What does it mean when you wake up and it feels like you can't move??

Question

I have had this happen before and I have also felt someone touch my shoulder many times when I was younger but I woke to find of course no one was there, what was this? was I just very tired or is there an actual meaning to it?

Answer 1

This is perfectly normal, happens to many people, and doesn't mean anything. When you dream your brain shuts down the connection with your body so that you're not flailing around as you run, fly or punch in your dreams. Sometimes when you wake up, you're only half-awake and still paralyzed by your previous dream state. Anything you see or feel in this half-awake state, however real it may seem, is just a remnant of your unconscious dreaming. This isn't a perfect system, and some people do punch or kick in their sleep, but usually on the edge of waking. http://www.dreamsnightmares.com/sleepparalysis.html

There was a study done where surgeons stimulated a certain part of someone's brain, as they were removing a tumor or something, and it made the patient feel like there was another person standing right next to them and touching them. All explanations of ghosts and the supernatural go down the drain when you can just touch part of someone's brain and create the same effect. It's just a random hallucination caused by the variations of a complicated machine (your brain).

Answer 2

it's called "sleep paralysis". Yes, it's when you wake up consciously and your body hasn't yet. Happened to me many times when I was a younger. Now I'm a young adult and I rarely had these problems. I guess having a new bed helps, because mine was really uncomfortable. At times, it feels like someone is sitting on me when I'm paralyzed. Your problem sounds a bit similiar to mine, so it's really nothing serious. Some people with this problem sometimes report that they can see ghosts or spirits in the worst case scenario. Even though there is no harm done, it can get pretty scary, but I think it's more of a mental thing.

It usually happens when you are not consistently sleeping enough or when you're interrupting your sleeping pattern. It could also be caused by stress. So be sure to sleep on time, it should help you a bit.

Answer 3

There's this thing that happens with some people when you sleep where your sleep cycle doesn't work quite right. What should happen is that you go to sleep, your body shuts off so you can dream without hurting yourself. Like you can dream that you're running but you don't run in your sleep. Then your dream shuts off, your body turns back on, and then you wake up. But in your case, your body doesn't quite turn back on before you wake up, so for a few seconds you feel paralyzed. It's not harmful, it's just an unusual variant in some people.

Answer 4

It sounds to me like Sleep Paralysis - if it is then there is nothing to worry about, i get it all the time. It can be scary - i have heard voices, seen shadows - but really it is harmless and isn't supernatural. I could try and explain it here and get in a mess - but i will give you a few links instead.

I never even knew it had a name till a few months ago - they have names for EVERYTHING! Sorry if it turns out it isn't this, its just the first thing i thought of when you said this. =]

Answer 5

It is called sleep paralysis when you can't move. Your mind is alert your body is stuck in REM, you may experience delusions when this happens. If you feel like you have had your shoulder touched while awake- join the club.

Answer 6

Sucker, even in the journey that your an atheist or no longer, do no longer count lots, as quickly as we are approached via the "different element" !! some one very on the edge of you or costly to you, who has surpassed directly to the different element, became into sending you a clean message. the reason at the back of the load on you, which you felt, became into by using the two their weight difficulty which that they had suffered with for an prolonged long term, and particular brought about their un-well timed dying, or they're apprehensive approximately you, in some way.... Your ethical experience ideas can not administration what our kinfolk are coming to us, and attempting to let us know..... don't be terrified of this weight on you.... yet whilst it happens lower back ... save a observe e book via your mattress, and write down what occurred, the way it made you experience, and attempt to recollect a time of day it occured,,,,and the different considerable factors of it. ultimately, you would be attentive to the meaning at the back of it..... remember your no longer the ineffective one, they're.... no longer something will take place to you. attempt to maintain an open ideas, know what's around you, or them whilst your dreaming. in the previous you enter 'REM" sleep, gentle some candles, seem into that gentle, do a mini form of yoga consultation..... blow out the candles, attempt to launch your ideas of your on an universal basis stuff,,,,, do away with all negitive capability and talk basically the constructive capability of your existence......and whilst this stress re-enters.....and additionally you experience that weight,,,,, attempt to no longer awaken,,,,,attempt to stay interior the 2nd, attempt to no longer be scared, attempt to pay interest on what this individual needs you to be attentive to !!!! This individual is sending you a message..... attempt to stay concentrated..... as quickly as your unsleeping, write down something you remember approximately your dream. it is considerable. regardless of if its in straightforward terms a word or 2..... Write it down. Then once you connect up with yet another kin member, you are able to ask questions like "hiya mom or dad,,,, Did Uncle Joe, die as a results of a weight difficulty"?? (it is basically an occasion)... that may not be the case in any respect, i don't be attentive to..... yet i be attentive to that via writing it down, somebody who knows you and knows this different stress or intity ,,,, does be attentive to. then you definately gets the solutions your after.

Answer 7

I dunno, the shoulder thing happened to me more when i was a child... the not being able to move thing happened to my cousin a lot. We used to think it was ghosts. A lot of other spooky stuff happened to us too. Maybe it was a mental thing, who knows. We're both adults and OK now. It happened a lot more when we were children. If you believe in that kind of stuff, people say that adolescent girls just attract a lot of parapsychic energy.

Answer 8

Do you feel really sore? Maybe your body is telling you that you need to sleep longer. Also, about the shoulder, maybe you're just a really light sleeper.

Answer 9

lol...i agree with everyone...it's sleep para. and don't worry it aint supernatural or weird...just sleep paralysis.
thank God i don't get them anymore...but have had it a few times...could hear, but couldn't move...it'd take everything i had to get a toe or finger to wiggling...and every bit of force to break through the paralysis...and then i'd be so tired from having to fight it.....it does feel weird especially when ur trying to talk, but u can't fully open ur mouth..only part ur lips...lol.. but it's not abnormal...less u have them super often.
bye.

Answer 10

its said that your spirit leaves your body while you're dreaming, and you wake up and it's not there..so you have to wait till it comes back which is usually right away. if you read Sylvia Browns books, you can find more info about it. it use to happen to me a lot when i was little, but it hasn't happened in YEARS to me.