Sleep Paralysis?

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I’m not a religious person, but this is what sleep paralysis means to me, something I have experienced most of my life.

When your mind (spirit) slows down, stops vibrating, you can’t move. Sleep paralysis.

If I was to say that the mind is actually a spirit sitting in our body by vibrating brilliantly, how does that sound?

Sleep paralysis and the sensation of the body vibrating is prelude to an out of body experience.
Unfortunately little is truly known about these experiences other than the rubbish some quacks (Doctors) have made up.

I use to feel my body vibrating from the age of four, then some years later I started experiencing sleep paralysis.
This went on for years until I learnt to understand what was really happening to my body and mind.

I still have out of body experiences from time to time, but not through sleep paralysis.

I found the best way to deal with sleep paralysis was to relax and be unafraid.

"Sometimes we fear what we don’t understand, fear gets in the way.....

Sleep Paralysis is very real and at it's worst is absolutely terrifying! I've only had a few cases and they were all many years ago. I would wake in a paralysed state seeing the room exactly as I would awake. Shortly after I would get this horrible feeling of impending doom and the certain knowledge that someone or something was coming. I would see a shadowy figure approach me and sit next to me on the bed. He looked like a cross between the Grim Reaper and Marilyn Manson on the cover of his Smells Like Children album. I don't remember much more except for his skeletal chin coming out from the bottom of his black cloak. The post above says not to be afraid, but I can't imagine when it is this bad that that is romotely possible. What I did realise was that it only ever happened when I fell asleep on my back. I haven't since and it's been around 10 years since the last episode. I had actually forgotten all about it until recently when someone mentioned it and described an experience very similar to mine. I've just purchased a book from Amazon called 'Investigation into the Paranormal Nature of Sleep Paralysis', I haven't read it yet (It has to wait in line!), but looking forward it. I don't believe in anything religious or supernatural (I'd like to), but this came pretty close to changing my mind. I think it's probably some combination of REM sleep and an absolute manifestation of your worst fears. It was a horrible period of my life and that could also have been a factor. It's nice to be able to talk about it on a forum, haven't spoken to many people about it for fear I would sound totally nuts! Come to think of it, I probably still do!

- leave windows open for fresh air
- never wear pants to bed
- get an extremely good pillow that keeps your head at a flush level with the pillow when sleeping (not raised or lowered)
- swear a vow to kill the dark figures every time it happens, instead of fearing them.
- a mattress that will support you properly, one that you won't sink into and one that's not so hard that you can't sleep, I personally like using an air mattress, also, unlike normal beds, air mattresses don't have bugs in them that will suck the life out of you. Same thing goes for hardwood/tile floors compared to carpets on the ground. Just make sure to use enough blankets that you won't get cold at night time from the window(s) being open... heaters help as well.
- hot water with honey, cinnamon, & freshly squeezed lemon juice through-out the day helps with the circulation of the body
- always get fresh air, and do this lung efficiency exercise... breathe in a bunch of air, then breath in even more air until you can't breathe in any more, hold the air in for a while and slowly release the air by rolling your lips and/or tongue. Make sure to notice your diaphragmatic movement located at the bottom of your sternum

at first when I had them, I was stuck, could only move my eyes, and had to work myself up to a scream to get out of it (I actually don't know if I screamed in reality or not o_O)

anyways... following those 7 things that I listed has drastically reduced the frequencies of sleep paralysis, I won't scare anybody with any more details of my sleep paralysis episodes, because they really disturbed me to the point in which I accepted death. Actually nevermind, screw it, I'll tell you what I had to deal with that really disturbed me, in one of them the dark figured stabbed its dark figured arm through my stomach. The arm was sharper shaped like in the terminator but shadowy, and I actually felt the pain. I woke up with a blood spot underneath my back where the arm stabbed through with no trace of injuries.

Being scientific, I just think I must have bit the inside of my gums while I was sleeping, went sleep walking, went back in bed, dropped some blood in the one spot, and that somehow transformed itself into my sleep paralysis episode. But the thing is, no one has ever mentioned me sleep walking during my whole entire life. Anyways... I just stick with the scientific method that I came up with to keep me sane.

I'd rather have many more broken bones than have to deal with sleep paralysis all the time again.

Yes, I have had it on and off for about 13 years. It doesn't really bother me because as soon as I realise I can't move I tend to know what's happening and come out of it.

I also get the hypnagogic hallucination thing when falling off to sleep but that is because I tend to start dreaming quite quickly sometimes (I can go straight into a dream on falling asleep during some naps or sleeps).

Am used to it.

What I don't understand is how anyone who experiences sleep paralysis can "see" anything. When I've experienced this phenomenon my eyes are usually still shut and I cannot open them. So I cannot see anything but I can hear and feel things. I can of course imagine anything (which brings the fear factor into play) but I certainly have never been able to open my eyes to have vision while this occurs. How do your eyes get opened? If your eyes are open do you blink during the sleep paralysis?

It's happened to me a couple of times. The first time I wondered if I might have had a stroke.

I used to get it real bad. I got it several nights a week for several years beginning at age 17 and going on well into my 20s. Here's the worst part. I'm an agnostic now, but at the time I was a Pentecostal Christian, and I seriously thought I was experiencing demonic attacks. Like, actual demons in the employ of the actual Devil, from actual Hell. I'd scream and cry for Jesus to save me and still it would go on and on, sometimes for what felt like hours.

The symptoms were quite dramatic. Like, Hollywood movie dramatic. It felt like all sorts of nasty creatures were scratching and clawing and stepping on me, hissing and screeching at me, the room would get all distorted and I'd get dragged and tossed all about. It was like some Poltergeist/Exorcist type s**t.

Eventually I came across "sleep paralysis" and I could see that it fit my symptoms to a 'T.' They even told me how to deal with it. "Just tell yourself it's not real, and it will go away." But I was too scared to try it for years, because what if they were in fact demons? Only the name of Jesus can make demons go away, so I believed. A little while later, when I was just about fed up and on the cusp of agnosticism, I tried it, and it worked like a charm!

Just stay calm, tell yourself "it's not real, I'm going to wake up now" and within seconds *BAM* all gone. Take it from someone who had a severe case.

I don't particularly like necromancy but I had an interesting thing happen today that relates to this topic. I had a realistic hypnopompic hallucination this morning that I couldn't be sure about. It was strange because I heard my mom say my legal name which nobody uses anymore and it was odd but the way she said it made it seem like she was surprised at how late I slept in when I said I was going to help her with yard work in the morning.

Not knowing whether she wanted me to come out and help or if the whole thing was a hallucination didn't make a difference. It was odd and I wasn't sure about it but it still made me think about what I said earlier. I got up and got ready without taking my time like I normally do because I felt bad. If she really said my name in that voice because she was shocked that I was still asleep she was waiting and I didn't want to make her wait for too long. Either way it was still a good idea to get up get ready and help. I would've felt guilty if I didn't.

I found out tonight when I asked her that she never once used my birth name today. I've had this happen before. Hypnopompic hallucinations that I hear happening downstairs can be very plausible. One time I had a hypnagogic hallucination that made me wonder if Andy really came to meet with my parents that night.

Sometimes hypnopompic/hypnagogic hallucinations can be benign. They don't have to be scary and they can even be plausible enough to be a bit confusing.

Yes I often get it and it is irritating more than scary. I am totally aware of the fact I am lay in bed asleep and I feel cheated out of a blissful sleep.

Ill get it in episodes for say a week to a couple months every few nights and then not get it again for about half a year period.
anyone think there's a connection between sleep paralysis and AS? Wondered this before.

whoa.. i didn't know this was a thing and had a name but i've totally had this happen many times. last time was only a few months ago and i thought i escaped death.. i woke up and this shadowy dude i thought must be the grim reaper was by my bedroom door close to the corner of my bed. i was trying to scream or move but i couldn't i was trying to scream who are you? who are you?! go away! but i couldn't move or make a sound. it was terrifying.

I suspect that consuming alcohol before bed can actually increase my chances of having hypnopompic hallucinations in the morning but I'd have to do it several more times to be sure. I had my first two shots of rum last Sunday night and had crazy dreams before I woke up and had a hypnopompic hallucination. Then on Monday night I had two and a half shots of rum and I woke up screaming on Tuesday. On Wednesday I had three and a half shots of rum and nothing happened. Last night I didn't want to do it again because I've already been drinking at night for the past few days and I don't want to make it a habit. I don't usually drink much and I was only doing it from Monday to Wednesday as an experiment to see if alcohol would induce hypnopompic hallucinations. I don't want to drink too much but I can't get a good idea of how alcohol affects my sleep without drinking before bed.

I haven't had it in a while, but I used to have it a lot; during my final year of university, it happened nearly every time I fell asleep. I used to have auditory and visual hallucinations during it, which were really scary. The worst one I can remember was that I hallucinated a creepy man walking past my window (I lived on the ground floor of my dorm at the time) and turning and smiling at me (he reminded me of the 'Gentlemen' from the Buffy episode 'Hush'), while I couldn't move.

Had it happen a few times when I was a kid. Absolutely terrifying: I'd wake up but couldn't move or make a sound. Tried screaming but no sound came out. Once, I was able to move one arm and pounded on the wall. My parents came running, asking me what happened, but all I could do was look at them with a desperate stare. I think they thought I had woken from a nightmare.