Possibly. All I know is that the inability to breathe is, hands down, the worst part of it.
This is an absolutely terrifying experience!!
I had an episode myself last summer.
I was on my couch, where I had taken a midday nap. When I had awoken I realized that I couldn’t move a muscle. Worse than that, It seemed as if every muscle in my entire body was contracted and that something very heavy, like a lead blanket or something was keeping me pinned down. When I say I couldn’t move, I mean it. I tried and failed to move even a finger or a toe.** I was extremely alert and in no way was I still sleeping!** I was able to open my eyes, although I can’t remember if I was able to move them. I was hearing some very weird, low sounds that were comparable to an AM radio station playing weird voices and a lot of static. The sounds didn’t seem to be coming from any particular location in the room, but they seemed to be broadcasted directly to my ears. The voices were very hard to hear, over the static, and they seemed to be speaking in an unknown language. There were shadows of figures moving about in my peripheral vision that I could not focus on to any extent. I was extremely frightened. My mind was racing, trying desperately to come up with an explanation of what the hell was happening to me. To my best judgment, the entire situation lasted around 20-30 minutes. When I was finally able to sit up everything was fine. It was as if nothing had happened. I can’t say that I had woken up, because to the best of my knowledge I was awake the entire time, after all my eyes were wide open. I reluctantly told the members of my family and a few friends. They of course blew it off as a bad dream. I later I saw a show on TV talking about a phenomenon called *** Sleep Paralysis***. I had never before heard of such a phenomenon.
After doing some research of my own I realized that what I had experienced compared extremely well to other stories by people that had similar experiences. It was very assuring to know that I wasn’t the only person to have such a freaky thing happen to them.
I don’t know what this was, I do know what it wasn’t. It wasn’t simply a dream! I don’t believe alains were in my room at 12:00 p.m., going through my underwear draw, after shooting me with a paralyzing photon ray gun or anything, but this was more than simply a dream. This was a physical event. I am sure that there is a good scientific explanation for this but I wish someone could tell me what it was.
I bet that this phenomenon is responsible for 90% of all alien abduction stories. I am sure that some people could pass a lie detector test claiming that aliens have just visited them. I read that almost everyone that this happens to has multiple events so this is probably the reason why people claim multiple abductions.
This was undoubtedly the weirdest, scariest thing to ever happen to me!
Honestly buzzz-kill, if it wasn`t for the large red writing I was prepared to believe you were fabricating the whole thing, sorry to doubt you 
Wow, I get this frequently, usually as I’m falling asleep. It scares the hell out of me and I end up fully awake again and can’t fall back asleep for a while. I always figured it had something to do with me being partially asleep or something, but it’s nice to know exactly what it is.
Huh, even when I was a kid it never really worried me, it just annoyed me.
How about this:
Screw You SMAM!!
Happens to me pretty often. I wake up, cant move and then have the sensation that I am being lifted. Scares the hell out of me. My girlfriend got popped in the face once when she shook me out of it. I have noticed that it happens more frequently when I am lying on my back and my head is tilted forward against my neck. I asked my doctor about it and he just suggested that I sleep on my side.
You: Doc., it hurts when I do this.
Doc.: So don’t do that.
This is going to sound rude, so I apologize in advance. But, I can’t believe so many people don’t know about this. As far back into childhood I can remember, I’ve understood that your body is paralyzed during sleep and sometimes you wake up before your body does. Sometimes scary or at least disconcerting, but always perfectly understandable once you fully wake up. Maybe it’s because my mom was a nurse.
But some of you people were in colllege & didn’t know? It’s just surprising to me, that’s all. I’ve always taken it as a “fact of life.”
What I didn’t realize is this probably explains all those alien abductions. It figures tho. However, why do people always think they’ve been anally probed? I know, I know, that’s already another thread or two, so you don’t need to answer.
This happens to me quite frequently. Fortunatly, whenever I wake up I’m completely disoriented, and when I wake during sleep paralysis I rarely realize I’m paralyzed. I will remember what happened, but during it, I think I’m playing a video game or something. The funny thing is, I usually remember what I was thinking about when I woke up.
Well, levdrakon, it’s one of those obscure little things about us that we actually have to persue to find out more about. I wouldn’t have known about all of this myself if I hadn’t read about succubi and incubi way way long ago, and done some further research on the subject.
I’ve never had an experience with this myself. I’m curious to find out exactly what it’s like, but I get way too spooked way too easily.
This reminds me of how I was so surprised that nobody else could bend their thumbs backwards like I could.
I just posted on this exact topic last week:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=145684
Nobody ever told me at school that you were supposed to be paralyzed during your sleep. Actually, nobody ever taught me anything about sleep cycles. I learnt about it in books. I assume it’s the same for most people. Common knowledge is what parents or teachers usually teach to children/pupils. Sleep paralysis isn’t one ot these things, so I’m not surprised at all that most people are unaware it happens.
I’m pretty sure someone has mentioned this before in the past, but every once in a while, I’ll get this feeling that, for half a second, I’m falling from the roof of a buliding or something, and just suddenly jump upwards out of bed. Doesn’t really frighten me much, but it just kind of leaves me sitting upright in bed kind of confused about what happened.
Thanks Bongmaster. Looks like I didn’t need to dig out that neural book after all.
I know this is rude, but may I just express my pleasure at the irony of that typo. Not a personal attack–if I die ironically, I will die laughing.
I was going to link to a thread I started on this exact same topic but I see that someone has already done that, My docs told me that I should sleep with the upper portiom of my body elevated- not sure how helpful this is but I have only had one episode like that since then so maybe it is helpful. I agree with whoever said it was the scariest experience ever.
I don’t think anyone’s mentioned this yet–sometimes some people ARE in fact asleep and dreaming they’re awake. I’ve videotaped myself and was able to see from the tapes that at times when I thought I was awake and had my eyes open and was trying to vocalize, I was in fact asleep. This doesn’t make it any less frightening.
It is said to be associated with out-of-body-experiences. Prior to an obe the body becomes catatonic, and then starts to vibrate, and if you don’t scare yourself out of it, you (as consciousness) can leave your body.
Thank you Iamthat. I wanted to metion that some of these cases could be “sleep paralysis”, but most are probably “astral projection” or obe. Some are experiencing things that others strive to feel and control
Not to worry, I’m laughing right now too. How could I have typed that???:smack:
I got my recommended daily allowance of humility.