the exploding head syndrome like you said... Another weird asss sleeep phenomeon!!!!!

 

[mick]

Okay I just had this last night. It was the most terrifying experience I had ever had. I woke up to find a VIVID black shadow staring at me on my bed (1 foot away)! I wanted to scream and run but I couldn't... I was completely paralyzed! Now this wasn't a dream... I was wide awake and conscious of all my thoughts and everything that was in the room. I was only able to move my eyes I couldn't move anything else. It lasted for about 1 minute... Has anyone else experience something like this??

This use to happen to me all the time when I was a kid, except in my case it was two black shadows standing right next to my bed looking down at me. One was that of a short person, and one was that of a tall person. I couldn't move either, but I think it was more out fear than sleep paralysis. I remember thinking that it was important to not let the "shadows" know I was awake. I would even try to stifle my quickening breath to hopefully hide the fact that I was awake. I remember asking my father one time if he and my mom would come into my room at night and stand next to my bed (he of course said that they did not).

Interestingly, I told another kid about these events when I was in first grade. He said he had them to, and that his dad told him that if he slept with his hand on his forehead, then the shadow people would not hurt him. I started doing that, too. It didn't stop the shadows from "visiting me", but when they did, I was able to just go back to sleep. I think I slept every night with my hand on my forehead until I was in 3rd grade.

The fact that millions of people experience this phenomena makes one wonder if they really are dreams. Maybe they are some paranormal phenomen worthy of investigation by Mulder and Scully of the X-Files .

 

[Mark McDill]

I looked this up and it sounds terrifying indeed http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/guide/sleep-paralysis
It's like part of you is asleep while other parts are not (so nothing seems right -- Alice in Wonderland indeed!). They say it's because your body/brain are not transitioning between sleep phases correctly. Although they didn't say what causes it they also said it's not linked to deep psychiatric problems.

 

[Mommaof2]

I have had this many times each time even though I know what it is it still scares me!! I have read it is because your body shuts itself down to relax and protect you from doing any harm to yourself if you ever have a vivid dream (like falling off a cliff you don't move much in the bed and fall off the bed and hurt yourself). No matter what still scary everytime! I try to lie there and relax a bit and then I fall back asleep and when I wake up again I am back to normal.

 

[Jeff M.]

Gnarly stuff!! Sorry you guys have to deal with this!!! T is bad enough without freaky waking nightmare episodes!!

 

[Leopardi]

Luckily I've only experienced a second of this once when I was really tired and went to bed. Just as the dark figures started forming I got so incredibly scared I jumped up. I'd probably get a heart attack if I had to experience it paralyzed there proper... damn.

 

[Robb09]

Had this when i drank to much alcohol. But I did not see any figures the first time, but i saw a ghost girl in the chair in my room, then another time i saw a ghost on me and i could wave my hand through the white figure that looked almost like a cat holding my body down. Happened maybe 3 times. I never had it again when i moved out of that old house.

 

[Constable85]

Yep, I've had several throughout my life. One time I felt a demon laying on me while I was sleeping. It whispered in my ear, "I'm going to f*** your life." My life hasn't been great but it's not totally f'd yet. I thought I was about to be raped when it happened (just my luck, getting homosexually raped in college) but no, just a demon.

 

[Mike82]

Could have been worse mate. He could have said "I'm going to f*** your wife!"

 

[Tamalak]

I wish I could get this at least a few times (not nightly!) it sounds intense.

 

[uae96]

That shit sounds scary , I've had something like that but I was just not able to wake up and open my eyes , I knew I was consious but couldn't open my eyes or move

 

[Tamika]

I've had something like that but I was just not able to wake up and open my eyes , I knew I was consious but couldn't open my eyes or move

I've had this happen a couple of times as well.

 

[Mark Beehre]

I have experienced the paralysis and feeling of something coming over me. It's been many years since I have felt this, probably more than 5. It would happen from time to time. I could probably count the number of times it has happened to me on one hand.

 

[ruben ruiz]

Sometimes I have a similar reaction. Like Im asleep except for my hearing. If something loud occurs Im awake. As much as I dislike meds thank goodness for them.

 

[Pecka]

I have a sleep disorder called Nacolepsy. I think it started when i was about 15-16 years old when i had
measles.(Im 50 now) Sleep paralysis is one of the symptoms in Narcolepsy. I´ve had the same extremly scary experiece a lot with the shadow people standing just above me. I´ve been eating Anafranil since i was 20 and it reduced my sleep paralysis a lot. I sometimes wonder happens to the brain after eating Anafranil for that many years.......

 

[CaRd]

I had those too. It is nothing serious i think. It happens when you suddenly wake up from deep-sleep phase.

 

[vermillion]

I experience sleep paralysis often. Now when that happens, while in that state, i perceive my Tinnitus a lot louder.

 

[butterfly75]

I get this occasionally. It's actually been happening really frequently for the pasts nights. Kind of frightening. It usually happens if I've watched something scary before bed, I'm very anxious or upset, or I'm extremely tired. And I notice the ringing in my ears is a lot louder during it. Sometimes I've heard this wooshing while it happens.

 

[Philip83]

I have this too, but only a couple of times per year. I don't have the shadow beings though, just can't move while conscious. I don't panic anymore though since I know what it is. Also, after doing some research on lucid dreaming apparently its easy to make yourself start a lucid dream when you're in this stage, and it has worked for me at least once! It felt like I woke up out of the matrix, but into a dream. Pretty cool

 

[Zenyatta]

I get both exploding head syndrome and sleep paralysis. Highly unpleasant stuff, ugh.

 

[TheDanishGirl]

I have had periods earlier in my life where i frequently have experienced sleep paralysis, today i rarely have an "attack" though it does happen sometime.

I have always experienced it upon falling asleep, and one time i felt someone pull up the blanket over my head and try and suffocate me, once i was laying on my side and i felt breathing on my neck, scary stuff!, but a little less when you know it is natural.

 

[Tiffy]

This has been something I've experienced for at least the past 20 years. That's when I remember it starting or getting bad anyway. It happens pretty often for me actually. I'm not sure why. I've gotten to where I can usually be tipped off that it's about to happen(usually my tinnitus floods out most other noises and the room sort of dims) but I still can't brace myself for the accompanying fear and hallucinations. Usually it's people climbing down from my closet shelf ring style, or trying to get through my window or a man staring at me through my bedroom door, sometimes with/without weapons. I know I'm dreaming and it's not real, and like someone else said, I try to slow my breathing and pretend I'm asleep so they don't know I'm awake and will go away haha. I have through the years been able to get my subconscious to have kind of have a little break through, so I can sometimes make a noise or rock back and forth to wake up my light sleeper husband. That doesn't wake me up but he knows why I'm doing it and immediately wakes me up and helps calm me down to fall back to sleep. I know it doesn't make much sense since it's Sleep Paralysis to work your way into being able to move and make noise, but remember it's your subconscious doing it, and if you have enough of these and over a long period of time, you get extremely desperate to find that loop hole or jedi mind trick yourself to get help while it's happening.