Freaky Sleep Paralysis: Being Awake in Your Nightmares

Freaky Sleep Paralysis: Being Awake in Your Nightmares

* By Alexis Madrigal * August 7, 2009

sleep-paralysis

You wake up, but you can’t move a muscle. Lying in bed, you’re totally conscious, and you realize that strange things are happening. There’s a crushing weight on your chest that’s humanoid. And it’s evil.

You’ve awakened into the dream world.

This is not the conceit for a new horror movie starring a ragged middle-aged Freddie Prinze Jr., it’s a standard description of the experience of a real medical condition: sleep paralysis. It’s a strange phenomenon that seems to happen to about half the population at least once.

People who experience it find themselves awake in the dream world for anywhere from a few seconds to 10 minutes, often experiencing hallucinations with dark undertones. Cultures from everywhere from Newfoundland to the Caribbean to Japan have come up with spiritual explanations for the phenomenon. Now, a new article in The Psychologist suggests sleep researchers are finally figuring out the neurological basis of the condition.

“This research strongly suggests that sleep paralysis is related to REM sleep, and in particular REM sleep that occurs at sleep onset,” write researchers Julia Santomauro and Christopher C. French of the Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit, Goldsmiths, at the University of London. “Shift work, jet lag, irregular sleep habits, overtiredness and sleep deprivation are all considered to be predisposing factors to sleep paralysis; this may be because such events disrupt the sleep–wake cycle, which can then cause [sleep-onset REM periods].”

In other words, you experience just a piece of REM sleep.

As David McCarty, a sleep researcher at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center’s Sleep Medicine Program, explained it, humans tend to think about the elements of the different stages of sleep as packaged nicely together. So, in REM sleep, you’re unconscious, experiencing a variety of sensory experiences, and almost all of your muscles are paralyzed (that’s called atonia).

“But in reality you can disassociate those elements,” McCarty said.

In sleep paralysis, two of the key REM sleep components are present, but you’re not unconscious.

Narcolepsy, which can be linked with sleep paralysis, has a similar pathology. For narcoleptics, some of the elements of rapid eye movement can “come out of nowhere,” he McCarty said.

Sleep paralysis was first identified within the scientific community by psychologist Weir Mitchell in 1876. He laid down this syntactically old-school, but accurate description of how it works. “The subject awakes to consciousness of his environment but is incapable of moving a muscle; lying to all appearance still asleep. He is really engaged in a struggle for movement fraught with acute mental distress; could he but manage to stir, the spell would vanish instantly.”

But the condition lived in folklore long before anyone tried to subject it to even semi-rigorous study. The various responses have fascinated some researchers and they were cataloged in the 2007 book, Tall Tales About the Mind and Brain. In Japan, the problem was termed kanashibar. In Newfoundland, people called it “the old hag.” In China, “ghost oppression” was the preferred nomenclature.

A study released earlier this year found that more than 90 percent of Mexican adolescents know the phrase “a dead body climbed on top of me” to describe the disorder. More than 25 percent of them had experienced it themselves.

Having an element of REM sleep mix with your consciousness is scarier than it sounds. I experienced sleep paralysis on several occasions when I was in college. I can testify: It’s run-to-your-mama scary.

In my case, it would happen right as I was falling asleep on the two twin beds that I had taped together. The most vivid time, I “woke up” with the uneasy feeling that something awful was to my left, on the border of my peripheral vision. I couldn’t really see it, but I knew that it was evil and coming closer to me. I felt true terror, like you experience when you are about to get in a car crash. I was sure it was going to hurt me.

After a few minutes, I could finally move and took the opportunity to run across campus to a friend’s house and asked to sleep on the couch. With the lights on. It happened a few more times.

Then, it just stopped. It hasn’t ever happened again.

The good news, McCarty said, is that my experience is actually pretty standard. Sleep paralysis rarely persists or causes serious life damage.

“It’s very common, way more common than people realize, but usually it doesn’t recur,” he said. “It’s not frequent enough to make people come in and ask the doctor for help.”

****WHAT I FOUND THE MOST INTERESTING WERE THE COMMENTS TO THIS ARTICLE*****

Comments:

* Posted by: tudza | 08/7/09 | 5:41 pm

I’ve experienced it, but I knew what was going on. No problem, except for the can’t move part.
“Aliens, I swear I was abducted by aliens!”


* Posted by: Vortix | 08/7/09 | 6:35 pm

I’ve experienced it once, when I was about ten years old. We just moved into a new house and I saw ET for the first time a couple of weeks before. Try to imagine the terror a ten-year-old feels when bad ET suddenly stands in your doorstep whispering something about money and not being able to scream (but trying anyway!) for your mommy. It’s the scariest thing that has ever happened to me. But once I found out what it was (I did a couple of years ago researching stuff about lucid dreaming, which is pretty f-ing awesome!) it wasn’t really scary anymore and I think I’m happy I have had the experience. I’m 23 now and it hasn’t happened again.


* Posted by: anothermike | 08/7/09 | 7:07 pm

Lucid dreaming plus sleep paralysis leads to some… interesting nights.
I’ve always been able to lucid dream, even before I knew that’s what it was called. And I get sleep paralysis several times a year. Whenever it happens, I drop back into the dream and drag the nightmare in with me. Now it’s in my world.
It’s always nightmares. I don’t know what hell-spawned constructor designs my dreams but I get sent some pretty horrific stuff.

* Posted by: brentj | 08/7/09 | 7:47 pm

I expereienced SP early this morning for the 1st time. It was the craziest feeling. I seemed to have woke up but I couldn’t move. I was laying on my stomach and out of my peripheral vision I saw my bed room door slowing open. There was a silhouette of a someone holding a knife and I felt it coming towards me. No matter how hard I tried I couldn’t move. I swear I was gonna die but right when he got to my bed I snapped out of it and was screaming at the top of my lungs. SP is something I never wanna experience again!!!

* Posted by: roughdraft | 08/7/09 | 8:05 pm

Carl Sagan wrote about this in “The Demon-Haunted World.”
Back in ol’ ‘95. Explained alien abduction and such.
I prefer to believe in alien abduction. It makes a more interesting story than some over-worked fat guy with a limp sleep cycle.

* Posted by: jkoromi | 08/7/09 | 8:27 pm

I remember having it, and the first time was horrid. I remember thinking to myself, “What the f***! I don’t even believe in aliens!” I couldn’t see anything, but I remember distinctly I knew I was floating.
After that, I really got an understanding where all these alien BS stories came from. I mean, despite yourself it’s right there at the front of your mind thanks to pop culture. In spite of yourself you could believe anything, because there are few things as unexpected as not being able to move at all. Really scary stuff.

* Posted by: chrissowick | 08/7/09 | 9:07 pm

Why is this news? This phenomena has been well known and documented for decades. Sleep paralysis was the original inspiration for the succubus and incubus, and later evolved into the vampire myth. Its modern incarnation is the alien abduction. In Carl Sagan’s “A Candle in The Dark” he does into depth about sleep paralysis and its cultural implications.
Is the next newsflash from Wired going to be that scientists think consciousness is created by neurological processes is the brain?
How about something that everybody doesn’t already know?

MORE COMMENTS:

* Posted by: windexglow | 08/8/09 | 12:51 am

I get this way too often, and definitely one of the scariest things I’ve ever gone through. From something right next to my bed, to my sheets tightening or being pulled away. I’ll feel something get on my bed at the bottom, and slowly move fowarard. I’ll feel things move across my body. Noises in the wall, window rattles.
However, I get it before I fall asleep most of the time - not when I’m coming out of it. I’ve gone many nights before not sleeping because of it.


* Posted by: Kidunderthebed | 08/8/09 | 4:18 am

I remember having it a couple of times. The first time I saw a very powerful looking dark figure in a crouching position on my piano on top of my head. Although “he” didn´t have a face he was “looking” directly at me. The feeling of the presence was overwhelming. I live quite north and it was summer so my room was quite light. By figure I don´t mean just outlines of the thing. I could actually see the texture of the skin and the “creature” was anatomically correct. It had a muscular human body. I could study the figure for a couple of tens of seconds before I could finally move.

On my second paralysis I saw snakes and spiders/crabs running up and down on my wall. This event took just a couple of seconds but for some reason I got more scared of this second sp. I don´t have a snake phobia or anything.

* Posted by: RJRibeira | 08/8/09 | 5:15 am

I get sleep paralysis all the time. Pretty much every time I sleep on my back and every time I nap during the day. Which is why I sleep on my stomach most of the time. Its been that way for at least 5 or 6 years. Sleep paralysis scared the hell out of my the first two times it happened. It doesn’t bother me as much now, unless its taking an inordinately long time for me to pull out of it.

I also frequently have episodes of “astral projection” when I’m paralyzed. Not that I actually believe they’re supernatural, I just don’t know the scientific term for it. In fact I used to purposefully sleep on my back to induce SP so I could practice “leaving my body” or whatever it is. It starts with paralysis, and then with some effort I can stand up “out of my body” and I appear to be looking down at my paralyzed self. Then I can walk around places and its kind of like a lucid dream except its very tenuous, I have to focus a lot to maintain it. If I lose focus I snap awake. Weird stuff.

* Posted by: johhnyviolator | 08/8/09 | 5:55 am

In almost every occurance, I’m conscious and can see my room in vivid detail.
-8-9 years old, 10-15 seconds, awoke to find myself staring face to face with Jabba the Hutt next to my bed - thought it was just a bad dream and thought nothing of it until later on in life.
-13 years old, 60+ seconds, new house, swore I was being abducted by aliens. First time I noticed that my entire body was actually paralyzed. First successful attempt to “break free” from the paralysis.
-13-19 years old, 1-3 minutes, learned how to “break free” on command - described as a “trying to sit up really hard/fast” - almost like trying to wake yourself up during a nightmare.
-19-21 years old, sleepwalking episodes.
-21 years old, “watched myself” sleepwalk around my apartment, doing things I would never ever do, no control of my body apparently while in the sleep paralysis mode, but completely aware of what I was doing.
-22 years old, using the nicotine patch, extremely lucid “nicotine dreams”
-22 years old, nicotime-dreams and sleep paralysis - several occasions, extremely lucid experiences - one of the msot terrifying and one of the most awesome experiences respectively.
-23 years+, sleep paralys is occasionaly, extremely vivid dreams frequently.
Sucks at first, but once you get used to it, it can be pretty cool.

* Posted by: jxhenne | 08/8/09 | 7:08 am

I am going to take a completely different tack on this. Certain instances that I have had I would describe as caused by shadow (unclean) spirits. When you are weak or feeling down they will enter your body and give you bad dreams and sometimes paralyze you depending on how tired you are. The last bad dream I had I awoke suddenly and felt the spirit leave me so quickly that I could feel it flee across my arm hair. Cleanse yourself, think good thoughts and feel the warmth of love and warm white light prior to going to sleep and tell me if that doesn’t cure the affliction. This is not for OBE or narcolepsy, but just the bad dreams, something bad sitting on your chest feeling.

* Posted by: pmathis | 08/8/09 | 1:39 pm

i have had sp all my life (29 years old). the scariest part for me is the feeling that there is some kind of evil presence in the room with me. I have seen, felt, and heard a lot of things while in this state.
i have seen plenty of shadows where there shouldnt be any (once while awake at my computer). i have seen black mists surround me and emit an ear piercing screech. i have heard chanting multiple of times and dark laughter. i have also felt hands (3 pairs once) pin me down. thats not all i have experienced but i dont feel like writing everything down.
i believe in the science behind it but i also believe in the spiritual aspect of it too. i have my reasons for believing. i dont think it will ever stop.

* Posted by: powerpuff | 08/8/09 | 2:31 pm

Maybe there are 2 types of this.. I have experienced both. I know 1 kind is 100% spiritual. I was staying in this room in Taiwan with 5 friends, we could all feel a ‘weird vibe’ about the place. all 5 of us experienced an evil force pressing deep on our chest, making it hard to breath and we we fully awake but couldn’t move. we saw this dark creature, one guy shouted something when it was happening to him ” in the name of Jesus Christ and by his blood I command you to leave” it was kinda freaky, but the thing got off his cheat right away. before i wouldnt think this was real or just from too many tacos the night before..but now I know its real evil spiritual forces.

* Posted by: kyyo | 08/8/09 | 4:38 pm

i have experienced this since i was a little kid (am 30 now) every year (not sure if it was around the same time of the year though). being navajo, in my culture this event is loosely associated with skinwalkers. really scary stuff. ive always tried to get out of bed to confront the dark figure or to call for help but never could. creepy this story came up now. wonder what i’ll be thinking when this happens again. *thanks science*

* Posted by: ripvanwinkle | 08/8/09 | 5:05 pm

I dream the Maltians are coming to get me. Talk about scary!


* Posted by: watino | 08/8/09 | 6:39 pm

I’ve experienced this on a number of occasions and it is truly awful. Especially the 1st times when i didn’t know what was happening.
It’s like waking up in a dream, with strange noises, creatures, strange visuals and a great deal of anxiety. Paralyzed and with a huge force pressing onto the chest. There’s a fight for waking up, for taking control of the body.

Being moved by someone else makes this disappear immediately. It was possible to move the eyes, and to reason somewhat clearly - once i looked at the clock and counted 25 minutes passing, although it required enormous strength to keep the eyelids open so that might not be accurate.

If you suffer from it: get regular sleep, this solved the issue for me, it hasn’t happened for years. Sleeping on the side helps. Avoid afternoon naps. And, it gets less freaky with time.


* Posted by: htdonahue | 08/8/09 | 7:14 pm

yeah i would seriously love to talk with a doctor or scientist who has actually experienced it. looking back on my most serious cases of it i realize it’s almost purely scientific but as a kid it scared the hell out of me. i’ve felt hands pressed against my body, breathing in my ear, TALKING in my ear by a man who was holding me down and whispering to me. this would continue not just once but throughout every night it happened. you shake out of it, roll over, it happens again, and again, and AGAIN until your body is so worn out it shuts down for the rest of the night.
it’s a serious disorder and is EXTREMELY disturbing.

* Posted by: fschick | 08/8/09 | 11:08 pm

I experienced this is law school.
It occurred a grand total of four times after studying and staying up late over the course of about 14 months. At the time I had been very stressed out (during exams or during problems with my girlfriend).

During the same period not only had I been fatigued, my girlfriend had found me sleeping with my eyes open a couple of times during the same period. I found out later from doctors that sleeping with your eyes open is common if you are actually fatigued.

Notwithstanding this, I ‘awoke’ four different times during this period and found myself paralyzed. It was accompanied with a DEEP foreboding of what was outside the bedroom door. Each evoked a different fear of some sort. For example, images of: a dark presence (Satan? - yet I’m atheist), a home invasion - with shotguns and all and someone waiting downstairs for me with a knife (x2). I remember trying to speak and yell to wake my girlfriend - to tell her what I was experiencing. I could not move any limbs or extremities, yet I was completely aware of every noise I could hear.

I have never been afraid of ANY of these things occurring in my life and am not afraid of them now. I have no fascination with any of them either.
Although these incidents were excruciating, I would pay money to be that scared again. No movie & nothing I have ever seen in my adult life has scared me to that degree since.

* Posted by: truebeliever | 08/9/09 | 10:05 pm

I would like to say that all of you are experiencing demonic presence if you’ve ever experienced this “phenomena”. There is a spiritual world that we don’t see. If we don’t see it, it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. There are angels around as well as demons in this fallen world. God will help and protect those who will seek Him.

* Posted by: cropcirclelover | 08/10/09 | 10:09 am

It is also associated with alien abduction. I’ve had it explained to me by an alien named Bashar, who comes through the channel Darryl Anka. He said that that is a doorway sensation marking interdimensional shifts. In other words, when the aliens take you or return you, they shift you from 3-D into 4-D, and if you wake up and catch them, you will feel the paralysis. Once I did some spiritual “contract breaking” I no longer had sleep paralysis or alien abduction symptoms (which were very physical in my case.) Calling out to Jesus in your mind helped me before I did the “contract breaking.” Good luck to all.

* Posted by: adamgray | 08/10/09 | 12:27 pm

http://www.paradocs.tv/THE%20NIGHTMARE.html

I spent years studying the topic for a documentary.

It’s is important people realize that these explanations are only hypothetical. They don’t explain many aspects of the phenomena that are ignored for the most part by the scientific community - because they don’t fit neatly into the box - ie. the Popo Bawa epidemic in Zanzibar. Get off the wikipedia research and look a little deeper. There is an important mystery here that is not yet explained.

# Posted by: marymary47 | 08/12/09 | 11:14 am

YOU people are so totally brainwashed! There is no such thing as sleep paralysis. That is just another “albiet” stupid term from the world of psychiatry.
What you, or anyone, now or throughout the centuries is experiencing, is demonic. I know, I know, you don’t believe in God or the Devil, being that “smart” liberal that you are.
Well, the little “grey ” aliens are demons. Plain and simple. Read something besides People magazine once and a while.

Do some research. OH, and by the way, all of you who experience and “embrace” this crap, your gonna be embraced all right. They will keep coming back and you will either lose your mind or worse. I am not kidding people! Wake up!

# Posted by: IBeEducated | 08/12/09 | 1:32 pm

marymary47—I am a scientist to the core, and I think your opinion is outrageous, but probably right.

Yes I've had this happen to me a couple of times.

When you are in deep sleep/REM your physical body naturally is in paralysis. Once your mind becomes conscious/fully awake but your body is still in it's unconscious state and feel paralyzed.

This usually is the beginning of an astral projection. In most cases the so called ET's people see I believe are lower astral entities. I also saw dark entities flying in a circular motion above my head.

The post RJRibeira made I can relate to, it usually only happens when you sleep on your back and significantly more when your head is facing north.

This has happened to me also but it happened in the middle of the night. I know that something was in my room. I felt it.....I sensed it and if I could of opened my eyes, I might of seen something.

Sylvia Browns book described as a someone waking up before their soul returned to their body.

I was on my back but my head was facing the east as that is how I keep my bed.

One time I woke up and there was a shadow person in my room. It called my name through his mind and I answered back through my mind and when I did answer it leaped in the air and went right through the ceiling. NO one can convince me I didnt see what I seen.

I had never even heard of such entities until a friend asked me to describe this shadow person. I did...............about 3 to 5 ft tall..................all black and bent over and I never seen anything move so fast as that.

http://www.shadowpeople.org/


take a look at this reunite and see if this is what you seen over your bed.

I know one thing.......I was petrifiued.

Another time my husband, bless his heart......woke up on the couch and he said something was on top of him.....he was trying as hard as he could to get this thing off him...........finally he said he "spit in his face" LOL and he left !

Strange I've never had the paralisys but I've had lots of dreams where I knew they were dreams (or thought so). Had a very strange one a few days ago, there always seems to be a lesson in them so maybe they're just normal subconcscious working dreams.

I just saw your post now mntruthseeker, sorry for the delayed response

How's this. I attended a Sydney ground crew meeting through Avalon and had a lengthy discussion with a guy who told of detailed accounts of the struggles and resistance he would have with these so called shadow people. I had never heard of the phrase before. He went through a lot to battle these entities and finally found resolution through an energetic healer.

Well the same night after hearing this personal experience I saw these shadowy figures in my bedroom!

Wow...that same night? Hmmmm

Ok I am suppose to be on a machine to sleep other wise I wake up several times a minute. Honestly I never was able to dream before

I have had several dreams that I have been documenting when I remember and its all pretty weird stuff. I could write a book, I suppose

But lately, I do sleep deep enough to dream and I love it. I feel like I am more refreshed now a days. Sleep Apnea made me tired all the time.

I have been working on my healing since we mentioned it this other day. Amazing stuff, cause I never worked on little ole me before hehe

Anyhow, the episode where I woke up paralyzed, I couldn't so shit and it happened around 3am. I probally had three hours of sleep at that time

The shadow man appeared around midnight and I was probally asleep about two hours. grrrrr

Even he knew not to mess with me when I'm tired. LOL took my hubby years to figure that one out. LOL

Hey mnt,

After interacting with so many like minded souls the so called dark entities seem to have a problem with people who are strong willed, courageous and a threat to their existance. It's a common theme where souls who emit strong intense bright light open up new spectrums of the illusion are often a target but the dark entities/shadow people are a lot weaker than most people think.

We win in the end.

Take that!

Do we have any talented dream interpretators on this forum?

Oh look I posted at 11:11 does that make me eligible for the club?????

why not..membership card is in the mail

Does anyone keep a dream journal?

Sometimes the messages repeat over and over again to help remind you to write them down.

I have done this for years and when you go back and look at them, they tell you things that didn't make sense back then, but do now!

When I tried keeping a dream journal I could never remember my dreams. Now when I remember them they're so vivid I remember every detail so I don't feel the need to write them down. I suppose I should keep some kind of log for the prophetic ones.

Sometimes I was woken up at 3 am to write things down. You will be surprised at what it really meant later on.
I got lots of answers to many of my questions that way.

Ra would approve.

David Wilcock also started with this method.

Linda thanks so much for this thread.

I can't go into a lot of detail now as I'm pretty tired and I have my Lunar viewing night coming today/tonight which i can't wait for even if its cloudy as it will be my first time in an observatory and I can ask about that painting ;)

When I was a pre-teen/teen I had this happen to me a lot and it wasn't till recently I started looking into it I found the "official stance".

The official stance is a complete pile of rubbish that hasn't even been eligible for the rubbish tip. I would say the same for Shadow people regarding the loose nature of descriptions one can find trying to identify what happened when you do searches on shadow people.

I've just recently read Bill Chalkers book again for the second time cover to cover and found reference to cloaked beings. I might add here that anyone down-under should read it as there is very little in the way of this research down under even if you don't believe it or think he is a shrill etc.


http://www.theozfiles.com/

Too bad the woman that was dismissed as a "Nutter in the TV industry" in my small town was ridiculed for saying she saw a UFO in her backyard farm late one night... I can back her up ;)

posted at 11:11, soma
just fyi

WineHippie wrote:

posted at 11:11, soma
just fyi

Good observation Winehippy :)

You are welcome Somamech.
Connecting the dots is starting to become easier now.

There certainly is a lot that has been covered up or twisted.
I am familiar with Bill Chalker and have always felt that the information is true.

Everybody needs to look at the link called the "History Australian Ufo History" http://www.theozfiles.com/history_australian_ufo_history.html
because the stories are always the same ALL over the world since the beginning.

Ancient history, legends, artifacts and drawings is where you will find the truth about many things.

Nothing passes by WineHippie... She has a very sharp eye.