Sleep paralysis/apnea experience

[brownie]

I remember the few times I experienced sleep paralysis, I was sleeping on my back. I didn't have any imagry or a sense of a presence in my bedroon though. But the paralysis was so disturbing to me that I made the effort to retrain myself to sleep on my sides. Since then, absolutely no sleep paralysis.

About Sleep Apnea - anyone who thinks they might have it (and sleep paralysis can sort of mimic it) - please ask your health care provider to have you tested for sleep apnea. I have two friends who were diagnosed with it and now wear the C-pap machine (a pain the the a**, but a life saver). And these friends were not overweight either (there's a misconception that only overweight people are prone to sleep apnea).

 

[PainKiller]

I have had about a half dozen of these incidents and all of them were very intense and long lasting (or at least it felt so). I was able to deduce that it usually came the night after a night of hard drinking. Not to say this is the case with anyone else but I narrowed it down to that for me. For instance, if I drank a lot on Saturday night it would typically happen 24 hours later, on Sunday night. Sometimes Monday night.

I figured it must be a state that my brain was in during the detoxification process of my body. But, let me tell you it made me afraid to go to sleep and it often happened more than one time in a single night. It was horrible and it was literally paralyzing. I don't remember not being able to breathe so much as being unable to move but being able to clearly see the actual room I was really in at what always seemed like a brighter time in the day or morning. never could figure that one out.....

 

[Angel of Ioren]

But, let me tell you it made me afraid to go to sleep and it often happened more than one time in a single night. It was horrible and it was literally paralyzing. I don't remember not being able to breathe so much as being unable to move but being able to clearly see the actual room I was really in at what always seemed like a brighter time in the day or morning. never could figure that one out.....

Sleep paralysis is extremly scary. It really shows how much our body can mess us up and play tricks on us.

 

[Sean Elifritz]

Guess I'm one of the lucky ones as there have been barely any instances of this in my life and none I can think of as an adult. Don't know if it has something to do with the way you sleep or not as I usually sleep face down. I can remember only 2 instances of what might have been this and they were both from childhood. The more significant, really scary one happened when my family and I lived in an apartment above a bar. It was a small apartment and my sister and I had to share a room so there were 2 beds several feet apart. I don't remember how it began (I assume I awoke to it) but I could see many tall, thin, dark figures in the room. They were so dark that the surrounding darkness was not as deep. And when I say there was a lot of them I mean a lot, like a dozen. They were so thin that the best way I've found to describe them is to say they were like tall, animate boards. And there was a lot of gibberish in the room, like they were all talking at once and none of it was decipherable. But it was almost more like whispering than talking. Their attention seemed to be focused on my sister. They were huddling around her bed and babbling and I was pretty scared and that's pretty much all I remember. I'm guessing I simply fell back to sleep at that point. Now, this memory is approximately 30 years old. I can't remember a feeling of paralysis or any difficulty in breathing. I just remember seeing this and being scared and not even wanting to move because I didn't want them to take notice of me. But it could very well be that I was paralyzed and just don't recall that detail. For years I interpreted this as a dream or that maybe I even really had some kind of ghostly encounter (But this always seemed like just a tiny possibility to me. Even as a kid I didn't give the idea much credence). But then I got interested in UFOs and heard about sleep paralysis and thought, "Aha!" Thinking back it doesn't even seem to make sense that I would be able to see dark figures in a dark room.