forum

Sleep Paralysis

posted
Total Posts
5
Topic Starter
Penguin
My experience
I just had THE most terrifying experience with sleep paralysis that I've ever had. A little back story first. I used to work graveyard shifts during early 2018. It ended up messing with my sleep patterns and mental health at the time. I started experiencing a lot of sleep paralysis back then. I realized what it was after the first few times I experienced it, so I was able to deal with it the best that I could.

Another thing to note. I've figured out a way to make myself have lucid dreams with a near 100% success rate. All I have to do is go to sleep for an hour or so, wake myself up for 5-10 minutes, then go back to sleep. It makes me have the craziest lucid dreams. I end up remembering them once I wake up too. It can be pretty awesome at times.

Anyways, I haven't had sleep paralysis since early 2018. Tonight was a normal night like any other. I went to sleep watching YouTube, as I always do. For some reason I woke up a bit into my sleep, but ended up falling back asleep quickly. Of course, it induced some crazy lucid dreams. They were the types of dreams where you could LITERALLY feel pain and emotions.

It wasn't bad at first, I was just having a normal lucid dream I think. But suddenly I had a dream that i was at work and my left ear caught on fire because I was too close to a heater. It felt very real and was really painful.

I don't quite remember my dreams after that, but I do know that they starting spiraling downwards into night terrors. My mind started jumping from terror to terror. Everything felt mixed together. The last dream I remember having was one where I was in my old house that I lived in as a child. For some reason I was running away from a "demon" or something that was trying to harm me. I ended up locking myself in the bathroom. I could hear the demon trying to get inside. When suddenly, I fell limp onto the ground, incable of moving. The "demon" was finally able to open the door, but my lifeless body was blocking it from opening. It was at that moment that I realized that it wasn't a demon. I could hear my mom trying to talk to me from outside the bathroom, telling me I have to get up and move from the door's way. To let her inside. I started panicking, rushed with the feeling that I wasn't safe. I was paranoid that it wasn't my real mother. That it was a demon disguised as her, trying to make me let my guard down.

It was at this point that I "woke up" from my dream. I didn't actually wake up though, it was one of those "dream inside of a dream" scenarios. I thought that I had woken up for real though. In the dream, it was my mom who woke me up, telling me I was having a nightmare. Still dreaming, I started experiencing EXTREME anxiety, paranoia, and fear. I was telling myself in the back of my mind that I needed to get out, or I was going to die. That somebody was trying to kill me. I realized that I was still dreaming when I saw that I was sleeping in my old house in my old room. I finally broke free from my night terrors and woke up, but I didn't actually wake up and the worst of the terror was yet to come... I was struck with sleep paralysis.

If you dont know what sleep paralysis is, I highly recommend reading about it. It's very intriguing.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_paralysis
"Sleep paralysis is when, during awakening or falling asleep, a person is aware but unable to move or speak. During an episode, one may hallucinate (hear, feel, or see things that are not there), which often result in fear. Episodes generally last less than a couple of minutes. It may occur as a single episode or be recurrent."

At this time, I had only partially realized that I was having sleep paralysis. I was still experiencing EXTREME anxiety, paranoia, and absolute terror. The thought that there was somebody in my room trying to kill me was still at the front of my mind. That's when the panic started unleashing. My heart was pounding, andrenaline running throughout my body, unable to move or cry for help. I started hearing whispers, quiet at first, mere mumbles. The mumbles then started forming into words. Words of pure hatred and despair. The whispers were telling me to kill myself. I was trying to move, trying to scream for help. The only thing that was coming out of my mouth were tiny whimpers. I have no clue how long this lasted for, but it felt like an eternity.

I finally broke free from my paralysis, short of breath, heart racing. I was still terrified, thinking that there actually was somebody in my room, so I quickly grabbed my phone and turned on the flashlight. Thankfully, it was all in my head. Nobody was actually trying to kill me.

I can safely say that this was the most terrified I have ever been in my entire life. Nothing comes close to how I felt during this experience.


Has anyone else experienced any sleep paralysis, lucid dreams, or frequent night terrors? I'd love to hear other's stories!
Kert
I normally don't remember any dreams I have. They are mostly random crap not worth remembering or no dreams at all (is it even possible?)
But still I had similar stuff a couple of times.
I go to sleep normally. Close to morning time I open my eyes, see more light (because it's morning), see curtains, walls, windows from a fixed point of view - I sleep on side so this is view is just by opening eyes.
Then I try to wake up, try to raise my head, get on arms e.t.c. But I can't! Because I am in a dream (or not?). During these attempts I notice that I start to see things from a different side (like my head actually turns, like it should) but then it reverts back to that lying position. It's scary af.
A couple of times I realized I am in a dream and tried to fall from the bed intentionally. It worked on the first try once and I woke up. But when I had the same dream again it didn't! The pov quickly reverted itself back again before I tried falling down again.
Even more weird is that the whole room lighting e.t.c. after waking up is exactly the same that I was just seeing in a dream.
Luckily this happened to me like 2 or 3 times.
I had an idea of doing something fun after realizing it's a dream but I decided not to because WHAT DO IF IT"S NOT?
abraker
If I ever mix dream and reality, it would be in a dream or if I ever have amnesia. Dreams do an awfully poor job of emulating pain and realization. Getting shot or stabbed in a dream is the fastest way to snap out of it since pain in dreams is not how it actually feels like. Lack of inherent realization creates this "fog" of what you know and what you don't know. If you can control your dream and you have demon pinning you down, the best thing to do is ask yourself how you got to the situation you are in. The brain does a horrible job of emulating imagination in a dream. If it tries to recall fake memories, it will have to leave your current scenario. Ultimately, things are bound to break down.
Topic Starter
Penguin

Kert wrote:

Then I try to wake up, try to raise my head, get on arms e.t.c. But I can't! Because I am in a dream (or not?). During these attempts I notice that I start to see things from a different side (like my head actually turns, like it should) but then it reverts back to that lying position. It's scary af.
That sounds like it's probably sleep paralysis. I've had sleep paralysis where I hallucinate out of body experiences. Except, it's all a huge blur. I realise that I'm in a state of paralysis and can't move, but my mind is still creating a scene for where I am and what's happening. Since I'm still partially in a dream state, my mind processes it as reality.

abraker wrote:

Dreams do an awfully poor job of emulating pain and realization. Getting shot or stabbed in a dream is the fastest way to snap out of it since pain in dreams is not how it actually feels like.
In my normal dreams, I never have any sort of perception of feel. That's why it's so odd to me how I will experience pain and emotions in my lucid dreams.

abraker wrote:

The brain does a horrible job of emulating imagination in a dream. If it tries to recall fake memories, it will have to leave your current scenario. Ultimately, things are bound to break down.
When you're lucid dreaming, you have to be very careful to let your dream maintain it's course, while staying fully aware that it's a dream. For me personally, I can gain partial control of myself, but not my environment and what my dream's narrative is. Like you said, it will eventually break down if you push your boundaries in that state of lucidness.
Nigrod
Most of the time I have lucid dreams or just remember most my dreams in the summer. I think the best dreams come when I let my self realize that I cant get hurt causing weird dreams. The dreams are usually about something that happen that day or week. For example I played Minecraft once in a while and listen to old Awesome Minecraft parodies with my friends and I ended up in a dream where I was in a Minecraft world and my friend physically harmed their self in a Minecraft version of Brazil. I didn’t know about lucid dreams until my I told my friend that story. I also remember when I was 7 I had a dream about my neighborhood killing moving PS2s and after s little bit one of my friends was about to kill me but then I woke up
Please sign in to reply.

New reply