I fell asleep on the couch the other night on my back, which I later learned is the position most likely to result in this phenomenon. I woke up but was unable to move I looked up at the stairs across the way ( only later did I realize its physically impossible to see the stairs from that position) and saw my Wife at the top of the stairs but she was just standing there looking at me but I couldn’t really make out her face. After a few steps down I noticed she wasn’t my wife but an old demon hag coming down toward me so I began to freak the hell out but I was helpless and completely paralyzed. Then I finally jumped off the couch onto the floor but lo and behold I was right back laying down on the couch again and the Hag was making progress down the stairs this went on and on (Astral Projection) but I kept winding up back on the couch paralyzed again. Finally I felt my toes began to wriggle and that finally snapped me out of it before the Hag could get to me and I woke up and realized it was all a bizarre dream or I was in between sleeping states. Anyone else ever had this happen to them or something similar? Apparently it is somewhat of a common occurrence.
I fell asleep in work one day and woke up and couldn’t move my body. I can’t tell or couldn’t at the time if the paralysis was momentary or lasted minutes. It scared the living shit out of me. I didn’t see anything untoward though.
I’ve experienced sleep paralysis, and it’s quite scary. Never actually seen The Hag, though. I can’t move, and I can’t breathe. This usually happens if I let my blood sugar get too low, or if I’ve taken hydrocodone. My solution is to eat smaller meals, spaced out around the clock.
Same as Lynn. It’s truely frightening when you don’t know what it is.
The worst part is the feeling of not being able to breathe - actually, you’re breathing normally, but have no conscious control over your breathing.
I have had sleep paralysis several times - can’t move, can’t scream, and usually something scary or threatening is going on, like noises in the house or some evil person sneaking around. Very unpleasant.
I’ve also had a number of instances of ‘exploding head syndrome’ which has the coolest name ever but isn’t a lot of fun either; because it usually happens while you’re falling asleep, and sometimes a few times in a row, it makes you afraid of falling asleep.
It has been a while since I’ve experienced either, thankfully.
In the long-lost days of my youth (age approx. maybe 12 through 30 or so) I used to have something like this happen to me quite regularly.
The pattern with me was usually along these lines:
[ul]
[li] Find myself laying semi-awake in bed at night.[/li][li] Have a vague auditory hallucination that sounds like a very faint low-pitched rumbling or rustling sound. This seems to last for only a few seconds.[/li][li] Sleep paralysis is said to often be accompanied by a notion of “something” being present. (“The Hag.”) In my case, I typically imagined there was a large, dangerous wild animal in the room with me.[/li][li] ABRUPTLY, my whole body goes stiff, and with an all-over tingly feeling. I typically imagined that the wild animal has just pounced on me![/li][li] I feel like I must fight off the paralysis, or I will be paralyzed permanently. I try to move, but can’t. Sometimes I can wiggle one finger, maybe. This seems to last for about 5 seconds. (Never had trouble breathing during this, however.)[/li][li] Then, suddenly, even more abruptly than it started, it’s all over. I find myself laying awake and feeling totally limp, both physically and mentally. This actually feels very calm and good and relaxed. This is one aspect that I have never seen mentioned in any reading I have done on the subject.[/li][li] Eventually, I fall asleep again.[/li][li] The following day, I feel generally limp and languid for most of the day. This, too, I have never seen mentioned.[/li][/ul]
For the first 8 or so years that I remember this happening, the phase when I couldn’t move scared the living shit out of me. But, it only lasted about 5 seconds each time (or so it seemed). I’m pretty sure my time perception must be about right.
Eventually, I began to understand that it would always end quickly, and I began to notice how limpid and relaxed I felt afterward. Then I stopped finding it scary and instead, looked forward to the next episode! But, eventually, I seem to have outgrown that, and it doesn’t happen any more. So I guess I’ve forever missed my chance to be abducted by space aliens.
When I experience occasional sleep paralysis I want to wake up and to move but can’t seem to do either. Sometimes there’s the feeling that someone else is in the room, or in the house and I need to find out who or what, but cannot move my body.
ETA: Wow. Pretty much what Wikipedia has to say:
I’ve had occasional sleep paralysis, but rather than a terrifying hallucination I get an irritating one. I hear a fly, and it comes closer and closer and closer and closer…it took me a long time to realize that it was a hallucination, since unlike attacks by creepy ladies it isn’t all that implausible for a fly to buzz you, and then be unable to find the fly.
It was only because I always heard such a fly when I was paralyzed that I realized what was happening. It’s still irritating though. Fortunately it’s only happened a few times, and only in the mild form of a minute or so of paralysis.
I have experienced the paralysis, being unable to breathe thing once or twice. I don’t think it was ever accompanied by a hag or any other sort of monster coming to get me, though. Not being able to move or breathe was quite scary enough.
I experience it occasionally, perhaps once a month or so. I think there is a presence in the room, but I never see it. And now I don’t even have that since I’m used to it now. I just wait until I can move again. Staying calm actually restores your function quicker I’ve found, although I could be wrong since time perception is hard to figure when you’re in that state.
I experienced sleep paralysis once - but instead of a hag or a monster, I was being attacked by an 18th century dandy armed with brass knuckles.
I’ve seen “the hag” twice now, but I don’t recall feeling particularly paralyzed. In each instance, I found myself awake… and when I opened my eyes, I saw someone sitting in the bed, right next to my pillow. The only detail I could see was an impossibly huge, malevolent grin. Then I found myself leaping out of bed in a state of terror.
That’s extremely frightening.
Yes, that’s definitely something I’m glad to have never experienced.
I experience sleep paralysis when I have been burning the midnight oil too hard, for too long. There was a period where I managed about 3 hours sleep five nights a week for six months in a row, working essentially two jobs. About a month in, on the nights when I was able to get to bed earlier, I’d experience the paralysis side of it, bit no sense of an intruder. When I researched it and realised what it was, I found that going with it seemed to allow me to move sooner than fighting it did.
A couple of times, I’ve lain half-awake with the sensation that someone is lying beside/behind me. I could feel the weight against my back. (I should add that there is usually no one else in my bed except perhaps one of the cats).
Once, I opened my eyes to see a man’s forearm and hand on the sheet in front of me, as if someone were sleeping beside me and had thrown his arm over me. I can still see that image very clearly in my mind–the dark hairs on the back of the hand, the square, short fingernails.
There was another occasion when I had the sensation that there was a little creature like a gnome or hobgoblin jabbing me in the back with something pointy.
In all these cases, and during some less dramatic night hallucinations, I didn’t try to move away or jump out of bed, as I naturally would if there really was a stranger or nasty little jabbing creature with me, but just lay there until I was fully awake and the sensation was gone. I felt more unsettled once I was awake than I did while these things were actually going on.
I used to have sleep paralysis often when I was young, and it still happens occasionally. The last time was just a few days ago.
Normally, I do not see anything, but sense a presence just outside of my line of sight. The last time was one of the worst; someone (or some thing) sat on the bed behind me and put their hand on my shoulder. Freaked me the hell out.
Morgan Freeman’s Through the Wormhole series talked about some experimenter – I forget the details – who is using a helmet with magnetic or electrical stimulation (it’s non-invasive) to induce in test subjects the strong feeling of a presence immediately nearby.
Apparently there’s a specific area of the brain that produces this sensation when stimulated. The test subjects described it as quite vivid, although not someone they could identify specifically.
IIRC, speculation in the TV program was that the area was responsible for our proprioception and disrupting it did not interfere with the subject’s ability to perceive his or her own body, but interrupted the ability to properly identify it as the self –
thus the sensation of an unidentified presence right beside the subject.
This probably doesn’t help sufferers of sleep paralysis, but it might explain what’s going on with “The Hag.”
I have had sleep paralysis but never experienced the hag. The first time I was dreaming of a nice spring day. It was a really nice until I dreamt that the atmosphere was being sucked out into space. I felt myself not being able to breath so I woke up to find myself unable to move, and it felt like my whole body was vibrating. The whole thing lasted less than ten seconds, but I’ll never forget it.
I have had sleep paralysis a few more times since then. It feels like someone trying to yank me out of bed as I drift off to sleep. The first time that happened I couldn’t go back to sleep because it freaked me out even though I knew what was happening; nowadays I can ignore it.
I never see the hag but I have gotten a lot of sleep paralysis. IMO, this by itself could explain all the instances of aliens, demons, incubi and everything else we’ve been talking about as a human race for hundreds of years - even angels. I’m surprised there isn’t more research into it.
It affects about 30% of the population.
It used to be terrifying to me but it’s gotten better. And you can control it somewhat with plenty of potassium and exercise.