# Sleep Paralysis



## sbelle (Jan 18, 2009)

My anxiety causes me to get sleep paralysis. Does anyone else have this problem?


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## Solitario (Aug 28, 2008)

sbelle said:


> My anxiety causes me to get sleep paralysis. Does anyone else have this problem?


No, but I read that sleep paralysis is why those people think they've been abducted by aliens. I hear it's scary.


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## caithiggs (Jan 11, 2009)

Actually, sleep paralysis gives everybody anxiety, even people who are not excessive anxiety sufferers. 

It's just that when your body is paralyzed and your mind is awake and aware of it, it's instinctual to be afraid. Because what if we were cave men in a cave and there were bears around and we couldn't get up and run if we heard one breathing in our ear?

Sleep paralysis is an absolutely natural part of sleep. In fact, we experience it every night, it's just that we don't usually "wake up" during it. It stops you from playing out your dreams. So it's actually a big comfort. 

But yes, when you do wake up during it, it can cause panic attacks. Totally natural.

What you need to do is you need to calm down when you are experiencing it. Before you go to sleep as you're laying down thinking about moving a finger or a toe, just wiggling it. Something easy like your pinky finger. 

Next time you find yourself awake in sleep paralysis, wiggle that finger. Don't think of anything else, just think about wiggling your finger. Don't "try" to wake up or anything, because that will send you into more panic. I always find it's not until I give up on trying to wake me up that I just relax and fall back asleep, or wake up. So don't think "I'm going to wiggle this finger to wake up" Just like "I'm gonna wiggle this finger". 

Maybe that won't work. I'm not really sure. 

Haha, I love sleep paralysis experiences, I'm trying to stop being afraid while I'm in them though.


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## donkamero (Jan 18, 2009)

Aw I get this quite a lot, is it connected? Never really crossed my mind that it could be before. It's a horrible experience sleep paralysis, do you kind of sometimes worry about getting it before you go to sleep?


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## sbelle (Jan 18, 2009)

It usually doesn't take me long at all to fall asleep so i don't really have a lot of time to worry. I usually just wake up and hear people yelling my name or stuff moving on the wall. 
I try to move but i can't. I'm not as scared as i used to be of them they are just frustrating to have.


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## dullard (Aug 4, 2008)

I really don't think that it's caused by my SA but I have sleep paralysis every now and again. It can be incredibly unnerving though.


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## SadRosesAreBeautiful (May 15, 2008)

*I could be wrong, but when I took a psychology course, we were studying the sleep cycle, and from what I remember, everyone has sleep paralysis at some point in the night, like when you're dreaming or something. *


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## dullard (Aug 4, 2008)

Yeah I guess sleep paralysis is caused by waking up during REM sleep. The paralysis is natural during REM, it's there to stop you from flailing about while dreaming.


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## caithiggs (Jan 11, 2009)

You can also use it to have fun and explore your dreams :hide


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## yakubu (Nov 4, 2008)

sbelle said:


> My anxiety causes me to get sleep paralysis. Does anyone else have this problem?


ive suffered with it in the past but only occasionally, its never been a permanent thing.

on about 3 seperate occasions ive had it and it lasted about 5 days each time. iy hasnt happend to me for years now though. i dont really know what triggers it

its not a very nice experience at all. its extremely scary. i remember when it happend to me in the past, i would wake up and i would literally be scared stiff, i'd be that scared that i couldnt even move.

its horrible


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## dullard (Aug 4, 2008)

caithiggs said:


> You can also use it to have fun and explore your dreams :hide


Sleep paralysis is nothing like lucid dreaming.


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## LostGirl (Jan 15, 2009)

I get it all the time, and it scares the hell out of me.

Sometimes I wake up and all I can move is my eyes. My body is numb and cold, I can't even open my mouth to call out to anyone.

Other times it happens when I'm close to falling asleep, I lay there and suddenly I hear a sound which reminds me of thunder or a wave in my ears, then suddenly I'm paralyzed. It's awful.


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## PhocusMind (Nov 30, 2008)

I have had a period where i would have sleep paralysis for a couple of years straight. In the beginning it scared the crap out of me, it took a long time before i felt i was able to control it. Eventually it got to the point where I would realize i was stuck in a dream, or half dream/half awake, and knowing that I just tried to sit up with all my might. No matter if i was standing in the dream, I'd sit up and it'd almost be like shocking through some barrier. That's the only way I can explain it, with in time it just went away. But I do recall feeling extra stressed out during this time, and it would also happen when my body was extremely tired after a weekend and my mind was still racing a bit.


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## Anxiety75 (Feb 10, 2004)

I think that this paralysis is normal. It may not be normal to notice it often though. The paralysis is a protection so we will not act out our dreams. This usually occurs during REM stage of sleep.


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## caithiggs (Jan 11, 2009)

dullard said:


> Sleep paralysis is nothing like lucid dreaming.


Hmm, I wouldn't say "nothing". I think there are a lot of connective links to make between the two actually! But not for everybody I'm sure. So I won't be weird. lol.


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## PhocusMind (Nov 30, 2008)

well if we wake, while paralyzed.. does that mean we are seriously trying to act out a particular dream? I do agree it is normal for the body to become paralyzed during sleep and the REM stages, but there are times when the mind wakes and the paralysis is still in the body. Our minds must be really trying to act something out, so much that it overpowers the typical process of paralysis. I can't recall having a particular dream, there was one doomsday one, and one where i was being chased, the others were just strange where I'd wake up in my room but i'd still be in a dream, and have to wake up from that one. It's a very strange thing.. but some people recommend to treat it like lucid dreams and just think about yourself controlling your dream before you go to sleep.


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## smalltowngirl (Feb 17, 2006)

I've experienced sleep paralysis once. I think it was earlier last year. It was terrifying. I've read it happens more frequently to people who sleep on their backs. I rarely sleep on my back, but I was on my back the night it happened. For weeks after that I tried to make sure I didn't fall asleep on my back because I was so afraid it would happen again.


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## wannaknow (Jan 28, 2009)

*food allergies!*

I figured out back in college that raw onions or onion powder would reliably cause sleep paralysis (back then I didn't know it even had a name). I was totally awake and could hear my roommate talking on the phone but could not move or open my eyes... scary.

My suggestion: cut out raw onions (especially red) and avoid foods that are heavily laced with onion powder!

Who knows maybe that will help you too!

I _never_ get sleep paralysis anymore.

: )


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## person86 (Aug 10, 2006)

Happened to me once recently for the first time ever. It was awesome. I was completely convinced that something evil (possibly Micheal Myers) was lurking in my house and was going to jump out and kill me at any moment. At the same time, I was trying to move my arms, and it FELT like I was waving my hands in front of my face, and yet obviously I wasn't... because I didn't see any hands.

I wish it would happen again.


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## Arisa1536 (Dec 8, 2009)

Yes i still struggle with it even after i finished on those antipsychotics which gave me chronic sleep paralysis. sometimes i still get it. i want to wake up but cant, i want to scream and yell but i cant, i go to hit myself to wake up and i cannot for the life of me lift my head up off the pillow, its pretty frightening really


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## RobAlister (Apr 4, 2010)

I have it from time to time. Haven't had it in awhile though. I don't think it's connected to my SA though.



Solitario said:


> I hear it's scary.


It _is_. You can't even talk. All you can do is see, think and breath. Whenever it happens to me I start my wiggling my fingers. After they're "awake" the rest of my body follows suit.


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## estse (Nov 18, 2003)

Sleep paralysis is fun and enjoyable.


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## Roscoe (Apr 21, 2009)

I have had sleep paralysis off and on but about 5 years ago i had an experience ill never forget. I was pulled out of my sleep at about 4:30 in the morning and was fully awake mentally. My room wasn't pitch black at the time and my eyes had adjusted to the light. The reason i was jolted out of my sleep was not a bad dream... there was a presence over me that i never experienced in my life. it was a pitch black entitity that seemed to be sucking out my life energy. I thought my soul was being pulled out! i couldn't move an inch until i started asking the lord to help me fight this bad entity.


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## Arisa1536 (Dec 8, 2009)

Mercurochrome said:


> Sleep paralysis is fun and enjoyable.


that is either great sarcasm or you have never had it before

its awful, i am getting to the stage where i am afraid to go to sleep :afr
i can never wake up, i am usually in a noisy painful nightmare, my dreams are so vivid i do not know if they are real of fake and i scream and rub my eyes but cannot wake up, i have to let it take its course, thank god i wake up


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## F1X3R (Jul 20, 2009)

Almost every time I wake up and then go back to sleep, whether for a few minutes or a couple hours, I experience SP. They can be a little frightening, each experience is so routine that I've pretty much used to it. 

I just had a bout of SP this morning, often I'll partially awake from a dream thinking I'm totally awake, only to realize I can' move, and there's a feeling of something coming after me or looming over me, behind my back. Quickly, once it becomes too intense, I wake up. I've learned too not let it bother me too much, because if it gets too unpleasant I'll immediately wake up. In fact I'll use the terror , try to accept it or intensify the feeling, just so I can wake up from the annoyance. I'm conscious enough to realize its only a dream, and this makes it more irritating then terrifying, and even though it feels so real, once i wake up I realize that ofcourse it wasnt real and feel a little silly about it. 

It is scary though, especially going back into it after waking up from it. I'll be lying their in bed, awakened, maybe not completely but out of the SP. Still very drowsy and tired, I easily start to drift off into sleep, but as soon as I do I go back into the SP, and I swear that I coudn't have fallen alseep yet, that I'm still awake, stuck in between the two states, fighting to stay awake, like I'm being dragged back into my nightmare with a presence looming around me. 

It's like Nightmare on Elm St., crap I can't be asleep? NO! Must stay awake! It's just a feeling though, the frustrating part is feeling something behind me, and not being able to turn around, all my focus is just on trying to swing my back around(I'm usually on my side, maybe stomach, rarely sleep on my back) or turn my head just a little. Such a helpless feeling. Sorta cool though.


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## michaelg (Jan 29, 2005)

LostGirl said:


> I get it all the time, and it scares the hell out of me.
> 
> Sometimes I wake up and all I can move is my eyes. My body is numb and cold, I can't even open my mouth to call out to anyone.
> 
> Other times it happens when I'm close to falling asleep, I lay there and suddenly I hear a sound which reminds me of thunder or a wave in my ears, then suddenly I'm paralyzed. It's awful.


This happens to me a lot, I hear like a dim chatter coming from the other room and this thunder/wave sound comes every so often and gives me a massive headache. Turns out I have narcolepsy.... sleep paralysis is just normal in a lot of people, but it's also one of the basic symptoms. If you're also tired all the time, maybe you should check it out.


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## meyaj (Sep 5, 2009)

I used to get it multiple times a night. It's related to narcolepsy because it's a product of REM sleep and narcolepsy is a REM disorder. Your brain basically paralyzes your body, presumably so you don't act out the vivid dreams that tend to happen during REM sleep, and sleep paralysis is what happens when the timing is off - your mind wakes up before your body does. Or for the less common sleep-onset paralysis, it kicks in too early.

I don't get it anymore since I've been on tricyclic/MAOI antidepressants though because they pretty much decimate REM sleep.


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## Glo (Sep 16, 2004)

I suffered from Sleep Paralysis about 4 years ago. It was one of the worst things I ever went through in my life. In fact, it was so scary that, before doing some quick research on the net, I almost had my dad take me to a doctor because I was thinking I was like going to die in my Sleep or something. My SP was really odd. I would have what most people describe - mind will wake up but body is frozen. But while my body is frozen I could like feel this energy running through my body and I would always have this loud buzzing noise in my ear. I could also " feel " this buzz running down my body and even feel it in my heart - that is why I thought I was going to have a heart attack or something awful.

Thank god I don't have it anymore. That is one thing I never want to go through again. =)


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## Turkojan (Jan 30, 2010)

I suffer a lot of episodes of sleep paralisys. Two years ago scares me a lot, now is simply frustrating.

When I have an episode I have two options, try to wake up (Is frustrating, irritating and usually I finish in a false awakening) or try to relax myself and come back to the dream. The second option is really strange, I feel like being pushed all around the room and finally throw in a big fall, again now I know how it works and don´t scare me. 

After that, sometimes I fall in a normal sleep, but other times I finish in a false awakening, I make some reality tests (turn on lights and stuff) and finally I get into a lucid dream. Time ago i thought that lucid dreams were really cool, but you don´t rest well when you have lucid dreams, so now I hate them. Usually when I finally wake up I´m really angry with all the stuff, it´s not even funny, just boring and frustrating.

I really think that this episodes have something to do with anxiety, I usually suffer this kind of sleep anomalies when I´m in a stressful period. Other cause that I know that triggers it is 
sleep in a room with too much light, I need total darkness to sleep well.

(sorry for bad english)


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## orpheus (Nov 16, 2003)

F1X3R said:


> Almost every time I wake up and then go back to sleep, whether for a few minutes or a couple hours, I experience SP. They can be a little frightening, each experience is so routine that I've pretty much used to it.
> 
> I just had a bout of SP this morning, often I'll partially awake from a dream thinking I'm totally awake, only to realize I can' move, and there's a feeling of something coming after me or looming over me, behind my back. Quickly, once it becomes too intense, I wake up. I've learned too not let it bother me too much, because if it gets too unpleasant I'll immediately wake up. In fact I'll use the terror , try to accept it or intensify the feeling, just so I can wake up from the annoyance. I'm conscious enough to realize its only a dream, and this makes it more irritating then terrifying, and even though it feels so real, once i wake up I realize that ofcourse it wasnt real and feel a little silly about it. .


I haven't had it for years. But I had the same experiences. I'd wake up, feel this frightening presence in the room, and sometimes I'd hear a terrible whisper or noise before I was able to move.

Truly a frightening experience.


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## seastar (Mar 27, 2009)

I experienced quite violent sleep paralysis during my early to mid twenties which (I believe) was caused by long periods of isolation, loneliness and a reversed sleep cycle.

I can clearly remember the first time, awakening, but unable to move. Aware of my bedroom and the window to my side, and aware of a presence in my garden, which I then heard slowly moving through the house, hearing the stairs creaking until I felt the breeze as my door opened. It came and leant in close by me and I could feel it's breath on my cheek. It was terrifying trying to scream out and move my arms and pull myself up and out of sleep. Then it sat on my chest and held me down, and placed my fluffy duvet over my face so I couldn't breathe. I could actually hear the sound of my duvet crunching over me.

This has happened hundreds of times since. I always wake up and then know it will only be a few moments before it gets on top of my chest or back, so I am unable to move, and tries to suffocate or even strangle me, and I can actually feel it's fingernails wrapped around my neck. I tried sleeping in different positions and setting my alarm at different times, but it still found me, sometimes repeatedly on the same night.

On that note, I am going to bed


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## lastofthekews (May 11, 2009)

seastar said:


> I experienced quite violent sleep paralysis during my early to mid twenties which (I believe) was caused by long periods of isolation, loneliness and a reversed sleep cycle.
> 
> I can clearly remember the first time, awakening, but unable to move. Aware of my bedroom and the window to my side, and aware of a presence in my garden, which I then heard slowly moving through the house, hearing the stairs creaking until I felt the breeze as my door opened. It came and leant in close by me and I could feel it's breath on my cheek. It was terrifying trying to scream out and move my arms and pull myself up and out of sleep. Then it sat on my chest and held me down, and placed my fluffy duvet over my face so I couldn't breathe. I could actually hear the sound of my duvet crunching over me.
> 
> ...


That's awful. I used to experience sleep paralysis a lot as a child and into my early 20s, but never to this extent. Mine usually involved waking up on my front, frozen, and having to inch my hands over to the edge of the bed, from where I was able to pull myself up and out of it. All through this I could feel someone standing across the room from me (but never coming near me, that would frighten the life out of me).


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## Zeddicus (Apr 1, 2009)

Mercurochrome said:


> Sleep paralysis is fun and enjoyable.


I meditate at night at least once a week in order to induce sleep paralysis. From such a state, I can usually enter a conscious lucid dream and then let loose with my fanciful imagination.


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## F1X3R (Jul 20, 2009)

Just had an episode last week. Felt like something was looming over me, but couldn't get my head around. I knew there was nothing there, but it feels so real. It's really just a sense of fear, just like our social fears, nothing really to fear. I said screw it, come get me evil presence, and the fear went away. It was still an intense feeling, but instead of a gurgling, murmuring (sorta sounded like the smoke monster from LOST) I heard less spooky noises. Just noise really. It then sounded like a radio was in my ear, which happens every once in while during SP for me. It sounds so real.


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## meyaj (Sep 5, 2009)

seastar said:


> This has happened hundreds of times since. I always wake up and then know it will only be a few moments before it gets on top of my chest or back, so I am unable to move, and tries to suffocate or even strangle me, and I can actually feel it's fingernails wrapped around my neck. I tried sleeping in different positions and setting my alarm at different times, but it still found me, sometimes repeatedly on the same night.


Yep, I get the same thing. BTW, setting your alarm at different times is likely to make it worse. A consistent sleep schedule is the best thing you can do, and disruptions are known to increase occurrences.

Sometimes I get it like a dozen+ times in the same night. I'll panic and struggle to get out of it. Typically my sleep paralysis is hypnopompic (while waking up), but if I'm too sleepy to and not alert enough to get out of bed after experiencing sleep paralysis, and just fall back to sleep, then I'll experience hypnagogic (sleep onset) sleep paralysis. At that point I'll panic and struggle again, and still sometimes, I'm not completely alert and still really sleepy and I'll just end up falling back to sleep. In which case it happens AGAIN. Sometimes it can happen like a dozen times in a night, and I think one time it reached about 20. That is just unbelievable torture :/ sleep paralysis + somebody who suffers from bad anxiety is NOT a good combination... you would think I'd be used to it after hundreds of times and just ride it out, but even if I try that, I can't relax for more than a few seconds without starting to really panic once again.

It started happening to me at the age of 16, and then there would be periods where it would happen on a nightly basis, and then periods where it wouldn't have happened at all for a while.

Since sleep paralysis is tied to REM sleep, I've found that tricyclics and MAOIs pretty much eliminate sleep paralysis as they generally eliminate the REM stage of sleep. Even SSRIs inhibit it to some degree, but tricyclics inhibit REM sleep very strongly, and MAOIs pretty much totally eliminate it. Of course, as you might except, once you stop these drugs you can experience rebound REM sleep (more frequent and much more intense dreams than even baseline, and consequently, more sleep paralysis). When I stopped my tricyclic antidepressant completely for 3 weeks in order to start an MAOI, it was one of the craziest periods in terms of sleep paralysis (and dreaming) that I've ever had.

Usually I do not have hallucinations. I can "sense" a presence, and the inability to control my breathing (ie that feeling of having your chest sat on/being suffocated), and can usually have my eyes open and look around, but sometimes for some reason my eyelids just won't open so I can't even see anything, which is even more anxiety-provoking. A couple of times, I've also heard a really intense buzzing sound coupled with a sort of "electric" sensation both seeming to emanate from the back of my neck by the base of my skull.


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## danberado (Apr 22, 2010)

> It is scary though, especially going back into it after waking up from it. I'll be lying their in bed, awakened, maybe not completely but out of the SP. Still very drowsy and tired, I easily start to drift off into sleep, but as soon as I do I go back into the SP, and I swear that I coudn't have fallen alseep yet, that I'm still awake, stuck in between the two states, fighting to stay awake, like I'm being dragged back into my nightmare with a presence looming around me.


Fighting in and out of it is terrible. It's always like that for me. The cycle feels like it lasts for ages.


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## CabecitaSilenciosa (Jun 8, 2010)

I haven't gotten this in a looong time. I know this has nothing to do with my social anxiety. In the past I've gotten it when I've overslept or when I've slept wrong, like if I ended up falling asleep while laying on my arm or something. It's scary, isn't it? I always feel like I'm going to die, lol.


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## rogerrabbit (Jan 10, 2011)

LostGirl said:


> I get it all the time, and it scares the hell out of me.
> 
> Sometimes I wake up and all I can move is my eyes. My body is numb and cold, I can't even open my mouth to call out to anyone.
> 
> Other times it happens when I'm close to falling asleep, I lay there and suddenly I hear a sound which reminds me of thunder or a wave in my ears, then suddenly I'm paralyzed. It's awful.


I get the from time to time exactly as you described... Your right... its the worst feeling ever... what's worse is the sound before it cause you know its coming... my brother gets it really bad too... he told me to do an excercise... I know it sounds crazy but if you can get past the initial terror of paralysis it works... close your eyes and relax... picture yourself levitating... you'll feel yourself rising off the bed... if you get good enough you can go anywhere or do anything... I have walked through walls and even floated through the ceiling... its pretty awesome... I guess the Guy who said it is nothing like lucid dreaming may be just a little wrong... 
disclaimer: when I said I walked through walls and such... I am fully aware I was not really walking through walls...


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## Swanson (Sep 4, 2010)

I experienced sleep paralysis for the first (and only) time last year and at the time I didn't even know what it was. That experience still disturbs me to this day. 

I remember waking up and seeing my uncle walk in to the room. I went to turn to ask what he was doing in there, but I couldn't move or talk. Then all of a sudden he started choking me and pressing down on my chest until I thought I was about to suffocate. Then I woke up. Freaky as hell. I know it's not his fault, but I'm still uneasy around my uncle, even though there's no history of abuse or anything like that


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## robtyl (Sep 2, 2010)

Swanson said:


> I experienced sleep paralysis for the first (and only) time last year and at the time I didn't even know what it was. That experience still disturbs me to this day.
> 
> I remember waking up and seeing my uncle walk in to the room. I went to turn to ask what he was doing in there, but I couldn't move or talk. Then all of a sudden he started choking me and pressing down on my chest until I thought I was about to suffocate. Then I woke up. Freaky as hell. I know it's not his fault, but I'm still uneasy around my uncle, even though there's no history of abuse or anything like that


That was a dream... right? :idea

Too lazy to read the other posts in here, but I got sleep paralysis quite a bit while on Ritalin for a while... I freaked out about it then did some research on the interwebz. Turns out it happens where your body usually turns off your muscles when you dream (so if you run in your dream you don't physically start running in real life)... but sometimes it forgets to turn them back on when you wake up. So you're effectively 'paralysed' because you're physically still in the dream state (muscles = off), but you're mentally awake.

I read a good way to deal with this (which, I might add, DEFINITELY worked for me) was to blink or swallow a few times... it helps to reactivate the muscles or something. I tried this the next time I got sleep paralysis and was absolutely fine. Just don't panic and 'understand' what is happening to you, and you should be fine 

I also read that if you mentally try to move and walk around you'll get an out of body experience because your brain feels like it actually is moving. I was skeptical, but I tried to mentally move myself and walk around, despite physically being stuck in bed. I won't say I had an out of body experience, but it was an interesting sensation!

So perhaps sleep paralysis IS fun and exciting, if you know what to expect. I stopped Ritalin ages ago and never experienced sleep paralysis again, though, so I couldn't work on it :/

Just remember not to freak out.

x


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## PsyKat (Sep 25, 2007)

I'm somewhat jealous, I've never experienced this before. I'm sure I'd be scared too but just once would be alright I think.


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## Citrine (Oct 19, 2010)

Something like this happened to me once. Somehow I was facing my pillow and almost sufficated myself. That would have been a really lame way to go.


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## kerosene (Oct 26, 2010)

I've had...I still get it but only when I sleep on my back. Don't fall asleep on your back...but sometimes you roll over.


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