Anyone ever experienced sleep paralysis?

So I was reading along a thread in another forum regarding everyone's creepiest stories, and the theme of sleep paralysis appeared a few times. I looked up a couple of sites discussing it and it appears that it's as close to an out-of-body experience you can (naturally) get. Apparently it's pretty widespread, too, so that made me curious. Anyone here ever experienced it?

I took some vicodin a while ago* because my back was killing me and as I was laying in bed I felt like there was nothing under me. I could have swore I was up by the ceiling. That was just a high, but it was kind of like an out of body experience. I didn't see myself laying in bed or anything, it just felt like there was no mattress below me.

*this does not mean I am for taking prescription drugs illegally! do not try that at home kids!

I've experienced it a couple times. What I remember was a feeling like I was awake, but wasn't sure if I was awake. But it felt like somebody was in the room, and I could see the room, but couldn't move.

Definitely a little creepy.

This is so funny that you brought this up, as I was just talking about this yesterday with my sister. She has has them too.

This used to happen to me all the time while I was in college. I finally figured out that it had to do with lack of sleep and too much stress. I also got past the problem by recognizing what they were so I wouldn't panic when I had them. I learned to accept them and they didn't bother me anymore. Finally they stopped completely and I haven't had it for years.

When I used to have them it would usually happen within the first 30-60 seconds after laying down. It would always start with a weird sound in the ear, sort of like a wooshing sound, or maybe my brain frying type sound. It is very hard to describe, but definetely a sound in the ear. Shortly after I would be completely paralyzed and I felt awake (even though I recognize I wasn't). At that time though I would be able to open my eyes and I would be in the last position I layed down, I would hear people in the background that were home with me so I was completely convinced I was awake and paraylized. When this first started happening I would completely panic and felt it hard to breathe.

As time went on I soon figured out why they were happening and tried to make sure I got more sleep and more rest time if I was stressed out. The other thing that helped tremendously was recognizing what it was so that I wouldn't panic anymore. This allowed me to not fear falling asleep and a victim to the paralysis. I sort of had a "bring it on" type attitude and the nightmares soon did not bother me anymore. There were a few variations of the nightmare once they didn't bother me. The nightmare would turn into someone trying to pull me out of the bed by the feet, but the bed seemed to be of an unlimited length and it would pull me for a long time. Another version introduced a spider while I was paralyzed. I was able to reason during my nightmares and understood it wasn't real and because of this I didn't panic or wasn't even scared anymore. Eventually the nightmares (me being awake and paralyzed) went away completely.

I have heard that this is related to people who sleep walk. Normally when you fall asleep your body paralyzes itself so that you don't act out your movements in your dreams. People who sleep walk have a problem with their body paralyzing themselves, thus that is why they walk around and do things.

Wow, crazy that it's this wide-spread. I figured by the numbers that SOME members had to be affected, but I never would have dreamed that it would hit so many regulars. To my knowledge, I've never had this, despite suffering similar conditions in college. Maybe I'm just too heavy of a sleeper.

The chinese have a word for this, I believe it means something like "ghost that holds you down".

I get it (very rarely) waking up and it scares the tish out of me for 5-10 seconds until all of a sudden I will get a limb to twitch. Just plain unpleasant -- I would not say there is anything as interesting as an "out of body" experience.

For that you might want to try dimethyltryptamine (potentially VERY out of body, and like a more intense version of dreaming, can be frightening, you do lose consciousness).

Urmm, for the record, DMT is illegal in the US. It's a schedule one and I REALLY don't think it's a hot idea for other Americans to attempt to dig it up.

I believe it is something like "Astral Projection" if it is already an out of the body experience. It also happens to me a lot. I am half Chinese and what mk27 said was true. It feels like an unseen force holds you down with great pressure. It happens because of a disconnection between your mind and your body which normally occurs during REM sleep.

We Chinese believe that during this is also the state where some ghosts or spirits take the chance to communicate with a person since physical reaction doesn't exist, the person experiencing sleep paralysis had no choice but to listen. Sometimes these occurrences are also mistaken as a dream since REM sleep is the state where a person dreams or it happens the other way around - a person is merely dreaming but believed he/she experienced it.

In my personal experience, a ghost made contact to me, I saw visions of a person being stabbed by a lot of men, then a scene where I saw a woman shouting a name, then it stopped. I came to a conclusion that the ghost showed me how he was killed and gave me his name via the screaming woman. I said: "Okay, I will pray for your poor soul." Then after saying that, I was able to move again.

Pretty creepy, huh?

Very interesting. I've heard of sleep paralysis before but not what it was really about and how common it was. It's something i've never knowingly experienced, yet if Bigwebmasters claims to lack of sleep and stress are anything to go by then it's something i should be experiencing frequently right now.

Would a mild case be dreaming that you can still move, but it's hard to do so and you do it really slow ?

When I was younger I had a lot of dreams where I would move really slow. As if I was moving through quicksand or cement or something. I would always have something really important to do, but I would never get it done in my dream, I would go through the whole dream having a hard time and then right before I would do what I set out to do I would wake up.

I had that once... it was a weird experience. It was in a nightmare so that just made it worse. I kind of want to share it, so here you go.

It was one of those nightmares, where I could actually hear what was going on... it was so scarily realistic that it was... well... scary lol. (I didn't take any drugs before this... it just came naturally).

I was sleeping on my bed when all of a sudden I felt something tickle the bottom of me feet.I thought I woke up because I was looking down on my feet, and there was nobody there... I itched my feet and was going to sleep when I felt myself being sucked to the wall closest to me on the right.

You know those speed blurs you can do in Photoshop? Where the edges are blurred and the center is focused, so it seems like you are moving ahead pretty quickly?

Well, that is what my room turned into. My lights were off and it was pitch black, but I saw my room light it was daylight.... plus that blurring affect thing. I tried to yell out or holler to wake myself, but I couldn't even make a whisper.

I managed to say something in a barely audible voice, but apperently that was enough for me as I stopped and woke up... I was lying on my bed sideways rather then how I'm supposed to. By that, I mean my left arm was where my head is supposed to be, and my right arm where my feet are supposed to be. My head was hanging off the edge of the bed near the wall which I was being "sucked" into.

That was scary.

i think is horrible.But i hadn't experienced this.

thanks for you sharing.

Its not an out of body though is it?

I get this if I am worried about anything so I believe its stress related. Its simply that your body is awake before the brain. I end up forcing a move because I am so scared I may die. But forcing yourself awake is also dangerous.

In normal sleep your actually unconsious.

Worst is if I am paralized in sleep (which we all are, (body winds down, blood pressure winds down, along with all bodily functions)What if someone thought I was dead if I was in hospital and could'nt speak which you can't till the brain engages with the body.

I may at some point need an operation. That means having a sleep draught. During it I will be paralised when the op is over I am supposed to wake, what if I am again paralized, they may think I am dead and send me to the mortury.

In that state you can't shout out, I know I tried to speak at home one time.

Its lasts only seconds, feels more like an hour. My GP says its harmless.

I wish I never saw this discussion..hahaahahah!

I have experienced SP quite a few times, but not continuously. It comes in waves- like a bunch for a couple of weeks or months then half a year not happen, then come back...the 1st time was the day i graduated from high school. it was the only pleasant time and the least like what SP usually is..i was napping before the grad ceremony-
I opened my eyes, couldnt move, looked at my desk, (and then i must have fallen back asleep)b/c i saw a mouse on my desk and then saw a mexican fishing with a bamboo fishing pole in a round metal tub full of ice.. then other craziness that was just a dream..
All the rest of the times it has happened to me have been more like most SP cases. First I want to say that I havent decided whether or not i believe that the presences are not real. I experience each time an entity/being/presence that is distinctly individual from the others (unless the same one comes back more than one night).
It always happens in the middle of the night, i open my eyes and know even before i do what is happening. i cant move, i can see in all directions, i feel the presence, i can detect which way its coming from, it's 'sex', it's emotion towards me- for example, there was a masculine one in the top corner of the room straight down from my feet and up to the right. it was always amused at my fear in more of a tormenting child way than evil.. it enjoyed having effect on me. It thought i was funny. I have ranged from being terrified (most of the time) to being curious about what was happening. that one came more times than the others. one masculine one pulled my feet pulling me out of bed, one pulled them back and forth. There were only two feminine ones that happened in my room. One was over to my feet's left at my door, she was pure hatred for me, maybe a hint of jealousy. i am always terrifed of that one. A different one pulled me out of my bed repeatedly and i got back up onto my bed many times that night. she also hated me but with even more rage like id done something to her. the most 'evil' one i ever experienced was right above me coming down on me like you often hear of on the chest, but as i fought to move he won as he sucked me down back into sleep that felt like a horrible spiral down through my bed that hurt my head so much. it felt like falling or like how you feel as if your spinning if you drink way too much tequilla. it sounded like horrible screaching, electronic metallic.. later i opened my eyes again that night and managed to pull up out of it to be awake and paced in anxiety the rest of the night.
There are some other houses that it would almost definitely happen at everytime i slept there. my friend elises was always outside her window looking in. i would always try to say her name and if i said it out loud the 1st time it was at best a whisper though i was trying to scream. if not then i could only do it in my head. it was always female at elises and just curious i think.
The last place ill tell about ( i know this is too long but i get worked up about this stuff) was where i met my husband and we slept together in an upstairs room. it was a woman that didnt want us there, she didnt hate us but thought we were in the wrong place by being there. Another strange dream i had in that house was in the room mates room - it was of a crackhead rocking back and forth in the attic and an old woman dying and someone saying " she needs help". when i woke up i told the room mate he was extremely freaked out and told me that his great grandma died in the house and that his dad had shot a 'crackhead' breaking into the house, and he died in the house as well.
All these have happened in the past 6 years. it hasnt happened since i got pregnant and had a baby, but i feel ill hit another stage of it eventually.
When i was little i was afraid every night i went to sleep b/c i believed aliens visited me. i wonder if it was close to the same thing.. I had very detailed important dreams when i was little. i am 24 now and still remember at least 3 or 4 dreams i had in 2nd grade in detail.
I would like to know if anyone has had any similar experiences to mine.
Bless all..

wow, I just read the first paragraph of the symptoms of sleep paralysis, just to find out if I faced this problem before, and nope - I was thinking to join the crowd sharing the same incidence, I still find a way to share..