Anyone have any experience with this?
Over the last few months, I keep waking up in the middle of the night unable to move. This usually seems to happen if my brain “figures out” it’s dreaming and the dream becomes lucid. When I wake up, my eyes are open, but I can’t make a sound or move a finger. Lately, it’s felt like there’s a person trying to drag me off the bed… pretty creepy.
So anyone else had problems with this kind of thing? What made it go away? All comments are welcome. Thanks!
I experienced that a few times when I was a teenager, [mumble] years ago, but never since. I don’t know why it started or why it stopped … I understand it’s not an uncommon affliction.
Scary as hell, though. 
I have it. Here are some solutions that have worked for me.
-Get some exercise. Every day. Even fifteen minutes. So you are tired when you go to bed.
-Take your vitamins and eat healthy. Not directly related, but eating healthy often equals sleeping better.
-Know that something like 30% of the population suffers this. You are not alone. Try, and I find this difficult still, to think of it as an adventure and as an exploration. Try and see what you can do in your “dream” state.
-Try to be aware you will be OK, and not to get scared by it.
-Change position when it happens.
Mine has not gone away but it significantly lessened, especially with the daily exercise. Still if I go several days without and follow everything else it happens sometimes.
Yeah, if it is happening regularly, you just have to get used to it. After a bit it won’t be so scary. When I have some sort of sleep paralysis I usually just wait a bit…have fun with it!
If you do get it regularly, you are almost having lucid dreams! Which are hella fun.
I used to have sleep paralysis fairly frequently. I also had severe sleep apnea. At about the time I started sleeping with a CPAP machine for the apnea, the episodes of sleep paralysis stopped. I don’t know if it was connected or just coincidence.
There are a number of old threads on this (worth every penny for joining up back in the day, IMO. I do not have fun with it.). I was able to kick it by not napping in the late morning, and by sleeping on my side rather than on my back (which for some reason seems to exacerbate it).
Sleep paralysis is normal. You go through it every night during REM sleep (Wiki). It keeps you from sleep walking. If you’re waking up during REM sleep then that is a different matter. You may have sleep apnea and it’s waking you up. You can start by reviewing any changes in your life such as weight gain or diet or emotional stress. It happens to me from time to time. It’s distressing if I’m having problems breathing because that triggers claustrophobic dreams. It sucks to be paralyzed when you’re claustrophobic. I usually find a finger or a toe that I can wiggle and by doing so I wake up the rest of my body.
If space aliens are trying to drag you off I can’t help you there.
I experience sleep paralysis. I was absolutely terrified when it starting happening, but now I’ve gotten used to it. In the beginning, I had horrid vivid dreams before the moment I’d wake up and realize I couldn’t move. I too felt a presence in the room; either sitting on top of me or standing over me. Now my sleep paralysis isn’t so bad because I’m not scared of it anymore. I realize what is happening and I tell myself it will be over soon. I also found that it helps for me to sleep in a room that is not too warm.
I had something like this occur o me when i was 15. I was sitting in a recliner watching TV, when suddenly… I couldn’t fucking move! What I felt upon this realization was about the deepest panic I have ever felt in my life, and I believe I used up half a lifetimes worth of willpower trying to move anything.
After what seemed like ages, whatever it was that was keeping me halfway between sleep and wakefulness succumbed to what little blood was left in my adrenaline system, and I was good again. Though in no condition to continue my nap.
I don’t recall that ever happening again, but I have had a few fleeting moments of more lucid than normal dreaming, which give me just enough control to be frustrated at my inability to control what I’m dreaming(Bring on Monica Belluci! But I end up getting Roseanne Barr or something. :smack: )
My 84-yr-old Dad has this. He tries to never sleep on his back because that’s when it happens. He’s afraid he’ll die, because he can’t even breathe, he says. He naps in his recliner a lot during the day, and can only sleep in his bed (where the paralysis happens) for around 3-4 hours.
Poor baby.
I have had this on occasion, thankfully very rarely. It is a terrifying experience every time, it feels like I am suffocating as well as not being able to move. I cannot objectively say how long it lasts for but it feels like a few minutes sometimes.
I think I’m going to try the exercising advice. I should do that anyway, and avoiding this is another good reason!
Thanks for the replies everyone. It’s good to know I’m not the only person who seems to have this problem! I think I’ll try exercising more also and hoping that helps.
Ah, good old fashioned sleep paralysis. Wake up in the night and you can’t breath. If you rolled over or moved your head you could breathe but you can’t even turn your head. You’re suffocating and meanwhile you hear all kinds of weird music playing and giant spiders are crawling all over the walls. You struggle to move and then everything fades.
I had it when I was young and my hallucinations involved an earthquake, a nuclear war, and the rock band Joy Division appearing in my bedroom to play a concert. It does seem to be something that settles down as you get older, though drinking before bedtime can sometimes bring it on.
Hopefully knowing it’s a natural part of sleep will reduce any anxiety about it.
It happened to me twice in my life and both times, I was still dreaming for a short time while my eyes were open so I thought the dreams were actually happening. In the fisrt one, I was surrounded by aliens! Very scary… In the second I dreamed that I overheard my parents saying they got a phone call my aunt had just died. That one was more realistic and when I got up I asked them about it, but it hadn’t happened. In both cases, simply waiting about ten minutes or so was enough for me to wake up for real.
I don’t know about not being able to breathe, but I actually “practice” sleep paralysis, if that’s the right term for it. I just kind of stumbled on the effect a few years ago, and with some practice I was able to “zone out” without falling asleep, to the point where I had to forcefully think myself out of it, just wanting to move didn’t produce any reaction from my limbs.
It feels a little like when your leg goes to sleep, you’re sitting funny and you know it’s asleep, but before you try and move it and feel that annoying pain or tingle. You can feel your body, but it doesn’t really feel like your body. It’s actually quite relaxing, once you get over the unnerving part of losing control over your body, and even a few minutes of it can revive you during a midday slump. It’s as relaxing as sleep, but allows you to continue to make plans and think about the rest of your day, something of the best of both worlds, IMHO.
Yeah…it is a lot like that. I took a nap last night, and maybe this thread put ideas into my head, as I had my first sleep paralysis episode in a while. I’ve only had them a couple of other times. Not pleasant. I came out of it fairly quickly, but it was awful before then.
I’ve had frequent sleep paralysis, and over the years I clued in to the things that exacerbated it. The number one cause was sleeping next to a heat source. Sleeping on a heating pad or next to a heater was almost guaranteed to cause an episode. The other two things I’ve noticed are that I only have episodes when taking a nap (never during normal nighttime sleep) and when sleeping on my back. However, I love naps and I naturally roll on to my back during sleep, so there’s nothing much to be done about this.
About five times over the last eight or so years. I found each occasion to be monumentally disturbing. I Was never able to figure out a pattern.
As an interesting side note, the name of the condition seems to be a bit of a misnomer. Shouldn’t it be called “waking paralysis” or “waking from sleep paralysis”?
I have to literally “scream” myself out of it.
No big deal…happens maybe four times a year.
For some reason, though, it happens a lot when I have overnight guests (I live alone). They get freaked out by the screaming 