# Sleep Paralysis **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 19, 2008, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sleep-paralysis/464376 "2008-09-19T23:06:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2008, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sleep-paralysis/464376/21 "2008-09-22T04:18:14Z")
> [@Cider\_Depot](#): > > 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”? Yeah, I remember the first time it happened to me, I wasn’t even sure it really was sleep paralysis, since I was pretty sure I was awake when it was happening. It wasn’t that I was asleep and awake, but trying to wake up, or rather trying to open my eyes, move, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Audrey\_Levins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@Audrey\_Levins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Audrey_Levins)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2008, 9:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sleep-paralysis/464376/22 "2008-09-22T09:32:36Z")
When I was a kid…and even to this day…if I find myself in a dream or nightmare I don’t like…I have always had this vision of being underwater, floating on my back. And I’ve been so terrified by my dreams/nightmares/whatever you want to call them that I have yelled and woken my family up. But I have this vision of floating underwater, and of “floating upwards,” towards air and sunlight…yeah it sounds bizarre, but ever since I was a little kid, if I don’t like the dream/nightmare I’m having, I picture myself–I WILL myself–to float upwards, and the moment I break the surface of the water the nightmare ends. The weird thing is that I am aware that the nightmare is not true; I’m aware that I’m having a horrible dream. But that doesn’t make it any better. The only thing that brings an end to it is picturing myself in a pool of water, floating upwards. I have literally willed my mind to end a horrible nightmare by picturing myself floating upwards. It’s like I’m watching a film. It’s the most bizarre thing. I think to myself that if I can just make it to the top of the water, the terror will end. It always has. And once I figured that out, I have far fewer nightmares. I’m not sayng I found a cure for night terrors–or even that I’m really truly a victim of them–but I do know that I have had the kind of “dreams” that make me a horrible sweaty incapacitated mess…and I always picture myself in water, floating towards consciousness, and it’s never failed me. Yet. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2008, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sleep-paralysis/464376/23 "2008-09-22T12:59:31Z")
> [@Driver8](#): > > 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. That’s been my experience too. I’m terrified that a pillow will fall on me or someone will come along and sit on me while I’m paralyzed and I’ll suffocate before I can break out of it. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2008, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sleep-paralysis/464376/24 "2008-09-22T13:02:37Z")
If you think about it, I think this is one of the coolest things to have ever come out of modern times. It seems like this is behind all of those “succubi” and “incubi” and demons in the night. 30% of the population! That’s a lot, enough to convince the remainder there might really be something there. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2008, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sleep-paralysis/464376/25 "2008-09-22T14:35:22Z")
[The Master Speaks](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/596/what-causes-sleep-paralysis) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sleep-paralysis/464376.md?page=1)