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I think I might have figured out what causes sleep paralysis

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tralfazz

Member
This topic was discussed a couple of weeks ago and it happened to me again last night, except this time I was more attentive to what was going on as I came out of it. It seems that the few times it has happened there has been a sore spot just above the base of the skull when I wake up because the pillows were folded over and putting pressure there. As I come out of it I notice that area gets warmer like blood flowing. Then it dawns on me. Is sleep paralysis essentially your whole body 'falling asleep' because you are pinching blood flow back there? Is the bad dreams that seem to occur right before waking a defense mechanism forcing you to mind to wake up and do something to your body before severe harm is done?

I hadn't read anything substantial with regards to what causes it by googling so I thought I might have stumbled onto it. Any thoughts?
 

Escape Goat

Member
Damn, Psych 101 was awhile ago but your body is paralyzed everytime you go to bed so that you wont wake up everytime you hear or smell something. What causes it I dont remmeber but I dont think it has anything to do with blood flow.
 
D

Deleted member 1235

Unconfirmed Member
It's like hamburglar said, and then you sort of half wake up and the paralysis bit doesn't switch off.
 

tralfazz

Member
That's the position I was in, on my back with the pillow corner jammed right into what turned ou to be the sore spot. With regards to the second poster I know the body is somewhat paralyzed but blood still flows. I'm saying that somewhere blood flow is cutting causing you to wake up but unable to move fore a few seconds.
 

Drozmight

Member
I had a sleep paralysis episode last night. I was in bed looking up the ramp of of a spaceship, and all I could see was the shadow of none other than yoda (talking about BS as usual). He walked down towards me, and was about to lunge on my chest when I managed to wake myself up.

This happens a lot. I knew what was going on in the dream and was trying everything to wake up and when I did it was the usual gasp for air. I think you stop breathing and it's your brain's way of telling you "wake up! you're going to die!"
 

Killthee

helped a brotha out on multiple separate occasions!
Didn't we solve this during the last sleep paralysis thread?

dskillzhtown said:
Sleep Paralysis is waking up directly from REM sleep. Your body paralyses itself to keep your body from acting out the dreams and waking yourself up. So waking up at this time is scary as hell because you literally can't move, until you fully wake up. I got that from the ABC News UFO Special, lol.

Source
 
Drozmight said:
I had a sleep paralysis episode last night. I was in bed looking up the ramp of of a spaceship, and all I could see was the shadow of none other than yoda (talking about BS as usual). He walked down towards me, and was about to lunge on my chest when I managed to wake myself up.

This happens a lot. I knew what was going on in the dream and was trying everything to wake up and when I did it was the usual gasp for air. I think you stop breathing and it's your brain's way of telling you "wake up! you're going to die!"

Did you have a sore asshole when you woke up? Me thinks you were abducted and taken advantage of.
 

GDGF

Soothsayer
I always figured it happend when your body wakes up in the middle of REM state, or something like that.

I used to get sleep paralysis quite often (like once or twice a week, and sometimes several times in a given night)
 

Lord Error

Insane For Sony
Hmmm i don't think this has ever happened to me. Weird.
Me neither. Nor I do know anyone who had this happen to him/her outside of some of the forum goers and people on TV :\

I hope it stays that way, some of the descriptions of the experience sound incredibly creepy and scary.
 
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