"Sleep paralysis is a term either used to describe the normal paralysis of the body that occurs during REM sleep, or the disorder in which awareness is maintained when the body becomes paralysed when entering sleep (known as hypnogogic paralysis) or remains inappropriately paralysed when awakening (known as hypnopompic paralysis). To differentiate normal sleep paralysis and the disorder, the term for the sleep disorder is often referred to as awareness during sleep paralysis. "

This just happened to me this morning... freaky stuff.

I woke up unable to even open my eyes, but i could clearly see my room and had to fight hard as hell to open my eyes and snap out of it. Couldn't move my arms or legs or make a sound for about a minute.

Anyone else experienced this?

10/19/2006 11:50:57 AM

maybe not as intense but I have definitely heard songs and wanted to move and couldn't...

10/19/2006 11:56:01 AM

once...years back. i think i was in my early teens...it was creepy.

10/19/2006 12:07:59 PM

Whoa. So, how did you see the room if you couldn't open your eyes?

10/19/2006 12:10:04 PM

pretty much everytime i fall asleep in the lounge chair in my living room, this happens to me.

10/19/2006 12:25:54 PM

It happens to me fairly often. Not sure if this is the same as falling asleep on your arm and waking up completely unable to move it, but that happens almost nightly. It scares me every time.

10/19/2006 12:27:55 PM

Quote :

"Whoa. So, how did you see the room if you couldn't open your eyes?"

(Third Eye)

10/19/2006 12:31:22 PM

Quote :

"Whoa. So, how did you see the room if you couldn't open your eyes?"

it's still in a dream state.

Quote :

"It happens to me fairly often. Not sure if this is the same as falling asleep on your arm and waking up completely unable to move it, but that happens almost nightly. It scares me every time."

I was reading something about it. When you go to sleep your body releases neurotransmitters to enduce paralysis. when you are going to sleep and/or when you first wake up, you aren't completely into or out of REM sleep. So your muscles haven't been activated yet or something but the brain is active.

They say this is responsible for most claims of alien abduction. lol pretty interesting

10/19/2006 12:37:11 PM

DMT helps out with those as well.

10/19/2006 12:38:34 PM

Happens to me every once in a while. Usually only if I take a nap or something. It's a little freaky, but I've read that there's no medical danger from it.

10/19/2006 12:44:46 PM

yea mine usually happen after i didn't get much sleep the night before and am trying to take a nap also

10/19/2006 12:53:01 PM

sometimes i wake up and i can't think.

10/19/2006 1:29:11 PM

Quote :

"Not sure if this is the same as falling asleep on your arm and waking up completely unable to move it, but that happens almost nightly. It scares me every time.""

that's happened to me before...it's either one arm or one leg so i move it with a functional body part and wait for it to wake up...i always thought i was cutting off the circulation somehow and that's why it was asleep. and how it felt when it started to wake up--like a warmth as it regained feeling--feels creepy.

10/19/2006 1:41:38 PM

this has happened to me before too, I thought I was dead....then I finally snapped out of it and was able to get up

10/19/2006 1:44:18 PM

Quote :

"It happens to me fairly often. Not sure if this is the same as falling asleep on your arm and waking up completely unable to move it, but that happens almost nightly. It scares me every time."

If you sleep on your arm and can't move it, that is because you have squeezed all the blood out of your arm, and your muscles are starved for nutrients. Don't sleep on your arm.

10/19/2006 1:45:57 PM

it happens so you wont act out your dreams and hurt yourself

10/19/2006 1:46:36 PM

I get this too. It happens in little bursts... sometimes every night for a few weeks, sometimes not for months.

10/19/2006 1:54:28 PM

I get this occasionally... almost always when I'm sleeping upright, like on an airplane.

10/19/2006 1:56:45 PM

Happens to me every so often; usually when waking up after sleeping late. It used to freak me out.

What I can't figure out is why I can toss, turn, kick, and roll over in my sleep, yet I can't move when I wake up.

10/19/2006 1:58:11 PM

it happens to me sometimes....it's always tied to my dreams. I won't be able to move in whatever dream i'm having, then i'll realize i'm dreaming, but also that I really can't move. Scares the shit out of me everytime.

10/19/2006 2:04:00 PM

i had it happen twice when i was younger... i remember i just laid there for what seem like hours wanted to get up, move, even just yell for help (because when you can't move and are aware of it, it is pretty damn freaky)- it was in my early to mid teens when it happened, and i remember being sick both times for several days afterwards

10/19/2006 2:10:33 PM

It's only happened to me once that I can remember, and it was when I was really pissed off, I thought the devil was trying to kill me (I couldn't move, felt like something was pressing down on me-- the devil).

10/19/2006 2:22:13 PM

i was readin about it and thats actually the hag syndrome or something... most people see a person or blur and think it is trying to harm them and often sits on their chest to suffocate them. (possibly because you are afraid you aren't breathing)

that's why it is responsible for most "alien abduction" stories

10/19/2006 2:28:11 PM

This happened to me about 2 weeks ago for the first time. I woke up and tried to move but all I could do was flop my arm over and roll my head around if I tried insanely hard, but that was it. Breathing was definitely labored but I didn't experience a little devil sittin on my chest like a lot of people do, I just heard things. If you watch LOST, it was like the whispers in the jungle except they were darker and more evil sounding. Once I finally realized what was going on I just stopped struggling calmed down and just went back to sleep.

10/19/2006 2:37:52 PM

There was a show on this a while back. It was funny how the Christian folk they studied saw demons, more science oriented people saw aliens and it is long held in China that a woman is sitting on your chest as ^^ pointed out. Freaky stuff.

[Edited on October 19, 2006 at 3:35 PM. Reason : thought it was Japan.]

10/19/2006 3:23:28 PM

I used to get it all the time, it is the worst thing I have experienced. After about the 10th bout of it I got to where I could snap myself out of it. I haven't had it in a long time because I will only sleep on my stomach, if I sleep on my back I am sure it will occur again.

10/19/2006 3:44:56 PM

I've experienced this for years....it's the weirdest and scariest thing I know I'm asleep but i can see around the room and can't open my eyes.
One time I fell into this condition in high school with my head on my desk...and the teacher started shaking me to wake me up. I could cleary see her doing this but couldn't for the life of me open my eyes. It was so weird...should have seen my classmates when I did wake up

I didn't know this happened to other people freaky eh

10/19/2006 4:14:49 PM

it happens to me every now and then

scary as shit, and i dont scare easily

10/19/2006 4:45:43 PM

yea, i had asked some of my closer friends if they knew what i was talking about when i told them what happened. nobody did. i finally looked it up and figured it was pretty common

10/19/2006 5:00:28 PM

i get this every now and then

used to creep me the hell out

10/19/2006 5:22:19 PM

it takes about 5 minutes for my left eye to open in the mornings

10/19/2006 5:58:12 PM

this has never happened to me

10/19/2006 5:59:58 PM

happens to me about 3-4 times a year

10/19/2006 6:03:44 PM

Happens to me on a regular basis. Went in for an apnea assessment and ended up with that diagnosis. Waking up feeling like you can't breath is a downer.

10/19/2006 6:37:44 PM

that shit is scary-- I felt like this


Because I was trying to yell for help because I couldn't move

10/19/2006 7:47:03 PM

Quote :

"hypnopompic paralysis"

So that's what it's called. Happens to me every now and then.

10/19/2006 8:09:33 PM

^yeah, i figured it was really common and not many people would know what was happening to them.
i didn't until this morning.

10/19/2006 10:31:14 PM

what I've heard is that your brain shuts down your movement so that during your dreams you dont flail around all over the place in bed, but when you wake up part of your brain doesnt restart your movement

sounds scary as hell, but I've never had it happen to me. I'd like to think that if I knew what it was beforehand that it wouldnt be scary when it happens. I'm sure its hard to rationalize why you are paralyzed when you wake up and cant move though.

10/19/2006 11:04:32 PM

it is the most helpless feeling I can think of

10/19/2006 11:07:45 PM

the first couple of times i thought i was in a coma.... because i could visualize everything but in no way could i move or speak or open my eyes

10/19/2006 11:14:10 PM

it is very common and happens every night when you go to sleep

but most people dont become conscious while in paralysis

[Edited on October 19, 2006 at 11:25 PM. Reason : l]

10/19/2006 11:25:11 PM

It's the cause of a whole bunch of ghost sightings. Or so I have heard.

10/19/2006 11:48:51 PM

Yes, once when I feel alseep on the couch, it was fucking awesome, I couldn't move, but my eyes were open and none of my limps were active, I went back to sleep afterwords but, boy evolution sure has a way of controlling killing yourself during your sleep.

10/20/2006 1:10:06 AM

^^Or maybe the ghosts just come when that happens so you can't run away or scream...

10/20/2006 1:20:18 AM

question though, if you're "paralyzed" while you sleep, so to speak, how come some people toss, turn, kick etc while sleeping?

I supposedly elbow like hell and whimper, and typically wake up in a different position entirely than I laid down in, covers/sheets all tangled up.

i guess i'm not making sense of this....

10/20/2006 1:30:30 AM

That's what I wondered about 26 posts ago. I suppose either the paralysis is imperfect, or it comes and goes during the night. If the point is just to keep us from acting out our dreams, then it would make sense for it to only happen while we're dreaming. (But I don't know; I don't understand these squishy biological systems.)

10/20/2006 9:28:49 AM

I'm sure someone on this site can answer that question

10/20/2006 11:34:48 AM

Quote :

"it happens to me sometimes....it's always tied to my dreams."

10/20/2006 11:36:04 AM

My little brother has this happen to him all the time. He said he just rolls with it and waits until he can move again.

10/20/2006 12:06:09 PM

night terrors

10/20/2006 1:03:20 PM