posted
My wife experiences sleep paralysis every now and then but it isn't something that I'd ever experienced until last night. Actually, I'm not completely sure that that was what I experienced, but it bore some similarities to it.
It didn't feel like I was asleep. I was lying on my bed in the same physical position that I was in real life. The house that I was in was my own, but it was just slightly different--kind of like the difference between a photo and a photo-realistic drawing. I could hear footsteps coming down the hall toward my bedroom. My wife is out of town, so I knew that there wasn't any way that those footsteps were a good thing. I tried to move, but couldn't. What I could do, and what tipped me off to the fact that it was a dream, was kind of curve the experience back on itself, so that whatever it was coming down the hall couldn't quite make it to me before being skipped back down to the end of the hall. I was still unable to move or wake myself. A feedback sound started, clearly in my head, and got painfully intense, finally pulling me out of the dream. When I came to consciousness, my eyes were fully open; since I was in the same position in the same place on the bed, the change in light level was the first thing that clued me in to the fact that I was no longer having the experience.
posted
Supposedly it's caused by the area of the brain that suppresses your movement when you're asleep (so that you don't act out your dreams) malfunctioning a bit, and not "letting go" when you start to come to consciousness.
I have no idea whether that theory is substantiated by anything or not.
In addition to being unable to move, people who have this happen to them almost always report a really strong sense of dread, and a malevolent presence, which is often pressing down on them.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
| IP: Logged |
posted
This used to happen to Strider, i'll send him the link to this thread...you two can compare notes. It's sound awful Posts: 3516 | Registered: Sep 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
I used to get it once in a while. I say "used to" just because i haven't had it happen in a bit, not because it wont again.
I almost exclusively had these episodes happen while taking naps. ahhh...midafternoon naps, how i miss thee.
anyway, i would usually be able to see a limited amount of my surroundings. the events always included some sort of precense in the room. i could usually here voices. sometimes familiar, sometimes not. i would even try to take part in the conversations, but can't remember how succesful i was. Imobility was also always involved. It's always a very weird feeling when it happens.
Curiously enough, i was never scared or considered it an unpleasant experience. it always intrigued me when it happened. it's a weird place to be, in between sleep and wakefulness. I don't know. i'm just weird like that. not that i particularly enjoyed the experiences. but i always hear horror stories from people about them, and never had that feeling before.
just go with the flow man... Posts: 251 | Registered: Mar 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
That used to happened to me when I was younger, and I slept on my stomach. I would be sort of "dreaming" that I was in my tub and couldn't push my face out of the water, but I was kind of awake and I really couldn't move. Double-freaky-whammy! Posts: 113 | Registered: Aug 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
i take back what i said about my eyes being open. i don't know if that's a fact or not. it might be. more accurately, i was just always very aware of my surroundings. but i'm not sure if I was really seeing them or not.
i haven't had this happen in probably a year and a half. next time it does i'll have to pay attention more.
Posts: 251 | Registered: Mar 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
Wow, so many people have had this! That's interesting.
Olivet--my wife often sees strange lights when she experiences this, and a common feature of these is that the malevolent presence either sits or presses on your chest (why, you might ask yourself, are all of these people are dreaming about your chest?) Glad it's just a jawa in your case! Your train whistle thing sounds not unlike my hearing the feedback in my head.
Syn--I've read that experiences like these are the root of the idea of succubi/incubi.
Ruyko--that's interesting! Do you know anything more about it? I'd love to hear about different historical interpretations for this phenomenon.
Strider--my wife's experiences are more likely to happen either during an afternoon nap, or that night if she had an afternoon nap. Yesterday I came home from work early, feeling sick, and slept from about 4:30 until 8:00. I had my experience between 3:30 and 5:00 last night.
In my wife's case, there is often a person present, but they aren't themselves malevolent; often it's one of her brothers. She nonetheless feels incredibly scared by them. While having the experiences, she feels like she'll be trapped in that state forever.
In my case, the thing that was coming down the hall just radiated dread and hopelessness. Kind of like a dementor, actually. I was able to catch it in a dream loop, so it couldn't get to me, but I'd have much rather just cast a Patronus at it and banished it entirely.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
| IP: Logged |
posted
We've had these threads before, and a suprising amount of people have had it.
I only did once, when I was about 8 years old and had a fever. Its pretty scary when you have no idea what's causing it. I thought I really was paralyzed.
Posts: 5656 | Registered: Oct 1999
| IP: Logged |
posted
Actually, come to think of it, I believe I *started* one of those earlier threads after my wife had had a couple of really unplesant experiences in just a few days time. I'd forgotten about that.
Huh. Chalk it up to my being sick I guess. That or developing dementia.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
| IP: Logged |
Sleep paralysis used to happen to me fairly frequently when i was younger. It'd usually happen when taking naps (cause my brain shuts off when i'm just sleeping, so if i ever woke up and was in paralysis mode, i'd just go back to sleep and not remember probably). It's the worst feeling in the world, i'd wake up unable to move, except the weakest twitch of a finger or some such like that. It makes you want to scream, but of course, you're paralyzed; you can't.
The worst bout of it i've ever had was while i was sleeping on the couch in front of the tv my brothers were playing video games on. I groggily opened my eyes to see my brothers still playing away about 4 feet from my head, and i was unable to move. I wanted to ask my little brother to poke me to try and wake me up or something but, of course, i couldn't, so i had to force myself back under, and i woke up some time later, able to move.
Honestly. Its one of the worst sensations i've ever experienced.
(although, there have been a few times, i've managed to force my body out of sleep paralysis, but they are very few)
Posts: 4482 | Registered: May 2000
| IP: Logged |
posted
I think I may have had it twice, the second being the one I described. I was about thirteen, then. The other happened a year or so before that. I was in a dream where King cong was after me. Or I WAS King Kong. I don't remember. Anyway, it was a pretty unremarkable dream. Then the dream was gone, and I heard what sounded like a jet engine in the room. The sound actually hurt . I put my dream hands over my dream ears, but at the same time I was waking up and couldn't move.
No hooded guy on my chest or anything, but I did feel like I couldn't breathe. And I was much more scared than I should have been, after I was good and awake.
Nice to know it's pretty common, even though it hasn't happened in probably 20 years. Hmmmm.
Posts: 9293 | Registered: Aug 2000
| IP: Logged |
posted
Me too. It usually happens to me when I take a nap although I have had it happen in the mornings after a nights sleep. For me there is usually someone coming into the room. Not really a malevolent presence. Sometimes it seems to be someone whos broken into the house. Sometimes its just someone I would rather not have catch me napping. Its a very disturbing sensation.
Posts: 12591 | Registered: Jan 2000
| IP: Logged |
posted
I had it once when I had hit my finger with a hammer so very forceful that I fainted from the pain. When I came to consciousness I couldn't move. Indeed the most horrible feeling I ever experienced. I have no idea how long it lasted, must have been only seconds but they seemed far too long. In my case it was as if the part that awakes first, becomes conscious, was earlier than the part of the brain where the management of movement is located. Something like that. Oh, and it was also as if I was outside my body, not inside.
Posts: 1247 | Registered: Apr 2000
| IP: Logged |
posted
This has happened to me on a fairly consistent basis ever since I was a child. I have had this experience both during daytime naps and during nighttime sleep. It used to frighten me fairly badly. Then I realized that if I quit struggling against it and just relax and don't try to move, I go back deeper into sleep and the episode ends.
Posts: 2454 | Registered: Jan 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
Discovery or TLC had an interesting thing on sleep paralysis last weekend. They went through the science of the experience which was interesting enough, but then they started to compare it to alien abduction experiences. Remarkable similarity to those experiences. A fine explaination for most abduction experiences.
Posts: 81 | Registered: May 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
I'd never heard of this, but from the descriptions in this thread, I think I may have experienced this from time to time, but never for very long.
posted
I hate it when I want to scream or move or whimper and I just can't. It feels like my eyes are open and I can see, I just can't move.
Posts: 9942 | Registered: Mar 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
I have this when I'm under a lot of stress. Also I get terrible nightmares too. The two are connected for me. I can't move and it's terrifying. I actually realize that the reason I can't move is because I'm asleep, and I try as hard as I can to wake up. I'm screaming inside my brain "WAKE UP!!!!" but I still don't. Once I actually screamed loud enough and forcefully enough to wake myself up but I just rolled over and the sleeping part said "I'm so tired just let me sleep." Meanwhile the dreaming one screamed "NOOOOOO!". It was funny!
Posts: 2843 | Registered: A Long Time Ago!
| IP: Logged |
posted
Noemon - Sorry, that's all I know about it... I'll see if I can dig up some more info. I learned that from comics, though... eheheh...
Posts: 4816 | Registered: Apr 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
Nice timing, I actually just had my first experience with something like this about three nights ago. I woke up from a nightmare very suddenly and couldn't move for a few very long seconds. Does it feel as though all of you blood has stopped cold? It brought a whole new meaning to that phrase for me. I still shudder at the thought of it...
posted
Why is it that paralysis is so terrifying, I wonder? It's like your hindbrain suddenly knows that you are helpless to run from predators so you automatically start feeling in danger of being caught and eaten.
I guess the fear of being caught and eaten runs really really deeply, having been an important facet of survival in our ancestors for 3 billion years of evolution. This comes to play in "hide and seek" too. Why is that such a universally engaging game? I guess because it's actually the oldest game there is: predators and prey.
Posts: 2843 | Registered: A Long Time Ago!
| IP: Logged |
posted
I think that that's exactly why it's so deeply terrifying. The experience seems to often come with a ready built predator, too, so the fear of being unable to move is probably compounded by the feeling that there is something that the dreamer needs desperately to move away from.
Jeni--I didn't have a feeling of my blood stopping cold. I expect that what felt that way to you was the same whateveritis that my sleeping brain interpreted as intense dread and hopelessness.
About hide and seek: I always much perferred hiding to seeking. Being the predator was okay, but I always found it much more fun outwitting the seeker. Is this because our remote ancestors spent a lot more time being prey than they did predators, or does it just mean that I come from a long line of sneaky wusses? Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
| IP: Logged |
posted
What happens to me occasionally is a bit different. I tried to explain it a bit in the original potry thread:
quote:Go to sleep and the world tilts Down so deep into the pit crowned in hell you have to feel with growing wail the madness grip.
You have a body but it breaks and fails now nothing to see or do so freewill feels worse than needles in barbarous jails die if you can, but there's nothing to kill this life is eternal, if it is real.
I left out the last stanza, 'cause IMO, it stinks worse than the rest. I called it "fever dream", because I most often got it when I was a bit sick; but it occasionally happened when I was well.
For me, I would get a looping dream, maybe something like neomon's. This could involve me moving, though. As the dream continued, I would start to feel worse and worse. Unlike others at some of those links, I did not feel as if I was going to die. Rather, I felt that I was going to be stuck, failing at something forever(represented by the looping dream). When this got really bad, the dream would at increasing frequency be interrupted by an image of me unable to move, usually in a claustraphobic space.
Then I would wake up. I felt the same as in my dreams, mad with anguish. I could move though, so maybe this isn't the same thing. The first time it happened, "I went to my mommy". The thing was, that every move I made felt like terrible violence, especially against my shreiking brain. Every whisper I managed was a bullhorn. My arms and legs felt jerky, terribly fast. When I got to her door, it was unbearably difficult to wake her up. But when she did, I kept telling her "I can't slow down". She finally replied, "You are moving very, very slow." She was eventually able to "talk me down."
My entire consciousness was fragmented, time distorted, motion painful. It was the most terrible thing that has ever happened to me. It lasted for at least five minutes.
This happened a few times more, with similar results: but I had more knowledge the next time so it wasn't quite as bad.
Posts: 554 | Registered: Nov 2000
| IP: Logged |
posted
That was the theory I was leaning toward, Tick.
Popatr, that is incredibly interesting. It sounds like it could be related, but it's definitely different from anything I've ever experienced. Am I correctly understanding that after you woke up, you were in some kind of slow motion mode, but appeared to you to be moving very quickly, and that sensory input was generally magnified to painful levels? Did you perceive things around as as happening at faster or slower than usual speeds, or was that aspect of your perception normal? When you spoke, did it sound to your mother as though you were speaking in...for want of a better term "slow motion", or was there just a long pause between words, or what?
What an interesting experience. I don't envy you for having had it, but that's just fascinating.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
| IP: Logged |
posted
My motion seemed fragmented-first frozen then with sudden bursts of violent speed. In actuality, I was moving at a slow, steady rate according to my mom.
Only the noises I made, the motions I made were really bad. As for my mom, I can't recall most of her motions. I only recall one place she stood very clearly. Her words didn't seem violent or magnified. I think that her motions, her voice, were what stabilized my perceptions.
About my speaking; I thought it was staggered, with pauses, not always at word boundaries.
Posts: 554 | Registered: Nov 2000
| IP: Logged |
posted
My last really strong one was about '93. One started to happen a few days before I wrote "fever dream" not too long ago; but it lasted only a few (bad) seconds. I've probably had 2 or 3 of them in between '93 and the one I just mentioned. I don't keep close track. Posts: 554 | Registered: Nov 2000
| IP: Logged |
posted
Studying and observing these things and trying to understand them does rob them of much of their terror.
When I was maybe nine through about 16 I used to ocassionally get in a brain mode where every tiny sound echoed inside my head in a strange way that seemed to have words in it. Not words I could understand but maybe in some alien language. At first it terrified me but then one time when it started happening, I got interested and spent a long time observing exactly how it behaved, even playing notes on the piano to listen to the echoes of them die away and try and hear exactly what the echo sounds were like. After I did that once or twice my fear of this phenomenon disappeared, and soon afterwards it quit happening.
Once about 10 years ago I was on a severely restricted diet, extremely low carb, for about a year. At the end of that time my doctor was trying to reintroduce carbs to me slowly, but the control mechanism got out of whack and I almost got an eating disorder. Weird how you think that can't happen to you, that you can control your behavior, until it does. Anyway, for a while I was cycling back and forth between carbo binges and back onto my no-carb diet. That messed up my brain for a while, and twice I had this feeling that the world had fractured into a thousand bits. I could do nothing but lie still and suffer extreme dread and terror. It was very very frightening, as I contemplated the possibility of that becoming permanent.
Luckily I finally understood that it was the freaky eating that was causing it. I then began a routine of constant small carb intake. Like one slice of bread every hour all day long, and it fixed it. That episode is why I'm on a low-carb, but not a no-carb diet for my diabetes now. Also made me realize that mental illness is probably the worst possible hell anyone can go through, and made me profoundly grateful for my mental health (such as it is ), and deeply sympathetic to those who don't have that.
[ August 15, 2003, 03:12 PM: Message edited by: ak ]
Posts: 2843 | Registered: A Long Time Ago!
| IP: Logged |
posted
Strangely, I remember how when I was younger I would sometimes gradually awaken and find that I was mostly immobile. Little by little my body would "wake up", usually starting with my fingers. The peculiar thing is that there was nothing scary about it...it was just an extension of the peacefulness of sleep, lying there in bed without worries.
Posts: 1041 | Registered: Feb 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
strange, I once heard this described in a sermon by a person who had been beaten and jailed in Morocco for distributing Bibles. He was convinced it was demons trying to influence him down to the weight on the chest. Said he heard evil voices and there was a weight on his chest and he couldn't move. Of course he attributed his "deliverance" to God.
Wonder what he'd say if he found out there was a rational scientific explanation for it. It is an exact description of how many people describe "demon posession" as well other than seizures.
Printer-friendly view of this topic
![[Angst]](graemlins/angst.gif)
![[Laugh]](graemlins/laugh.gif)
Ralphie![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
![[Frown]](frown.gif)
![[Sleep]](graemlins/sleep.gif)
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
![[Razz]](tongue.gif)
), and deeply sympathetic to those who don't have that.
