Anyone Else Ever Suffered from Sleep Paralysis?

In my version of this I am trying to open my eyes, can't for a bit. But then I am convinced I am standing and walking towards the door as if the doorbell rang or that I am checking on the kids or heading to the bathroom. Only all the sudden I'm back in the bed and trying again to get up. I never left the bed of course. Sometimes I've had that happen quite a few times before I am finally up. During these episodes I know it's morning or someone is at the door or I can hear my family talking or a baby awake. I don't actually believe more than a few seconds pass in reality. No daycare parent has ever told me that they have been stuck at the door. It happens to me most often when I know I am supposed to be getting up in the middle of the night to let someone in or out or if I am concerned for one of the kids thinking they might be sick or they are coughing or I have a new baby in the house and SIDS is in the back of my mind.

I suppose that for most people it would be brought on by something stressful or something we worry about.

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I've had that happen before and I think I'm awake and something scary is happening in my room but I can't move or wake up. When I wake up, everything is normal. I had this BAD when I took Vicodin after my C-Section. I was allergic and would hallucinate and I'd have very creepy dreams.

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I have. I thought for years that I had this paranormal experience (the sort of thing I never believed in until it happened to me) and it turns out it was more likely an episode of SP, which is a common secondary thing associated with narcolepsy, which I found out later I do have. So it wasn't a paranormal experience after all. Lol.

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Yup. But I can open my eyes, and make unarticulated sounds. It's why I never take sleeping pills, even though I'm insomniatic. EVERY time, on every sleeping pill, it takes at least 1-3 hours before my body reengages... even if I've slept for 10 hours.

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Yes.
It is OK. It's not dangerous.
I used to have this experience frequently when I was living in a shared housing situationn and was unable to get sufficient uninterrupted sleep. Since then, I've experienced it only occasionally.
You're right about it being associated with sleep deprivation.
If you have an opportunity to try to "catch up" on sleep,
please do so.
S.

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Yes, I've had this occasionally since childhood, including the buzzing or ringing sounds. And I did some experimenting with out-of-body travel in early adulthood, which took me through the same state. I learned it isn't scary if you don't fight it. The body knows when and how to get back to "normal." And probably far less time passes than we seem to experience.

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I have not at all; but my husband and his brother have and it happens frequently to them. They call it "The witch is riding you." Some old folk tale.... I googled it once and found out that it is a true thing. They say it is when the body is between sleep and wake phase. It does say it has to do with the lack of sleep, but I find that hard to believe is the case with my husband, since he sleeps when the kids sleep. LOL.... I guess I could have gone along with that theory pre c-pap, but now I have no idea what his excuse is.... I am the insomniac. Look it is 1:30 and I am up answering you while he is ZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzz.

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I have not at all; but my husband and his brother have and it happens frequently to them. They call it "The witch is riding you." Some old folk tale.... I googled it once and found out that it is a true thing. They say it is when the body is between sleep and wake phase. It does say it has to do with the lack of sleep, but I find that hard to believe is the case with my husband, since he sleeps when the kids sleep. LOL.... I guess I could have gone along with that theory pre c-pap, but now I have no idea what his excuse is.... I am the insomniac. Look it is 1:30 and I am up answering you while he is ZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzz.

I've only had this two times in my life when I was in high school and it happened within a few days of each other. I was so scared. I used to own a Dreamer's Dictionary and it said that I was keeping a secret from someone that I knew should know and the stress was getting to me. It said to tell them the secret and the paralysis would stop. Well, my best friend was going to a new high school and I knew that her boyfriend was cheating on her at our old high school where I still went and I didn't have the heart to tell her. I finally told her and my dreams stopped.

OMG I used to get these all the time when I was a kid and in highschool and college. There were a lot of times we'd be on a trip in the car and I would be trying to wake up and couldn't, could hear what was going on around me, but couldn't move and sometimes couldn't even open my eyes. I could moan or something and my mom knew to reach back and jossle me a little and I would be able to move and wake up. It was really weird and fustrating sometimes. It has happened a few times as an adult where I've had to will myself to move an arm or leg to jossle myself awake. Sometimes I felt as if it was an out of body experience where I could totally know what was going on around me and sometimes even see it but could not move any part of my body. Just paralized, but not asleep or quite awake either. So you are not alone. My husband wouldn't know what to do and probably would think I was crazy if I told him. But it is good to know someone else has experienced this and I'm not alone. Do wish I knew what causes it. Take care and God Bless.

Might check this out. There's more to it than the simplicity it sounds to be. Let me know if you want to know more. Glad to chat. http://store.heartmath.org/s.nl;jsessionid=wLkhM6TJ9nJTqG...

Yes, I've experienced this quite a bit as well. It is scary but thankfully not dangerous!

I have noticed that when I'm good about taking my vitamins and getting plenty of rest I don't have this happen. It's only when I'm really stressed and my mind is going a mile a minute that I experience it.

You are not alone!

I experienced it a few times years ago. I was one of the few who would think I was awake, think I saw a shadow moving in my room but could not move to watch it or get up to see it. Then within seconds be fully awake and moving and there would be nothing there. It was freaky. I never knew what it was until years later I remembered it happening and looked it up on the internet and found out it was just a sleep stage. Really scary if you don't know what is happening.

I have it happen to me sometimes. I remember once I was so scared and I was trying to call for help but I couldn't get the words out or move for help. Only once was I scared, the rest of the time has been ok for me.

YES! I have been having these experiences since I was a little girl. I was convinced that I was being abducted by aliens or that there were ghosts in my house. It used to happen to me so frequently that I was scared to sleep. I told my mom about it once and she kind of just brushed it off. I didn't really want to push it cause I didn't want her to think I was crazy!

In my adult life I started to google the things that were happening to me and was so relieved to hear that I wasn't alone, and that there was an actual reason for this happening. Since I found the information, it happens much less frequently than it did in the past. And while it is happening it is pretty scary, but I'm not scared to sleep anymore.

I really wish I knew about this earlier in life, because I am such a terrible sleeper and I attribute that to the sleep paralysis.

I have had this a few times. I've had some people call it night terrors. I'm not sure, but i do know that with me I would be asleep, then i would wake up but the bad dream is still playing. My eyes open & i'm paralized. I can't scream or close my eyes. It is a horrable experience. I haven't had them in a few years, but I'm not sure why they started in the first place or why they stopped. in highschool I could do an out of body experinece without being asleep (if i was really bored). I'm not sure how i did it but it was very weird.

God bless!

I don't have the same thing, mine are sleep hallucinations. Most often it's spiders, I'll see them hanging down off the ceiling, or crawling across my pillow. It can be pretty terrifying until I can wake up enough to realize it's not real. Occasionally I'm not wake yet and will turn the light on, waking up me and my husband. Or on one memorable occasion when I backed up into my husband trying to get away from the spider crawling across my pillow and he thought I wanted to snuggle and put his arm around me. I scratched and almost bit him trying to get away.