Sleep paralysis

AskWazzup

AskWazzup

Sonny, I Watched the Vault Bein' Built!
I started having this unpleasant phenomena 5-6 months ago, where i wake up mentally, yet i am not able to move any part of my body (eyes included) at all for some time. The first time i thought that it was a dream, but it was real, as i found out on quite a few other ocassions. When i'm paralysed like that, i am REALLY paralysed, it's a pretty terrible sensation the first few times. I think it lasts about 20 to 60 seconds, maybe more (quite hard to get a grasp on the time at that moment, because everything seems very sureal).

I'm not sure what trigerred this, but i think it's related to stress and bad sleeping habits (due to my nightshift job). I asked many people i know about it, yet many of them thought that i was joking or just had a dream. I have read that this is a rather common thing for many people, but it seems that nobody i ask about it, knows anything about the condition at all.

So i was wondering if anyone here had this happen to them and could maybe share a few tips on how to battle this stuff when it happens.
 
Bugger, I was reading about this a few weeks back in a psychology book. Can't remember much about it though apart from it being caused by waking up while you're body is still in REM. During REM you're body shuts down which is why you're paralysed when you wake up.

A bad sleep pattern and stress definitly help cause it though.

Useless trivia time, it's the same effect that created the belief in Inubi.
 
It's a bad sleep pattern. It's in a way like a lucid dream, just that you don't stay in your dream but instead return to your body, which is still in "don't thrash around, you're just dreaming mode" and therefore paralyzed.
If you have a nightshift job, you can't do much about it.
You might want to try learning to have lucid dreams to control your waking up from a light REM sleep. Maybe it helps?
It takes time to learn, though.
Maybe you could try meditating to reduce stress.
But really, the only thing that helps is fixing your sleep pattern.
 
I seem to have the opposite problem, I move too much while asleep, I wake up with my sheets around my neck, pillows on the floor and sometiems even sideways on my bed.
But I have had sleep paralysis too, sometime after very lucid dreams.
 
It happened to me several times, but not recently tho, it's been a while since the last time.

One time it happened probably cause I had my face against my pillow and couldn't breathe, probably making me realize I was sleeping and needed to move but not giving the body enough time to react and wake up. I kept fighting and fighting trying to move desperately. Let me tell ya, being paralyzed unable to breathe and not being able to move so that I could breathe properly again was something I don't ever want to experience again. For a moment there I thought it was the end.
 
V:shobon:V

Sleep paralysis and Night Terrors get brought up a lot in the ghost story/creepy threads on SA. For some reason laying on your back tends to cause/encourage them greatly, though if it's already happening to you not on your back, all I can suggest is trying to settle into your sleep pattern as best you can.

And the explanations given are basically correct. When you go to sleep, your body produces chemicals to keep keep your brain from sending commands to your nerves and making you get up and wander about whilst dreaming. However you can wake up during this while your body is still producing that chemical. I'd recommend talking to your doctor because maybe they can prescribe you some ambien or something to help. Dunno if it will, but I'm just saying.
 
It's only happened to me twice. Once when I got a new roommate, and again when my girlfriend moved in with me. Probably the stress of a minor life changing event.

The first time it happened it freaked me the fuck out, I could open my eyes but I couldn't move them, and there was a shadow in the doorway I could see out of the corner of my eyes, I was thoroughly convinced that my roommate was standing there watching me sleep or something. After about five minutes I was finally able to roll over and saw that it was just a chair. I went to my roommate's room and kicked him in the face for that. The second time it happened I was just like Dammit, not again.
 
I've had it happen to me a couple of times. One time I was still dreaming while awake (hallucinating more or less) while the other I was on my side and my arm or shoulder hurt so bad that I shouted out in pain until I could roll over. I went through a period of that happening in my sleep and only woke up from it a couple/few times, only once did I experience sleep paralysis. When I was young I used to sleep walk periodically and move around a lot in my sleep. These days I periodically get calf cramps in the middle of the night (figure it's dehydration).

All of such problems have gone away on their own.
 
Gonzalez said:
One time it happened probably cause I had my face against my pillow and couldn't breathe, probably making me realize I was sleeping and needed to move but not giving the body enough time to react and wake up. I kept fighting and fighting trying to move desperately. Let me tell ya, being paralyzed unable to breathe and not being able to move so that I could breathe properly again was something I don't ever want to experience again. For a moment there I thought it was the end.
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Very recognizable: the 'fuck, I'm suffocating and I can't wake up' feeling is one of the worst feelings I know of (together with anxiety attacks).

Personally, I also think it's related to sleeping on my back, because that's the only times it ever happened to me. I also get "sleepy hands" (numb, without any feeling) if I sleep on my back because I have a tendency to put my hands on my stomach or chest and that way they receive less blood or whatever.

Sleeping can be deadly.
 
See above. I haven't heard of any explanation, but for some reason laying on your back can cause some crazy fucked up dreams. Or sleep paralysis. I wake up with my arms asleep alot though because I end up laying on them.
 
Farmerk said:
The first time it happened it freaked me the fuck out, I could open my eyes but I couldn't move them, and there was a shadow in the doorway I could see out of the corner of my eyes, I was thoroughly convinced that my roommate was standing there watching me sleep or something.
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Heh, I had a similar experience. I knew there was nothing around me, but I totally had the feeling that something was there, doing something with me *soon*. It needed quite some time until I've managed to wake up. Really bad and panicky experience.

I have it every once in a while. The worst case is when I have problems with breathing.

Guess it is stress related. Always when it happened (which wasn't *that* often, though), I had quite some stressful times. As I am sleeping on my back most of the time, I don't think it is so much related to my experiences with it.
 
I've had this happen when I was a kid. I have a friend who experiences this often. He claims that he is so used to it that he is not freaked out when it happens but starts thinking about boobs instead and falls back asleep again to have a nice bang in his dream. In fact, he says that for awhile he almost hallucinates banging a chick in that state before actually starting to dream so it feels real. He also said once that he saw Jesus in one of these episodes so you know, take it with a grain of salt.
 
I had the same problem a year ago, i went to my doctor and he said i had an under stimulated brain or an over stimulated brain, either one is meant to cause the same effect due to the brain been bored and therefore not shutting off or too stimulated to shut off but you can't control your body. apparently its a common thing, but not much known about it
 
Only happened to me once, i was basically half awake and had feeling someone was calling for me and i was unable to move or answer, once i realized i was paralyzed i started panicing, couple of minutes later i was able to sit up. Had to put lights on and pull myself togother. It was quite scary.

Sorry cannot really help otherwise, i have a friend who had serious problems with this in his teens but apparently it went away on its own after couple of months.

Edit: Now that i think about it this happened during very stressfull time, maybe that had something to do eith it, same with my friend.
 
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