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On REM paralysis

hipparchia

Critical Thinker
H
Joined
May 17, 2006
Messages
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Just two weeks after a cool bout of REM paralysis, I read abother person's description ot Randi's commentary. Definitely can relate to it.

How it happened? Well, I went to bed at 3:30 in the morning after hours of reading Chinese poetry (not in Chinese). Also, I was in another town and on a rather uncomfortable bed at my in-laws' house. So at one point ordinary dream recedes and I find myself aware of my surroundings and in a total panic for being unable to move or scream.
At the same time I recognize the experience and start to calm myself down by saying, this is just REM paralysis, it will pass- while my brain still fires away, producing a sense of panic. Also, I felt a distinct presence in the room. Who would you guess- aliens? No. Mother-in-law:) Worst nightmare, to have her in the bedroom where I and future husband snuggle.

Now imagine I had not been reading poetry, but watched X-files and my MIL was not scarier than space aliens:D I would have been in for a genuine abduction.

Anyway, just wanted to share. REM paralysis is quite cool if you know not to panick.
 
I'm glad to hear your sleep paralysis experience was 'cool'. Mine was not.

I can honestly say it was the most frightening experience of my life. Couldn't sleep for days afterwards.
 
Sleep deprivation

You mention you had REM paralysis after a period of sleep deprivation. Ditto me. Could this be part of the cause?

Yes, the experience was pretty terrifying, but it was a strange mix between me rationalizing it and feeling terrified at the same time. Afterwards I feel refreshed, just as I do after really weird lucid dreams. It seems the brain has fired its load of dreams in like five seconds:)
 
I've experienced it a number of times in my life, and it has never been cool. I've never had hallucinations with it (actually, maybe once, now that I think about it; hey, that actually explains a lot), but being mostly conscious yet unable to move or fully wake up is a most unpleasant experience.
 
A friend of mine told me about his problems with sleep paralysis a couple of years ago. When he woke up in the morning he could not move at all and sometimes he heard voices in connection with the "fits".
He had it in periods up to a couple of times a week and thought that he might be "nuts". He got really worried and got medically checked out - and were told it was sleep paralysis and no mental disorder.

Personally I´ve never experienced anything like this, but my friend was very nervy abot it, poor thing (and I do understand him according to what he told me). Today, he has very few "attacks" (approx 1-2 a year).
 
I remember several episodes in my life. The most recent few had to do with falling asleep at work, and screaming (mentally) at myself to wake up 'cause I thought I heard footsteps behind me.

The worst, I was sleeping naked on top of the blankets (sorry for the image, but it's integral to what follows), and dreamt that I had cockroaches crawling all over me, but I couldn't move. The problem is that this occurred in the Coast Guard barracks on Governor's Island, in New York harbor, and the cockroaches may well have been real.

The others, near as I recall, were the generic someone-in-the-room type.

As I say, this is a rather common occurrence for me.
 
I only had one episode, but it was full-blown with hallucination. I was also sleep-deprived at the time, so it would appear that disruption of sleeping habits could very well play a role.

In mine, I woke up to find an image of Death standing at the foot of the bed, scythe and all. The sense of panic was overwhelming. It seemed to last for a while, but was probably no longer than 10 to 15 seconds.

I've had some milder episodes, without hallucination or panic, where I was "awake" and tried to talk but could not for several seconds. These were not accompanied by the panic sensation, which makes me wonder if they were something related-but-different, or if the panic sensation is caused by or causes the hallucination part.
 
I have had this once, and I feel for all that experience it on a regular basis.
It was truly terrifying.
In mine, I awoke on the sofa to find I couldn't move, yet realised what was happening. That is, until the character from the dream I had been having crawled from the floor onto me. I shouted 'what are you doing'? Then I woke up.
I didn't want to go to sleep that night for fear of it happening again.

I have false awakenings continuously. I hate them and wish there was something I could so to stop them. I have even called my friend in the middle of the night to check that I am awake. The frequent theme of these dreams is that I am frantically trying to call somebody on my phone yet it just won't work. I knew that night when she answered that I had finally woken up.
 
I've had sleep paralysis on several occasions. The first time was shortly after I moved into my first apartment. I woke up one morning and the bed was shaking, like someone was lifting the foot of my bed (actually, a futon frame). I was sure a ghost was attacking me so and I tried to yell at it to stop. I managed to spit out a couple of syllables of profanity and the bed stopped shaking, but I was pretty freaked out. It happened again a couple of days later but I was able to fight harder and cuss at the ghost to make it stop. I thought that if I showed it that I wasn't going to be afraid, the ghost would leave me alone. Even so, I considered visiting the local psychic but that would have been too embarassing. Anyway, a couple of days later, I had another experience where a friend of mine opened the door to my apartment and ran in, explaining that bad guys were after him. He left the door wide open and I could feel the cold air in the room. This time, when I woke up my friend was gone, the door was closed, and the room was warm. This third experience was just as real as the first two but obviously it was some sort of weird dream. I knew about night terrors so I figured I was experiencing something like that. Once I figured out what was going on, I was very glad that I didn't go visit the psychic. Who knows, I might have gotten sucked into all of that new-age crap. Anyway, I've had the same bed-shaking dream a couple of times since then, but I yell at the ghost and it stops.

I also have those false awakening dreams, but since my dreams are usually pretty entertaining, they don't bother me too much.
 
I had an episode or two like that. I was sleeping and I awoke and could see the room but not clearly and there was a heavy weight covering my whole body smothering me like a heavy thick fluid that completely encased my body rendering me unable to move at all. I sensed a presence in the room but I think it was me. I initially worried a little but then relaxed and waited to see what would happen next. Then I woke up completely....I guess. Another time I woke up and could not move my legs. I was quite scared by that since I swung them over the edge of the bed and tried to stand only to collapse on the floor. Within a couple hours I had normal movement again. Doctors said I had myositis.
 
Yeah, they haven't had a decent album in years.

What's up with that?

I must confess that I'm surprised Randi would discuss this in his commentary, but I assume it was somehow related to "Losing My Religion."
 
I had a bizarre episode of something last Thursday night. It wasn't exactly sleep paralysis, but more of a type of OBE, that is, and Out-of-Bed-Experience. I somehow flung myself out of bed. What's odd is that my recollections of the experience contradict one another. I ended up on the floor with most of the blankets with me. My wife must have heard something because she woke up and asked me what happened. I told her I fell out of bed and that I seemed to have rolled off. However, if I had simply rolled off the edge of the bed, my head would have hit the nightstand, and I don't think that happened. I also seemed to have ended up on the floor facing the opposite direction.

The truly frightening part of the experience was that I recalled not being able to breathe. I've had brief bouts of sleep paralysis in the past, but they usually last no more than several seconds. With this, I never woke up until I hit the floor (although there is the possibility that I was on the floor for a while before I woke up--who knows?). But the feeling of not being able to breathe was quite memorable, yet I still don't know if I really had stopped breathing (sleep apnea?) or if I was dreaming I couldn't breathe and had jerked myself awake so hard I launched myself out of bed, or if I simply fell out of bed and became entangled in the blankets (while half-asleep) and only felt like I couldn't breathe. I was terrified of going back to sleep and lay there for about two hours before finally nodding off from exhaustion.
 
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Psi Baba said:
I had a bizarre episode of something last Thursday night. It wasn't exactly sleep paralysis, but more of a type of OBE, that is, and Out-of-Bed-Experience. I somehow flung myself out of bed. What's odd is that my recollections of the experience contradict one another. I ended up on the floor with most of the blankets with me. My wife must have heard something because she woke up and asked me what happened. I told her I fell out of bed and that I seemed to have rolled off. However, if I had simply rolled off the edge of the bed, my head would have hit the nightstand, and I don't think that happened. I also seemed to have ended up on the floor facing the opposite direction.

The truly frightening part of the experience was that I recalled not being able to breathe. I've had brief bouts of sleep paralysis in the past, but they usually last no more than several seconds. With this, I never woke up until I hit the floor (although there is the possibility that I was on the floor for a while before I woke up--who knows?). But the feeling of not being able to breathe was quite memorable, yet I still don't know if I really had stopped breathing (sleep apnea?) or if I was dreaming I couldn't breathe and had jerked myself awake so hard I launched myself out of bed, or if I simply fell out of bed and became entangled in the blankets (while half-asleep) and only felt like I couldn't breathe. I was terrified of going back to sleep and lay there for about two hours before finally nodding off from exhaustion.
Click to expand...

You should be tested for sleep apnea. To find an accredited sleep lab near you (U.S.?), go to: www.aasmnet.org or http://www.sleepcenters.org/ or ask your doctor.
 
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Cripes, I'm glad I'm not the only one having this.

Your description of not being able to (or just feeling like I cant) breathe during the paralysis is exactly what I experience during most of my events, of which I have probably 1-2 a month for the last few years. Ironically its my deep, gasping breathing that wakes my wife up during all of this which prompts her to wake me up. I was starting to think I was going nuts (so was my wife) having all of these "paralyzed" dreams all the time, until I read up on it not too long ago and saw it was actually very common, at least for some of us.

The description of the strong (and terrifying, I might add) presence of someone in the room, having a heavy blanket or some object holding me down as I try to move, not being able to breathe, being afraid to go back to sleep after I do manage to wake, etc. are things I have been dealing with for what feels like forever. Someone who has never experienced these kinds of dreams will have a difficult time appreciating how terrifying they can be. Not only are the dreams themselves horrible, but being in them, while sometimes knowing its a dream, but not being able to wake myself because I am paralyzed, makes it that much worse. I dream most nights, and most of them are pretty vivid and sometimes pretty entertaining, but I wouldnt wish these bad paralysis dreams on anyone. They are no fun at all.
 
Guaverage, I really feel for you. I've only had two experiences in my life, six months back, and they still creep me out just thinking about them.
 
I've accidently rolled out of bed once as a kid.

It was a bunk bed, and I was in the top bunk...

Yeah, that was a rather unpleasent way to wake up in pitch darkness. All I really recall is that I was on the floor, in the dark, in a lot of pain (though of course it could have been worse). My dad was more freaked than I was, as I was ready to climb right back up into the top bunk but ended up on the couch. Yeah, this was an elcheapo bunk bed. No ladder, I climbed the frame. No guard rails, but fortunatly after that incident I started moving less and less in my sleep. As a general rule these days I wake up pretty much in the same position I fell asleep in. I wouldn't think much of it except others don't have the same experience. At least I don't toss myself from the ceiling to the floor any more.
 
i had a case in highshool but aside from being parylized, i had a strong physical sensation- my bed had a mirror on the headboard and, upon waking, i felt an extremely strong pressure on both shoulders, and i imagined (did not see) a person gripping me and pulling me into the mirror. despite being utterly terrified, i suddenly thought to myself "this couldnt be happening, it must be in my head" and almost instantly the pressure ended. somehow i managed to fall right back to sleep. i had never heard of what could cause it, i just used common sense.
 
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