Sleep Paralysis

[alan1]

Psssst! It's happened to me too. But not for a very long time. I think it's pretty common.

One of the links I posted said it was pretty common, but I've never met anybody that admits to having it happen to them.
Maybe I hang out with the wrong crowd.

Maybe it's a symptom of posting too much on a message board?

Nahh,
I haven't even cracked a thousand posts yet.

 

[dilloduck]

Psssst! It's happened to me too. But not for a very long time. I think it's pretty common.

closet whiner

No. It felt good!!

and so far you have dodged that dreaded---vehicle.

 

[Harry Dresden]

Anybody else ever had this happen to them?

I have. Scariest feeling EVER, hands down.

The first time was terrifying. This last time wasn't quite as scary, but still not something I want to continue to experience.

Bat....i was sent to a sleep center a few years back,and the guy who hooks you up to the machines described very accurately what i had experienced a bunch of times.....i felt like there was a weight on me holding me down and i could not even make a noise,like SCREAMING for my wife,and i too felt AWAKE.....i was helpless....anyhow if it keeps on happening,see your doctor,you may need to go to a sleep center,they found that i had apnea......it hasnt happened since my visit.....you may not be getting GOOD sound sleep,for whatever reason.....and it could be something serious....its no big deal,like checking into a motel for the night......

 

[N4mddissent]

Anybody ever experienced sleep paralysis?

Sleep paralysis definition - Medical Dictionary definitions of popular medical terms easily defined on MedTerms

Sleep Paralysis - The Naked Scientists 2006.03.01

I had it happen to me about a year or so ago. It scared the friggen crap out of me.
I woke up in the middle of the night, wide awake, but couldn't move for a few minutes. The only thing I could move was my eyes. I could look around the room but that was it. After a few minutes of total panic I was finally able to move. I was so freaked out by the experience that I was afraid to go to sleep again.


...

Anybody else ever had this happen to them?

My girlfriend suffers from occasional sleep paralysis. Her description is very similar to yours. She sometimes has it happen during the day if she takes a nap. It's very unnerving because I may be right there in the room, and she's wanting to call out to me or be nearing panic and I never know anything is wrong because she's just lying there peacefully as far as I can tell.

This is quite different from a good friend of mine who suffers from night terrors. We shared an apartment together right after college. Night terrors are not just bad dreams, but instead, the dream bleeds over to reality so he would awaken and for all intents and purposes be hallucinating, seeing figures from his nightmare super-imposed on reality. It took a while to get used to occasionally being awakened by screaming and crashing furniture coming from his room on occasion.

Both of these are not uncommon and both are probable candidates as sources for stories ranging from night visitations by witches and demons, to more modern alien abduction stories. People need to interpret that terror. Some do like you and consider it rationally and seek out information. Others...not so much.

 

[Said1]

Like your girlfriend, that happens to me if I sleep during the day, too. It scared me at first, but now it doesn't bother me at all. What starts as paralysis, turns into lucid dreaming.

 

[AllieBaba]

Get tested for multiple sclerosis.

 

[Said1]

Get tested for multiple sclerosis.

Why?

 

[alan1]

I have. Scariest feeling EVER, hands down.

The first time was terrifying. This last time wasn't quite as scary, but still not something I want to continue to experience.

Bat....i was sent to a sleep center a few years back,and the guy who hooks you up to the machines described very accurately what i had experienced a bunch of times.....i felt like there was a weight on me holding me down and i could not even make a noise,like SCREAMING for my wife,and i too felt AWAKE.....i was helpless....anyhow if it keeps on happening,see your doctor,you may need to go to a sleep center,they found that i had apnea......it hasnt happened since my visit.....you may not be getting GOOD sound sleep,for whatever reason.....and it could be something serious....its no big deal,like checking into a motel for the night......

If it becomes a problem, I'll seek medical assistance. Right now, I just think it's an odd thing that has happened.

 

[alan1]

Like your girlfriend, that happens to me if I sleep during the day, too. It scared me at first, but now it doesn't bother me at all. What starts as paralysis, turns into lucid dreaming.

Now, the whole lucid dreaming thing is pretty cool. I've had lucid dreaming on and off for about 15 years.