Gaming World Forums
General Category => General Talk => Topic started by: otomon on May 23, 2008, 05:31:31 am
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Since I was 8 years old I been suffering from Sleep paralysis,I kinda got used to it by now but it still freaks the fuck out of me every time it happens, anyways I made this topic to see if there are any other Sleep paralysis victims out here...and maybe share some of our stories...
Last night for example I had an "attack" or w/e you might call it..it started normally...I couldn't move my muscles and then all of a sudden I heard the noice similar to that of a train,I tried to move my legs but they started feeling like I was wearing some heavy shoes,anyways all of a sudden I felt the same sensation of falling down and the noise of the train intensified and then..it was over...when It was over I was sweating all over and totally scared,I ran to my parents room,me a 18 year old and sleep with them,the next morning they complained that I had been tossing and turning and talking to myself all night.
That was one of the minor ones and It hadn't happened in like 7 months...the thing with Sleep paralysis is that its so random...you cant really tell when its going to happen,I'm even afraid to sleep tonight...I'm still freaked out about last night.
Anyways I hope some of you share some of your stories if you have Sleep paralysis.
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I usually suffer from sleep paralysis a few times in a year. It mostly happens if I try to have a nap sleeping on the couch or something. From what I've read, most people find the attacks very distressing and horrible. For me they're a minor inconvenience at most, though by no means are they a pleasant experience. I've learned to deal with them I guess, but man was I freaked when it happened to me the first time.
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I usually suffer from sleep paralysis a few times in a year. It mostly happens if I try to have a nap sleeping on the couch or something. From what I've read, most people find the attacks very distressing and horrible. For me they're a minor inconvenience at most, though by no means are they a pleasant experience. I've learned to deal with them I guess, but man was I freaked when it happened to me the first time.
Yes I told everyone the same thing..that I learned to deal with them,turned out to be a big lie,I'm totally freaked out to go to sleep right now.. I know its all an illusion but its a fucking scary illusion and you know what? I did some research and in Mexico they call that disease "Riding with The Devil" wtf mang...
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could you explain what sleep paralysis is to people who might not have it?
is it like when you're sleeping and you can't move when you wake up or what?
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The name is self-explanatory. It is a kind of hallucination.
I don't remember when I last had that, I mostly only have the visual kind, some times I wake up and see some weird shape (more oftenly it looks like a "scribble" but sometimes it looks like a geometric shape or contorted wire or a mechanical device) floating in the air then it vanishes, when I first had it I felt kind of scared but now I'm used to it.
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I get these every once in a while, but I never get a psychosis while having them (as in, I'm not in a dream state when they happen, I never get hallucinations).
I'm just completely paralysed and lying there waiting for it to end, so it's rather boring.
Also Inri it's not necessarily a kind of hallucination. The only prerestique is that your conscious brain hasn't gained control of the muscles even though you regain awakened consciousness. So sleep paralysis doesn't include for instance lucid dreams, where even though you don't have control of the muscles and you are conscious, you're not awake.
Besides, sleep paralysis is a physical condition not mental. The mental might come as a side-effect or not.
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I don't get this, I can imagine being freaked the fuck out if it did.
I do, however, sleepwalk pretty terrible if I'm dehydrated. Usually that isn't so bad as I wake up pouring myself a glass of water, but once I woke up in my car at Taco Bell.
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could you explain what sleep paralysis is to people who might not have it?
In layman's terms, Sleep Paralysis is when your brain awakens from a "sleeping" status but the body is still in a state of paralysis. You're technically awake but you can't move and sometimes this state can cause hallucinations and panic attacks.
It's 100% natural and can't be controled but there are drugs available that prevent it. Regardless, if it happens often it means you have an erratic sleeping schedule. Sleeping on your stomach also prevents it for whatever reason.
Another remedy I learned while trying to force lucidity is wiggling your fingers or toes. Your fingers require very little blood/energy to operate so when you feel paralyzed just concentrate all of your energy on moving your fingers. I know this may sound ridiculous because it's all rooted in psychology but when I fall asleep chanting a mantra in my head I usually remember it as I wake up.
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Also the point of sleeping paralysis is that your brain blocks your muscles preventing you from moving and doing things while you are dreaming. If this doesn't work properly then you become a sleepwalker - the exact opposite problem. The paralysis part ALWAYS happens, the problem is that your mind shouldn't be awake in this state.
Anyways this happened to me once, when I was around 12. I freaked out. The first thing came into my mind were the ufo stories I read back then, I thought HEY IT'S TRUE AFTER ALL THEY CAME FOR ME, and uh, yeah it was a bad experience. I'm more of a sleepwalker type though.
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Anyways this happened to me once, when I was around 12. I freaked out. The first thing came into my mind were the ufo stories I read back then, I thought HEY IT'S TRUE AFTER ALL THEY CAME FOR ME, and uh, yeah it was a bad experience. I'm more of a sleepwalker type though.
The funny thing about this is that sleep paralysis can happen as you enter sleep which psychologist attribute to people with alien hallucinations. it makes sense that all alien abductions happen on the road at night when the victim is super tired and stressed out.
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It has happened to me around 5-6 tims, all of them as an adult, first time I freaked out, I was in my room, then suddenly I started feeling scared for absolutely no reason, I felt there was something in the door of my room, I opened my eyes, and BAM there was a shadowy figure staring at me, I tried to scream and move, buy I couldn't do a thing, I closed my eyes hoping it would go away, and then I started hearing steps and heavy breathing, when I opened my eyes again, that... thing was right next to my bed, I almost peed myself, still couldn't get myself to move or scream, after a good 20-30 secs I managed to emit a faint sound,like a drowned scream, and then everything went away. nedless to say, I didn't sleep to weel the rest of the night.
Next time it happend just a week after that, at about the same hour even, when it all went away and I checked the hour I got even more scared...
then it happened a couple of weeks later, and again some months later, always that creepy, shadowy, almost 2-dimensional figure next to me. After searching the internets I found what it was, relieved there was another explanation than the ghosts ghosts ghosts that came in every site...
But sadly even now that I know what it is, and that I know that when in that state I can't really trust my own senses, it doesn't get any less creepy when it happens, last time it was a different sensation, instead of a big dark presence, it felt like hundreds of small things over me, and I could hear something like sounded like frogs or bubbles, and I could see my sheets moving, like waving a bit.
The scariest time was around 1 year ago, I started to get scared all of a sudden again, and I saw the black fucker in my door, only this time it had long hair, after unsuccessfully trying to scream or move again, the stupid shadow JUMPS from my door, to my bed, just over me, in what it seemed like 0.1 sec, like it was standing in front of the door, then BAM over me, its face just against mine, I couldn't get myself to look at it, I was way to scared, and I could even feel its weight over me too. it was freaking scary ;_;
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I've read similar stories to what Cray said, I've never had it happen to me. It would freak me the fuck out.
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The scariest time was around 1 year ago, I started to get scared all of a sudden again, and I saw the black fucker in my door, only this time it had long hair, after unsuccessfully trying to scream or move again, the stupid shadow JUMPS from my door, to my bed, just over me, in what it seemed like 0.1 sec, like it was standing in fron of the door, then BAM over me, its face jsut against mine, I couldn't get myself to lookt at it, I was way to scared, and I could feel its weight over me too. it was freaking scary ;_;
Was that the last time it happened? For me the first time it ever happened... I tried to stand up and all off a sudden I cant move!!! So I'm freaking out and then I heard a laugh...a really creepy laugh kinda like the laugh bad guys use on TV,then I felt a presence,it was plain daylight(around 1 pm) but the presence made me really scared,I could somehow tell it was in front of me but I couldn't see it! It was like transparent or something and then all off a sudden I felt this huge gust of wind rush into my face! And it was over...I told everyone in my house what happened and none believed me,I started to believe it was a lie too but it kept happening so I did some research and found out about it,none in my house believes me yet.
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I would rather have it happen in daytime, but it always happens to me when I'm alone at night ;_;
the last time it appeared was about 2-3 weeks ago, and if nobody in your house believes you, just show them some article about sleep paralysis, it's not like you were abudcted by aliens or anything like that, it's something completely real.
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I don't think I've ever had this
Sleeping on your stomach also prevents it for whatever reason.
But I tend to do this...
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It happened to me exactly once (unless I just dont remember the other times it did)
it was accompanied with a very strong visual hallucination, a white face with large black eyes flashing right in front of me for a second, sort of like the classic image of an alien. It scared me so bad I couldnt sleep well for weeks. I was like 10-12 at the time I think.
Also is it me or that very topic appears at least twice a year? PRECISELY twice a year. Either on sleep paralysis or night terrors.
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Sleep paralysis happened to me I'd say about 4 or 5 times in my lifetime over the course of the last two years. Just about all the time when I was sleeping on my back and only once when I was sleeping on my side. The first time it happened was in the daytime and I heard some type of noise over me like a slight whisper. Scared the hell outta me........... The worst and most scariest time though was when I was laying down on my side at night and I awoke to being paralyzed and seemed like a ghost had its hands around my stomach and was shaking me slightly and making erotic noises(Kinda embarassing just telling you guys that). Most people call it "The witch riding you" or something like that. I've stopped laying on my back and on my side and I have'nt had one in months.
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I get this a couple of times a year I guess.
I always get a dark hooded figure sitting on my bed, it's like he's pushing down on my chest so I can't breathe properly. It's absolutely horrifying. I'm desperately trying to speak, move, do something, but my body just doesn't let me do anything. I'm stuck like a corpse for a few minutes until I fall back to sleep.
Horrible.
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Oh, thats what sleep paralysis is! I thought it was were you were sleeping, then wide awake and some scary ass vision was staring at you and you couldn't move your muscles. Yeah I use to have it, but not lately. And the only times I've had it I was still dreaming and then I actually realized it was a dream and was like, "WAKE UP, why can't I wake up"! I was just watching myself going through the dream outside my "dream body" telling it to wake up.
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I hate having this. It's one of the worst feelings in the world. This is weird because I was just talking to my friends about this last night. My roommate gets this a lot. That's why he's always afraid to go to sleep.
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I don't have this... but I do have a strange problem where I'll sleep on my arm wrong, wake up in the middle of the night and have a virtually dead arm (it's so numb). I'll pick it up and drop it and it's kind of fun but at the same time it feels really bad! Eventually it will slowly wake up and I can move it again and all is well (I promptly go back to sleep).
It does bother me when this happens though.
Err but yes this sleep paralysis thing sounds millions of times worse.
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I don't have this... but I do have a strange problem where I'll sleep on my arm wrong, wake up in the middle of the night and have a virtually dead arm (it's so numb). I'll pick it up and drop it and it's kind of fun but at the same time it feels really bad! Eventually it will slowly wake up and I can move it again and all is well (I promptly go back to sleep).
It does bother me when this happens though.
Err but yes this sleep paralysis thing sounds millions of times worse.
When this happens I would suggest pooring water on it.
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for the dead body parts, it's jsutbecause of blocking the blod circulation by sleeping over it, by I'm not sure, it's kinda fun actually. but it's a totally different topic than sleep paralysis.
and yeah I've seen the topic before in here, I think I started it last time maybe, when I first had it.
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I've had this happen to me many times and it scares me so much. The thing that sucks most about it is that you want to scream, yet you cant and you just get this feeling of terror.
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The scariest time was around 1 year ago, I started to get scared all of a sudden again, and I saw the black fucker in my door, only this time it had long hair, after unsuccessfully trying to scream or move again, the stupid shadow JUMPS from my door, to my bed, just over me, in what it seemed like 0.1 sec, like it was standing in front of the door, then BAM over me, its face just against mine, I couldn't get myself to look at it, I was way to scared, and I could even feel its weight over me too. it was freaking scary ;_;
I have one very fond moment when I was able to look the fucker in the eye and smash its nose in. Sure I was scared as hell, but that's probably what prompted me to do it. Words cannot describe how gratifying that was -- of course, the thing immediately disappeared as I was able to gain mobility, and I had accidentally made a dent in the wall...but nonetheless, THAT was epic awesome.
But the next time I had one of those dreams, instead of that thing being at my door, it was my girlfriend -- and when she took two steps into my room and laid into my bed, I put my arms around her and her HEAD FELL OFF. That scared the SHIT out of me. And it's not like you can punch that to wake yourself up.
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I didn't read all replies, but from what ABM said, it's like your mind "wakes up" but the body is still "sleeping" and since the mind usually "locks" the body to prevent movement while sleeping, you can't move until your BODY wakes up too?
Damn.
Imagine if the mind gets STUCK in the "awake state" but the body doesn't wake up at all. FUUUUUUUUUCk.
I don't have this... but I do have a strange problem where I'll sleep on my arm wrong, wake up in the middle of the night and have a virtually dead arm (it's so numb). I'll pick it up and drop it and it's kind of fun but at the same time it feels really bad! Eventually it will slowly wake up and I can move it again and all is well (I promptly go back to sleep).
I had this like, last week! I woke up, wanted to scratch my head, and I was like, WTF?? I can't move my arm!! OH FUCK! I pinched it and stuff, nothing, not a single feeling. Then after a while it came back, so I scratched my head and promptly went back to sleep.
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Well, I did have a sleeping paralysis attack once. It really freaked the living shit out of me too. I just woke up and everything was fuzzy. So I try to roll over, but I find that I can't. So I then try to move my arms and fingers and realize that I can't. So now I'm extremely freaked out but I'm trying to calm myself down. I tell myself that I'm probably not putting any effort into it or something since I was tired but I remained "paralyzed" for about a minute or two more before I was able to move again.
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That's exactly what sleep paralysis is. I think anything more than that -- the hallucinations, etc. -- is just lucid dreaming. Lucid dreaming is when you can think while sleeping. And if you're laying there unable to move -- but able to receive sensory information -- all the while dreaming up some scary figure by your bedroom door, god that all just sucks.
I think I was able to move while lucid dreaming because I had developed a system when I was *alot* younger for escaping nightmares. I know this sounds silly, but what I would do is I would lay down on the floor, kick my legs up and 'roll into the air' -- thus awakening myself. I think it worked because I largely believed it would work. Perhaps if you are too negative and you are afraid that you won't be able to move -- you really won't get out of the dream. Perhaps the same principle works with sleep paralysis. Deep down, if you're afraid that you'll be unable to move out of the dream, you won't.
Maybe sleep paralysis is a symptom of too much pessimism. Mayhap it's completely psychosomatic.
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in lucid dreaming you're aware that everything is a dream, although with broken logic (god knows I got some weird lucid dreams tales to tell ho ho!)
in night terrors (aka sleep paralysis with hallucinations) you often believe the EVIL presense is real.
so while its similar its not really same imo
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the hallucinations are pretty common in sleep paralysis, because what happens is that the brain doesn't understand what's happening, why can't you move, so in order to create a logic, it makes you believe there is something that is preventing you from moving, like an evil prescence. It's not a sign of pessimism, when it happens I focus all my strenght in a particular movement ( a small one, like a hand or a foot) and after a while of reying really hard ot works.
It's not lucid dreaming because you're not dreaming, you're hallucinating. That's why if you have a way of waking up from nightmares, it won't work here, mainly because you can move to roll inthe floor or anywhere, because you're paralysed.
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Well never got any of those because I hardly dream most of the time. My head is usually blank
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That's exactly what sleep paralysis is. I think anything more than that -- the hallucinations, etc. -- is just lucid dreaming. Lucid dreaming is when you can think while sleeping. And if you're laying there unable to move -- but able to receive sensory information -- all the while dreaming up some scary figure by your bedroom door, god that all just sucks.
I think I was able to move while lucid dreaming because I had developed a system when I was *alot* younger for escaping nightmares. I know this sounds silly, but what I would do is I would lay down on the floor, kick my legs up and 'roll into the air' -- thus awakening myself. I think it worked because I largely believed it would work. Perhaps if you are too negative and you are afraid that you won't be able to move -- you really won't get out of the dream. Perhaps the same principle works with sleep paralysis. Deep down, if you're afraid that you'll be unable to move out of the dream, you won't.
Maybe sleep paralysis is a symptom of too much pessimism. Mayhap it's completely psychosomatic.
Ahahah. That's how I overcame overcame it sometimes. I did it by accident though. Like my dream guy was punching something or kicking and I instantly did it, and that woke me right up.
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After reading these stories it makes me feel lucky that I haven't had this happen to me, at least yet. If sleeping on your stomach is said to prevent this thats good lol, because thats how i sleep anyway.
How many of you HAVEN'T had this happen? i'm curious if it's most or just a couple.
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How many of you HAVEN'T had this happen? I'm curious if it's most or just a couple.
I've never suffered from it. Which is pretty lucky, because I'd probably freak out if I did.
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Wait you guys don't like this sensation? I get it really rarely and it's awesome. Nothing livens sleeping up like a plummeting sensation and you can't move and oh god oh god BANG you're awake.
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One time, when I was younger, I woke up with a rat on my chest, and I was just absolutely petrified by it, for no apparent reason; it was as if the rat was holding a gun to my head telling me to be still. When I snapped out of it, I had no idea what the fuck, and ran to my parents. I came back to my room with my pissed off mom and there was no rat to be found. It wasn't until a few years ago that I found out about sleep paralysis.
That said, although I wouldn't want it to happen to me again, it's not the worst thing that can happen while you're sleeping :crazy:.