Team Sleep Paralysis check in: vol. Documentary *UPDATE* 3/25/08 vol. greenlight/trailer/pilot

[buggz05]

Hello NT,

I've decided to do a film on sleep paralysis. I know alot of NTers suffer from this, so I thought I'd come here first.



My reasons for doing this film are:

1. To raise awareness on the subject.
2. To educate victims who may not know what is going on, and answer questions for those victims.
3. To raise some money for future finances of other films and Buggzydelic Productions
   
4. To possibly get a production deal from a big studio.
5. I know people will take interest in this because alot of ppl have experienced it and have questions. Plus I'm clueless with my future right now and this may open some doors for me.

I have a few questions for you guys. If you could I would like yall to explain what happened and your thoughts on it as best as you can. I'll be back laterwith some information and d-tech work I've dug up to help educate you guys a little more, and to also spark your curiosity of the phenomenon.

Questions:

1. When yall experienced this, do you recall being able to move your eyes? side-to-side, up or down? or observe things around you?
   
2. Can you tie the episodes with anything in your past like say the cambodian lady in this aticle below...like for instance parada45 has experienced a pig, and are_owe_double_s has experienced a lady with a knife.
   
3. Has an episode ever materialized, or carried over to or from your sleep? (it usually happens when you wake up)

What got me started on this was a weird dream I had, some of you may recall my quarrel with the devil where I had a dream I went to hell, had a good time, wokeup and decided to go back to the dream successfully.





This time was the exact opposite. I had a dream that started with me smoking in my truck, listening to music and I glanced at my rear view mirror. In my rearview mirror I caught a glimpse of the familiar sleep paralysis "shadow demon" sneaking up behind me and circling the back of my truck. I immediatelywoke up as soon as I made eye contact with the demon. When I woke up, my eyes were immediately fixed upon my alarm clock like usual when I wake up. I gotscared and decided to pray. I started the prayer:


"Dear God, please send me your best guardian angel..."

This is where things get super weird. As soon as I finished "guardian angel" This ray of light came floating down, and BAM sleep paralysis, couldntmove, stuck. The ray of light was soft and misty. It started forcing itself down my throat and through my chest. Ifought it for a good minute, and then thought to myself..."maybe this is the guardian angel"...so I letloose and let the light do its thing. Soon as I let loose the light turns into this huge ray of light like from a UFO beam, at full force into my body. And Igo from laying down flat and paralyzed to arched and paralyzed. About 5 seconds later, something picks me up off the bed and throws me across the room. Notreally throws me but I sort of glide, but I'm stuck in the arched position and on the floor. Then I notice the shadow demon pinning my chest and shouldersdown. So I'm thinking "okay that light wasn't jesus" and I struggle and fight with it for a goodcouple of minutes and then I remember I never finished the prayer. So I say:


"In Jesus name I pray, Amen."

Soon as I finish "Amen" BAM, I'm back in my bed staring at my alarm clock again

.






What sparked my curiosity on this again was: The fact that, it started in a dream. This has NEVER happened to me before, it's always started AFTER wakingup. Plus I've never been moved like that before. And then I got to thinking maybe the light really was from God, and the shadow demon moved me out of theway to keep me from the blessing? Was this a dream? Sleep paralysis doesn't happen in dreams.

I don't think when I was picked up off the bed that it happened physically, I think I had an Out-of-body experience (OBE's), but since I was"paralyzed" I could not see behind me, where my bed was and where my body would have been. I'll come back with more information about OBE'sand sleep paralysis. I have somethings I have to take care of.



Thoughts?


* UPDATE *
3/25/08

This project has gotten the green light. I have two weeks to shoot a 5-10 minute pilot/trailer.

I need people who are willing to do a phone interview that will be recorded to tape.

If anybody is close to an hour away from Rockford Illinois (or even Chi), and if your willing to do an on camera interview, that would be Pimp

.

 

[guillermo gutierez]

i have been havin this happen to me since i was about 7 years, about 2 a week, and it still horrifies me all i do i pray my hardest and concentrate onbreathing.

 

[buggz05]

GUILLERMO, what do you mean by concentrate on breathing? Like just TRYING to breathe? or like meditation breathing techniques?

2 a week since you were 7 is O.D.

Thats why this needs to be addressed.

It doesn't happen to me nearly that much, nor horrifies me as much either, except for the last one I just talked about, which scared the be-jesus out of meliterally.

ALSO what are yalls thoughts on what happened with me recently? What are yall's take on why it happened before and after I woke up? or the OBE thing,praying etc.

 

[adda12345]

never gotten it this bad. i remember once i was really tired and i took a nap. i didnt remember if i had any dreams but i remembered trying to open my eyes,but i couldnt.it felt that it was wired shut but i can still see things around the room. and i tried to get up but i could not. so i thought,hmmm maybe i wasjust really really tired and never bothered. later after i could get up, i just went about doing my thing.

A few days later then i realise, hmm maybe it could be a spirit just sitting on my body while i was sleeping.or just messing with me. But definately nothing asserious as what biggz has

 

[buggz05]

Off topic but:

is it just me or is yuku format extremely hard to read? Like when typing after each sentence your suppose to hit space bar twice. and yuku negates that leavingone space inbetween sentences, giving it a compressed look.

 

[mangudai954]

I'll never forget the time I woke up with a pillow on my face, paralyzed. Ive never been that scared since.

 

[dj bana]

sleep paralysis is tough, eek. definitely not something to be proud of, lol.

 

[buggz05]

theres no pride in it, but in no way do i let it discourage me. There seems to be relatively no harm from it involved what so ever.

It's only gotten to me the first time it happened, the first time all the hallucinations and illusions happened (like the footsteps, growl and shadowdemon) and this last time which was TOTALLY different than all my numerous other occasions.

This time it felt like it got WAY out of hand, 10x more like a haunting and possession. I felt like I was being stalked and abused. Because when I made eyecontact through the rear view mirror, there was sort of a grin or smirk on the face. Where as my other times I really never caught a glimpse of a face, just ashadow "body". The first time I encountered the demon all I saw was it's body walking closer to me and its hand extending out to touch me, whichI snapped out of it soon as it touched me.

 

[dub 253]

I used to have this pretty frequently, but I haven't in the last 2 months or so. I'm not really sure what triggers it, all I really know is that itsucks... I'll try to answer your questions in a little more depth later, but I'm at school right now, and it's kinda of hard to do that here.


1.) I feel like I'm able to observe the things around me, whether it's strictly in my mind or not I'm not sure of, but I feel like I'mconscience.
2.) Never that I can remember.
3.) I don't really understand your third question

 

[buggz05]

Originally Posted by DUB 253

I used to have this pretty frequently, but I haven't in the last 2 months or so. I'm not really sure what triggers it, all I really know is that it sucks... I'll try to answer your questions in a little more depth later, but I'm at school right now, and it's kinda of hard to do that here.


1.) I feel like I'm able to observe the things around me, whether it's strictly in my mind or not I'm not sure of, but I feel like I'm conscience.
2.) Never that I can remember.
3.) I don't really understand your third question

Well in the third question I mean like in my case, where the demon thing tried to sneak up behind me in my dream, I wake up fine, and then sleep paralysisoccurs...or like how I was moved off the bed and then woke up again like it was just a dream....
I'll be back with an article that better explains the2nd question too.

 

[parada45]

1. When I expereice paralysis I am able to move my eyes and observe things around me.
2. No Flashbacks or Trauma
3. Nope

 

[hypebeast mcstreetwear]

Sleep paralysis is mad scary. Happens every now and then. I usually just take calm breaths and kinda fight through it. If I can't fight through it I justfall back to sleep. Soon enough I'll wake up.

 

[buggz05]

Warning! Long read but I'll highlight what my 2nd question is getting at.

[h3]Night of the Crusher[/h3] [h2]The waking nightmare of sleep paralysis propels people into a spirit world[/h2]
Bruce Bower

As a college student in 1964, David J. Hufford met the dreaded Night Crusher. Exhausted from a bout of mononucleosis and studying for finals, Hufford retreated one December day to his rented, off-campus room and fell into a deep sleep. An hour later, he awoke with a start to the sound of the bedroom door creaking open-the same door he had locked and bolted before going to bed. Hufford then heard footsteps moving toward his bed and felt an evil presence. Terror gripped the young man, who couldn't move a muscle, his eyes plastered open in fright.

[table][tr][td]

[/td] [/tr][tr][td]
The Nightmare, 1781, Henry Fuseli. Founders Society purchase, with funds from Mr. and Mrs. Bert L. Smokler and Mrs. Lawrence A. Fleischman. Photograph [emoji]169[/emoji] 1997 The Detroit Institute of Arts
[/td] [/tr][/table]

Without warning, the malevolent entity, whatever it was, jumped onto Hufford's chest. An oppressive weight compressed his rib cage. Breathing became difficult, and Hufford felt a pair of hands encircle his neck and start to squeeze. "I thought I was going to die," he says.

At that point, the lock on Hufford's muscles gave way. He bolted up and sprinted several blocks to take shelter in the student union. "It was very puzzling," he recalls with a strained chuckle, "but I told nobody about what happened."

Hufford's perspective on his strange encounter was transformed in 1971. He was at that time a young anthropologist studying folklore in Newfoundland, and he heard from some of the region's inhabitants about their eerily similar nighttime encounters. Locals called the threatening entity the "old hag." Most cases unfold as follows: A person wakes up paralyzed and perceives an evil presence. A hag or witch then climbs on top of the petrified victim, creating a crushing sensation on his or her chest.

It took Hufford another year to establish that what he and these people of Newfoundland had experienced corresponds to the event, lasting seconds or minutes, that sleep researchers call sleep paralysis. Although widely acknowledged among traditional cultures, sleep paralysis is one of the most prevalent yet least recognized mental phenomena for people in industrialized societies, Hufford says.

Now, more than 30 years after Hufford's discovery, sleep paralysis is beginning to attract intensive scientific attention. The March Transcultural Psychiatry included a series of papers on the condition's widespread prevalence, regional varieties, and mental-health implications.

Sleep paralysis differs from nocturnal panic, in which a person awakens in terror with no memory of a dream. Neither does sleep paralysis resemble a night terror, in which a person suddenly emerges from slumber in apparent fear, flailing and shouting, but then falls back asleep and doesn't recall the incident in the morning.
[table][tr][td]

[/td] [/tr][tr][td]
A detail from The Nightmare, 1781, Henry Fuseli (see full credit, above)
[/td] [/tr][/table]
Curiously, although the word nightmare originally described sleep paralysis, it now refers to a fearful or disturbing dream, says Hufford, now at the Penn State Medical Center in Hershey, Pa. Several hundred years ago, the English referred to nighttime sensations of chest pressure from witches or other supernatural beings as the "mare," from the Anglo-Saxon merran, meaning to crush. The term eventually morphed into nightmare-the crusher who comes in the night.

Sleep paralysis embodies a universal, biologically based explanation for pervasive beliefs in spirits and supernatural beings, even in the United States, Hufford argues. The experience thrusts mentally healthy people into a bizarre, alternative world that they frequently find difficult to chalk up to a temporary brain glitch.

Hufford doesn't believe that an invisible force attacked him in his college room or during several sleep paralysis episodes that have occurred since then, but he sees the appeal of such an interpretation. "We need to deeply question 2 centuries of assumptions about the nonempirical and nonrational nature of spirit belief," he says.
[h2]Ominous presence[/h2]
In the past 10 years, psychologist J. Allan Cheyne of the University of Waterloo in Canada has collected more than 28,000 tales of sleep paralysis. According to one of the chroniclers, "The first time I experienced this, I saw a shadow of a moving figure, arms outstretched, and I was absolutely sure it was supernatural and evil." Another person recalled awakening "to find a half-snake/half-human thing shouting gibberish in my ear." Yet another person reported periodically waking with a start just after falling asleep, sensing an ominous presence nearby. The tale continues: "Then, something comes over me and smothers me, as if with a pillow. I fight but I can't move. I try to scream. I wake up gasping for air."

Many who experience sleep paralysis also report sensations of floating, flying, falling, or leaving one's body. The condition's primary emotion, terror, sometimes yields to feelings of excitement, exhilaration, rapture, or ecstasy. "A small number of people, while acknowledging fear during initial episodes of sleep paralysis, come to enjoy the experience," Cheyne says.

Cheyne runs a Web site (http://watarts.uwaterloo.ca/~acheyne/S_P.html) where visitors fill out surveys about their experiences during sleep paralysis. Several thousand individuals also provide online updates about recurring episodes.
[table][tr][td]

[/td] [/tr][tr][td]
A detail from The Nightmare, 1781, Henry Fuseli (see full credit, above)
[/td] [/tr][/table]
It doesn't surprise Cheyne that those who contact him seem to be average, emotionally stable folk. In surveys that he has conducted with large numbers of college students and other volunteers, about 30 percent report having experienced at least one incident of sleep paralysis. Roughly 1 in 50 people cites repeated episodes, often one or more each week. Cheyne regards the sights, sounds, and other sensations of sleep paralysis as hallucinations that share a biological kinship with dreaming.

Cheyne notes work by Japanese researcher Kazuhiko Fukuda of Fukushima University. Fukuda enlisted volunteers who had experienced many incidents of sleep paralysis. In a sleep laboratory, the Japanese team monitored the volunteers, whom they roused at various times during the night to trigger the phenomenon. The researchers found that during sleep paralysis, the brain, suddenly awake, nonetheless displays electrical responses typical of sleep characterized by rapid eye movement (REM).

Two brain systems contribute to sleep paralysis, Cheyne proposes. The most prominent one consists of inner-brain structures that monitor one's surroundings for threats and launches responses to perceived dangers. As Cheyne sees it, REM-based activation of this system, in the absence of any real threat, triggers a sense of an ominous entity lurking nearby. Other neural areas that contribute to REM-dream imagery could draw on personal and cultural knowledge to flesh out the evil presence.

A second brain system, which includes sensory and motor parts of the brain's outer layer, distinguishes one's own body and self from those of other creatures. When REM activity prods this system, a person experiences sensations of floating, flying, falling, leaving one's body, and other types of movement, Cheyne says.

Hufford, however, regards the intrusion of REM activity into awake moments as inadequate to explain sleep paralysis. Dream content during REM sleep varies greatly from one person to another, but descriptions of sleep paralysis are remarkably consistent. "I don't have a good explanation for these experiences," he says.
[h2]Pushy ghosts[/h2]
Psychiatrist Devon E. Hinton has heard his share of terrifying stories. While sitting in Hinton's office in Lowell, Mass., a 48-year-old Cambodian woman recounted two such tales from her own life. The first detailed nearly weekly nocturnal events of a type known among her fellow Cambodians as "the ghost pushes you down." At these times, the woman said, she awakens from sleep unable to move. Three ghastly demons stalk into her room, each covered in fur and displaying long fangs. One of the creatures then leans close to her head; the second holds down her legs; and the third pins down her arms. She told Hinton that when these terrors befall her, she knows that the demons want to scare her to death and she feels that they might succeed.

Her second tale was even more dreadful. She told Hinton that the ghost terrors usually trigger a flashback to an actual incident that occurred more than 20 years ago. Before reaching the United States, she survived the genocidal reign of Cambodian dictator Pol Pot, who directed the slaughter of roughly 2 million Cambodians. On one occasion, the young woman witnessed soldiers escorting into a nearby clump of trees three blindfolded persons, whom she recognized as friends from her village. Soon, she heard the sickening sounds of her friends being clubbed to death.

In his therapy, Hinton, who speaks the woman's Khmer language, asked the woman to establish a connection between the two sets of stories. She told him that the three demons are the spirits of her three executed friends, who return to haunt her so that she won't forget them. She also related her worries that a sorcerer would make the spirits enter her body, causing insanity, or will instruct the spirits to place objects inside her, causing anxiety and physical illness.

Each ensuing episode of sleep paralysis over the years has intensified the woman's flashbacks, sleep difficulties, and other symptoms of what psychiatrists call post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Hinton says that many Cambodian refugees relive past horrors through sleep paralysis. He notes that few people discuss these incidents with their physicians. "Unless you specifically ask about sleep paralysis, you don't know that a patient has it," Hinton says.

So, Hinton surveyed people at his outpatient clinic in Lowell, which has the second-largest Cambodian population in the country. Of 100 consecutive Cambodian refugees whom Hinton saw as patients at the clinic in 2003, he notes, 42 reported currently experiencing at least one sleep-paralysis episode each year. Most reported seeing an approaching demon or other entity that created pressure on their chests and typically triggered panic attacks. Among the refugees questioned, 45 had been diagnosed with PTSD. Of those, 35 reported being afflicted by sleep paralysis, usually with at least one episode a month.

The Cambodians told Hinton that sleep paralysis permits people who suffer unjust deaths to haunt the living and creates "bad luck." These cultural ideas foster panic attacks, Hinton asserts.

Panic attacks, PTSD, and other mental disorders may indirectly promote sleep paralysis by disrupting the sleep cycle and yanking people out of REM sleep during the night, he adds. Other factors that disturb sleep, such as jet lag and shift work, have also been linked to sleep paralysis.

Psychological treatment that delves into the personal meaning of bouts of sleep paralysis reassures sufferers that these encounters aren't signs of physical illness or supernatural visits, Hinton says.

Evidence from Shanghai also supports a connection between sleep paralysis, PTSD, and panic attacks. Albert S. Yeung of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and his team interviewed 150 psychiatric outpatients in Shanghai. About one-quarter of these patients had experienced sleep paralysis at least once, and more than half of those with PTSD or panic attacks described incidents of sleep paralysis, according to Yeung.

However, unlike the Cambodian immigrants whom Hinton studied, nearly all of Yeung's Chinese study participants in retrospect regarded the incidents as innocuous. Most had experienced feelings of dread but didn't encounter supernatural creatures.

For African Americans who experience panic attacks, sleep paralysis is also especially common, according to community surveys conducted by psychologist Cheryl M. Paradis of Marymount Manhattan College in New York City. Although 25 percent of the African-American participants reported having experienced sleep paralysis, nearly 60 percent of blacks who had panic attacks said that they regularly experienced sleep paralysis. In contrast, sleep paralysis turned up among only 7 percent of whites who have panic attacks, Paradis says.

High stress levels in African Americans, at least partly the result of poverty and racism, contribute to anxiety, sleep problems, and sleep paralysis, she suggests.

Sexual abuse may also make a person susceptible to sleep paralysis. Harvard University psychologists Richard J. McNally and Susan A. Clancy have found that, among adults who report having been sexually abused during childhood, nearly half describe at least one past episode of sleep paralysis. In their study, only 13 percent of participants who hadn't been sexually abused reported sleep paralysis.

Long-standing sleep disturbances in those who have been sexually abused may foster the phenomenon, McNally suggests.
[h2]Alien invaders[/h2]
There is a kinship between waking nightmares starring Night Crushers and reports of alien abductions, McNally and Clancy find. For more than a decade, they have been studying people who claim to have been abducted by aliens from outer space. McNally and Clancy are convinced that these claims derive from sleep-paralysis hallucinations.
[table][tr][td]

[/td] [/tr][tr][td]
A detail from The Nightmare, 1781, Henry Fuseli (see full credit, above)
[/td] [/tr][/table]
Accounts of space-alien encounters typically begin with the abductee waking in the night while lying face up, McNally says. The person can't move but senses electric vibrations. A feeling of terror makes breathing difficult. Alien beings advance to the foot of the bed or climb on top of the person, who then experiences a sense of floating or of being transported to an alien craft.

Days or weeks later, in response to a therapist's hypnotic suggestions, the abductee may generate details of being sexually probed or otherwise assaulted by the aliens, McNally notes.

Claims of abductions by space aliens trigger much controversy, media attention, and ridicule. The late Harvard psychiatrist John Mack fueled the hubbub by defending the accounts as descriptions of actual encounters with visitors from other planets.

There's another, far more likely, explanation for the reported experiences of the "abductees," says McNally. Traumatic encounters that a person seems to experience during sleep paralysis feel as vividly real as anything that happens during the day does, he notes.

Despite their fantastic claims, these people are mentally healthy, says McNally. "Sleep paralysis is an entirely natural phenomenon," he remarks. "In isolated cases, it's no more pathological than a case of the hiccups."

McNally and Clancy linked the claims of 10 alien abductees to episodes of sleep paralysis. Memories of the scary incidents sparked heart-rate increases and other physiological stress reactions that exceeded those previously reported for Vietnam veterans with PTSD as they recalled distressing combat events.

Even the most rational people who experience sleep paralysis often find it difficult to write off their nighttime ordeals as unreal, Hufford notes. He has interviewed many U.S. medical students who, even after hearing about REM sleep and the brain's threat-detection system, insist that their frightening meetings with the Night Crusher were real. Until sharing their stories with Hufford, most of the students had never told them to anyone.

"I suspect that millions of people in the United States are walking around never having told anybody about having these terrifying experiences," Hufford says.(BUGGZ ED NOTE: Which is why I'd like to make a film on this.)

That's unlikely to change anytime soon, he adds. Scientists and physicians treat reports of mingling with supernatural creatures and spirits as evidence of mental imbalance. And mainstream religions condemn connections with ghosts, demons, and evil presences.

But the world of sleep works according to its own rules. Whether shunned or embraced, Hufford says, the Night Crusher returns with frightening regularity.

---

Letters:

I have experienced sleep paralysis in almost all of its forms, from terrors to vibrations and auditory hallucinations to out-of-body experiences. Most often it is completely terrifying, but I did have one episode that was elating.

Sweet dreams.

Kathleen Milroy
Ontario, Canada

The manifestations reported by sufferers of sleep paralysis are eerily similar to the visitation of death in "The Snows of Kilimanjaro," written by Ernest Hemingway and first published in Esquire in 1936:

It moved up closer to him still and now he could not speak to it, and when it saw he could not speak it came a little closer, and now he tried to send it away without speaking, but it moved in on him so its weight was all upon his chest, and while it crouched there and he could not move, or speak, he heard the woman say, "Bwana is asleep now. Take the cot up very gently and carry it into the tent."

He could not speak to tell her to make it go away and it crouched now, heavier, so he could not breathe. And then, while they lifted the cot, suddenly it was all right and the weight went from his chest.


History doesn't tell us if sleep paralysis was Papa's inspiration, but no better description could be offered.

Robert Perry Fisher
Raleigh, N.C.

Might this same phenomenon also explain the common childhood fear of "monsters under the bed"? I don't know how common this is across cultures, but it would be interesting to look.

Rolf Taylor
Cleveland Heights, Ohio

If the condition is so severe as to paralyze the lungs and cause asphyxiation, has any study reported deaths due to sleep paralysis?

Vytas Misiulis
Chicago, Ill.

I didn't run across any reports of deaths due to sleep paralysis.-B. Bower

---

If you have a comment on this article that you would like considered for publication in Science News, send it to editors@sciencenews.org. Please include your name and location.

 

[are owe double s]

I used to happen to me like at least twice a week...but it kinda slowed down now and probably just happens once or twice a month.

It gets pretty crazy when sometimes...
Questions:

1. When yall experienced this, do you recall being able to move your eyes? side-to-side, up or down? or observe things around you?
2. Has it ever caused any flashbacks or memories of trauma or anything?
3. Has an episode ever materialized, or carried over to or from your sleep? (it usually happens when you wake up)

Answers...

1. When ever this happens, I feel like I can see and hear everything around me....I just couldnt move. But sometimes I get the feeling that my chest is cavingin and its really hard to breathe.

2. No flashbacks.

3. Yes...it seems like I see the @#$% over and over again...When I get this, I always see this chick with a knife who wants to kill me. Kinda crazy since itsthe same one all the time, and when ever try to speak to get someone to wake me up, I cant yell or move....I found a trick though, i always try to wiggle mytoes and that seems to work sometimes and wakes me up.

 

[krazy]

1. When yall experienced this, do you recall being able to move your eyes? side-to-side, up or down? or observe things around you?
I usually recall seeing a different picture moving around me, my eyes were usually in a fixed position. But sometimes it's just a black space around me,with a ring/growl/scream in my ear.
2. Has it ever caused any flashbacks or memories of trauma or anything?
An image of my deceased friend showed up and he said something to me.
Also, one time it happened, I screamed for my deceased sisters name for help (the words wouldn't actually come out so anybody else would hear it, but itcame out in my mind during the process). It went away about a second after I called her name.
3. Has an episode ever materialized, or carried over to or from your sleep? (it usually happens when you wake up)
Yes, I was having a dream, and at the end of the dream an evil easter bunny said something to me. I was frozen, and tried to scream, then woke up shook. Thiswas my first experience.

It has happened to me since I was in 7th grade. I'm used to it now, and I know how to prevent it now. I know when the tingling feeling is about to kick in,so all I do is jerk a muscle to prevent it from occurring. Sometimes it catches me off-guard though, so it freaks me out for a bit. I think it occurs at leastonce a month now, but sometimes it could be less.
One time, the tingling feeling wouldn't stop going away, so it kept me awake up to about 3 or 4 am, me jerking my body every time I felt it coming. Icould've just been paranoid, but trust me, I know the feeling before sleep paralysis kicks in.

 

[buggz05]

Originally Posted by Lil Cao

1. When yall experienced this, do you recall being able to move your eyes? side-to-side, up or down? or observe things around you?

I usually recall seeing a different picture moving around me, my eyes were usually in a fixed position.

2. Has it ever caused any flashbacks or memories of trauma or anything?

An image of my deceased friend showed up and he said something to me.
Also, one time it happened, I screamed for my deceased sisters name for help (the words wouldn't actually come out so anybody else would hear it, but it came out in my mind during the process). It went away about a second after I called her name.

3. Has an episode ever materialized, or carried over to or from your sleep? (it usually happens when you wake up)

Yes, I was having a dream, and at the end of the dream an evil easter bunny said something to me. I was frozen, and tried to scream, then woke up shook. This was my first experience.

It has happened to me since I was in 7th grade. I'm used to it now, and I know how to prevent it now. I know when the tingling feeling is about to kick in, so all I do is jerk a muscle to prevent it from occurring. Sometimes it catches me off-guard though, so it freaks me out for a bit. I think it occurs at least once a month now, but sometimes it could be less.
One time, the tingling feeling wouldn't stop going away, so it kept me awake up to about 3 or 4 am, me jerking my body every time I felt it coming. I could've just been paranoid, but trust me, I know the feeling before sleep paralysis kicks in.

I know what your talking about, I can feel it too. Sometimes I can feel it the night before I fall asleep and then it happens hours later, or even themorning I wake up. And thank you for reminding me of this, because I've completely overlooked and neglected that part.

 

[guillermo gutierez]

GUILLERMO, what do you mean by concentrate on breathing? Like just TRYING to breathe? or like meditation breathing techniques?
just tryin to breathe, while i dont have trouble breathing, i always think to myself, even tho i cant move,the only thing bad that could happen isif i stop breathing. so i focus on breathing to make sure i stay alive, cuz sometimes the cover is over my face.

i remember the FIRST time it happened......

I was really young and i was sleepin beside my mom. I was havin a dream about the movie Free Willy, i had just got finished watchin Tiny Toon Adventures beforei went to sleep. and it was the episdoe where somebody was under the whale as he jumped over the rock, but the whale fell on the boy.

........anyway, i was that boy in the dream, and RIGHT as the whale was about to crush me, iwoke up, well sorta, i was conscious, but i couldnt move!!, i was scared as a censored face. i really thought i was gonna die. but i calmed down and thought"hmmm, since my momma be givin me mad whippins, ima bite the $%%! outta her, so then she'll turn around and spank me and maybe ill wake up."

so i tried to bite her but i couldnt move my neck or open my mouth

. however, mygreat grandma had been forcing me to learn the Lord's Prayer that whole week, and since i had memorized it by that time, i said it, and just waited,eventually i popped up.

the scariest time was when i had a cold and it happened, my nostrils was clogged with mucus and my lil autistic brother jumped on me and put his stomach on myface while i was sleepin, and he wouldnt move. real talk, i was prepared to die that day.

 

[measy15]

It's really on and off for me. It might happen every other day, then not happen again for a few weeks, so i can't really put a time frame on it. itdoesn't always happen at night either. i've had it happen during my mid-day naps after school. so onto the questions.

1. for the most part i'm able to move my eyes. but when i'm in the middle of it i always feel that if i dont keep moving my eyes around or try towiggle my toes to wake myself up, something's going to catch me. it really feels like im about to die. and i usually sleep on my stomach or my side so itreally feels like somethings just hovering over me waiting to catch me slippin.


2. during the paralysis i can vaguely remember a long dark hallway, i dont know if that has anything to do with anything.

3. not really. i mean it has happened so much that i pretty much know what to expect and know whats going on, but im still scared as ____ when i wake up.


Hope this helps.

 

[buggz05]

thanx guys for the stories, yall have been alot of help. Anybody else?

EDIT: So I just interviewed one of my news editing partners...and he said his brother had a case that lasted all the way to the emergency room via ambulance.

said he would ask his mom and brother about it, because he doesn't know the full story, just only that it cost thousands of dollars in hospitalbills.

 

[cheamayn23]

I never got it in my life...Sounds bad though.

 

[nickle dime bay]

Ive had it happen to me but id rather not bring it back up cuz i dont want to remember that.

 

[buggz05]

^^cmon my guy this is to help defeat this stuff. I'm making a film so ppl will understand and know the best ways to deal with it, plus raise awareness forpeople that go through this. and people who keep it to themselves because they don't know what it is.

Alot of people probably think they are possessed because of this, and it probably bugs them throughout their day/life. If everybody who goes through thisrealizes this is normal, and NOT harmful, and educates themselves how to deal with it or deal away with it, i think alot of people's lives could be more atease...

Edit: Team Late Night where yall at? I know yall got somethin...

 

[taimaishu123]

only happens to me when i sleep on my back. i only sleep on my side now. its all in the neck. all you need is proper pillows to keep you neck and back alignedso you have have a clear passage way to breath.

 

[sorkoram]

Happens to me when i sleep on my stomach every now and then. Sometimes wake up catching my breath or a cold sweat.

 

[rawsheed]

I would somehow like to film myself under a sleep paralysis state