weird sleep paralysis shit

Kevin Hodge · #1 24th April 2009, 00:02

last night i had been sleeping about half an hour when i had a sort of half dream/half awake experience of thinking i was sort of trapped inside an inert body...i was trying to cry out or speak but my body wouldn't do anything...i couldn't open my eyes because all my stuff felt inert...in my dream i shambled through to the living room to try to find someone to help me somehow, but while i was trying to cry out, going "mmmm MMMMMmllll LlllmmmmMmmMM" pathetically i realised that i wasn't in the living room - i was still in bed and this made me wake up and become aware of myself going "mmmmMmMmMMMm lllllLLlllmmm" and all that.

so i woke up and it was dark and i turned on the lamp and looked around at my room and tried to figure out what was going on and felt erally terrible and psychotic and scared.

anyone else suffer from crap like that? and does anyone know what causes it?

Louise Marie · #2 24th April 2009, 00:10

yeah, i had it for a year two years ago. first time it happened i was so scared, couldnt move my body and can sense a presence in the room. thought i was being burgled. turns out that a key feature of sleep paralysis is sensing a figure in the room. Its a horrible exprience, i later realised it was because i had changed environment. I had just moved out of home for the first time and doc said it was due to that.

Was it first time you had it? Lou

s0me_guy · #3 24th April 2009, 00:15

Yeah I get it sometimes - normally after I've been asleep for a few hours. Had it a couple of nights a go infact. I know it's definitely not good but in my experience the worse thing to do is panic or try and fight it as it makes it a whole lot worse; naturally you will for first time you experience it though. Since I've had it happen plenty of times it's not really a biggie for me now I just tell myself to relax and the next thing I know I'm waking up in the morning.

Try not to dwell on it to much as it's quite likely that you may never experience it again.

Kevin Hodge · #4 24th April 2009, 00:18

good evening louise

i've had stuff kind of like this before, but never really had a "presence" in the room. oh no wait, maybe once!

i had this extremely realistic dream once...my dream was that i was lying in bed (which of course i actually was) and the grey light of morning-coming-through-curtains was in the room in my dream, and a tall man with a dogs head instead of a mans head came out of the cupboard at the bottom of the bed

in the dream we fought but it was all too horrible to stay asleep and happily i woke up, although it was freaky comparing the vibe in my room to the vibe in the dream as the dream seemed very mundanely real, except with the addition of large dog-headed mutant.

not amusing in the slightest, freaked me right the hell out

mattty · #5 24th April 2009, 00:36

When i was in my teens i used to have this kind of thing quite often. I can't remember specifics but in a dream i'd maybe be trying to run away from some danger but it would be like my legs couldn't move properly, as if trying to run through deep water or something, and i'd keep stumbling. Or i'd try to speak but my voice wouldn't come out right, a bit like you desrcibe, sort of like slow motion.

IRIS · #6 24th April 2009, 02:10

Yeah I had this for the first time a few weeks back, I was terrified. It was early morning and the sun was coming through the window, I closed my eyes again and I herd something running across the room, a small child or maybe a dog, then I heard it again, felt it's presence. I tried to open my eyes to look what was happening, and they would not open! I tried to sit up, I could not move! I thought, I am dead, I have died and this is why I cannot move my body as I am not in it.. my heart was pounding like mad. I thought, I must be asleep , calm down and it will pass, deep breaths, and I came out of it, but man I was shitting myself.

MrPSB · #7 24th April 2009, 07:41

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_paralysis is a good starting point for abit more info, I've had a few of these episodes myself.

hardy · #8 24th April 2009, 12:10

Its suprisingly common. The answers simple . your brain does imobilise you when youre asleep to protect you from rolling out of trees or alerting predatory animals. If you only half wake up the part of the brain that switches on your normal movement can still be asleep. Then you get a dream or waking nightmare which fits with the way you feel unable to move . In previous times and cultures people used to imagine there was a demon or creature sitting on them .

StarHaze · #9 30th April 2009, 01:55

I used to get it all the time!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRoaM1PyvAw