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Have you ever suffered from sleep paralysis?

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I've never had it
It was the cause of my 7th grade teacher thinking she was abducted by aliens.
She said she was frozen in bed and an alien was there.
Nobody could talk her out of it.
 
Crispy said:
I've had it once, it was after a festival weekend in which I hadn't slept much. I wnet to bed early that day because I was very tired.

After about ten minutes of sleep (I checked my clock after the experience) I woke up but could only open my eyes. I lay on my side and I saw my chair in the middle of the room, the chair had its back towards me. A woman was sitting in my chair, I could see her arms and the back of her head. She was wearing a cap and a greenish jacket. She stood up out of the chair and started to turn her head towards me, but just before I could see her face, she just disappeared slowly, a bit like the holograms in Star Wars do.

At first I was really scared and tried to scream, but there was no noise coming from my closed mouth. Then it hit me that this was sleep paralysis and I just let it go. It was a very intense and fascinating experience and I'm glad I had it. I don't know if I'd want it again though...

Odd; if the "terror from paralysis incites the image of the hooded figure", why one sitting in a chair far away?

Like with alot of things difficult to scientifically test, I'm holding off final one-size fits all judgement.
 
Here is the "HUMANOID SIGHTINGS" story of my 7th and 8th grade art teacher.

Location. Houston, Texas
Date: November 8 1988
Time: late night
Laura Liccketto was very tired and was lying on her waterbed on the right side of the bed. Some time had passed, though she does not know exactly how much of a time lapse occurred from the time she went to bed to the beginning of her experience. Somehow she was now on the far left side of her bed. She had no memory of how she had moved to the left side. She then saw an "alien" standing next to her bed about one yard from her eyes. The only parts of the humanoid that she could clearly see was his chin chest, very thin upper arms, neck, and face. There was a glow of light in the bedroom, enabling her to see the alien's gray, mottled skin, and large, black, almond shaped eyes. He was only about 37 inches tall and had no hair. She could not move and could only think of how "ugly" the alien was. The figure suddenly disappeared in plain sight. The witness has experienced other strange episodes in her home.

:lol
The other strange espisodes were having a magnetic force between her and her son.
 
Brendonia said:
Oh yeah and if you think waking up paralyzed during a dream is scary, try doing it during surgery. That will freak you the FUCK out, I know from experience.

Good Lord...that's one of my worst fears right there.

I find the "hallucinations" part of sleep paralysis to be fascinating. If you've got people picturing the same figure in this state, the odds of it being a coindience seem pretty damn small. Wonder how much studying has been done on this? For that matter, the studying of dreams in general has gotta be fascinating.
 
I had surgery, twice on my left elbow but nothing was odd about any of those. Only thing weird though was when I went to sleep, it felt like a second afterwards I woke up and was in a different room.
 
The surgery thing was pretty bad, but not as bad as some people have documented on like 60 minutes and stuff. Here's the basic story:

It was about three years ago and I was having heart surgery to correct an anomaly that I had since I was born. I've talked about it before on here so I won't go into all the details but basically my heart would race uncontrollably if I got like a jolt of adrenaline or something. Anyway I couldn't be completely under like they normally do for surgery because they had to stimulate the condition in order to fix the problem, so I was asleep but I wasn't totally gassed out like you normally would be during surgery. It also wasn't open heart, they went through big veins in my groin with catheters and cameras up into my heart.

I remember getting the IV and going down into the OR, but I fell asleep as soon as I was getting rolled into the OR. At the time my shoulder was really screwed up because I seperated it playing basketball, and I was strapped down to the table because I wasn't supposed to move, so my shoulder I guess just started to throb with pain. I woke up at some point (the surgery took 6 hours) and it hurt so bad that I tried to yell but I couldn't. The nurse recognized I was awake because my eyes were open and was trying to figure out what was wrong but couldn't... after a few seconds that felt like a millenium I regained the ability to talk somehow and started screaming in pain because my arm hurt so badly. The weirdest thing was is that I could talk but could not, for the life of me, move my extremities. They unstrapped me and started to move my arm around and massage my shoulder and the pain went away, I got more drugs, and went back to sleep. It's incredible how vivid the memory was though, because I was not really supposed to remember anything from the surgery at all, but I remember that like it happened 5 minutes ago. I wasn't exactly sure what was going on when it happened but I remembered as soon as I woke up for good a few hours later. Waking up was horrible but probably the worst experience of that whole surgery was getting a bladder catheter because they didn't know how long it would last. Worst. Thing. Ever. Especially considering I wasn't allowed to move from my bed for 8 hours after the surgery and just sat there with that thing in me. Ugh, I shudder when I think about it.
 
I dunno, I love the feeling of not being able to move. I've had kidney stones removed twice through surgery, and after you wake up, from your lowerback to the feet you don't feel a thing.

I thought it was pretty cool. :lol The catheter in my dick, however, wasn't cool at all. Assholes.
 
Bumping this thread because this happened to me 10 minutes ago. I was sleeping on my back this time and I somehow moved to my side during sleep. Then I felt my right side "tingle" and my right eye opened. And then I saw portions of my skin erupt, like all my muscles were twitching (only my right eye was open so I saw even my nose twitching). And then a witch-looking creature just comes from the window blinds and starts floating toward me. My body's still twitching heavily and I couldn't move. I was on my mom's bed for my nap as she has the best bed in the house it's good using my laptop when I don't feel like sitting down. But the thing just kept coming at me, and during the whole episode my mom actually walked into the room... couldn't scream for help. I manage to nudge my legs forward from their bent position, thinking it was finally over, when the witch came back.

...and then it ended. During the whole ordeal, I just thought "sleep paralysis" and told the witch in my head to go fuck herself and that once I was able to move I'd kick her ass and send her back to hell (really, I thought this). But it was still unpleasant overall.

I HATE THIS THREAD.
 
silver said:
WTF?!

I don't think I'm gonna be able to go to bed tonight. This shit freaks me out beyond all borders.

lol. same thing i was thinking. maybe that's why i haven't turned around for the last 5 min's... :lol

ah, yeah. no i haven't experienced anything that freaky, though i do have nightmares. and i started experiencing this thing where i'd figure out i was in a dream and then try to wake myself up by rocking myself back n forth or moving my arms. sometimes it works and i wake up and other times i chill out till i wake up, ha. probably happens 1-2 a week at least, never count. i think i've experienced astral projection once.... but i never wanna see the stupid witch. and since i've read these posts.... undeniably, she'll probably pop up into a nightmare. :(
 
When I'd first start having these, it was completely terrifying. I'd see a shape of out the corner of my eye. or someone in the room. once it was an alien, and that was by far the scariest. the feeling you have is shear terror, I can't describe it. sometimes someone/thing is running at me, sometimes they are just standing there (in the aliens case) and usually the look very scary.

Now that I'm rather use to this happening the fear isnt as bad, its actually interesting. its similar to lucid dreaming in that once you know its sleep paralysis you can "float" as some people have described. it pretty much feels like you are hovering ten feet over your bed but still there.
 
You bastards.

I happened to me the first time a couple hours ago, and it's all your fault. You implanted the idea in my mind. :P


I was sleeping and all the sudden I was aware that I was in my apartment. I heard dragging footsteps against the carpet coming toward my bed. Then it was like someone was applying pressure to my chest and abdominal region. Sort of like hands circling but at times the pressure was all over. At one point I think there was a moan too sort of like a zombie/ghost moan.

I couldn't do anything but hearing about sleep paralysis I immediately knew what was going on. I tried to move, but I couldn't. I realized that was a waste. So I focused on waking up and somehow I managed it in about a minute.
 
Pretty recently I woke up and was convinced there was someone else in the room with me, a stranger. I was panicking like crazy and I was not moving..but I cannot remember if it was because I couldn't move or because I was too scared to move and attract the attention of that stranger. This went on for a couple of minutes, and then next thing I knew I was bursting up out of my bed, just drenched in sweat. And of course, there was no one there. I'm not sure what I dreamt, and what was real - obviously the stranger wasn't, but whether I was dreaming when I was panicking, or dreaming of being awake etc.
 
Only happened to me once, during a trip to Trinidad...the old woman had long grey hair, soaking wet with blood and mottled with flesh...she opened her mouth and I saw a red glow in her mouth and my chest was filled with a burning pain...after a few seconds, the old woman burst into flames and flew toward the window and I was able to scream until my mom came into the room. I told her what I saw and she told me about them (which is the funny thing, because I don't ever remember being told about them before):

My family (and others I know from Trinidad) call this Sukenya (soo ken ya). Basically, an old witch who, at night, sheds her skin and flies through the air as a red glowing firefly. When she finds a victem, she casts a spell on you to keep you still at night and transforms into her human form right after entering your window. Then, this old skinless bleeding witch walks over you and absorbs some of your spirit through your arm, leg, or chest leaving a burning hot black and blue bruise behind. You are awake but anable to or talk during the entire thing.

My mom also told me how the only way to kill them is to pour salt inside the witches shed skin so that they can never return to their human form and eventually die. It was one of the most horrifying moments in my life. The bruise lasted over a week after we flew back to America.
 
Countless number of times.
It's ok now - used to be really frightening.
Usually occurs when I sleep on my back (I've read that this does increase the chances of it happening). Also, if you get it, wake yourself up, then go back to sleep, you're likely to get it again the same night.

Nowadays, I just close my eyes and try to force myself to wake up.
If I don't close my eyes, I might see some scary stuff. It's a very weird feeling, even if I know I'm experiencing it, there's a huge sense of danger and fright.
 
Wakune said:
My mom also told me how the only way to kill them is to pour salt inside the witches shed skin so that they can never return to their human form and eventually die. It was one of the most horrifying moments in my life. The bruise lasted over a week after we flew back to America.

You actually had a bruise?? Now that's scary stuff...
 
nly happened to me once, during a trip to Trinidad...the old woman had long grey hair, soaking wet with blood and mottled with flesh...she opened her mouth and I saw a red glow in her mouth and my chest was filled with a burning pain...after a few seconds, the old woman burst into flames and flew toward the window and I was able to scream until my mom came into the room. I told her what I saw and she told me about them (which is the funny thing, because I don't ever remember being told about them before):

Mine wasn't visual at all, lol...just touch and sound.


I wonder if you can get bruises from that because you're brain is so into thinking you're getting hit that it reacts. Or maybe I'm just trying to be smart when I'm not.
 
teh_pwn said:
I wonder if you can get bruises from that because you're brain is so into thinking you're getting hit that it reacts.
I thought about this too...I'd rather believe that than any alternative, personally
 
It happens to me every few months, most recently in May. I was taking a nap during the middle of the day when I awoke and realized I couldn't move. It felt like somebody was jabbing me repeatedly in the side with a finger or blunt object, and I saw a hazy shimmering outline of a figure standing on the left side of my bed. Freaked me the fuck out, I can assure you.

I read up on this a couple years ago and noticed that some of the things people report seeing and hearing during sleep paralysis fit right into silent hill; dark shapes and beasts running around, sounds of a de-tuned radio, weird voices, screeching metallic sounds, etc. I guess team SH researched exactly which things scare the everliving shit out of me.
 
Hey all Bio here,

Are you guys fucking around? Seriousy this girl in school came to me literally crying one night saying she saw one. I honestly thought she was making it up and just having an excuse to come sleep in my room with me. Oh well this is some freaky ass shit
 
No we're not. It's very real.

I had my first one last night. Not as crazy as some people's, but one none the less.

You know those people that go through "alien abductions" ? This is what they really go through.

It's when your body is in a state of sleep where your voluntary muscles are inactive, and you somehow become somewhat conscious. For some reason it involves some sort of "being" touching you.

It's really weird.
 
I have it occasionally. Seems to relate somehow to overall stress level.

What happens is that I wake up, but can't move myself. I can just stare. I have a very strong feeling of being awake, yet paralyzed.

It's very real. I thought before that it might be actually a dream where I dream of being awake but paralyzed. This is not the case. I told my girlfriend about it and she has seen me have it. She says that I'm just staring up, not moving at all, very spooky, and she kindly tells me to try and get just a bit more sleep.

This phenomenon has been well documented in Scandianvian popular press in the recent years. Essentially what happens is a mistake in waking up. Your consciousness wakes up, but you fail to wake up your motoric membrane, hence you can't move.

I have two ways out of it - going back to sleep and waking up a bit later, or extreme struggle. Struggle is a lot more stressing, I try to break out of the shell, and occasionally succeed in jumping up. Going back to sleep is less stressful.

The scary part in sleep paralysis is the fear of being there forever, with nobody to discover you. Luckily I'm living with someone now :)
 
I've experienced it quite a few times, though I knew about sleep paralysis prior to any occurences. I usually get a floating sensation seconds after realizing I'm paralyzed and I hear a bunch of noises. Fortunately, nothing scary has ever occured during this, probably because whenever I realize I'm experiencing it I close my eyes to avoid visualisations. I have no doubt that my mind is adept enough to create some scary-ass creature so horrifying that I would pee my pants until my room were flooded.

I would actually like to experience it more often because I've read that it can be the threshold of dreams, and I want use it to have lucid dreams.
 
Screw you assholes.

I had this TWICE last night. The first time; I felt like I could move, and tried clapping my hands which made no sound, and I tried reaching up and turning off my air conditioner (it's right above my bed), which made the normal beep sound, but didn't turn off. The whole time I was really scared for no apparent reason, and pretty much everything I did elevated the fear. My vision was also screwed up.. Sometimes it would be like half of an image, other times it would be rotated. It ended pretty quickly when closed my eyes and tried to relax.

The second time; I heard my door door close, I couldn't move, and was really scared again. It freaked me out so much that I was afraid to close my eyes in the shower this morning.. Thank god I didn't see any witches or anything, I probably would have scared myself to death
 
:lol The moment you get into the state where you can't move, just close your eyes and force yourself to go back to sleep again. That's an easy thing to say when you've gone through it a few times...the first time around it probably throws everyone for a loop.
 
pj325is said:
Thank god I didn't see any witches or anything, I probably would have scared myself to death

Oh, it's not that bad, although it does keep you awake for a while.

Yeah, so I had one of these complete with voices and an unfriendly demon. But in general, I simply see things in a distorted way - ie. colors will flow into each other.
 
Why the fuck did I just read this thread? This has never happened to me. In fact, I had no idea shit like this happened. Now I won't be able to sleep peacefully. :-(
 
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