• Sleep paralysis or something similar, anyone know what is is or has made similar experiences?
    12 replies, posted
In the last few months I had some weird experiences. I searched up the things I experienced online and I thought it was sleep paralysis but I'm still not really sure since some things don't really fit together. One time I had an experience where I'm really sure that it was sleep paralysis. I was lying on the couch in the living room and feel asleep at like 3pm. My parents were there too, sitting next to me watching TV. After like an hour I woke up, but I couldn't move my body and I felt like I was suffocating. I was looking at my parents and fell asleep again, woke up a few minutes later. Well, at least it felt like minutes. My father told me how he saw me lying there making muffled sounds and looking at him. However, that one experience I had differs greatly from the ones I now regularly have. The biggest difference is, that it happens [I]before[/I] falling asleep instead of while waking up. I'm lying there in my bed and I'm still conscious. The room is dark so I can't really see anything anyway. Suddenly I begin to have an euphoric feeling and I begin to grin (not always). I can feel a tingly, electric like sensation growing stronger the longer I am in that condition. After some time it really begins to feel uncomfortable, even to the point of feeling physical pain. The first time I experienced it, it felt like I was high on something and it felt actually pleasant for like a minute. But that's how it goes everytime. It starts off pleasant or neutral. but the longer I am in that condition the worse it gets. After some time, hallucinations set in. Sometimes I feel like my body is flying trough the room. One time I felt like I was flying to tne centre of the earth and I thought I was going to hell or something. Sometimes I hear a white noise like sound (which is sometimes distorted). At one point I could hear some voices coming closer. The longer it goes on, the worse it gets. So the worst one was when I was in that condition for very long and I had straight up visual hallucinations combined with physical pain. I could see some silhouettes which suddenly started flying into me which hurt, or a bar thingy coming out of the bed crushing my spine. I can break out of it usually when I try really hard to move certain body parts. There's no waking up or something since I'm still awake. The weird feelings just go away once I snap out of it. So like I said, it always happens while trying to fall asleep, not while waking up. When I break out of it I can't fall asleep, which is really annoying. The worst thing is, if I break out of and and I stay in my bed trying to fall asleep again, it will start again in a matter of seconds and the first thing that I feel is the weird tingly feeling in my body. Then I break out of it again, try to fall asleep again and it happens again. That kept me awake for 1 to 1 1/2 hours a couple of times now because it can happen indefinitely. It usually happens when my sleep is interrupted for like 1 or 2 hours, but it also happens when I go to sleep in a normal, regular schedule. Right now it's nearly 4am and I'm just awake because I don't feel like experiencing that again. Is anyone here with advice or similar experiences? [editline]9th February 2017[/editline] (It also should be noted that I feel paralyzed while it happens)
It's likely sleep paralysis, it's hard to 100% diagnose because its different for everyone. Do you get charley horses? it could be that + dreams. I know i do sometimes and I had a dream snakes were in my calf but it was really a charley horse when I woke up.
I don't think it's related to Charley Horses, my legs are completely fine.
If you actually felt like you were suffocating, it might have been sleep apnea. I've had a similar experience where I was paralyzed and could not breathe until waking up and finally taking a gasping breath. Maybe it is a combination of both sleep paralysis and sleep apnea.
[QUOTE=Orkel;51797663]If you actually felt like you were suffocating, it might have been sleep apnea. I've had a similar experience where I was paralyzed and could not breathe until waking up and finally taking a gasping breath. Maybe it is a combination of both sleep paralysis and sleep apnea.[/QUOTE] The feeling of suffocating only occured once though, when I had a sleep paralysis while waking up at day time next to my parents. Usually, when it happens while I try to fall asleep I don't feel like I'm suffocating, I'm just paralyzed.
I think I know what's going on, but I'm not a doctor. Take this with a grain of salt. People who practice lucid dreaming have a method called WILD, or Wake-Induced Lucid Dreaming. The general procedure is to set your sleep cycle up so that you can fall directly into REM sleep, and then you lie perfectly still in bed to subject yourself to sensory deprivation. The part of your brain responsible for sleeping is separate from cognition, so while your body shuts down for the night to keep you from falling out of bed, you keep thinking. I've tried it before many times, and although I only ever got it to work for me once, I'm familiar with the euphoric sensation you mentioned. Regardless of whether you've properly set the process up, by depriving your senses in a perfectly dark room, you can experience hypnagogia, which are hallucinations which usually occur just before entering a dream state (but if you haven't set it up properly, cognition will slip away from you after the hypnagogia appears. That was my experience.) They can take the form of visual inklings or are sometimes auditory or some other sense. I'm pretty certain I've heard of people hearing static while trying this, and once while attempting to WILD I heard my mother's voice calling to me when I was away in another city. Unlike lucid dreamers, however, you don't know why you're seeing or hearing things, and so you're panicking. Contrary to what you might have heard, it's possible to get sleep paralysis without actually sleeping, and it happens [I]a lot[/I] to people who are learning how to WILD. For them, it's usually because of some urge, like an itch or the need to swallow, breaks their sensory deprivation before the brain has entered a dream state. The body, however, has already been shut down, and it takes a few seconds for motor control to be restored. So I believe that when you experience Hypnagogia, you're panicking and trying to jerk yourself awake, and consequently you're inducing sleep paralysis by accident. The thing about SP is that you can also experience vivid hallucinations while stuck in paralysis, and panicking actually makes it [I]worse[/I]. There are loads of folk tales in the world about demons that sneak into your room at night, or people waking up to find creatures sitting on their chests, preventing them from moving, before suddenly vanishing, and sleep paralysis is the likely cause. So the really horrible things you might have experienced in this state are a direct result of the panic state you're in. What concerns me is that you say you actually had trouble breathing once. If that's the case, [U]go see a sleep specialist[/U] and have them monitor you while you sleep a night. Sleep paralysis doesn't interrupt essential life functions, as far as I know, but sleep apnea does, and that can be extremely hazardous to your health. The rest of this explanation might be a stretch as well, but in the future I'd advise you to remember that sleep paralysis can happen before sleep, that it's natural, and to remain calm and not allow yourself to panic.
Hey guys, need help with this one aswell. My girlfriend has had trouble sleeping the last couple of days because of sleep paralysis. When she falls asleep, her muscles twitch. I notice this whenever I am next to her in bed while she's falling asleep. She says a man with glasses keeps bullying her. This is just your regular shadow figure, but with glasses which reflect on light. He always tries to take her stuffies away, and 1 time it got to the point where she was getting choked. She was laying on her back and her torso was up, you could hear her getting choked. She didn't have her eyes open, but when I woke her up it was like nothing happened. She says the man also follows her to my house. She had multiple occasions where she also had SP at my place, none of them which I woke up from. She's had this for 7 years now, but lately it's getting worse. The last week almost every day. Any tips? I'd go to the doctor but it's difficult to go there without her mom noticing. I'd also go to a sleep specialist but we'd need to go to the doctor first and he would have to sign her up for that. Any tips? I might try to get her to the doctor anyway. This might harm her. She's also experienced physical pain apart from choking.
[QUOTE=Rozelsky;51800356]Hey guys, need help with this one aswell. My girlfriend has had trouble sleeping the last couple of days because of sleep paralysis. When she falls asleep, her muscles twitch. I notice this whenever I am next to her in bed while she's falling asleep. She says a man with glasses keeps bullying her. This is just your regular shadow figure, but with glasses which reflect on light. He always tries to take her stuffies away, and 1 time it got to the point where she was getting choked. She was laying on her back and her torso was up, you could hear her getting choked. She didn't have her eyes open, but when I woke her up it was like nothing happened. She says the man also follows her to my house. She had multiple occasions where she also had SP at my place, none of them which I woke up from. She's had this for 7 years now, but lately it's getting worse. The last week almost every day. Any tips? I'd go to the doctor but it's difficult to go there without her mom noticing. I'd also go to a sleep specialist but we'd need to go to the doctor first and he would have to sign her up for that. Any tips? I might try to get her to the doctor anyway. This might harm her. She's also experienced physical pain apart from choking.[/QUOTE] Wow. That's really scary. I'd see a doctor about it ASAP. It sounds like sleep paralysis, or possibly schizophrenia. Does she see this person outside of sleeping? (When she mentioned being followed there, was she sleeping when he followed or something?) As mentioned above, sleep apnea is another possibility. I'd see a sleep specialist because it can be dangerous if not cared for. Best of luck to you :( As for OP, I used to get sleep paralysis a lot. I found the biggest "cure" (if you'd call it that) was realizing that you're dreaming. This can be hard to achieve, and i'm pretty sure not everyone can do it. When you wake up, write down what you dreamt about. I found that researching how to lucid dream helped me. Once you understand that it's just a dream, that's the first step to stopping it. Not to sound mystical, but once I understood that I was able to manipulate my dreams. I recall in one of my dreams being offered the chance to fly a plane. I remember saying "Yeah, it's just a dream. let's do it." then flying the plane. Sleep paralysis is halfway to a lucid dream. I always think that since dreams and stuff are only in your brain, if you try hard enough you can manipulate anything in them.
Once I had a dream where I would keep involuntarily falling asleep doing normal things. Couldn't move my body and was hard to breathe. Was one of the worst feelings I had. I did dream this though, not sure if it's the same thing even though I felt the same things people are describing here.
I tend to experience hypnagogic sleep paralysis with auditory hallucinations (voices and music) if I try to sleep after being awake for 18+ hours. If I don't panic and let loose I will usually go straight to a lucid dream as I fall asleep, but I usually I'm too tired for that shit and break out of the paralysis a couple of times until I fall asleep normally.
[QUOTE=ShimTaco;51800948]Wow. That's really scary. I'd see a doctor about it ASAP. It sounds like sleep paralysis, or possibly schizophrenia. Does she see this person outside of sleeping? (When she mentioned being followed there, was she sleeping when he followed or something?) As mentioned above, sleep apnea is another possibility. I'd see a sleep specialist because it can be dangerous if not cared for. Best of luck to you :( [/QUOTE] She doesn't see this person outside of sleeping. With "The following" part , I meant that she also say the figure at my house. AKA, the figure is just following her when she is sleeping. Wherever she falls asleep, there he is. I might see a sleep specialist soon if she keeps complaining about it. Thanks for the help <3
[QUOTE=Rozelsky;51803883]She doesn't see this person outside of sleeping. With "The following" part , I meant that she also say the figure at my house. AKA, the figure is just following her when she is sleeping. Wherever she falls asleep, there he is. I might see a sleep specialist soon if she keeps complaining about it. Thanks for the help <3[/QUOTE] Try prayer. Dead serious.
[QUOTE=Sega Saturn;51798047]I think I know what's going on, but I'm not a doctor. Take this with a grain of salt. People who practice lucid dreaming have a method called WILD, or Wake-Induced Lucid Dreaming. The general procedure is to set your sleep cycle up so that you can fall directly into REM sleep, and then you lie perfectly still in bed to subject yourself to sensory deprivation. The part of your brain responsible for sleeping is separate from cognition, so while your body shuts down for the night to keep you from falling out of bed, you keep thinking. I've tried it before many times, and although I only ever got it to work for me once, I'm familiar with the euphoric sensation you mentioned. Regardless of whether you've properly set the process up, by depriving your senses in a perfectly dark room, you can experience hypnagogia, which are hallucinations which usually occur just before entering a dream state (but if you haven't set it up properly, cognition will slip away from you after the hypnagogia appears. That was my experience.) They can take the form of visual inklings or are sometimes auditory or some other sense. I'm pretty certain I've heard of people hearing static while trying this, and once while attempting to WILD I heard my mother's voice calling to me when I was away in another city. Unlike lucid dreamers, however, you don't know why you're seeing or hearing things, and so you're panicking. Contrary to what you might have heard, it's possible to get sleep paralysis without actually sleeping, and it happens [I]a lot[/I] to people who are learning how to WILD. For them, it's usually because of some urge, like an itch or the need to swallow, breaks their sensory deprivation before the brain has entered a dream state. The body, however, has already been shut down, and it takes a few seconds for motor control to be restored. So I believe that when you experience Hypnagogia, you're panicking and trying to jerk yourself awake, and consequently you're inducing sleep paralysis by accident. The thing about SP is that you can also experience vivid hallucinations while stuck in paralysis, and panicking actually makes it [I]worse[/I]. There are loads of folk tales in the world about demons that sneak into your room at night, or people waking up to find creatures sitting on their chests, preventing them from moving, before suddenly vanishing, and sleep paralysis is the likely cause. So the really horrible things you might have experienced in this state are a direct result of the panic state you're in. What concerns me is that you say you actually had trouble breathing once. If that's the case, [U]go see a sleep specialist[/U] and have them monitor you while you sleep a night. Sleep paralysis doesn't interrupt essential life functions, as far as I know, but sleep apnea does, and that can be extremely hazardous to your health. The rest of this explanation might be a stretch as well, but in the future I'd advise you to remember that sleep paralysis can happen before sleep, that it's natural, and to remain calm and not allow yourself to panic.[/QUOTE] Is hypnagogia usually a state you try to achieve? I usually experience it at least once a week and sometimes a few nights in a row without trying. I've always been interested in lucid dreaming and if hypnagogia is beneficial to reach that then how would you turn that into lucid dreaming? I get vivid, highly detailed hallucinations when my eyes are closed and I always hear music and voices. The voices are always different with coherent sentences but with no actual meaning. It was kind of weird at first but I quickly begun associating it with "I'm gonna fall asleep soon, nice".
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