Thoughts on sleep paralysis? Or experiences with sleep paralysis.

I've had continuing sleep paralysis for as long as I can remember. My explanation for the cause of it is a bit more scientific than this board probably likes but maybe it'll enlighten someone.

Recently I've noticed that it is triggered when I feel an itch on my body during sleep. I believe the nerves contact the brain and mentally I become awake but the brain delays to send the signal to stop the natural paralysis that occurs when we sleep. Now that you're only awake mentally, your subconscious goes wild and starts projecting your dreams into your environment. That's why people start getting scared and see shadow people and shit.

Sadly, not much scientific research has gone into this sleep disorder which is a real shame. I believe it could be linked to a nerve disorder like restless leg syndrome. I encourage sufferers of constant sleep paralysis to think about things in their physical environment that could trigger it. For me, I get constant itchiness from my body every night.

>>17932092
I experienced sleep paralysis a couple of times and they all played out similarly. I woke up with my breathing lessened and my vision went progressively out of focus. Eventually everything I looked at would just become blurred to the point of almost blackened out. My hearing was also kind of affected. It was kind of a harsh noise that I could hear in the back of my head but less aggressive.

I always get it if I go to sleep on my couch or if the room is too bright. Been the same ever since I was a kid. I wake up and notice that I can't control my breathing or any of my limbs. Then I panic a little and try to wiggle any muscle. Eventually I can wiggle a finger and then my hand and my body wakes up.

It doesn't really feel /x/ to me, but I definitely avoid the triggers for it. I hear black people get it most frequently and I am black.

Hmm that is interesting, the times that I have delt with it I normally feel like my body is heavy and I drift off to sleep only to see shadow people or sometimes darkness engulfing the area around me where i can't see anything but I hear voices whispering.

Has anyone experienced it in different ways in different places? I know how often do you not sleep in your own bed however..

But I've passed out on long car trips and had mini episodes or altered versions of dreams I would have had staying over at a friends/family.

I know my friend said he had experienced it once during class and he couldn't move and freaked out slightly since he could see people in his class sitting at their desks like nothing was wrong and everything was normal to them.

I get it a lot, but never the hallucinations. Just the paralysis.

I notice that for me, SP is trigger when I go to bed in a bad mood and especially when I go to bed angry. I use to go to sleep listening to the radio at night and remember waking to the feeling of the room rumbling and loud static white noise. I had the urge to fall back to sleep but i was to afraid and decided to wake myself up. Looking back now, i wish i would have fallen back to asleep because apparently, hearing white noise is a indicator that a lucid dream is about to occur

>>17932118

That was interesting. Thanks for sharing.

I have a friend who had a sleep paralysis moment one night while on the top bunk of a dorm room we were sleeping in.

The dorm was purportedly haunted, and he and our friends claimed to hear some ghost one night, but I wasn't there.

Anyway, it was 3am or so, and thought he was seeing a female spirit hovering over him and performing surgery on his stomach. He cried out, "Anon! Anooon...! She's here.."

Pretty spooky.

>>17933510

Oh, the ghost purportedly haunting the dorm was a girl who killed herself and the ghost they thought they heard was a female screaming. For more creepy context.

It happens to me once in a while. When I feel it coming, I try to keep calm and either force myself to wake up or to go to sleep. They both work.

>>17932092
I had continuous sleep paralysis / shadow people for a couple years after a trauma.

I tried medication, therapy, Buddhist meditation, etc. Always go worse if I was stressed from work or whatever.

Eventually I read online to try praying to Jesus / God. I thought bullshit but had nothing to lose. Next time it happened I tried it and it ended immediately. I now say a prayer to God for protection every night before trying to sleep and haven't had a problem since. Except when I've forgotten to pray for protection.

It's made me reach out to Catholic Church. Thinking of joining because of these experiences.

Fucking weird and I can't explain it but there it is.

Astral traveling is just beyond these stages. Sleep paralysis is a gate way. I envy ur condition

>>17934135
I agree but use caution with the Catholic Church as they are mostly corrupt, although the there are many unsuspecting "good Catholics it is an extra biblical, blasphemous, idolatrous religion. I suggest you study the King James Bible and pray for answers and ask God to show you the right church or bible group for you. So many churches in the US are falling victim to problems and are becoming weak. And check out some LA Marzulli on YouTube or vid sometime.

i started getting it after i moved away for myself

in the beginning i would freak out especially when i started sensing and hearing stuff while i was having these things. Like something evil was in the room and sometimes when i was lying on my stomach it would feel like someone was pushing me through the bed

Now a couple of years later i still have it a couple of times a month and now i know that it is sleep paralysis so i dont freak out that much anymore

Now its usually at the end of a dream if i am trapped beneath something or cornered and i immediately know what to do, i just start forcing myself to move either my hand or foot and as soon as can do this i return

>>17932136
dindu nuffin

I've only had it twice in my life. Both times, I was on a bus in the middle of the day. I believe that light (and being able to fully see) were a factor in my sleep paralysis.

>>17932092
had it happen to me once like 10 years ago, was pretty spooky

anyone know how i can voluntarily induce it again?

>>17932128
I've had pretty similar experiences. I think they were triggered by a construction crew working at night right next to my apartment.

>>17932092
I had my first ever experience with this last night. it was utterly horrifying. the blurred sense of location, of being semi-aware of being in my bed, but unable to respond to stimuli. then there was the presence reaching for me. it was solid and indistinct all at once. it's hands were long, and the fingers pointed, extended outwards and reaching down for me. quite an awful experience.

>>17934393
This

I've never had it but want to experience it and I am not afraid of confronting a shadow person if they are real. Also I have heard shadow people/hat man are a different phenomena than sleep paralysis. Can anyone who has seen them verify this and shed some light on the topic?

>>17934393

Be extremely tired
Set alarm like 3 hours into sleep
Lay back down on your back and try to remain awake without moving a single muscle
Should lock your body in place while your mind is still awake. You'll hear random noises and might feel stuff.

>>17935521
This ghost like figure is explained by many. It can't be mere coincidence. Just what is it exactly and could it actually be there at all times when we sleep?

>>17932092
When I sleep on my bed with the bedroom door open, I have a view of the staircase leading down. When I used to sleep with my door open, I would frequently open my eyes to look at the staircase. Usually their would be nothing there and I'd just be paranoid. Eventually this would turn into sleep paralysis and I'd see someone standing halfway up the stairs looking at me and eventually they'd crawl towards me. So now I sleep with the door closed.

>>17935558
this worked for me. stayed up maybe a day and a half, woke up to my alarm clock paralyzed and i saw Edward from Fosters Home For Imaginary Friends. No idea why it was specifically him.. he was just staring at me couple inches away from my face. eventually went away after about 30sec-1min

I have had this before. It was in a rather unholy place. Shite was crazy

>>17935578
so I've come to gather. a shared collective imagining, by people spread across the globe? maybe there's something more? maybe it's a way that brain chemistry/sensory input is processed, and the lack thereof from the inbetween of asleep and wakefulness fucks with some kind of "sensor"?

odd as this might sound, I kind of look forward to it happening again, if it does. I need more data.

>>17932092
>be me
>cant move at all while half asleep
>feel a creeping dark shroud coming closer
>look over
>smell kush
>Ayy lmao

Does anyone have positive experiences with sleep paralysis besides me?

2 years ago I started to dab into lucid dreaming, which requires you to induce SP. In my lucid dreams I always like to spend them flying over forests or water, it's really relaxing. Anyways, since then I have been able to put myself in to SP.

Recently when I've been in SP I can create the sensation of flying/floating in my room without having to be in a sleep state. (no I don't believe it's OBE, it's just a sensation).

I've never seen the shadow man or anything like that while in the SP state. And if I need to get out of SP fast, I just change my breathing to either incredibly slow almost to the point of holding my breath, or very rapid short breaths.

>>17935820
Me again,

I can only recall two events that gave me a "bad" experience with SP.

The first happened when I was a month into inducing SP. I was haning out with my friends at my university coffee shop (any UWSP alumni?) and I was really tired and wanted to take a nap. My friends were studying so I was able to get a nap in w/o them leaving. About 20+ minutes later I woke up in a SP state. This was really weird because I could perceive everything that was happening, including my friends talking, but I could do anything to respond. I felt like ghost, I could perceive but not interact. I got really nervous and uncomfortable and knew I needed get out of it. After wiggling my toes for what felt like forever (before I knew the breathing trick) I was able to regain control of my body. I never felt so relieved in my life.

>cont...

>>17932136
Too bad you're black.

>>17935864

My second experience was more of a scare for my [then] gf than me. It was the first time she stayed over night. This was about 6 months after I started inducing SP. I woke up in the middle of the night in SP, thinking oh cool let's lucid dream. However I had this poking sensation in my side and it hurt pretty bad (I believe it was my body testing to see if I was awake to see if it should pull me out of SP) As the pain grew I needed to get out and move my body. All that had to be done was for me to move a limb and I would be out of SP. Thus I had the great idea that my gf would tap by body to try to wake me up, so I started to do the rapid breathing technique and started to move my toes to make her think I was having a nightmare. Well shit, she didn't do anything, lucky my own efforts were able to pull me out of SP, but not as fast as I would have liked. At least the poking feeling went away.
The next day she asked me if I have trouble sleeping at night because she heard me breathing heavy and trying to move. She sounded very worried... facepalm she could have woke me up.. I brought her up to speed with SP and the previous night's situation. She seemed cool with it, but was didn't really buy into the concept.

First experience I had was a pretty typical hag scenario that scared the shit out of me.

I was slowly drifting off to sleep when I began to hear strange whispering. This whispering suddenly changed to a horrifically loud sound which I can only describe as every sound ever made played back at me at once at maximum volume. A shadowy figure was on top of me and I was unable to move. The shadowy figure then cackled wickedly and jumped into my chest. As the figure entered my body I felt an incredibly strange sensation, almost like every organ in my body began buzzing and vibrating. I was convinced that I was going to explode, it felt like I was dying and just like that I snapped back into consciousness. I was convinced for like a week that I was possessed or something.

>>17935864
UW Stout myself but I've got a bunch of friends out at UWSP

>>17935534

Sometimes you are just afraid of them. I've dealt with SP my whole life and even though i know exactly what is going on and how to stop it, occasionally you get an episode that makes you shit bricks for no particular reason.

I've experienced it a couple of times and frankly it's horrifying. It's like you wake up, are semi aware of what's going on can't move and, here's the big one CANT TALK. I tried calling for help but I could barely BARELY whisper. I've noticed I get it when I sleep too close to a heater. Was at my Grandma's house every time it happened and her guest beds are too close to the heater.

I've had sleep paralysis and night terrors for as long as I can remember.

Weed makes them go away, sometimes for up to a week.

They return with fierce intensity when I go on tolerance breaks.

>>17932092
>wake up in the middle of night
>sleep paralysis
>see something looking like Eyeless Jack
>scared af
>don't sleep anymore this night

File: 1467673298086.jpg (8KB, 229x250px) Image search: [Google]

8KB, 229x250px

How do I stop sleep paralysis? So far the shadow people have left me alone but I don't want to draw attention to myself. The anxiety caused by SP is making it extremely hard to sleep, my sleep cycle is absolutely wrecked and it's very hard to fall asleep and I'm afraid of waking up because that's when I'll usually get SP.