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Sleep paralysis - who else has experienced this?

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@goggs

here is my "problem" with dream intetpetation. one time I had a dream within a dream type dream that involved a false awakening and a missing hand. I thought it was interesting and I shared it with quite a few people where I work. the thing is I come into contact with a multitude of nationalities ethnicities etc. and I got three different interpretations when it came to missing a limb. it seems in some cases at least, dream interpetation is culturally based.
 
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fwiw that was also a (somewhat) lucid dream as I told myself upon seeing that i was missing a hand "that's funny it was there earlier, I must be dreaming" then I "awoke " only to find that I was still dreaming and then I awoke....for real...from THAT dream.
 
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<--- *scratches head*
I guess I've missed out all these years. I can't recall a single episode of "sleep paralysis." I assume you are defining SP as the inability to move when transitioning from a dream state into consciousness. In dreams I've become frozen many times, but after waking up, no problem. Instead, just my luck, I have those occasional episodes of waking paralysis, *grumble* Like some of those 5c slot-machine gamblers in vegas... :eek:
 
Burnt State said:
Ok, that's pretty funny. In all my dreams where i'm flying i suddenly become lucid, am able to control the dream and then get so excited about flying and being lucid tha I wake up.

I like the torpedo analogy as that's exactly how I felt.

What's interesting about the dream space is the time dilation effect. In a second or two of real time, where your face is pressed against the wall, whole amazing journeys of personal flight across continents could have transpired in the dream time. I sincerely believe that much of the abduction phenomenon comes from the dream space and our altered perceptions of reality when we are inbetween various levels of consciousness.
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maybe related to that is that when i was fighting to regain control of my body it felt like it took tens of seconds, therefore in my mind, time enough for the "intruder" to get away,when in fact it was probably a handful of seconds between the time that i knew i was incapacitated and the time that i was able to move and get a sense of my surrondings. Or maybe i did come out of dream state way to early and it did take 40-50 seconds before i was ready to act in a waking state. Do you guys have any recall how long the time was before you were able to move and that you were aware you could not move?
 
I do think that some dreams have a meaning. Many, many people claim to have had dreams with premonitions that came true.

Those are probably the exception and not the rule though. 99% of dreams are probably just a mix between "your brain's screensaver" and "digesting the day's events".

I'm kind of surprised that the sleep paralysis thing isn't uncommon at all. Thanks for sharing your experiences.
 
and dream premonition brings yet another twist and why I don't bother with dream interpretation...though for the record I do record them and note "themes" that tend to pop up again and again even though they seem to have little overall relevance to the dream itself....go back to my missing hand thing. If I put much weight on premonition I'd probably be freaking out for a period after I had it. What if I keep having them ? . i.e. one of the themes that keep popping up? at what point should you consider that maybe you aren't going to lose it ? is there an expiration date that iif it doesn't happen you're safe? does it matter if you're American or Russian?, (apparently it does) I have pretty good dream recall but there has been a number of times a mundane event or sight in my waking day triggered a dream recall that I had the night before, should I consider that a forgotten premonition or just trying to fit something to validate my beliefs...hope that made sense...

Not to say that there is nothing to the idea of premonition I just don't bother with it probably because as you may have noticed I tend to overthink a lot of things that interest me.
 
I have had many experiences of sleep paralysis. Once with the typical shadow people-like character standing next to the bed. I guess with proneness for sleep parlysis in conjunction with synesthesia (which often has the effect of vivid and lucid dreaming) one get pretty neat dream state experiences. For example during a period when I was re reading Communion I woke up several times and saw similair beings standing next to the bed, which was pretty cool, although explainable.
 
Pegusta said:
I have had many experiences of sleep paralysis. Once with the typical shadow people-like character standing next to the bed. I guess with proneness for sleep parlysis in conjunction with synesthesia (which often has the effect of vivid and lucid dreaming) one get pretty neat dream state experiences. For example during a period when I was re reading Communion I woke up several times and saw similair beings standing next to the bed, which was pretty cool, although explainable.
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Geez... grateful that I am blind as a bat and haven't seen anything like that over the years. You sound so casual about it: "...saw similar beings standing next to the bed, which was pretty cool..."
 
TalkingMeatSuit said:
Geez... grateful that I am blind as a bat and haven't seen anything like that over the years. You sound so casual about it: "...saw similar beings standing next to the bed, which was pretty cool..."
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He He


Well, it was not like I was afraid during any of those experiences, which would indicate to me that it was some sort of dream state experience tying in to synesthesia. And looking back at them now, I can clearly see that they were the product of several natural factors. But nevertheless, as mentioned earlier, pretty cool experiences nonetheless.
 
Oh man... I've had it happen to me a number of times since my mid-teens. The first time I had it I was about 16. I was laying down in bed just waiting to fall asleep; my arms where behind my head and my eyes were still open but i felt like I was day-dreaming because I had focused my vision on the ceiling fan in my room. I kept my t.v. on so there was plenty of light in the room, but then the light faded away and I felt my body go rigid, still stuck in the same position and feeling totally vulnerable. My vision went completely black and it felt like the sheets had been pulled tight around me. Of course by this time I'm absolutely terrified, but then, even through the pitch blackness I could see dark figures rising up around me; darker than the blackest black. It seemed like I was being pulled feet-first down along a gauntlet of the things, slowly at first, but then faster and faster. I was absolutely sure that I was going to die. Suddenly I was finally able to control my eyelids and I closed them tight. I felt my body return under my control and when I opened them, everything around me was completely normal. I tore the sheets away, bolted up, and turned on both my desk lamp and my ceiling fan light. I didn't know what to do. I didn't sleep at all for the next two days, and I missed school as well pretending to be sick, but I didn't think to tell anyone about it. A couple of years later I'm watching The Discovery Channel with my dad and the subject of sleep paralysis came up. It was the first time I had ever heard of it, and I was on the edge of my seat, nodding along with every word. When it was over I looked to my dad and said "... I've had that before... I thought I was going crazy, dad, but I've had that." It was by far, the most terrifying experience of my life.
 
Every time that it happened to me I woke up and couldn't move
but I never saw anything strange. The last time was just a few months ago.
 
The first time you experience a full bout of SP you get really scared. Scared that if you fall back asleep it will happen again. Which it does. When you have just come out of SP, I think immediately after is a danger-period in which you are very likely to experience it again. I have never seen any old hags or greys or any such thing, although one time I did feel I'd been transported somewhere with other 'captive' humans and that there were little alien-type beings busying themselves around the periphery of my sight.

The fact that people only seem to report negative hallucination characters during SP must make it extremely interesting for study in psychological terms. It's not hard to see why people ascribe a paranormal aspect to it all. I mean, if people were as likely to see pleasant characters as unpleasant ones, then you could just see it as an extension of dreaming but the fact it all seems scary, oppressive or bizarre, surely that has some major significance? But what? For the life of my I can't work it out.
 
In total, I've experienced sleep paralysis four times, and out of those four only one was not hallucinatory. I was 19 the second time it happened, and there wasn't any sort of vision or anything involved. The last two times have been within the last year. The third time it happened, I had paralysis with an auditory hallucination; I could hear normal sounds around me, the neighbors, the radio, etc. and behind that was a woman's voice chanting "the Devil has your naaaaaame, the Devil has your naaaaaaame." The last time it happened was about six months ago. Again, full paralysis, but this time I was able to move my eyes and saw what looked like a GIANT SNAKE SLOWLY WORKING IT'S JAWS AND THROAT AROUND MY LEGS. It has big, yellow eyes and glittering scales. I damn near lost it but somehow I was able to think "Oh sh*t! Wake the f**k up, dude!!!" and snapped out of it.
 
I've never had sleep paralysis, although I think I'd prefer it to the many night terror incidents I've had over the years. I'm sure the paralysis is scary, but at least you're not up moving doing damage to yourself, your home and god forbid, others.

A year ago I got an app for my iPad that took pictures every few minutes while I was asleep. I watched it and it scared me to death, it was like a horror movie. One frame I was down, the next I was standing, staring at the ceiling, then I was in the corner, the next I appeared to be arguing with someone. The last frame I was crouched down in front of the iPad shutting it off. (the video ended on that frame) It's truly awful. I now sleep with the lights and TV on (usually on PBS's Create channel as it's very non-negative). Doing that has worked better than any other treatment I've tried, and I've tried everything! I wonder if it might be beneficial for sleep paralysis too?? Sorry do not mean to hijack the thread, but when I saw the topic I immediately reacted to how much I'd rather have that problem than mine!
 
TS1 said:
I've never had sleep paralysis, although I think I'd prefer it to the many night terror incidents I've had over the years. I'm sure the paralysis is scary, but at least you're not up moving doing damage to yourself, your home and god forbid, others.

A year ago I got an app for my iPad that took pictures every few minutes while I was asleep. I watched it and it scared me to death, it was like a horror movie. One frame I was down, the next I was standing, staring at the ceiling, then I was in the corner, the next I appeared to be arguing with someone. The last frame I was crouched down in front of the iPad shutting it off. (the video ended on that frame) It's truly awful. I now sleep with the lights and TV on (usually on PBS's Create channel as it's very non-negative). Doing that has worked better than any other treatment I've tried, and I've tried everything! I wonder if it might be beneficial for sleep paralysis too?? Sorry do not mean to hijack the thread, but when I saw the topic I immediately reacted to how much I'd rather have that problem than mine!
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Good God, man! Have you been to a sleep specialist about it? If not, then try to see one asap.
 
Now 1st off I would like to say that I have never experienced anything like sleep paralysis or night terrors before....except for one extremely odd occasion. I was about 11 years old at the time & my family and I spent Christmas eve at some close by relatives house. It was early evening & I was in the living room watching television while everyone else was outside around a fire.

I don't remember falling asleep which is very odd because 99% of the time I know more a less when I fall asleep, but this was not the case it was more like blacking out all of the sudden. I woke up and I found myself running for my life in the backyard with my concerned family trying to catch up to me.

My body was pumped full of adrenaline & for some reason I was extremely terrified of something. This all occurred about two hours after I lost conciousness & to this day I still have no idea what I dreamt/experienced during those two hours.

As you can imagine I was very embarrassed about the whole experience (yes even at 11 years old) & made an apology to my relatives the next morning.

I know this was most likely just a night terror, but like I said I never experienced anything remotely like it before or since & I am still extremely puzzled by this event. Strangely enough I have never told anyone about this before.
 
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Christopher O'Brien said:
<--- *scratches head*
I guess I've missed out all these years. I can't recall a single episode of "sleep paralysis." I assume you are defining SP as the inability to move when transitioning from a dream state into consciousness. In dreams I've become frozen many times, but after waking up, no problem. Instead, just my luck, I have those occasional episodes of waking paralysis, *grumble* Like some of those 5c slot-machine gamblers in vegas... :eek:
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I have heard you say that you do not own a television set, and my understanding is that if a person is "bombarded" with lights and noise when they are asleep it can cause all sorts of reactions.
I often used to fall asleep with my radio on, and in the morning I would know the news word for word, because the station I was listening to repeated the news on the hour 24/7 so I would have listened to it about eight times even though I was asleep, I was still taking information in.

I would not advise anyone to fall asleep in front of the tv as even a faulty light bulb (that flashes) can cause weird sensations or dreams.

I feel very lucky that I like dreaming, and have had some amazing ones, personally I don't think it is possible for anyone but the dreamer to interpret ones dreams, I am convinced that they are full of meaning but their true purpose is individually tailored by our conscious.

One technique I employ is that if I am starting to have a bad dream I will challenge whatever the threat is. for example if I started to dream about being chased by a T-Rex I try to make it even more diabolical by imagining that it can also fly, and that there is no way to escape it. Only when I have accepted that a "fight" is the only solution, do I employ my "magic" dream powers, and vanquish my opponent with aplomb!
What I am trying to convey is that it is possible to conquer your dreams and make them work for you, or at least make them more pleasant. I am sorry that I can not explain the method because I do not understand it myself, even though I have managed it, I can not explain how I got there. I must also say that I do occasionally have very vivid "bad" dreams, but they always coincide with real life traumas or worries.

One indicator of the importance of dreams is that animals do it too, especially when they are young, I have observed my cats chasing "things" in their sleep, and have often wondered what exactly they are chasing? I am sure that they are running simulations of hunts to hone their skills, but then again they could be flying or swimming :) there is no way to tell at present but I am sure we will one day. (when we can communicate more effectively with animals)

Lastly I have found that I sleep a lot better when the room I am sleeping in is dark, well ventilated and I have as much electrical equipment as possible turned off at the mains. (not on standby). I also avoid sleeping with my head near power sources (plug sockets) if possible.

I wish you all pleasant dreams :)
 
I agree with you on your comment about attempting to interpret your dreams. I'll go one step further and mention I avoid putting too much meaning to theml. I have become quite adept over the years of memorizing and recording my dreams and recognize they represent a hodgepodge of past days events...albeit out of context with reality...wants and desires and theoretically precognitive dreams in that the event in question has yet to happen (at least to my knowledge). For that reason I find it work to try to make anything out of then. The fact that I've reached some state of lucidity in changing my dreams is a bit of a cheat in my thinking (in as much as any possible precognition dreams ) Many times I'll eventually recognize the fact that I am dreaming and tell myself so and I also telll myself within the dream that I will want to memorize it and record it when I wake...for real!... this usually happens when a familiar theme pops up that is usually completely irrelevant to the dream itself and its these themes that I focus on but still I make no attempt to bring meaning to them I just like being "in tune" with my unconscious self.

But back to your main point, I've had plenty of sleep paralysis type events over the years and posted this fact many times in this forum and while I do occasionally go to bed with the radio on I have never found this to be a factor in any of these events and I haven't gone to sleep with the tv on in decades.
 
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