how do you experience sleep paralysis? anything like me?

the Stuff Dreams are made of...
1

i have a question about sleep paralysis.
everything i can find on SP states that it mostly occurs while either

falling asleep or waking up during R.E.M sleep.
my experiences are a little bit different… well actually, they are

completley different.
let me explain…
i very often have sleep paralysis. i have for many years. i have a

tendency to go for long periods of time without sleeping and then

sleeping when i can barely stay awake anymore.
i have sleep paralysis so often that most of the time it doesnt even

scare me, i just accept what is happening and wait for it to pass… to

tell you the truth when i dont have SP for a while i actually miss

having it and conciously ask myself to experience it!
i have always been a very vivid dreamer and have always been intrigued

by my dreams…, they are sometimes simple dreams about love and family.

more than not though my dreams get pretty bizarre… other worlds,

flying, monsters, ghosts and demons, i have died some horrible deaths

in my dreams… shot, stabbed, (just tonight before i woke up i dreamt

i was getting stabbed to death by terrorists and i had a bad case of

SP!), falling to my death… i have been struck by lightning and shot

hundred of feet into the air, that was pretty scary!
i have been on the brink of death so many times in my dreams that i

truely believe that i know what people go through when they die… i

have a strong concious thought of "oh my god… im dying, this is

really happening right now… im gonna die any moment my life will be

over" it is so real.
so anyway, another thing about dreaming is i often turn lucid in my

dreams but it never lasts too long… i fight to stay asleep but i

always wake up soon after becoming lucid and i hate that! i would love

to control my dreams.
now back to sleep paralysis.
i want to explain what happens to me and i want some feedback as if

this is just me or is there anyone else this happens to… okay so SP

happens when you’re falling asleep right? or when you’re waking up,

right? WRONG! for me i rarely have sp while falling or awaking from

sleep, i have SP while i’m dreaming! sometimes i dont even wake up from

my dream after SP i just go into another dream… and sometimes i

bounce from one SP dream to another. i always remember it when i wake

up the next day thats how i know i have SP experiences but dont wake up

from them!
a very common theme in my dreams when i have sp is that, okay,

example… i’m walking down a dark suburban street… dont know where

i’m going or how i got there nor do i care… its a dream and i do not

know i’m dreaming, yet! okay so i’m walking along and all of a sudden

my body starts to feel heavy and its hard to keep walking. before i

know it my body is moving in slow motion and i am sort of just floating

sideways, horizontaly to the ground like a magnet is pulling me from

one side and before i know it im laying on my side and i’m unable to

move at all… i’m just laying there looking at a sideways sidewalk and

i’m like “wtf is goin on?” so now i know i’m dreaming, i become lucid!
go figre, i can stay lucid when i can’t even move to enjoy it! when

this happens is the times i do not wake up.i just go onto another dream

and forget that i’m sleeping… until i have sp again! one dream… i’m

at a house i used to live at in KY and im jumping off the front porch,

its night time and when i hit the ground the same exact thing happens

to me as when i was walking down the street. so again i’m just laying

there on my side, completley frozen, knowing i’m dreaming and fully

aware i’m having sleep paralysis while staring at the grass and dirt in

my front yard and listening to the crickets chirping… "god i wish

this would hurry up so i can get to my next dream already!"
once, i was going into the freezer to grab some ice and my head got

stuck in the freezer for like 5 minutes! it was cold in there and it

sucked! that sp was accompanied by a loud vibration like a freakin’

jackhammer in my head.
thats one form of sp i experience… thats what usualy happens when i

dont wake up from it i just remember it the next day.
the other common way is like this.
i have sp in a dream and its really really intense… it usually

involves a dream of a traumatic event happening like me getting killed

or something and these ones i wake from. like tonight i knew i was

dreaming but i could feel the pain so much from the guy stabbing me and

i was actually fighting like hell to wake up so the pain would

stop…but when i was getting stabbed tonight it was different because

i could move sort of but like in slow motion, it was more of an audible

thing really, that happens alot too… i’ll have this really loud

ringing or screaming or buzzing in my head that is soooooooo loud! it

feels like my head is shaking too when its happening… like not

violantly but more like small convulsions, like its nerves or something

i dont know…
sometimes i will wake up and be so tired that as soon as i wake up i

start to fall asleep again and as i do i can feel the sp starting

again… can’t move and loud noises in my head and i have to fight

myself to stay awake before i start dreaming again. when this happens i

know i’m in for an all night sp fest… wake up from one dream to

another with sp, yes this really happens… i have all night long sleep

paralysis where i wake up after every episode… when i wake up and

start to fall back asleep fast i have to fight myself to stay awake

because the last one was so intense i can barely breathe. im afraid if

i go into it again i might suffocate to death!
its not always dying though… sometimes its demons and monsters or

ghosts! like, i believe in ghosts big time and i think there can be

evil ones as well, so… when i have a scary, trippy ass dream i wake

up really scared in my bed and sometimes they are so scary and bizarre

that i am really scared for a long time after i wake up… sometimes i

dont even open my eyes after waking cause i’m afraid i’ll see something

in my room that isnt there and have a heart attack!
the sleep paralysis itself doesnt scare me i’m pretty used to it and i

do not always have them while im dreaming, though most of the time i

do. i do on occasion have the normal sp where im falling asleep and my

head starts buzzing really loud and i cant move for what seems like

forever before i wake up. i always used to wonder how i could fall into

sp so fast if it ONLY happens in r.e.m sleep and if r.e.m takes 2 to 3

hours to start? the truth is r.e.m doesnt take that long to kick in!

simple as that… i actually read into it after wondering about it and i

forget exactly what it said but basicaly it said that it was a

miconception that it took that long to fall into r.e.m sleep… also

you do not have to be dreaming all the time during r.e.m sleep, which

explains why you can experience it without being in a dream i guess.
so i have searched about sleep paraylsis and have read peoples

experiences with it and i’ve never come across anyone who experiences

it like i do… am i one of a kind or what?

just wanted to say one more thing… i know sp is supposed to only last

a few seconds and they say it can lasts several minutes right? well

sometimes i will be what seems like i’m wide awake in my bed and im

completley paralized for a really long time… like 5 to ten minutes it

feels like. anyway i will fight really really hard to be able to move

and i’ll try to lift my arms up and it seems like its working. i’ll be

lifting my 5,000 lbs arm up really slowly or moving my legs trying to

wake up but i really think its a hallucination and i’m not moving at

all… sometimes in this state there will be people in my room that i

know… like my brother or a friend and i’ll be trying to get their

attention but they cant hear me and they dont pay me any attention. it

really seems like they are there and that its real but after i wake up

i realize it wasnt real any nobody is in my room at all. one time my

sister was sleeping next to me in my bed cause she didnt have anywhere

else to sleep and i was having bad sp and i was moving my hand trying

to get her attention, i was trying with everything i had to say "steph,

wake me up!" but nothing was coming out of my mouth. this is the kind

of thing that makes me confused cause when im lifting my arms up or

moving my legs i’m almost certain that i’m not really moving because

like i’ll sometimes get to the point where i slowly crawl off the bed

during sp and end up in the floor, very slowly and it takes alot to get

there but when i wake up i’m in my bed! anyway, i was moving my hand

trying to hit my sis to get her attention to wake me up but i never got

to her. so the next day i was telling her i had an episode, i’ve told

my sis all about my dreams and experiences with sp, they really

fascinate me. so i told her i was trying to get her attention and she

told me that she felt me keep moving my hand and she was wondering wtf

i was doing! i was like well why didnt you wake me the hell up then?

she said she didnt know what i was doing or she would have… so that

confuses me that she felt my hand moving but when im lifting my arms in

the air during sp i’m almost certain it’s not real? maybe my limbs are

moving but just a little bit?

please share your experiences back with me i’d love to read about

them… even some crazy or bizarre dreams, like whats the craziest

dream you’ve ever had? have you ever died in a dream or been close to

death? do you get killed often in your dreams like me? especially how

do you experience sleep paralysis?

2

Hey there Ron,
I can see why you are wondering about all of these things, they can be really intense experiences I am sure.
When I was reading though, almost with all examples I had ‘heard about it before’, it can be a very bizarre thing. Sleep paralysis is a bizarre thing to experience on its own, but it also mixes with your dreams, which can make it even more strange, scary or amazing.
I think, that you might have more sleep paralysis because you tend to sleep way to little. You write that you wait until you simply cannot stay awake anymore.
This is actually really not very healthy, for both your body and your minds health. You need sleep, all parts of you. Your body goes into a stress like mode when there is not enough sleep. A person can actually go truly crazy from not sleeping enough, or even die from not sleeping at all. Not that I think that this is the case with you, but just to point out that enough sleep is necessary much more then you seem to think.

I can imagine that the way you have dreams and the way you sleep has a lot to do with if you give yourself a normal sleep pattern or not.

I think, am not sure, but really suspect, that your sleep will become normal when you start having a normal day and night routine. When your body is less tired, you might have less sleep paralysis experiences as well. When your body is extremely tired, but you keep yourself from sleeping, the body can start falling asleep anyway while your mind is still present. Because it is ‘so’ tired, it falls asleep quickly, and sleep paralysis happens more quickly as well.
Also your dreams might become more calm.
You need sleep and dreams in a normal way to deal with day to day experiences, you process it all in dreams, you sort all of helping you to stay balanced and clear headed.
When you do not have this, things tend to become a bit too much, you do not deal with day to day things enough so it stacks up. Then when you finally do sleep and dream, your dreams can be much more violent, full and stressy, since there is so much in your mind.
When there is less to deal with, your dreams become more calm. When you sleep enough, and in normal routines, there is less to deal with during your dreams.

3

Just a note … THE MAJORITY OF DREAMERS HAVE SP WHILE ASLEEP. it is there to prevent us acting out our dream actions. But in your dream you may become aware of your SP within your dreaming body and it gets transferred to the dream.

I’ve often had dreams in which my legs get heavy and paralysed near the end.

4

I usually have SP glitches upon waking up, but during dreams? I’ve actually had those, too. I call it Dream Paralysis, though, and get the impression that most people attribute it to a simple lack of dream control. And with dream control, while we can make suggestions that spark the imagination, it’s all your wiring so it’s something we can only figure out how to circumvent by ourselves.

My SP glitch/ Old Hag experiences have been pretty standard, but apparently during WILDs I should have SP and hallucinations and tremors over hours and sleep stages-- none of which I’ve experienced during WILDS. The waking world just sort of fades, while the dream world gets more sensory. :om: <~ This is a shrugging emoticon, right?

You say you believe in ghosts, big time. Have you ever been one? Sometimes I turn into one after dying in dreams (if the being killed part isn’t violent enough to jolt me awake), but it’s also how I think of myself during OBE’s-- which twitches and sounds such as you experience, may be a signal for. It’s like becoming a ghost, with much less harsh prerequisites.

5

Yes, that is true. I meant being aware of it so much could be caused by too little sleep. Not SP itself.

6

i also have some dreams where i get extremely sluggish and slow (never tied to the ground like you ron but the harder i try to move the less i can move. unfortunately this only happens in dream fist fights. when im brawling with tool’s from my school my limbs dont become heavy i just become sooooooooo sloooow. they are always unaffected and proceed to kick the stuffing out of me lol. but to me it only happens when im scared of losing that fight. when im confident that i can win… i do. because you know its going to happen and you are scared of it happening may be the very reason it happens. i can only recall being effected by sleep paralysis once in my when i was 9 or so so i know the feeling of helplessness you feel. but it does go away i suggest in your dream you should try relax and know that you cant be hurt. also iv read somewhere on this forum that when you are haunted by things in your dreams (ie the person stabbing you) it generally represents some unresolved issue. and since it is you fabricating your dream you can talk and reason with that entity (i get that it may be a bit hard while he is stabbing you :meh:) but its worth a shot :content:

7

Is it weird that I have never experienced SP? I might have when I first tried LDing but that’s it really. How to people become aware of SP or does it come naturally?

8

Don’t worry, I never experienced it before consciously trying as well, and had never it again after. Conscious SP can be a completely optional stage if you want it so.
Experiencing it naturally, like on wakeup, is just waking up before the body does, not much else.

9

ya know snowfox i feel kind of silly. after starting this topic i actually found loads of storys with experiences like mine. lol. i guess i just wasnt looking hard enough before?

ellyeve: no i have never been a ghost in a dream that i can remember…

MYR: “no, no wait, please stop stabbing me… lets talk about this!” haha!

Vokteraven The Dragon: i’m sorry you havent had sp it’s really thrilling sometimes but it can also be very scary… could be a blessing in disguise for you.

10

haha good for a laugh i guess :colgate:

11

woah, i had to put on my climbing gear to get over this wall of text.