Sleep Paralysis

[Eminent Thropp]

Have any of you ever experienced the phenomena known as sleep paralysis or 'old hags syndrome'? If you'd like to know anything about it, please ask here. I know that there are several people here who have had these experiences.

Just to state one thing. Sleep paralysis. It. Blows. One of the worst experiences you will ever have. But afterward, it can be useful to have experienced such a thing.

I myself have been plagued with it for several months on end. Please, speak, those of you who have experienced it please come out and speak about it, if for nothing than to just tell someone.

Also, if you ask likely, I'll tell you some if mine, some of which were really bizarre.

[Cryselda]

i have experienced this... tho not lately. it used to happen to me every month or so just a few years back. its really bad... i wuld get really scared when it happened. ;_;

[monday]

I was complaining to Cryselda about this on the chatbox one day... It was very odd to talk about it with someone who had actually experienced it. Now there is another person here who has also experienced it... I am sort of glad that I'm not the only one that I know who has experienced this, though It definitely is unpleasant.

The last time I experienced it was...last month. I think I only started experiencing sleep paralysis last year... Definitely one of the worst experiences, but it gives you stories to tell.

Would you care to tell us some of your experiences? I am curious. Especially because sleep paralysis can cause hallucinations... Many colorful things to see in the dark when you are unable to move and terrified...

[Eminent Thropp]

Well since you asked nicely.... I'm actually kind of proud of myself, for surviving. It's not exactly life threatening that I know of, but when your experiencing it, it pretty much is.

So. This was a time when I had only started becoming paralyzed during my sleep/wakefulness. It happened alot. I mean. Alot. In about three days I had been paralyzed god knows how many times because I just kept going in and out and in and out of it. It was because I kept fighting it I think. Well, fighting something. Does anyone else get the feeling that they are fighting to stay awake? Well I do. And I'm scared of what would happen if I give up and let 'it' have me. So I fought and fought and fought. Becoming paralyzed, fighting it, waking up, but being unable to stay up. I closed my eyes again very unwillingly, but I was sooooooooooo tired. I closed my eyes and after a second or two I saw through my eyelids, as usual with sleep paralysis. And so, at this time I was scared shitless and was thinking that I just had to stop whatever this was, I was certain that coming in contact with someone would save me. But that was impossible. I was on a bunkbed with my brothers below. When I fought myself out of the paralysis again I was too tired to scream, all I could do was moan. This happened over and over again until I started trying to move myself toward someone, well, toward the railing that protected me from falling off. Or protected the floor from me falling on it. Whatever.

So there I was, being completely conscious, hindered, severely hindered by my inability to actually use my body, but conscious. Just not functioning. I was scared to my wits end of the 'dark' and all I could do what think about how futile it was to fight it. Even as I fought it. Thinking that I'd do this over and over for ever and ever. And then, when I had finally moved my hand closer to the railing, note that I was not even inching toward it. I had practically no energy when I was conscious and could only move my hand toward it. It was a pretty uncomfortable position. And so I simply couldn't take it anymore I was going to go insane!! And with that thought I awoke my body one last time and heaved. I took hold of the railing and HEAVED. I heaved myself right up off the bed and onto the railing, at this point I was starting to go back into it but I pushed myself to give one last tilt and then the ceiling ran away from me. It wasn't a slow fall. It was fast. And it hurt. But it had worked. I was fully conscious. Every part of me. I was at last, finally, free. And so with that I rocked myself at the freaking scary ass thing that I had just survived and went right back up to my bed. I was absolutely certain that the dark was done with me tonight. I had gotten rid of it. I went to bed and slept normally. No dreams. No nothing. And then school. Literally an hour after that ordeal. My closing thoughts? F my life.

I'd tell others but I don't have another story in me tonight. Thoughts? Questions? Comments? Please feel free.

[Fallen]

This happens to me a lot when I don't get sufficient rest!
I'm sleeping and my head has that signature feeling of tiredness...
Once it was really scary and my brain felt like it was getting cold, and I had this vision of a face, which freaked me out a lot because it felt like something was trying to get into my head.
But a really really amazing way I discovered to get out of the sleep paralysis is to breath deeply, quickly, and continuously until your body wakes up. This always works for me because breathing is the only thing you can really control while in that state. Sometimes it takes a while but you do get out of it... So if it ever happens to you guys again you should try it. =)

[Cryselda]

ah yes. that is what i always used. it takes a little while tho.

[Stavros XIII]

Hmmm why would you not want sleep paralysis? It seems really nice? Unless I don't actually know what it is. Just to be sure: what is sleep paralysis?

[BadPlayer]

Hmmm why would you not want sleep paralysis? It seems really nice? Unless I don't actually know what it is. Just to be sure: what is sleep paralysis?

Well, when you go to sleep your brain basically disconnects you conscious movements from your body. It's why when you run in your dreams, your legs don't move in real life. Sleep paralysis is when you wake up from sleep, but your brain doesn't "reconnect" itself, meaning you still can't consciously move your body.

So no, it does not seem nice; you're trapped in the dark and unable to move.



...Never experienced it though.

[Stavros XIII]

might sound silly but i want to experience it now. when you're trapped - alone - and you have nothing to do, that's when you can truly reflect on yourself and your life, and meditate, while you wait in the mean time for rescue.

[BadPlayer]

might sound silly but i want to experience it now. when you're trapped - alone - and you have nothing to do, that's when you can truly reflect on yourself and your life, and meditate, while you wait in the mean time for rescue.

Ask someone to kidnap and tie you up during the night.

Just... ask them to do it in 10 years or something so you've forgotten you asked them to do it when they do

[Fallen]

Sleep paralysis is painful... You're trying to move but you can't. It's really frustrating.
And then like I said, you feel cold, but it's not externally so, it's cold from inside you...
The stupid sleep paralysis was coming again when I was trying to sleep last night, and my breaths were weak, but I think my feet were moving, but I wasn't trying to move them... I think I realized that they were moving and then tried to move them, because when you're in that state you seize the chance to control your body whenever you can. Anyhow, scary! ;_;
You don't really have the state of mind to think about things during sleep paralysis, much more reflect on your life...

[Cryselda]

yeah.... ;_;

when it happens to me my heart is pounding and i almost cant breathe. i just feel... inexplicable fear for some reason. im always just freaked out during it. even more then from the normal fear of not being able to move. its not a very nice experience strav....

[monday]

Oh wow, Eminence...You had a seriously terrifying sleep paralysis experience. I fight to stay awake as well, because I have a feeling that something terrible will happen if I give in to sleep when I'm experiencing it...

Yeah Fallen, the visions are frightening... I'll try that, but usually I am way too scared to think straight. xD

Stavros, that doesn't sound silly. I told my friend about all of my encounters with sleep paralysis and how amazingly strong the fear was...she still wanted to experience it herself. You usually don't meditate on your life though, because an 'irrational feeling of fear' overwhelms you and you hallucinate. It's hard to think calmly when you are experiencing that.

Haha Badplayer, nice idea. xD

Yeah summary if sleep paralysis experiences: It sucks.

Only positive side: It's an experience. You can tell dramatic stories about it and say 'look what I went through.'

[Eminent Thropp]

might sound silly but i want to experience it now. when you're trapped - alone - and you have nothing to do, that's when you can truly reflect on yourself and your life, and meditate, while you wait in the mean time for rescue.

Everyone else is talking about how terrible sleep paralysis is and while they are right, it does present to you certain opportunities. You can do things in SP that you can't do normally simply because of the nature of the fact that your body is disconnected from your mind.

What I mean is, well, after a month or so of sleep paralysis I began to be able to recognize much better than before exactly what was happening around me. Don't get me wrong, I was still scared, I was completely vulnerable and all I could do was watch. You can see through your eyelids during sleep paralysis. It's no dream. No one really knows what this means.

Anyway, I strayed away from what I meant to say. So. During sleep paralysis once, AND JUST ONCE. I attempted to Astral Project. That's right. Have an out of body experience. And it very nearly worked. What I did I think was desire the outcome, visualize it, and then work out in my mind exactly how it should go. It very nearly worked. At one point I began to feel vibrations. Everywhere. Everything. Everything just vibrated. And it wasn't frightening, it felt wonderful. I focused on these vibrations and willed them to become more... Vibrant. And they did. This kept on for a bit and I started to feel lighter. I thought I would do it. I thought I would actually leave my body and see the Astral Plane, experience a place dominated by thought. And then... I thought, 'Wait a minute, if this works and I go to the astral plane, what the hell will be there? Omfg, maybe there are giant spiders there. Shit. No. I'm scared. I don't want to do this anymore! Stop vibrating! I want out! Release me! WAKE UP!!'

And just like that, I was awake. My entire body. I couldn't feel the vibrations anymore. The experience was over. I sat there for a bit. [i was now sitting up on my bed] Just sat there. Kind of scolding myself for being so stupid. But I was still scared. And I wanted the vibrations to come back. They felt so good, so pure, so real you know? It was a magical experience that. And then I noticed, everything was... Glowing. Kind of. It had something around it. A sort of presence that wasn't a light. It was on everything. Living or non-living. I lay down on my bed now and thought about the experience. Including the 'glow that was a presence but not a light'. I knew exactly what it was.

TL;DR right?

[Cryselda]

no i read it all emi lol. XD

really interesting experience... i have felt vibrations too... i thought i was just dreaming i was on a train in that state. XD