sleep paralysis

[anything at all]

I really hope this isn't triggering to anyone in any way.. the last thing I want to do is upset anyone after being upset myself but I just had the scariest thing happen to me tonight and now I'm wide awake and shaken with no one to talk to for comfort.

I'm pretty sure I was fully asleep and I'm dream but suddenly I was back in my bed and unable to move. It felt like something crawled over me and grabbed onto my arm and squeezed so hard.. It felt like it was biting me too!! I could not move to shake anything off or do anything about it. This happened at least 3 times in waves. I also experienced a grabbing feeling on the other side of my body, as if someone was laying next to me and trying to hug me insanely tightly. Again I couldn't move at all and this also happened a few times.

I wanted to be able to cry or scream during these moments as they were painfully uncomfortable to me but I couldn't do anything. I could also occasionally see a tall dark figure in the corner of the room.

Thankfully I either properly woke up or was able to move again.

Ughhh. I've never experienced anything like this in my life before. Is this Sleep Paralysis???

Has anyone ever had just a one off of something like this and never again? I'm so terrified that it's going to happen again.

 

[McNuggets]

Definitely sounds like sleep paralysis.

Usually caused when you are over tired or when you’ve taken something like co-codamol.

It happens when you are passing through the stages of wakefulness and sleep.

It is absolutely terrifying. I feel like I’m screaming inside but my mouth won’t open!

 

[anything at all]

Thank you all for posting, i didn't think it would be this common.

I hope you all never have to experience it again too x

 

[DoctorWho]

Yeh I’ve had it a few times, mainly after taking drugs though hope you’re ok.

 

[Begborrowsteal]

I used to get it often as a kid. My mum is big into ghosts and always had us thinking it was haunted houses. The feeling of someone cuddling me, laughing as they 'shh'd in my ear as I tried to scream she would always call it a 'trance' and it was just a ghost I figured out eventually what it was, and realised shes just had it for years.

It was weird, id feel a tingle in my back and the paralysis feeling slowly take over from my feet to my head. Blergh. Horrible.

 

[Abcd.White]

I hope your ok now and you’ve managed to calm down. I can’t imagine how scary that must have been. I had a slightly similar experience last week when I was home alone I thought my husband was beside me it felt like someone was in bed with me and grabbing me. i have no idea what it was but it was unsettling x

 

[Hairraiser]

Hi, yes it sounds like sleep paralysis. I experienced it a few years ago when I lived alone, it’s absolutely terrifying so I can understand why you are so frightened.

They say it’s caused by stress/worry, is there something that’s worrying you at the moment? Or a change in your life?

If you read up, it is quite common, although I’m not sure if it’s something that reoccurs, as I only had it happen once!

the only way I can describe it is by someone physically sitting on my chest, holding my head down to the side, can’t breath but I can speak quietly, and there is a figure in the corner of the room watching over me. At the time I had a large poster of Marilyn Monroe on my wall, and that’s where the figure stood, so in the end I had to throw it away, it freaked me out too much
If it does happen again, make sure you go to see your doctor, it can seriously affect your wellbeing and sleep.
I hope you are able to get back to sleep soon and try to think of something nice in the meantime!

 

[Gemgemgemgem]

Oh wow, the figure things sound so disturbing. My brother gets it often and it's a figure of an old, evil looking lady.

I've had SP once, but thankfully no strange figures lurking. None that I noticed anyway. I had fallen asleep on my back with my newborn laid on me while in bed. I became conscious as she began to slip to the side of me but I couldn't move nor speak to wake up my husband. Luckily she didn't fall off me and I quickly came round, but I remember the struggle to make my body do something, anything. I think if I saw a figure I'd never sleep again!

 

[Londoncailín]

I have experienced sleep paralysis since I was a child. It got much worse when I was in my early 20’s. It then disappeared for a few years and returned in my mid 30’s. It’s a horrible thing to experience. I really feel for all those who have been through it.

 

[BlueRose]

I have a few sleep paralysis.
They say sleeping on your back, going to bed at different times and waking up at different times can cause it.

I always feel someone sat bottom of my bed watching me or I get some one leaning over me.
I feel awake up I'm not. I have woken up to a bruise where I was hurt in my sleep like twice. I don't know if it was a warning or what.
The other day I thought my partner was leaning over me to wake me up cause it was like he was 100% yet he had something on I knew he couldn't be him as I knew he wouldn't be wearng the item. But felt so real.

I have now put s camera in my bedroom to see what happens. But nothing much.

I just feel I have gone into to much of a deep sleep.

I didn't know the name of it till I watched Jack Osbourne the other day and he said about it.

 

[BlueRose]

Can I ask. Most of you are/having/had this sleep paralysis.

Are any of you like sort of psychic?
Sense something around you? Or sense something has happened going to happen?
Like spiritual things.
Get spiritual magazines.
Watch haunted shows? Then had the bad dream?
Seen death or had someone close to you die?

See. I sense a spirit around me all the time. A good one. A family member.

I have things where I am sort of psychic that I have freaked people out.

I have lost a lot of people around me.
I also in one year had encounters with black cats even for birthday christmas cards a black cat was on it. Nothing bad happened that year.

But it got me thinking if any of you are like what I asked if that's why we have sleep paralysis cause our mind or spirit is gone to like an astral plane. Where everything is the same but our other else is awake seeing or experiencing this stuff and our body trying to wake up on earth to make us aware something is happening or going to happen.

I know it might not make sense but sometimes this is what I feel.

Like I said I was in the back bedroom of my partners house has I had problems sleeping in our bed that night so sleep and he was trying to wake me up. But he had my Grandads shirt on over his pjs. I could feel him physically holding me to wake me up put of cause no one was their when did wake up the day just felt off.
Another time at my mums house I was held and woke up with a bruise where I was held in this sleep paralysis.

But I watched an haunted show. During the day. I stopped watching them before bed now. That someone could be alerting us to wake up cause something's going to happen.

I don't know I just feel that some things could be connected.

 

[Snippysnips]

I get sleep paralysis quite a lot, I always assumed it was joined with my lucid dreaming as I've been a natural lucid dreamer since a young kid

When I was younger it would freak me out, the most commen ones I'd get was the house filling with smoke an I couldn't understand why i couldn't move, but as I got older I started to understand it an can now tell myself it's not real an my body's still sleeping and eventually I can gain enough control to kick my leg which instantly wakes my body

Not sure if I can have that control because of my lucid dreaming or if it's just somthing I've been able to take control of now, I've also had dreams come to pass, am not really a huge believer in psychics or spirits etc which is surprising given that some dreams have happened, usually if I can't control the dream it's a sign it may happen soon as ones I can control never happen

 

[TwooTwooTwitTwitTwoo]

Sleep paralysis is horrible. Mine nearly always starts with the sound of someone breaking in, then a feeling that someone is coming into the room to harm me. I'll often see the person as a dark shadow, or fuzzy body shape coming toward me
Other times it feels like something is swooping toward me and swirling round.

Because what happens is now so familiar, I've learnt to breathe through it and try and wake myself up by wiggling my fingers or toes. It still leaves me feeling on edge once I'm awake though.

 

[Pixie1]

Yes I can totally relate to your experience. A few years ago I went for an afternoon nap and some time afterwards (I'm not sure how long I was asleep) I looked up to see a dark figure of a man standing watching me at the bottom of my bed! He was dressed all in black and looked very sombre. I tried to scream and get away from the situation but I couldn't move! I felt like I was stuck to my bed and in my head I was using all my strength to scream but nothing was happening! Eventually I woke up (I think) but for a long time afterwards I felt very jittery and scared and it took a while for me to realise that it may just have been a dream because it felt so real! To this day, I'm still not sure whether or not my experience was a dream because it seemed so vivid and so real. Thankfully, I haven't experienced it again, and hopefully I don't experience it ever again! It was so horrible!

 

[anything at all]

Thanks for the replies x

I feel better than I did though I'm wide awake and unsettled, it's so windy outside too, which isn't helping!!

I have the odd life worries but nothing new and I haven't felt any more worried than normal today.

I was asleep on my back, which is something I never really do, was just so tired from my day so crashed that way.

 

[Snippysnips]

I've only ever seen this once.
Any other time it's that I literally can't move or wake up or make a noise or anything



I have had very vivid ones before where I got out of bed and put on my bra and socks and stuff because i thought people/friends were in the house. I could hear them so clear.
Had other ones where I was trying to open the door to let my dog in.
My dog wasn't there.

Had many like it.
All so clear and I fully believe they're real until I wake up properly.

Another one is where I often see bugs.

That's exactly what she's like, she doesn't realise its a dream until she's woken up an realises it was a dream, to her it was just as real as reality, unlike me I am fully aware am in a dream (unless it's a nightmare an fear takes over senses) but for the most part I can tell the difference between dreams an reality an which one am in at the time

 

[WhatABore]

I've had it a few times but nobody I know or who I've ever spoken to has experienced it.

I used to get it all the time when I still lived with my mam & dad (I moved out 5 years ago) where a woman as dragging me off my bed and sat on top of me and I couldn't move.

I got it once in my first rented house when I was napping on the settee, my ex was at work so I was home alone and it sounded like someone was trying to break in. When I came around it was badly raining & very windy

In my second rented house, I never experienced it until my ex and I split up and he moved out. It was the woman coming back from my parents to sit on top of me

I am now in a flat I rent and have had it a couple times. Again, I could hear someone trying to break in but I was paralyzed and shouting for help but it was more of a whisper, when I eventually snapped out of it I shouted louder and could hear my voice echoing.

I got it last week, the cat was laying on the end of my bed when I fell asleep. I woke up to a cat? On top of me and another cat at my toes dropping something on it, I snapped out of it but the cat was sound asleep and nowhere near me lol


I only seem to get it when I am not sharing a bed with someone? Does anyone else find this?

Yes. I found this. I got it a lot, similar to you where someone was trying to break in.
As soon as I fell back to sleep after my partner had gone to work.

Now I don't get it as much because I'm always asleep at the same time as my partner.

I remember as a teenager trying to do something and being able to see things and my friends, sleeping over at the time, one said to the other, "oh don't worry, she does it all the time"
And its only when someone says that that I can tell myself I'm imagining it and can go back to sleep.

 

[idk2]

Yes, sounds like sleep paralysis! Over the last 2 years, I've been suffering with it intermittently whenever I'm incredibly stressed.
Like others have said, I feel like someone is in the room with me and watching me sleep, usually dark figure just standing there. I've woken up screaming before - that was a funny night. I was so terrified I woke myself up screaming but when I realised I was actually so scared I screamed, I started laughing . I've also had dreams that people I know where just in my room or in a place of work, just watching me sleep when I shouldn't be sleeping but because I couldn't move, I would be laying there watching them laugh or worry they couldn't wake me up. It's bizarre.

 

[Lola UK]

I’ve had it before and it was absolutely terrifying! I was asleep on my front and a dark figure of a man climbed through my window and sat on my back. I couldn’t breath, I was trying to wake up and scream bht I couldn’t make a sound. It felt so so real! The man had no face, he was just a shadowy figure. I just can’t believe how real it felt. It shook me up for a while, I still get freaked out when I think about it!

What freaks me out more, is that lots of other people have experienced the same thing?! How is that even possible? The same shadowy man breaking in and sitting on you?! It’s like a sleep demon!

 

[Lola UK]

This is basically what I saw. She had long black hair!

Omg! Terrifying! Why do our brains do this?!