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Adventures In Sleep Paralysis

BeardSprite said:
Hello everyone, 'sort of' new in town (see New Members post here).

I regularly experience episodes of sleep paralysis, so this thread and the subject in general are of particular interest to me!

I won't detail all my 'episodes' here (I'm at work on my lunch break, I don't want to monopolise the thread, and I haven't kept detailed records (though maybe I should!), though if there's interest I'll dredge up and post what I can, but I wanted to share a few observations prompted by recent discussion in this thread:

Re: sleeping on your back. I've experienced sleep paralysis in all sleeping positions - front, back, left side and right side. Most usually right side these days, as that's the side I generally sleep on.

Sleeping on my back or left side is least likely, as I find these positions generally uncomfortable when trying to doze off, and I don't seem to move around a lot in my sleep (unlike my partner, who would appear to be several hundred squirrels inhabiting a Goth suit when she's asleep).

Screaming etc: It's been reported to me that when I'm having an episode, I make weird sounds like I'm trying to speak, shout or scream, but can't. Which tallies with my 'in dream' experience - I'm really trying to cry out one way or another, but can't.

General theme: I'm either being haunted by a vague shadowy figure in the doorway, or 'abducted by aliens' who's presence is only ever implied or evidenced through disembodied voices murmuring reassuring (well, that's the aim, it fails!) telepathic messages.

Occasionally I will feel a hand grab my wrist or ankle, but not very often.

Sometimes there is a 'normal' dream preamble - I'll be walking somewhere, see a light in the sky (always the same, 'ball lightning' leaving angular Tron-like lines in its wake) and go home so as to be 'in' when the experience kicks off.

Or a deceased friend will visit, and we'll be well into our cigarettes and coffee when I'll suddenly realise - "Wait up. You're dead!" and then the paralysis kicks in and the furniture starts to fly around the room, Poltergeist (the movie) style!

I should note I don't believe I'm actually having an abduction experience, its just the form the attendant dream/hallucination sometimes takes.

Nor does the furniature actually fly around (I'm sure witnesses would have reported this had it done so!), although the deceased friend in question was also prone to sleep paralysis in life, and always reported it as 'a horde of Satans little helpers come to drag him to hell'.

Dream pain: I've experienced it in conjunction with sleep paralysis - notably when bitten by a dog (I'm a cynophobe!) on my hand, shot in the neck with a bow and arrow by a ninja (that was an odd one!) and that time I dreamed/hallucinated my big toe exploded (I woke up to find an enormous spot had erupted on it during the night...). In most cases it can be ascribed to having slept on the affected area, and usually resolves as 'pins and needles' upon waking - except with the one about the toe!

I think I'm starting to ramble, so I'll call it done there for now.



Yes, seconded! 2, 11, 15, 19 and 21 are all relatable ;)
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Really good account - if anyone needs a visit to a sleep clinic it is you!
 
IbisNibs said:
Absolutely unfamiliar with Horlicks, so I looked it up. "Horlick's Infant and Invalids Food." Did your doctor think you were an infant or an invalid? No wonder you still feel plagued!
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Horlick's, like Coca-Cola, started out as a health drink, but over the years became a bedtime drink like cocoa or Ovaltine, supposed to aid restful sleep. It's basically flavoured milk.
 
My daughter 23 and son 25 both have sleep paralysis and it gives them the creeps. My daughter had a horrible experience when she was about 18. She was asleep and woke up , went to the loo and got back into bed. As she did she tripped on her remote control for her tv so she picked it up and put in on the side. She dropped back off and then awoke to find she was paralysed completely and could hear some one come into the room and stop by the bed. They were heavily breathing and she felt they were menacing. She then heard them turn and go back out again. As they did she heard the remote control drop to the floor. When she had managed to get herself together and come too, she got up and the remote control was indeed on the floor in a different place to where it was when she originally tripped over it. So, either she dreamt getting up for the loo and moving it, or someone or something went into the room and looked at her and knocked it off. She was on her own in the house.
 
Seasidepagan said:
My daughter 23 and son 25 both have sleep paralysis and it gives them the creeps. My daughter had a horrible experience when she was about 18. She was asleep and woke up , went to the loo and got back into bed. As she did she tripped on her remote control for her tv so she picked it up and put in on the side. She dropped back off and then awoke to find she was paralysed completely and could hear some one come into the room and stop by the bed. They were heavily breathing and she felt they were menacing. She then heard them turn and go back out again. As they did she heard the remote control drop to the floor. When she had managed to get herself together and come too, she got up and the remote control was indeed on the floor in a different place to where it was when she originally tripped over it. So, either she dreamt getting up for the loo and moving it, or someone or something went into the room and looked at her and knocked it off. She was on her own in the house.
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Oh, that's scary.
 
I have had sleep paralysis on occasion. The latest episode was last week when I 'awoke' to a snuffling sound above my head, followed by a thump as if something landed on the bed next to me. I had the familiar feeling of panic as I tried to drag my eyes open and move my arms to ward off whatever was on the bed but was paralysed and unable to move. When I managed to fully wake up, I flailed around to swot away any snuffling monsters, turned the light on and was alone. Most of my episodes are along the same lines, with something either jumping onto the bed or slamming into it, and the noises are usually animalistic with snuffles, snorts and padding sounds. The most frightening aspect is the feeling of helplessness as you cannot move to protect yourself
 
Robsocks said:
I have had sleep paralysis on occasion. The latest episode was last week when I 'awoke' to a snuffling sound above my head, followed by a thump as if something landed on the bed next to me.
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That reminds me of the time I heard a growling noise which got closer and closer, until it got so close it scared me, which woke me up. I'd been snoring, and snored myself awake.
Maybe you heard yourself breathing, and because you were still really asleep, it didn't sound close enough to be coming from you, and then you had one of those myoclonic jerks which felt like a body falling onto the bed. Your own body may have made the noise and the thump, but your sleeping mind was dissociated and so perceived them as coming from outside your body. Just a thought to take with you next time you can't move and scary stuff happens.
 
I had sleep paralysis a lot in my 20's. It always involved waking up completely unable to move and becoming aware of an evil presence next to my bed. I could hear it snarling or chattering and getting closer so it would be right in my ear. I would be screaming but no sound came out of my mouth and I could not open my eyes. The more I panicked the worse the experience became. I would eventually wake up soaked in sweat. One night during a sleep paralysis a voice told me this thing was feeding on my fear and to breath in light and breath out fear. It was a great comfort to me and I took a deep breath and was able to turn over to face this monster. At that point it screamed and I heard the sound of it peel off into the distance. I felt total peace and went back to sleep. After that although it did happen again once or twice over the next 30 years, usually during times of stress. I have maintained the conviction that the belief in the power of love and light can send these things back to where they came from.
 
I've just FaceTimed with my middle daughter, who has reported an incident of sleep paralysis.

It surprised me on several levels. Firstly, she's the least imaginative of my kids, (not that that really has a bearing on the case) secondly, she's not really into anything paranormal (she once saw an ABC whilst driving near our home and wouldn't talk about it at all, just told me what she'd seen and not receptive to any conversation) and thirdly, she knew what sleep paralysis was and knew what it was as it was underway, even though she's never suffered it before. She reported a strange feeling on her throat, and a tall hooded figure in white beside the bed, with big black eyes.

Then she added that she thinks she's suffering from sleep apnoea which is causing a lot of it. She's under a lot of work stress at the moment (no, she's not a nurse, she's an accountant!) and not sleeping well.

I was surprised by the whole report actually. She's not usually one to be fanciful or report anything other than the odd bad dream.
 
I have experienced both sleep paralysis and lucid dreaming. My sp seems to come on when I have either a bad night’s sleep or I’m extremedy tired. Currently I have gotten up to feed my cats ( early morning) and fall back asleep, on my stomach. I then feel a heavy weight on my back and then it’s like an incubus experience. Because I’m familiar with sp, I ignore it as much as possible and don’t react with fear. It ends and I can wake up.

The other type of sp I experience regularly is trying to wake (because I want to) and feeling very tired almost exhausted. I then usually dream that I’m exhausted and can’t stay awake (in my dream). I estimate that it takes me probably 1/2 hour of really struggling to come awake before I can intentionally wake. If, however, I hear an external noise (such as my cat) I awake immediately. These ones tend to occur when I’m sleeping on my back.

I think I mentioned here earlier that my first sp experience happened when I was 17-18 years old. It was the textbook “ Old Hag’“, though I never heard of it, nor sp until many years later.

Recently my mom has reported sp experiences. She has claustrophobia and dreams that she is pinned down and can’t move. When she wakes, she is wrapped tightly in her blankets. Again she has reported that she’s has a poor sleep with body aches causing sleeplessness and then she suddenly drops into a deep sleep. She said that she only knows what sp is b/c I’ve talked about it. Of course, currently she is feeling “ hemmed in” by the coved-19 restrictions, so I am guessing this might be why she has now experienced this.

I just listened to a podcast re: sp. The podcaster’s voice irritates me, so she’s not my favourite.. The interviewee tends to have a Wiccan slant to her means of helping others with sp, but this may be interesting to some:
https://www.secretdoorpodcast.com/p...he-old-hag-shadow-hat-man-what-to-do-about-it
 
Tempest63 said:
I read somewhere that if you know you are in SP and are able to keep a clear mind and not panic, you would find yourself in the best place to try and induce Astral Projection.
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Oh really? I have had two (very boring) episodes recently. I will try to remember to think about this before I go to sleep each night to see if I remember to actually try it.
 
Tempest63 said:
I read somewhere that if you know you are in SP and are able to keep a clear mind and not panic, you would find yourself in the best place to try and induce Astral Projection.
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I find SP too much of a ”physical” feeling experience ie weight of some sort, either exhaustion or something pinning me down to even think I could astral project from that state. Now when lucid dreaming, I could certainly see that as a good start for astral projection.
 
Naughty_Felid said:
Really good account - if anyone needs a visit to a sleep clinic it is you!
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Heh, cheers @Naughty_Felid , and maybe so! But then again, I haven't had any SP 'events' thus far this year (the last was in December, iirc. Well, early Jan at latest).

Which is odd, because I have had a rather eventful 2020 thus far, and in amongst all of the excitement I haven't been receiving notifications from this forum, or had much in the way of time to check in.

Long story short, in mid Feb just passed I was diagnosed with bowel cancer (I've been and had it hacked out, and got the 'all clear' at the end of March - its been a whirlwind of a year so far!), a by-product of all the poking, proding and testing for which was finding out that I also have an underactive Thyroid - which is now being medicated.

Two things which tend to happen when I'm stressed (and I have been, unsurprisingly, these past few months) are Sleep Paralysis and migraines.

And I haven't experienced either. Not even an inkling. Looking into it there's a tentative suggestion, but no concrete proof, of a link between underactive thyroid and migraine, so now I'm wondering...

... is my SP being medicated away? I hope not, I'll continue to observe.
 
BeardSprite said:
Heh, cheers @Naughty_Felid , and maybe so! But then again, I haven't had any SP 'events' thus far this year (the last was in December, iirc. Well, early Jan at latest).

Which is odd, because I have had a rather eventful 2020 thus far, and in amongst all of the excitement I haven't been receiving notifications from this forum, or had much in the way of time to check in.

Long story short, in mid Feb just passed I was diagnosed with bowel cancer (I've been and had it hacked out, and got the 'all clear' at the end of March - its been a whirlwind of a year so far!), a by-product of all the poking, proding and testing for which was finding out that I also have an underactive Thyroid - which is now being medicated.

Two things which tend to happen when I'm stressed (and I have been, unsurprisingly, these past few months) are Sleep Paralysis and migraines.

And I haven't experienced either. Not even an inkling. Looking into it there's a tentative suggestion, but no concrete proof, of a link between underactive thyroid and migraine, so now I'm wondering...

... is my SP being medicated away? I hope not, I'll continue to observe.
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Glad to hear you're OK now.
 
BeardSprite said:
Heh, cheers @Naughty_Felid , and maybe so! But then again, I haven't had any SP 'events' thus far this year (the last was in December, iirc. Well, early Jan at latest).

Which is odd, because I have had a rather eventful 2020 thus far, and in amongst all of the excitement I haven't been receiving notifications from this forum, or had much in the way of time to check in.

Long story short, in mid Feb just passed I was diagnosed with bowel cancer (I've been and had it hacked out, and got the 'all clear' at the end of March - its been a whirlwind of a year so far!), a by-product of all the poking, proding and testing for which was finding out that I also have an underactive Thyroid - which is now being medicated.

Two things which tend to happen when I'm stressed (and I have been, unsurprisingly, these past few months) are Sleep Paralysis and migraines.

And I haven't experienced either. Not even an inkling. Looking into it there's a tentative suggestion, but no concrete proof, of a link between underactive thyroid and migraine, so now I'm wondering...

... is my SP being medicated away? I hope not, I'll continue to observe.
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You've gotten through a lot. Keep strong.
 
Thankyou @Mythopoeika , @IbisNibs , @ramonmercado , and everone!

I have been through a lot lately, but I have also been tremendously lucky, and I'm grateful for that.

Still recovering from the surgery (8 weeks ago yesterday!), getting better/stronger each passing week.

I am still dreaming, the postman woke me up from one this morning (by knocking on the door!), and I was incorporating the sounds from next door rotivating their back garden into the dream, but still no SP as yet.
 
BeardSprite said:
Thankyou @Mythopoeika , @IbisNibs , @ramonmercado , and everone!

I have been through a lot lately, but I have also been tremendously lucky, and I'm grateful for that.

Still recovering from the surgery (8 weeks ago yesterday!), getting better/stronger each passing week.

I am still dreaming, the postman woke me up from one this morning (by knocking on the door!), and I was incorporating the sounds from next door rotivating their back garden into the dream, but still no SP as yet.
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Must have been a scary scary time for you. Glad you're coming out the other side of it all.
 
Over the years and due to the profession I’m in, I have lived in quite a few different properties....I’d say around 15 places. In all of that time and in all those places I have only ever suffered sleep paralysis in just one. It took the form of a shadowy intruder approaching my open bedroom door and me being completely unable to fend them off as I couldn’t move a muscle.....desperately trying to shout at them to get the f... out of there. It happened numerous times but only in that one house. If I was predisposed to having bouts of sleep paralysis then surely it would happen anywhere. Maybe that house had a certain malevolence about it that I was subconsciously picking up on.
 
I always wonder if there are spores of something or smells that could affect people subconsciously. Along with infrasonic sound waves, that might explain experiences that don't travel with people from lodging to lodging.
 
IbisNibs said:
I always wonder if there are spores of something or smells that could affect people subconsciously. Along with infrasonic sound waves, that might explain experiences that don't travel with people from lodging to lodging.
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Yup, you can certainly pick things up unconsciously.

Caught me out once:
A few years ago at work I kept getting glimpses of my own face in the corner of my eye. When I turned to look there was nothing to see, then I'd carry on working and get the same feeling again. This only happened in one patient's room.

After a few days the mystery was solved. My cousin and her mother walked in to visit while I was there. The patient was a relation of theirs and they'd placed a small framed photo of my cousin and her family in the room. Cousin and I look rather alike.

I'd been catching sight of the photo obliquely and from that angle it had looked like me, but I couldn't pick it out consciously and had hardly even noticed it was there.
 
PeteS said:
Must have been a scary scary time for you. Glad you're coming out the other side of it all.
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Thanks @PeteS , yeah, its given me a new appreciation for the words 'existential crisis', but I'm over the hump now, I hope, and each passing day brings a sense of life settling back into equilibrium.

Sgt Girth said:
Over the years and due to the profession I’m in, I have lived in quite a few different properties....I’d say around 15 places. In all of that time and in all those places I have only ever suffered sleep paralysis in just one...

...If I was predisposed to having bouts of sleep paralysis then surely it would happen anywhere. Maybe that house had a certain malevolence about it that I was subconsciously picking up on.
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IbisNibs said:
I always wonder if there are spores of something or smells that could affect people subconsciously. Along with infrasonic sound waves, that might explain experiences that don't travel with people from lodging to lodging.
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escargot said:
Yup, you can certainly pick things up unconsciously.
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This is interesting for me, because I take my sleep paralysis with me wherever I go - every place I've lived in (from the rented terrace where I had the 'Evil Bungle' experience when I was three, to the council house we lived in for 4 years following that (where SP frequently involved, of all people, the Hurdy Gurdy man from Magic Roundabout!), the two houses the family called home after that, and all the various places I've called home since struck out on my own.

Beyond that, I've also experienced it when I've been visiting places - family, holidays, work trips, what have you. So for me, at least, it seems to come from somewhere within myself - stress, anxiety and uncertainty have certainly been triggers in the past, although now I'm also wondering if my recently diagnosed underactive thyroid might be a factor.

From the various accounts here (and elsewhere) there appear to be those (like me) who have regular SP experiences, and those who have one or two experiences, or location specific experiences, and never again - although some report SP experiences resuming if they return to the 'specific place'.

Its all rather fascinating. Baffling, but fascinating.
 
BeardSprite said:
Thanks @PeteS , yeah, its given me a new appreciation for the words 'existential crisis', but I'm over the hump now, I hope, and each passing day brings a sense of life settling back into equilibrium.







This is interesting for me, because I take my sleep paralysis with me wherever I go - every place I've lived in (from the rented terrace where I had the 'Evil Bungle' experience when I was three, to the council house we lived in for 4 years following that (where SP frequently involved, of all people, the Hurdy Gurdy man from Magic Roundabout!), the two houses the family called home after that, and all the various places I've called home since struck out on my own.

Beyond that, I've also experienced it when I've been visiting places - family, holidays, work trips, what have you. So for me, at least, it seems to come from somewhere within myself - stress, anxiety and uncertainty have certainly been triggers in the past, although now I'm also wondering if my recently diagnosed underactive thyroid might be a factor.

From the various accounts here (and elsewhere) there appear to be those (like me) who have regular SP experiences, and those who have one or two experiences, or location specific experiences, and never again - although some report SP experiences resuming if they return to the 'specific place'.

Its all rather fascinating. Baffling, but fascinating.
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Interesting that BS. I have wondered whether some Fortean experiences might be related to physical or psychological health conditions. It will be interesting to see whether treatment of the thyroid condition affects the incidence of sleep paralysis.
 
I STILL have no first-person sleep paralysis experiences to report. But yesterday, talking to Daughter Number 3, I was telling her about the story her elder sister (Daughter Number Two, for those of you keeping check) told me about her sleep paralysis experience, linked to poor sleep due to COVID related worries.

Whereupon D2 told me a couple of her experiences, one of which stood out to me...

She and her partner were staying in a hotel after celebrating a family birthday (I don't know which hotel and should have asked). She woke in the night to see a man, wearing an orange and black striped rugby shirt, standing beside the bed. She then said she turned over and tried to scream to waken her partner, but couldn't scream, whereupon she decided that this must be sleep paralysis and she hadn't in fact turned over, just dreamed that she turned over, as she must have dreamed the 'rugby shirt man'.


I didn't know whether to reassure her that she was probably correct, or wonder whether she'd seen something else...
 
catseye said:
Whereupon D2 told me a couple of her experiences, one of which stood out to me...

She and her partner were staying in a hotel after celebrating a family birthday (I don't know which hotel and should have asked). She woke in the night to see a man, wearing an orange and black striped rugby shirt, standing beside the bed. She then said she turned over and tried to scream to waken her partner, but couldn't scream, whereupon she decided that this must be sleep paralysis and she hadn't in fact turned over, just dreamed that she turned over, as she must have dreamed the 'rugby shirt man'.


I didn't know whether to reassure her that she was probably correct, or wonder whether she'd seen something else...
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That's heading towards lucid dreaming.
 
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