Sleep Paralysis

[over-man]

http://phschool.com/science/science_...f_crusher.html
I experienced this a few years ago. EASILY the most scary thing that has ever happened to me.
You wake up in the night completely paralyzed, you can only move your eyes, you hallucinate monsters which sometimes even sit on your chest or on your back if your sleeping face-down.
I only saw silhouettes of monsters in my room, but I was filled with terror and I felt there was something very very evil in my room.

Anyone else experience this?

[Sitarus Originalus PM-30+]

waw...
i must say i have never experienced anything like that... wasn't even sure if that was for real (if this wasnt only the movie thing ... and the thing only "crazy people" experience)... but if you say you experienced something like this, i guess i have to believe you....

[Erich von Manstein]

Moved to the Athenaeum.

[shylence]

YESSSSSS I HAVE OMG THEY ARE SCARY THEY ARE CALLED NIGHT TERRORS OR SOMTHING.

my mate gets them really badly too i was on me Hols 4 years bk in spain for a month and he was gettin them twice a week due to it being to hot and sticky it was so badddd he also spoke in devil tongues erughghghg


they are petrifying i have the shadows
you know they are there and they are COMING AT YOU AND YOU :wub: MOVE

[The Fish]

Night terrors are a different phenomenon, in which people (usually children, but some adults as well), suddenly wake up screaming from sleep. However, these episodes are not recalled by the person (their parents/partners are the ones who really get frightened). Night terrors, along with related maladies such as somnambulism (sleep-walking) and somniloquy (sleep-talking) are classified as parasomnias. They occur during the deep part of the sleep cycle (stage 3 and 4). During these stages, we don't dream, so the reason behind the screaming episodes is somewhat unclear; they are not associated with nightmares.

Sleep paralysis occurs at a different part of the sleep cycle, namely REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. This is the part of the sleep cycle where we dream. EEG patterns (which measure brain electrical activity) during REM sleep are actually indistinguishable from those that occur when we are awake. To keep us from acting out our dreams and possibly hurting ourselves, all voluntary muscles in the body (except those that control our eye muscles) are paralyzed. In people with sleep paralysis, the control of REM paralysis is abnormal, resulting in the very disturbing experience of not being asleep, but not being able to move, as the OP has described. It is actually a fairly common experience. The experience of seeing frightening images is probably due to the fact that you are in a transition state between dreaming and wakefulness, so the realization that something is wrong can be manifested as a dream-like hallucination.

[RZZZA]

I experienced sleep paralysis just a few weeks ago, it wasnt as terrifying this time because I recognized in my paralysed state that this had happened before to me. In this state youre partly thinking rationally partly not, because youre partly awake and partly still asleep. I remember realizing that I was in sleep paralysis but I also remember wanting to scream to my dad in the next room to come and help me, only I couldnt scream and it wouldnt have done any good anyway because my dad wasnt in the next room in the first place.

[Ultraman]

I've had this off and on over the years. While I definitely feel a 'presence' that terrifies me, I've never seen anything. Several years ago I found that I would often experience it if I took a nap after meditating in the morning. I actually made a habit of trying to get into this state on purpose to explore things a bit, as sometimes during this state I had some really weird and lucid dreams. Pretty trippy stuff.

[crazyj]

My dad described this happening to him alot back about 26 years ago...right before he had us kids...would happen when he was very very drunk...would wake up tore up from the floor up, unable to move anything but his eyes...very scary...made him realize he needed to quit drinking...which he did for 20+ years, now he has just an occasional glass of wine or a beer like every 3 months...

[chris_uk_83]

I've once woken up unable to move, but it wasn't really scary. I just thought, oh dear I can't move, then had fun with trying to move and not being able to (like on Kill Bill: "move your big toe"). Eventually I fell back asleep and woke up properly. It's never happened again unfortunately.

[Markas]

I used to have sleep paralysis once a month or so and it is very scary. Mostly I'm unable to move except my eyes and am partially awake, and sometimes I 'see' shadowy monsters in the corner of my eye but cannot focus on them. Often, I had the sensation of my covers being pulled off and I had to grab hold of the sheets as tight as possible. No wonder some people claim alien abduction with crap like that happening.

I saw a program about people with sleep disorders and some of them act almost exactly like apes- swinging thier arms around and grunting whilst clambering around. It must be some throw-back to our ape ancestors and some kind of alarm to predators at night.

[zznɟ ǝɥʇ]

Wow, that's trippy, I've never heard of this. When I was a kid I'd get trapped in my sleeping bag and freak out, that's about it.

[numerosdecimus]

Actually scientists have more or less associated this symptom with sleep epilepsyas as the reason for "alien abductions" since the feeling of a "presence" in the room is so strong and the sence of realism of that experience that the person actually thinks that happened for real.

About 9% of the total pop have this aalthough I've seen report saying 1/3 had it.

[Mathias]

Actually scientists have more or less associated this symptom with sleep epilepsyas as the reason for "alien abductions" since the feeling of a "presence" in the room is so strong and the sence of realism of that experience that the person actually thinks that happened for real.

About 9% of the total pop have this aalthough I've seen report saying 1/3 had it.

The 9% estimate sounds more accurate as I have never heard about something like this before.

[OriginOfSymmetry]

It happens to me every few months, but I never had nightmares from it, I just try to move as hard as I can and eventually succeeds.

It can even occure to me several times a night, when I wake up during the night and tries to go back to sleep, than my body gets paralyzed but my brain is still awake, so im awaking and tries to sleep again several times before my brain falls a sleep finaly (but maybe its just a dream, I cant say for sure because i dont remember much of it in the morning).

[Simetrical]

They occur during the deep part of the sleep cycle (stage 3 and 4). During these stages, we don't dream

Isn't it more correct to say that we dream less often and less vividly?

The 9% estimate sounds more accurate as I have never heard about something like this before.

Well, let's see what TWC members say. I'll add a poll.

[The Fish]

Isn't it more correct to say that we dream less often and less vividly?

Yes, the vast majority of dreaming is done in REM, but some is done in non-REM. In terms of sleep pathology, however, REM sleep disorders (mainly regarding atonia, either too much or too little) has to do with dreaming, while non-REM sleep pathologies do not depend on dream states.

[removeduser_426582376423734]

Is it safe to say that people who dream less often, thus are in the REM phase less, are less likely to have this paralysis?

[The Fish]

Is it safe to say that people who dream less often, thus are in the REM phase less, are less likely to have this paralysis?

The etiology of the disease is not known, so I don't know if there's a definite answer to that. Usually, decreased REM sleep is bad; certain medications, such as barbituates, used to be used for insomnia but were found to decrease REM latency. As a result of low REM, people became irritable and had memory problems. So I think having REM sleep is worth the risk of sleep paralysis. On a related note, narcolepsy is a disorder characterized by the sudden entrance of a person into REM sleep. Narcoleptics also have a higher incidence of sleep paralysis. Clearly, REM sleep disorders are related.

[over-man]

I couldn't really remember it at first either. What struck me as strange is after I experienced this I never thought about it for a couple days and then I remembered it happened. But I'm certain it wasn't a dream, because when I'm dreaming its almost always daytime and everything looks different from reality but when this happened I was lucid.

[removeduser_426582376423734]

Once I slept on an artery or vein or something in my arm, and woke up with it not being able to move. It was boiling hot, and felt really pins-and-needlesy, and it actually was quite funny. I slapped it around and it was really numb.

This is completely off topic, but I thought I'd throw it out there.