Have you ever experienced sleep paralysis?

Question

When does it seem to happen? How do you stop it? What has it been like for you? And what do you think causes it?

Answer 1

many times. happens when i'm very tired and get woken up by something in the middle of a deep sleep. can't stop it. pretty damn scary, feels like someone is stopping me from moving or speaking. no idea what may cause it. maybe the brain woke up and forgot to send the messages to the rest of the body.

Answer 2

I have experienced what doctors call sleep paralysis. You can read about this by doing a Google search on it. I personally don't believe the doctors explanations for this. When it has happened to me I had the experience of not being able to move my body and experiencing large currents of energy flowing rapidly throughout my body. They kept going faster and faster and I was afraid that if I didn't come out of this state that I would die. I was scared to death! The doctors would say that I was asleep and dreaming this stuff. I know the difference between a dream and these experiences, I'm 63 years old! There was one time the energy flows were not so fast and they didn't increase in speed. It was quite pleasant so I just relaxed and enjoyed it. The first time that I experienced this state, I was 24. I woke uo from a sound sleep but could not move my body. I could sense a presence in the room but could see no one. This went on for some time until the :presence moved near my head, I felt a sharp pain on the top of my head like someone rapped me on my head with their knuckles, then I came out of this state.
I think that these states are some kind of state of consciousness that people don't normaly have. It appears that the experiences have not harmed me and the time the experience was pleasant, I just naturely came out of it. The times that the experience was scary, and I tried desparately to come out of it, the thing that helped was to try to move some small part of my body, like a toe or finger. When I could do that, then I could gradually move the rest of my body and come out of whatever state it is that we have experienced. Each time I've experienced this state I got better at doing this.

Answer 3

I remember a couple of times when my body woke up but I had to struggle to open my eyes. I even started to panic. Eventually they opened but it is scary. I think a person experiences sleep paralysis because the body is weak and or the muscles are very relaxed. Well, atleast thats what I was told.

Answer 4

I just seen a program on Nation Geographic Channel yesterday about this. And I learned a thing or two from it. I'll do my best to explain.

While dreaming, your brain "disconnects" muscle control temporarly so that your body dosen't act out what you are doing in your dream. This is done to prevent you from getting hurt while sleep walking. This normaly happens durring Rapid Eye Movement (REM) stage of sleeping, this is your deepest stage sleep. When your wakeing up from sleeping, if your brain misses the important step of "re-connecting" your muscle contorl. You will be awake, however motion less with no muscle contorl. Often times feeling like a heavy weight is on your chest. You will often times feel like someone or something is in the room with you. Some people say Ghosts, and others say Aliens.

Me personally, I have only had one experience of Sleep Paralysis. A very frightening feeling at first. But I knew that I was safe at home in bed so I knew not to panic. I felt like I was straped down into the bed with tons of pressure all over my body. I then could sence my Dad was in my room looking for his keys. I didn't have any muscle contorl, but I was trying to get his attention by breathing as loud as I could so he would wake me up. Later that day I seen my Dad, and asked him if he was in my room early in the morning. And ofcourse he said no, but I was certing I could hear him and sence him in the room with me. Its a very strange feeling but all in good fun :)

Answer 5

I have experienced it, however, I have not been able to monitor it since it happens at various times. It seems like your whole body is frozen but you cannot open your eyes and you are aware of your surroundings (noises , sounds)...the harder you try to move the more frozen you get...so, relax and keep trying -then you will be able to move...and come out of your frozen state.Once I tried breathing hard and loud hoping someone would get annoyed and wake me up...but afterward people said they did not notice any labored breathing.I do believe the Sleep Labs are still out on this problem.

Answer 6

Yes, but I have Narcolepsy...one of the lovely side kicks was night terrors w/paralysis...awful experiences, to say the least...sometimes just before I woke up, as well.
I changed my diet, watched eating too late in the eve, esp. teas/coffees w/ caffeinne or high sugar bevs. the episodes waned and now I don't have any at all.
Not letting yourself get over-tired before retiring helps, too
I found that it seemed to happen most when I went into REM to fast (the pass-out kind of tired).

Answer 7

The cause? The body being stuck between being half awake and half asleep. That's why you can't move. But you're mind is still functioning. Wierd isn't it? I used to have it. 4 years ago. I hate it, cause it's usually when I'm having a bad dream. I don't know how I got rid of it. Sorry.

Answer 8

yes! i have had it a couple of times. It seems to happen when I am really stressed or worried about something. I can't move but it's like i am aware of the fact that i really can't move., which frightens me,but i can't reach my husband to tell him that something is wrong. I had a sleep study, guess what it didn't happen while in the hospital.

Answer 9

YES!!! that is SO SCARY!! it happens to me a lot. I just keep telling my finger to move or my throat to make a sound over and over untill it finally happens. It takes so long though. Someone told me that the sleep stage you're in when that happens is called alpha stage sleep, and that you can astraly project yourself out of your body when you are in it. but when It happens I never remember to try. I'm too freaked out. This probably wasn't a lot of help, but it's nice to know that this happens to other people too. At least for me it is

Answer 10

We can sense ourself, but we cannot move, if we tried to move we feel more burden. I have experienced more than hundred times this type of situation. When I get this problem in sleeing, I started to try to move my Toe and leave my body free. If we try more we get more tension. You can aware of your position but you cannot move any parts of your body except your toe is, "sleep paralysis".

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