Sleep Paralysis

[Tobin S.]

Sleep paralysis is when you wake up from sleep but can't move. You may also fell like you can't breathe. Some people may also have hallucinations associated with the phenomenon. It's common to feel a dark presence in the room, and to feel like someone wants to harm you.

I've had experiences of sleep paralysis going back to my childhood. The first time I can remember it happening I was about 10 years old. But it only happened a handful of times in my entire life until recently. It has happened four times in the past year. It can be quite frightening, but as it has been occurring more frequently to me I've started to become less frightened when it happens, and also been able to retain a logical thought process through the experience.

I looked it up and sleep paralysis can be a symptom of several different things- irregular sleep patterns, alcohol consumption, narcolepsy, and mental illness. Specifically, bipolar disorder is mentioned in several places. I have bipolar disorder. However, I have had the illness for 26 years and I don't know why the sleep paralysis is just now appearing if it is due to my bipolar disorder.

[Eliot Rosewater]

1. It is also the reason for most alien visitations and abductions that are reported

when the person is in bed.

I have seen shit during my sleep paralysis that I was sure was real, but it wasnt.

[Thomas Hurt]

2. I have experienced this couple of times during my life, that and lucid dreaming once or twice...

at least as far as I remembered. Both are freaky.

[still_one]

3. also astral projection

[Thomas Hurt]

4. naw, I have never left my body, just didn't like how the dream was going, so I changed it.

[Eliot Rosewater]

9. I have done that too in this state, or thought I was.

[still_one]

11. same here

[unblock]

7. all my dreams are lucid.

i really don't know what it's like to have a dream where you can't rewind, change something, and hit play again.

i've read you can teach yourself how to lucid dream, but my dreams have just always been like that.

[get the red out]

5. I experienced it quite a bit as a child

I would wake up frozen, having trouble breathing, and trying to yell for my parents but couldn't get a sound out. That was just AWFUL!

I have only had that experience a handful of times since childhood. I have depression rather than bi-polar, but have never known what caused these experiences.

[unblock]

6. i have had it a number of times in my life, though not recently.

terrifying the first few times, until i got used to it and realized it was only temporary.

sufficient external stimulation will fully wake me, but i can't will it to happen. i try to take huge deep breaths but can't, because i can't control my lungs. that may be the scariest part of it, you're only getting "sleep-sufficient" breaths, which doesn't feel like enough.

my cat came up to me one time and sniffed me on my nose and that woke me. he knew something was up.


my parents kept insisting it was really just a kind of dream, until one time i had it while my mom came into the room to put away the laundry. eventually she made bumped the bed and i woke with a start and then proceeded to recount precisely every movement she made, such as putting her coffee down to look out the window, etc., then they finally believed me.

[JustAnotherGen]

8. Could you have a sleep study?

I did and it was on that particular night - that I had a sleep paralysis episode. They had increased over the years to at least once a week.

I found out I had what my then fiancé, now husband called 'super powers' -

hyper somniac with a touch of narcolepsy. Add in a ton stress (my father was dying from cancer at the time) and the aliens on my chest were showing up at least once a week.

It's terrifying - until you know what it is.

At least my 'super powers' also indicated why I have sleep walked on and off throughout my life. Folks have had some pretty interesting conversations with me over the years.

[Eliot Rosewater]

10. In my case I saw things that werent there, heard things.

[JustAnotherGen]

12. Aliens, aliens, aliens

[Eliot Rosewater]

13. For real, think about it. During this state have you seen or heard things that arent there?

If you tend to believe in aliens, etc...then you will think you see them.

[JustAnotherGen]

14. Seriously

You are literally hallucinating when you are in a sleep paralysis state. It's also very common for people on the spectrum of narcolepsy to hallucinate.

I would literally hallucinate about aliens.

When my sleep paralysis incident occurred during my sleep study in 2011 - They thought I was going to have a heart attack.

It happened the next day during the 'sit in a chair in the dark' test. It happens when I hyper somnia (deep sleep within in minutes of sleep) under a high level of stress.

[Eliot Rosewater]

15. that is why I dont bother with alien abduction stories usually, unless they are loggers

[mopinko]

16. 2nd rec for a sleep study.

even if it just satisfies your curiosity.

my youngest has this, on top of a bunch of other strange happenings in her brain and mind. imho, most of it ties back to a head injury as a little bit. the subsequent undiagnosed epilepsy was also damaging in a lot of ways.
she had hallucinations that got her tagged as paranoid. sleep troubles that caused depression.
a very tangled brain.

[hunter]

17. I'm not sure if I can attribute my own "very tangled brain" to dysfunctional grandparents...

... or head injuries.

I've got too much experience with hallucinations and sleep troubles, but no answers.

I'm currently well enough, but it's never been a sure thing, not since puberty.

Paranoia is a close friend of mine. Sometimes, but not often, she's right.

Modern meds are helpful.