Sleep Paralysis

andrushkiwt

Well-known member
Working nights and switching over to daytime hours on my off days has me sleeping odd hours. Adding 12 hour shifts doesn't help. Recently, I've had several episodes of sleep paralysis. This is where your mind is aware but your body unable to move, while either falling asleep or awakening. For me, it only happens as I fall asleep. My mind begins to enter a dream state almost immediately (rare, often in those with abnormal sleep cycles and sleep deprivation, which I do have) but I am aware of my dream and I am able to pull back out of it. As I do, I attempt to move my legs and arms but am unable to for about one minute. As I feel the ability to move my legs and arms come back during that minute, I am attempting to call out as well, but unsure if I am reproducing the sounds aloud or only in my mind. Sure enough, as my body nears complete restoration, I become aware that my voice was not calling out as I thought it was and it slowly comes back. This is one terrifying minute.

I have no issue sharing this kind of stuff and I find it rather fascinating, though incredibly terrifying as it occurs. That inability to move your body at all, while remaining conscious, is unsettling. I need better sleep. :)
 
Whew...never experienced being frozen for that long...damn a minute.... Definitely had the trying to run in my dreams and couldn't get the motion going FRUSTRATING...

Doing the international travel thing I have to put myself through the sleep deprivation thing way more than I should at my age but I continue...frickin zombie boy for 3 days each way.... Europe is tough ..China is brutal
 
Whew...never experienced being frozen for that long...damn a minute.... Definitely had the trying to run in my dreams and couldn't get the motion going FRUSTRATING...

Doing the international travel thing I have to put myself through the sleep deprivation thing way more than I should at my age but I continue...frickin zombie boy for 3 days each way.... Europe is tough ..China is brutal

It's likely a minute, but feels longer. One day I'll go to sleep at 9am, then the next at 11am, then 10am, then 11pm, 12am, 2am, and round it goes. I'll average 4-7 hours each night. Thankfully, with school starting again soon, I'll be on a normal daytime schedule. But that sleep paralysis is no joke. Getting a good night's rest is incredibly important for our health.

How often are you traveling?
 
Sleep paralysis?

Yes sir.

"What Is Sleep Paralysis?

Sleep paralysis is a feeling of being conscious but unable to move. It occurs when a person passes between stages of wakefulness and sleep. During these transitions, you may be unable to move or speak for a few seconds up to a few minutes. Some people may also feel pressure or a sense of choking. Sleep paralysis may accompany other sleep disorders such as narcolepsy. Narcolepsy is an overpowering need to sleep caused by a problem with the brain's ability to regulate sleep."

- Sleep Paralysis - Causes, Symptoms, Treatment, and Prevention
 
How often are you traveling?
In 2016 6 trips to China, one to Europe and several West to East Coast...took it's toll...I decided to slow it down this year Only 2 to China so far, 1 to Europe and a few to the east coast . East Coast is a breeze as opposed to the China and Europe trips..

Sleep is important and I am working on getting more...always been an early riser...love sunrises.....and sunsets.....pretty amazing way to start and end the day
 
Sleep is important and I am working on getting more...always been an early riser...love sunrises.....and sunsets.....pretty amazing way to start and end the day

Agreed. Unfortunately, these night shifts are all I have for another 2 months. Can't wait to get the day shift thing going - steady sleeping schedule for work/school. 5AM rise time, I'm thinking.
 
That is freaky.

I often have dreams where I am trying to run fast but my body is ultra lethargic and I can barely move. I think it's a combination of my mind thinking it's going to run fast but feeling the relaxation of sleep and so the resulting dream is kind of frustrating.

Weird stuff.
 
There used to be a thing where they said, if you had a falling dream and hit the ground you would die. A couple of times I have had a falling dream, falling from an incredible height. It was terrifying. I hit, but bounced, incredibly high. Rinse, repeat. I have no idea what it means?
 
A couple of times I have had a falling dream, falling from an incredible height. It was terrifying. I hit, but bounced, incredibly high. Rinse, repeat. I have no idea what it means?


Fortunately for me before I had my falling dream I learned to fly...whew! I am serious as a heart attack... It's been a long time since I flew but it is quite awesome. My MO would be to jump and do a flip and I'm off and on my way...good shit...landing was always a little awkward...so the falling dream...we're not in Kansas anymore....FUCK!

At the time we were looking for a new place to live...so in the dream I am with this agent and we're checking out this old two story house...She starts telling me that there had been rumors that the house was haunted and all of a sudden shit starts happening ...all the furniture starts floating and the house starts twisting.......next thing I know the house is airborne and I'm am holding on to a beam on the ceiling for my dear life....I start screaming help like a mad man...the wife wakes me up ...Holy shit that was fricking frightening....next night same damn dream except this time when I'm screaming the wife doesn't wake me up ...everything is flying out the window and I'm getting pulled towards it......can't hold onto the beam anymore out I go whoooooooa! Whew good thing I can fly...so I finally land on this kind of main street where I grew up ...I hit the ground kind of hard and drop to my knees I look up and there is a car coming straight for me...oh shit.. too late... here it comes...I don't know where I got it but I had a rag in my hand and stood facing the car and threw the rag at the windshield right about when it should have hit me....all kinds of water splashed out of it and the car turned right.....I turned around and actually where I was standing the road turned right so it had to go right...it wasn't going to hit me....I see this old dude and a kid sitting on a bus stop bench and I walk over and asked if they'd seen what happened...The old guy started telling a story about the old house I was in and that many years ago when he was a young man some young men had gone in there one night and were all killed there.....that they believed it was evil spirits that killed them...

And then I woke up....splain that one Lucy........ I've had some pretty bad nightmares in my life and some horrific hallucinations as a young kid with a 104 fever but I believe that dream that I had twice was the most scared I have ever been.... a fricking house uprooting and taking off into the sky ...similar to wizard of OZ but no tornado...no it was frickin EVIL making it go...damn!
 
You sound like me, remembering dreams. I can remember dreams from years ago like it was yesterday, mostly bad dreams. Maybe because it was traumatic. Things can happen in dreams that would not be survivable in real life.
 
....next night same damn dream...

So, it was the same dream as the previous night, except that this time it picked up where the previous nights' fell off? I've had one recurring dream. First time when I was 6 or 7, then again when I was 20-21. I never forgot it the first time it happened, and sure enough got it again many years later. There were times when I'd grab my phone the minute I woke up and tried to explain my dream into a recorder, just to listen again later.

Funny how there are times that I can't remember my dreams until something happens during the day to trigger the memory.
 
Used to happen to me as a kid. Maybe around 10-12 years old - I remember it distinctly. Scared the crap out of me at first but it just stopped happening at some point.
 
Used to happen to me as a kid. Maybe around 10-12 years old - I remember it distinctly. Scared the crap out of me at first but it just stopped happening at some point.

Any link you remember between lack of sleep or poor sleeping habits at that time? Prob in school, so strict sleeping times, but perhaps it was over the summer?
 
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Yeah, I ain't even. *shrug*
 
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Any link you remember between lack of sleep or poor sleeping habits at that time? Prob in school, so strict sleeping times, but perhaps it was over the summer?

I do seem to recall it would happen in the morning as I was waking up, not in the night.
 
I have sleep paralysis quite frequently. Usually accompanied by very scary stuff. Things floating by, demons screetching toward me with vile nasty faces, just some really weird shit. I know I'm dreaming but can't wake myself. I call out to my wife "wake me up, wake me up!" but what I hear myself say is a mumbled, low volume voice saying "whk-m-up", like a retard.

It's very frightening, but sometimes, knowing it is a dream, I can sort of control my actions. I will often drift up out of my body and be headed for the ceiling, then control myself a bit as I floart around the room. The whole time I am crying aloud "whk-m-up" but no one ever hears me. I try to get my body rocking so I can wake myself but cannot move a muscle. It's super freaky and suddenly I'll burst out of it. Usually wake with fast heart beat and breathing hard. I get up and piss, but always scared to allow myself to go back to sleep for fear of entering that place again.

I found a few years ago that this would happen frequently if I was trying to nap on my recliner, and more so if I napped with my arms streached above my head.

It is more likely to happen, and does quite often, if I roll over on my back while sleeping. I usually wake from this on my back. I have to make a determined effort to fall asleep on one side or the other. Laying on my back will nearly always bring this on.

Weird shit man, and not fun. But I can roll with it if I become aware that its the same dream state I've been in before. Doesn't matter about travel or irregular sleep habits, it happens or it doesn't. Doesn't seem to be alcohol related either. I get probably 5 hours sleep on a good night. Go to bed around 10-10:30, roll side to side for about two hours and usually drift off maybe around 1 AM or so. Wake 2 to 3 times through the night, back to sleep (always on my side), then alarm at 5:30 AM. Sux!!

Hope this is just a temporary thing for you Andru!
 
I have plenty of experience with so-called "hypnopompic" experiences (and maybe the odd hypnagogic experience) -- enough not to buy the sketchy scientific explanations that exist. I have my view on the detailed nature of the experiences, but I will not elaborate, except to say that the feeling of paralysis and fear that may accompany these so-called "states of consciousness" are separate in origin from the states themselves, which are quite natural, except that we may tend to lose the ability with age.

One experience I had was when I was in college, where I had my own room. I was tired and had crashed out on top of the bed, when I awoke to very clear and exquisite classical music. I wasn't even a fan of classical music, but this stuff was brilliant, and so clear, that I thought I'd left the radio on. But within seconds, it melted away, like a spook at dawn. I recall thinking that it must have been coming from a neighbour. Just as I put my head down to sleep, it started up again. The same piece (I seem to recall piano and violin featuring strongly). I immediate pulled myself awake (I was very tired). But no sooner had I done that, than the music stopped. That is when I realized I was dreaming it. I put my head back down on the bed (I'd raised it for a good couple of minutes to check, straining to hear where the music was coming from, only to be met with silence). This time I expected the music to return, and sure enough it did, seconds after my head hit the bed. Now, I was in that "half state" of knowing that I was dreaming it. I made it stop once more, by drifting slightly more awake, then I went to sleep. Had I been able to write music, it would have been quite a coup.
 
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