Sleep Paralysis

[jekylljuice]

I was wondering if anybody else here has experience with this decidedly unpleasant bodily phenomenon and, if so, if they have any suggestions for avoiding/coping with it? Somehow, I managed to get through twenty two and a half years of life without it ever happening to me, but today I drifted off to sleep and it finally happened…twice.

It’s a truly terrifying feeling, when your mind awakens in a highly alert state and the rest of your body doesn’t respond. I’m really not sure how long it lasted, but when I tried to open my eyelids, I couldn’t – it felt like they’d been sealed shut. I tried to move my limbs but they wouldn’t budge. I’m not sure if I could even feel anything physically around me, like my entire body had gone numb. Well, it wore off soon enough, but it left me pretty shaken. A little later, I was able to get back to sleep, only to wake up to the exact same state of being. This time, I found I could move my mouth ever-so-slightly, so I latched onto my pillow in the hope that it would help, but then was overcome with the overwhelming fear that if I continued to do so, my mouth would also become frozen, and I’d suffocate. Again, it wore off quickly enough, but it took me a lot longer to get over the anxiety it generated. I certainly didn’t go back to sleep after that.

Since then, I’ve done a little research on sleep paralysis, and most sources seem to link it to sleeping in a supine position (ie: on your back), which I know I wasn’t (I’d been sleeping on my side, hence how I was able to bite onto the pillow without moving the rest of my body…and besides, I’ve slept on my back many a time with no such hardship). I still have no idea why it happened today, but with any luck the two incidents today will be a one-off experience and it won’t become a regular thing.

Darn it, waking up shouldn’t have to be this difficult. :( :herrsleep:

[Partymember]

;D i wanna go next!

sounds pretty groovy :cheesegrin:

[jekylljuice]

Well, I can't say I thought so at the time. It was basically several terrifying moments of thinking "what the hell happened to my body?!!" :wiltshock:

An out-of-body experience might be a bit more liberating. :cheese:

[pitbulllady]

I've experienced this many, many times, and it's apparently a very common phenomenon. Many cultures have their own myths to explain it. In the Gullah and SC Lowcountry culture, for instance, they believe that there are people who can willingly send out their concious spirits from their bodies to do evil things, and call these disembodied spirits "hags". They believe that "hags" will try to take over the body of a sleeping person, making that person do bad things in their sleep, and that whenever your start to awake, yet feel as though something is pressing down on you, preventing you from moving, that's the "hag", which is still trying to "ride" you and use your body to do its evil bidding. People who are accused of doing things like robbing a store or fooling around with someone else's spouse would often claim to have been "hag-ridden" at the time, having no memory of the event and no control over their actions.

That being said, I tend to experience sleep paralysis the worse when I'm not getting a good oxygen flow during sleep, often due to my chronic sinusitis, which causes my nose to become so stuffed up that I cannot breathe through it at all. Sleeping on my side helps, but I've gotten a lot of relief from Breathe-Rite Nasal Strips, which are adhesive strips that you put on the outside of your nose, like a Band-Aid, that hold open the breathing passages and allow better air flow. Sleep paralysis DOES have a very important and useful function-it keeps us from acting out, physically, what we're dreaming of, and either getting hurt or hurting someone else. It usually occurs when something-a small noise perhaps, or your brain telling you it's not getting quite enough oxygen-startles your conciousness awake while your body is still under the effects of REM sleep. Due the state of altered conciousness, all sorts of hallucinatory experiences can occur before the person is fully awake and mobile again, including a sense of a forboding presence in the room. I would not doubt that a lot of the old "Incubus" and "Succubus" legends, and many stories of "alien" abductions, result from really vivid examples of sleep paralysis.

pitbulllady

[Lynnie]

Eek, that does sound pretty scary when you've never experienced it before, and then suddenly experience it twice. PBL has a good point with getting enough oxygen. Do you exercise? I don't experience total paralysis, but I do wake up sometimes finding a limb, usually an arm but sometimes an entire leg, fast asleep, and I can't feel it at all, and I have to use one of my other appendages to move it before it starts to tingle and wake up. That can be scary when I see my arm there, but I can't feel it at all, much less being able to move it. I'm sure it's due to poor circulation, and that's probably due to my not exercising as much as I use to. I'm wondering if maybe your problem is also a circulation problem, which would also include an oxygen problem. Maybe the blood is still circulating fine deep inside the body, like to all the organs, but not so well to the outside of the body, like the muscles and skin. Do you feel any tingling when you wake up, or does the feeling slowly just start coming back? Hmm, I'm curious about this too now... I'll try to do more research online.

[Zeitgheist]

Yes, it's happened to me... once. When I was 12 years old, I think

I must say it was the most terrifying thing I have ever experienced. I felt like I vas conscious in the back of my mind, and I had to really, REALLY struggle to open my eyes. I'm 21 years old now and I haven't had one since, and hoping I never will... because... ugh, it feels like you're never going to be able to "wake up"

I also remember exactly WHAT caused it. I had a dream, and in the middle of the dream I realized it was a dream. When I realized it was a dream, the dream literally fell apart and I woke up... just not my body. When in that state though, I could shape any dream and have it look as if I was experiencing it real life (I don't know it this makes any sense, but it's like your memory becomes extremly detailed)

[kageri]

Eek, that does sound pretty scary when you've never experienced it before, and then suddenly experience it twice. PBL has a good point with getting enough oxygen. Do you exercise? I don't experience total paralysis, but I do wake up sometimes finding a limb, usually an arm but sometimes an entire leg, fast asleep, and I can't feel it at all, and I have to use one of my other appendages to move it before it starts to tingle and wake up. That can be scary when I see my arm there, but I can't feel it at all, much less being able to move it. I'm sure it's due to poor circulation, and that's probably due to my not exercising as much as I use to. I'm wondering if maybe your problem is also a circulation problem, which would also include an oxygen problem. Maybe the blood is still circulating fine deep inside the body, like to all the organs, but not so well to the outside of the body, like the muscles and skin. Do you feel any tingling when you wake up, or does the feeling slowly just start coming back? Hmm, I'm curious about this too now... I'll try to do more research online.

Yeah, when your arm or something is so asleep that when you touch it with your other arm it doesn't even feel like it's attached to you. That happens to me occasionally, though I exercise. I think I just have mediocre circulation to start with, since my hands are always freezing cold.

I don't recall ever experiencing sleep paralysis, though.

[jekylljuice]

Thanks for the information, folks. I suppose that a shortage of oxygen seems a credible explanation for my misadventure, which may explain why biting onto the pillow only added to my stress levels. Lynnie: I usually try to incorporate some exercise into my daily routine, though I find it easier to do so during term-time when my lifestyle is a lot more active than when I’m here at home. I’ve also skimmed through a couple of sources on sleep paralysis pointing fingers at excessive caffeine-consumption – if so, then maybe all those years of latte-binging have finally caught up with me. It probably wouldn't hurt the old circulation to start drinking more pure water.

It’s actually very interesting that the supine position should be the one most closely linked with sleep paralysis, because I’ve always found its exact opposite – the prone position – to be a lot more restrictive. I find it near impossible to sleep or even feel remotely relaxed when I’m lying on my front, as it usually produces the feeling that I’m being smothered. I also remember being tipped off once that it should be a lot harder to get properly relaxed whilst lying on your left side (the explanation being that it puts more pressure on your heart and circulation), though I’ve never really found that to be true in practice. Sleeping on my back or on my left seems to come a lot more naturally to me than sleeping on the front or the right.

I suppose I got off pretty lightly, all things considered. The experience was scary enough without an Incubus or an extra-terrestrial choosing to pay me a visit. :o

I also remember exactly WHAT caused it. I had a dream, and in the middle of the dream I realized it was a dream. When I realized it was a dream, the dream literally fell apart and I woke up... just not my body. When in that state though, I could shape any dream and have it look as if I was experiencing it real life (I don't know it this makes any sense, but it's like your memory becomes extremly detailed)

That sounds to me like a phenomenon called lucid dreaming - when you realise in the course of dreaming that it's merely an illusion, which often gives you more of an advantage in dictating how the rest of the dream goes. The sleep paralysis aside, you're pretty lucky to be able to pull that off - I've been wanting to experience one for years, but it's never really worked out for me.

[pitbulllady]

Thanks for the information, folks. I suppose that a shortage of oxygen seems a credible explanation for my misadventure, which may explain why biting onto the pillow only added to my stress levels. Lynnie: I usually try to incorporate some exercise into my daily routine, though I find it easier to do so during term-time when my lifestyle is a lot more active than when I?m here at home. I?ve also skimmed through a couple of sources on sleep paralysis pointing fingers at excessive caffeine-consumption ? if so, then maybe all those years of latte-binging have finally caught up with me. It probably wouldn't hurt the old circulation to start drinking more pure water.

It?s actually very interesting that the supine position should be the one most closely linked with sleep paralysis, because I?ve always found its exact opposite ? the prone position ? to be a lot more restrictive. I find it near impossible to sleep or even feel remotely relaxed when I?m lying on my front, as it usually produces the feeling that I?m being smothered. I also remember being tipped off once that it should be a lot harder to get properly relaxed whilst lying on your left side (the explanation being that it puts more pressure on your heart and circulation), though I?ve never really found that to be true in practice. Sleeping on my back or on my left seems to come a lot more naturally to me than sleeping on the front or the right.

I suppose I got off pretty lightly, all things considered. The experience was scary enough without an Incubus or an extra-terrestrial choosing to pay me a visit. :o



That sounds to me like a phenomenon called lucid dreaming - when you realise in the course of dreaming that it's merely an illusion, which often gives you more of an advantage in dictating how the rest of the dream goes. The sleep paralysis aside, you're pretty lucky to be able to pull that off - I've been wanting to experience one for years, but it's never really worked out for me.

I wouldn't try quitting caffeine "cold turkey"; that stuff is far more addictive than you may think, and you could wind up with a lot nastier feelings and experiences than sleep paralysis, like that feeling that someone has driven a railroad spike, heated white-hot, into your brain with a sledge hammer. If you have ever experienced a caffeine-withdrawal headache, it's about as bad as it gets without actually killing you. I've had experiences with sleep paralysis going all the way to my childhood, and it was MUCH worse as a child, when I didn't drink coffee and hardly ever drank soda(Kool-Aid and milk were the beverages of choice in our household). I drink STRONG black coffee and sugar-free energy drinks like they're going out of style now, but I only occasionally have experiences with sleep paralysis. With me, my emotional state at the time I go to bed seems to have more to do with it. If I'm upset, or just "wound up" over something, even something good, I'm more likely to experience it.

pitbulllady

[Ub3rD4n]

Man! Never had anything like that happen to me. I guess I can only say "my condolences" and hope you get better. I've heard of this stuff before, and know it is not pleasant.

[Mulch]

Due the state of altered conciousness, all sorts of hallucinatory experiences can occur before the person is fully awake and mobile again, including a sense of a forboding presence in the room. I would not doubt that a lot of the old "Incubus" and "Succubus" legends, and many stories of "alien" abductions, result from really vivid examples of sleep paralysis.


I had such an experience when I was about three years old. Sleep paralysis alone would have been scary enough at that age, but I had to have hallucinations too. I was alone in the room on this large bed, while all the adults (back then my mother lived with my grandparents, along with most of her siblings) were in the living room right next to me, watching the telly. I was facing a green radiator with bars, a pretty large one. Now I fell fast asleep, but only about ten minutes later I "awoke", not being able to move any part of my body. My eyes, however, were sort of open, so I was able to sense the room around me. And there, behind the radiator, was a really creepy creature, all black and white, it apparently had fur and its body was the size of a midget (a bit larger than me at that time). It had these glowing, angry eyes that somehow made it look like it was grinning. And it laughed a growling laughter, like the growling sound that comes from the back of your throat. Instead of being scared out of my wits I was simply angry. Sort of annoyed. And instead of wanting to get away I just wanted to beat the living snot out of that weirdo. Then I just suddenly gained conciousness and screamed as loud as I could. The first thing I noticed was that the creepy thing was gone. This seemed dead serious to me and the grown-ups were calling it a dream. I remember how ignorant I thought they were. Today I just laugh at this. I have no idea why I still remember this. (I also clearly remember an earlier incident of running down the hallway and hitting the bathroom door. 8D I still wonder if I was a total idiot when I was a baby.) It also happened to me around Easter this year. I again had my eyes sort of open but couldn't move. I saw this odd finger-thing straight in front of me and was absolutely terrified. (I'm assuming it was my finger. ::)) I don't recall getting it any other time.

[Partymember]

:bloogrin:

i can't wait to experience this for free

[jekylljuice]

Well, the good news is that over a week has now passed and, although my sleep pattern has been somewhat disturbed within that time, sleep paralysis hasn't come up again since. So, with any luck, it won't become a regular problem.

Thanks for the words of caution, PBL, though I don't think there was ever much chance of me cutting out caffeine completely - the stuff's been my lifeblood for well over a decade. I'd have a much harder time getting up in the morning if it weren't for the motivation of being able to indulge in a steaming mug of hot coffee. :bloogrin: