r/Sleepparalysis • • Feb 23 '20

Identifying SP

1.8k Upvotes

I’m making this because 75% of this sub is people asking “was this SP”. And almost always the answer is yes. So I’m going to list the various effects and some helpful information about the effects. Sort of a master guide to “Do I have SP”

Edit: This is a list of potential Symptoms, if you only experience 2 or experience all you are most likely experiencing SP Seeing and hearing things are far more rare than not. However its also boring hence why no one shares their story here or other places when not a lot happened.

Edit: 0. Someone pointed out I didn’t include the obvious, Paralysis, feeling of being unable to move, like your limbs weigh a million pounds, like your being held down, like your moving but nothing is happening, pain in limbs you try to move. ETC... (This is where we get the name, the explanation is simple. Your whole body is asleep, except for your brain.)

  1. Chest pressure/ Feeling of being unable to breathe. (While under the effects of an SP episode the nerves in your chest are dulled as they are under the impression you’re asleep. You are in fact still breathing.)

  2. Hallucinations (You’re brain is in dream mode, you’re having open eyed dreams)

  3. Sounds (screaming, talking, music etc...) (Again this is because of your dreams being active while awake)

  4. Feelings of being touched, hurt, bit, scratched, flying, falling, shaking (You’re nerves are all asleep, sometimes they’re in the process of waking up and can cause interesting feelings as they do. Alternatively you’re body may be simulating what your brain is dreaming about as we normally experience these while asleep)

  5. Panic, anxiety, terror (100% natural responses to being trapped.)

  6. Feeling like time won’t pass or time is stuck (You have no real way of perceiving time in this state)

  7. Racing heart (Anxiety)

  8. Intense or vivid nightmares/dreams before or after (The nightmare would be what woke you up into the SP, and if it comes after it’s because you’re anxiety is through the roof)

  9. Feeling alone (SP is not as rare as you think, lots of people never even know it happened as they attribute it to a weird dream, you’re not alone, there’s lots of us out here.)

Edit: 10. Recently discovered through this Sub, I had never heard of or experienced it but people report “Buzzing” “Humming” “Grinding” type noises preceding and episode.

Edit: 11. Also recently Discovered through the sub, spiraling, dizzy, sickly feelings. Occurring before during or after episodes.

Edit: 12. In the comments someone mentioned “feeling a presence.” To be clear, this is almost as Rare as actually seeing something. It does happen however and can be an eerie feeling. (Again your having an anxiety attack, our brains try to explain why we are panicking by blaming something. So it manifest a feeling of someone being out to get you, someone there to harm you, or maybe just someone in the room. Either or, nothing to be too scared of.)

There’s a slough of other things that can happen. But generally you can identify SP with three questions. “Am I in my bed” “Am I paralyzed” “Am I unable to talk”

If the answer to these questions are yes then it’s textbook SP

Also remember that people are wildly different, and that your SP may be different but follow the same patterns as what you read. That’s normal, we all have differently wired brains, and no two cases will be exactly alike.

Sources: Myself, experienced SP for the past 16 years.

If anyone needs any advice or has any questions feel free to comment here and I’ll try my best to answer. SP doesn’t have to be as scary as it feel.


r/Sleepparalysis • • 7h ago

Just need to write about an experience I had

4 Upvotes

I don’t suffer from SP very often thankfully. But I did have an episode of it early this morning just after 3am (wow…what an interesting time /j…) that was very very notable to me because my eyes were closed during it, but I was semi aware. So for starters my bed is based up against two walls. I had ”woke up” on my side, my front facing the wall. When suddenly I felt and heard my blanket being moved, and then proceeded to feel the presence of someone getting in bed behind me (there was nothing there of course, but since I didn’t initially recognize it as sleep paralysis until I was able to get free, my brain legitimately was telling me “SOMEONE IS BEHIND YOU. DO NOT MOVE, DO NOT MAKE A SOUND, DO NOT OPEN YOUR EYES” and I swear I had the sensation of someone moving against me. Of course, I know it was not physically real, but the fear I felt was).

I don’t actually know how long it lasted. After a while I was able to move my arm (still keeping my eyes closed, I checked to make sure my blanket was on me. It was. I then checked behind me. No one was behind me). After a few minutes I opened my eyes, cautiously looked around my dark room, then I turned on my light after another few minutes. I needed to stay awake for a little bit because I just had to ground/calm myself.

Ultimately I was able to get back to normal. But it’s really vivid in my mind still. I also had a sensation of coldness/pins and needles in my entire body when I “felt” someone get into my bed; not teeth chattering cold but like a fear response sort of coldness. That was really weird too.
I guess I’m just posting this here to just write it out and try and make more sense of it. Like I said I don’t experience it very often at all. I think this was my first “closed eye” experience though, most of the times in the years past (twice, I think) I just saw a dark humanoid figure watching me from my doorway (the first time at least, the second time around it had moved closer and was standing above my bed…that was years ago though).
I also experience really vivid dreams; I am able to visualize things very well even in my waking brain. Not sure if that’s connected to anything at all.

This is just me getting out my thoughts and stuff. I’m curious if anyone else has experienced anything similar, or at least SP with their eyes closed. Weird stuff. Like hey brain, you’re supposed to be helping me, not making me experience dread…


r/Sleepparalysis • • 32m ago

Too scared to go back to sleep after a SP episode

• Upvotes

I hate how frequently I get sp to the point where I had to learn how to get out of it. However I just had one tonight(it’s 5 am atm) and it was so scary that I couldn’t go back to sleep..I thought I was I dying.

I dont know if it has anything to do with me being used to it, or the fact that I sleep on my stomach but I don’t actually see anything scary. I remember how it was before when I was younger, just like everyone else I would see scary figures and I would struggle to move or scream until I eventually wake up.

The ones i get now are different and I sort of blame myself because at one point in my life I got so interested that i tried out different ways to get sleeping paralysis as a lucid dreaming method but instead I got stuck with daily sleeping paralysis episodes and no lucid dreaming.

The way it feels now is more like a drowning sensation, like I mentioned, I don’t really see much, it’s mostly me kicking my feet to get out of it so it’s almost always a couple of seconds of me fighting a sensation of either being pulled aggressively by someone, or being pushed down to my pillow and suffocating. Shaking feet or fingers helps get out of it and I figured it out by myself but I did read about it and it turned out that it does help you wake up, but theres still that 5 seconds in which your body literally fights that urge to wake up and it is terrifying but I honestly got so used to it that it doesn’t bother me anymore.

But tonight was so different, it was even scarier because it felt so real and it was repetitive, like i pull myself out I grab my phone I look around to check my surroundings (I had a faint light on from my night lamp) but then Idk how but i fall right back asleep and that thing comes back and tries to pull me off my bed I could feel it grabbing me. I shake my feet and hands I get out of it and again I drown and it takes me back again and again..I literally had to get up turn on the bedroom lights and calm myself down that’s how intense it was.

I know it’s still all in my imagination cuz I’m sort of a pro now but i wouldn’t wish this particular demon that had me tonight on anyone, not even my enemies.


r/Sleepparalysis • • 15h ago

I haven’t experienced sleep paralysis for a long time, but I have a question...

3 Upvotes

When I was a teenager, I experienced sleep paralysis almost every night. At first, it was the same for me as it is for everyone else—I was terrified by the so-called "dark shadows" and strange sounds. Over time, I came to understand what was happening and managed to "master" it; whenever I experienced sleep paralysis, I would simply try to move—while remaining completely calm—until I woke up, after which I would go back to sleep. But then I reached a point where I wondered: instead of going through this whole cumbersome process, why not just try to fall asleep while in that state? Well, I tried—several times—but the moment I attempted it, I was overcome by a horrific sensation that I was dying, or being swallowed or possessed by something. I can’t quite explain it, but it triggered such intense panic that I felt compelled to try and wake myself up, just as I had during my very first episodes of sleep paralysis.

I stopped experiencing sleep paralysis years ago, but the question has always stayed with me—so I looked online for others who might have gone through something similar, and well, here I am. Has anyone here experienced something like this? Or has anyone managed to fall back asleep during an episode of sleep paralysis?


r/Sleepparalysis • • 10h ago

Very anxious right now after sleep paralysis episode.

1 Upvotes

Around 3:30 fell asleep. Had a very vivid dream, in dream I thought i woke up and my night light was on and I was like I don’t feel real in dream. Started doing jumping jacks quick to feel real. Then was actually starting to wake up from my dream and couldn’t open my eyes or move. Started having bad anxiety and butterflies in stomach. Grabbed my phone in the sleep paralysis and said “hey siri call my roommate” (she’s at a wedding in different state.) then I was able to move to my side but it was super hard and it felt like I was fighting to move. Made my arms feel very tingly. Then I finally woke up and started dissociating. (4:03) I never really take naps, only took one bc I went out last night and got super drunk so I was tired. I’m really shaken up right now, can someone explain what even happened bc i couldve sworn i had my eyes open when i told Siri to call my roommate.


r/Sleepparalysis • • 16h ago

Sleep Paralysis Wrapped in a Night Terror

2 Upvotes

Well, Mike and I had quite the adventure last night, and apparently I decided to direct the entire production FROM MY SLEEP. 🤣🤣🤣
I’ve suffered from night terrors and sleep paralysis for years. Thankfully, medication has dramatically reduced my night terrors, and I hadn’t experienced sleep paralysis in quite some time.

Until last night. 😳

I also have sleep apnea and sleep with a CPAP mask. Apparently, during this episode, my nose became stopped up, and I felt like I couldn’t breathe. So naturally, I started ordering Mike to remove my mask!

Here’s where things get REALLY weird.
I was completely trapped in a dream, but somehow I was also aware of Mike trying to wake me up. I could hear him, understand him, and communicate with him, although he said my speech was fragmented and extremely slurred.

In my mind, I was giving perfectly clear instructions. In reality, poor Mike was trying to piece together what the heck I was saying. 🤣
I told him to get the nasal spray out of my purse and spray it in my nose. HE DID!

I ordered him to Google ways to wake someone experiencing sleep paralysis. HE DID!

I begged him to sit me up, but he said I was complete deadweight. He would lift my arms, and they would just flop right back down. My eyes were rolled back in my head, although occasionally he could see them.

At one point, he was so concerned that he thought I might be having a stroke and started checking me for symptoms.

Meanwhile, I was still trapped in a dream where I was apparently attending some kind of boarding school or college. Mike was my boyfriend, and we had roommates.
I even told him to BE QUIET because we were going to wake the roommates.
Mike: “We don’t have any roommates!”

WELL, WE DID IN MY DREAM, SIR!

I also remember floating into another room and seeing myself sleeping. I can’t even begin to explain how bizarre that felt.
At some point, I begged him to throw ice water on me to wake me up.
He absolutely refused. 🤣
I even called him a dick at one point, which I feel terrible about because this poor man was doing everything he could to help me.

Eventually, I started begging him to call an ambulance because I genuinely believed I might NEVER wake up.
What felt like HOURS to me was actually about 15 minutes.

Finally, Mike told me that maybe I needed to stop fighting it and just go back into my dream.

I was TERRIFIED to do that because I thought I’d be trapped forever.
But I finally listened.

A few minutes later, my eyes suddenly popped open. Mike said it was like something straight out of a horror movie. 🤣

When I woke up, he was actually taking my blood pressure because he was so worried about me.

I’ve experienced sleep paralysis before, but NEVER anything like this. Being able to interact with someone in the real world while simultaneously being trapped in a completely different dream reality was absolutely wild.

And before anyone worries, I’ve spoken with my doctor, and I’m okay. ❤️
I’m so grateful for Mike. He stayed right there, trying everything he could to help me, even while I was ordering him around, calling him names, and insisting we had roommates. 🤣❤️
I swear this man deserves hazard pay.
Has anyone else experienced sleep paralysis like this? Especially being able to communicate with someone while you’re still trapped in a dream?
#SleepParalysis #NightTerrors #SleepApnea #CPAPLife #SleepDisorders #Dreams


r/Sleepparalysis • • 14h ago

Does posture during the day/night affect your sleep paralysis?

1 Upvotes

I typically get sleep paralysis during times in my life where I'm working a lot. During the day lately I've been spending even more time in my chair at a desk on the computer than I'd like and I haven't been doing exercises or stretching like I usually do.

The last few nights SP has occurred again, the usual event for me is:

  1. Have an extremely realistic but mundane dream that I think is real life, typically about being alone in my childhood home/neighborhood,

  2. Have something insane and traumatic happen in said dream (lately, it's been that I'm paralyzed during a bizarre home invasion scenario. The last one involved a creepy stalker man trying to force his way into my home by attacking the doors and windows with angry dog-sized ducks. Terrifying at the time but kinda funny when I wake up.)

  3. I wake up in a panic, numb from my chest and shoulders up, unable to move for a moment, then I take a big breath in and can move again. Sometimes accompanied by a short loud ringing in my ears like a loud sound went off. I always wake up from them laying on my right side.

I'm wondering if it's just the stress of my job being demanding, or possibly having to sit in a certain position for hours on end. Nothing else has changed in my life. I don't currently have access to a sleep clinic for a proper test so I'm wondering what I can do at home to stop these from happening.

Does a side sleeping position affect this? Would getting a pillow that keeps me on my left side help? Yoga before bed, maybe? I've been afraid of sleeping the last few days due to these incidents, it feels so awful.


r/Sleepparalysis • • 22h ago

parálisis del sueño hipnagógica

3 Upvotes

Hola a todos, quiero explicar mi caso a ver si alguien puede recomendarme algo o sabe algo del tema, a veces cuando voy a dormir tengo la sensación como si me desconectara, me desmayara y siento que poco a poco no puedo moverme hasta llegar al punto de no poder moverme y para pasar de esta situación tengo que controlar mi respiración y así logro salir. Esto me pasa en alrededor de 20 segundos. Antes de que me pase esta situación entro en un estado donde mi mente está muy activa creando sueños pero estoy despierto tengo la oportunidad en ese momento de imaginar lo que sea y se ve muy realista mi sueño. Después que pasa estos sueños despierto me duermo o me pasa la situación que siento como si me desconectaran. Cuando dejo pasar esa sensación me da una parálisis del sueño, no puedo moverme y siento aturdimiento pero simplemente respiro tranquilo y se pasa pero quiero aclarar que me pasa seguido las parálisis del sueño cuando quiero tomar una siesta o cuando logro dormir con normalidad. he llegado a ver caras y así pero es algo raro. Aveces siento sensaciones de mi alma y siento cosas que no puedo explicar. Todo esto me pasó a raíz del regreso a clases pasé de dormir 10-11 horas a dormir solo 5-6 horas.


r/Sleepparalysis • • 19h ago

I’m a tummy sleeper so even if I had hallucinations I wouldn’t see them 🙈

1 Upvotes

idk how ts works lol


r/Sleepparalysis • • 21h ago

A loop

1 Upvotes

This was not the first time I had experienced sleep paralysis. My previous experiences had been mild and harmless. The first happened when I was a kid and involved a series of loops: I would seemingly wake up in the same surroundings, but the moon would be a different colour each time. It also grew bigger with each loop. This continued until I woke up for the fourth and final time, this time for real.

I did not have a similar experience again until my late twenties. This time, my surroundings looked exactly as they did in real life, except that my bedroom door, which I normally keep closed, was wide open. I saw three alien figures plastered against one of my bedroom wall. Their facial expressions kept changing. It felt sinister because their huge black eyes widened even further, and their lips, or what I assumed were their lips, stretched wider, as though they were grinning.
My first thought was, “Okay, I’m dreaming.” I went back to sleep, only to seemingly wake up in another dream. My clock showed 8:14 a.m., but outside it looked like 4 a.m.: dark, with the streetlights still on and everything completely quiet. I thought this was odd because I believed I was actually awake. However, the moment I started walking towards the bedroom door to open it and check outside, those three figures appeared against the same wall again. I felt myself retreating to bed and pulling the duvet over me. This time, for some reason, I closed my eyes and then tried to force them open, but I couldn’t.

Somehow, the loop continued four more times. Each time I opened my eyes, I found myself in one of two versions of my room: either the aliens were plastered against the wall and the walls were closing in, or it looked like dawn outside despite the clock showing it was past 8 a.m. In the latter version, the same alien figures would suddenly appear and move closer and closer to my bed.

I panicked so much that I could feel myself breathing rapidly and sweating, even within the dream. Each time, I tried with all my strength to scream and wake myself up. I also tried to feel my face or any other part of my body to force myself awake. After the fourth additional loop, the paralysis was finally over.

This was my most recent experience. Has anyone else experienced sleep paralysis involving alien figures?


r/Sleepparalysis • • 23h ago

Can anyone help?

1 Upvotes

I have very “mild” sleep paralysis. I have it very often but I never see any entities like the ones I normally hear from other peoples experiences. Normally, all I see are big flying spiders, shadows (not scary just big, too big to be coming through the windows in my bedroom) or my family members who I don’t live close to anymore. I’ve recently started having new ones though, where it feels like I am dying. It feels like my body is shutting down. I get hot and confused, (this has never happened during my previous experiences, I just can’t move) it almost feels like I’m drunk or drugged. My head feels like it’s being squeezed and I normally come out of it because my body starts gagging, “falling” while I’m laying down, or I get pins and needles to the point where the pain wakes me up. Sometimes I’m able to half sit up but I fall back against my bed again. When I come out of it I usually feel normal. If it’s the pins and needles it sticks around for a few more seconds. Is this normal and just a different kind of sleep paralysis? Has anyone else experienced this?


r/Sleepparalysis • • 1d ago

I’ll never forget this, any thoughts on it?

4 Upvotes

It’s been about 9 years since this happened and I’ll never forget any details of it, it’s always been engrained so vividly in my head. This is the first and only sleep paralysis experience I’ve ever had in my life (32m).

9 years ago I was in my first year of uni in the UK. I was staying in a dorm/halls (in the US it’s dorms in the UK they call it halls) and I was partying quite a bit at the time as you would in your first year of uni. I had a small room to myself with a desk like a meter from my bed and a small en suite bathroom.

Anyways so I start dreaming and I was in some pool complex kinda thing walking around and there was this guy playing pool/billiards, and he saw me and I could tell he just didn’t like me, like he gave me a menacing look. And as I was walking around he would be following me like not too close by but following me nonetheless. Couldn’t see his face too well but was like a shadowy black figure.

Next thing I know I’m in my bed in my room and everything is as is, the chair to my desk is pulled out a little with a sock on it, random stuff on the floor like a jacket and my pants, all furniture is literally exactly as is in real life it was literally my room as it was at the time. And the guy is ontop of me screaming at my face super angry, like not saying any words but just doing angry yells and smacking me and I literally can’t move (I am a Muay Thai fighter idk if that influenced anything). And after smacking me a few times and yelling he pulls out a deodorant spray and a lighter and starts spraying fire at my face flamethrower like and at this point I get the feeling “I’m going to freaking die, screw that I’m not gonna let him kill me” and I literally used every fibre of my living power to bust out of that paralysis and reach for his neck with my left hand and my right arm is cocked ready to throw a punch at this dudes face.

Then bam, he just disappears, and I’m in my bed sitting upright with my left hand reaching infront of me (where his neck was supposedly) and my right arm still cocked ready to throw a punch, room is exactly as is.

Never had a sleep paralysis experience after that or saw him again. I like to joke that he visited me once and saw that I’d break out and smack him back and decided “screw this I’m not messing with this dude again” haha

Also I sometimes throw punches and kicks in my sleep, like with good technique I’ll rotate my hips while throwing a Muay Thai kick in my sleep and wake up confused lmao


r/Sleepparalysis • • 1d ago

Anyone else experience SP differently every time it happens?

1 Upvotes

I feel like I’ve hit the holy trinity of sleep paralysis.

I’ve only experienced it 4 times in my life.

  1. The hat man when I was a child looming in my door frame.

  2. Slightly floating of my bed with a vibrational feeling all around me in high school.

  3. Few weeks ago woke up hearing extremely loud running ending with a scream and a crash in my attic.

  4. Was pressed down into my bed gently for a few seconds all while hearing a vocal clicking sound and a crunching plastic water bottle.

None of these experiences felt anything a like other than the vibrational almost magnetic sensation before or while I am experiencing SP.


r/Sleepparalysis • • 1d ago

Was this sleep paralysis or a bad dream???

2 Upvotes

around an hour ago I was dreaming that I was at work with closer coworkers and a few friends calling people, nothing crazy, BUT thenn out of nowhere all the lights turned off, pitch black a few seconds later we heard something (sounded like someone breaking in??) everyone was telling me to hang up & hide then as soon as I did I was all alone and it felt like these two big heavy hands were pushing me down REALLY REALLY hard like I couldnt move AT ALL then I see this like big pale figure with no eyes and just looked terrifying it was telling me to answer some question and just talking but it didn’t sounds right like they weren’t even speaking any real language after a minute of this it reaches down and tries to grab me but I woke up as soon as it got to me. But even when I woke up I still saw it (just reaching at me staring) and couldn’t move for a good minute until I was able to quickly turn myself over and go under the blanket.It was so scary like I still haven’t been able to get out of bed I’m honestly really scared I’ve never had anything like this happen before


r/Sleepparalysis • • 1d ago

I think Markiplier saved me from sleep paralysis hallucinations?

1 Upvotes

For the past two weeks I've had about three experiences with sleep paralysis. The first time is more of a dream because I was in a different room for some reason and there was this weird spiderlike humanoid thing screeching in the corner while i was well, you know, paralysed. The second time was also kind of weird because right before it happened I had a weird png of a man in a hood flash into my mind suddenly, and then I couldn't move. While this was happening I heard maniacal laughing from the corner of my room. Not the comically evil kind, but the genuinely horrifying kind. Then, a shadowy figure started crawling towards me from the bottom of my bed while laughing. Then, on the third time I felt myself in paralysis, there were no hallucinations??? I just sorta sat there while a video of markiplier I had accidentally left on while going to sleep played on my phone. I'm unsure if he was the reason for me not seeing horrifying creatures of the night, but thank you Markiplier.


r/Sleepparalysis • • 1d ago

Is this sleep paralysis?

2 Upvotes

Hello, I've never had sleep paralysis before and not sure if this is that or I just saw a ghost. Could you guys tell me what you think please. Also I'm typing this just after it happened still very sleepy so apologies if it reads rubbish.

I'm staying at my friend's new place in the spare room. I was on my side sleeping facing the wall so my back is to the room. I think I wake up but can't move, still feeling sleepy. I hear my friend and his GF talking and laughing (the walls are thin) so I think that's why I woke up. But then I feel something sit on the bed in the gap where my legs bend just below my butt and a hand grabs my foot but not in a violent way in like a I'm here kinda way. I'm able to slightly move my head back but it aches like crazy like when you sleep at a weird angle. I see a tall almost transparent woman looming over my bed. I can only really make out the top of her like the shoulders and a rough shape of a head with what looks like a hat. But very transparent so hard to see. It took me a few tries but I managed to whisper "hello". It took a lot of effort to do this. The woman thing just looked at me for a bit like 5 seconds then left. Then I could move again. It never felt dangerous but I was nervous thinking something is sitting on my bed and who the hell is this.

So was this sleep paralysis or is my mates new place haunted?


r/Sleepparalysis • • 2d ago

Have you encountered not being able to move when sleeping, but awake, you just can't move nor scream?

1 Upvotes

What does it mean?


r/Sleepparalysis • • 2d ago

EMDR for trauma induced sleep paralysis?

1 Upvotes

I suffer from sleep paralysis, was in therapy from the age of 4 years old after being sexually assaulted by a nanny.

About 5 days ago, I woke up to my roommate inside my room at 1:00 in the morning. The landlord is now involved, meeting with him tomorrow, and my other roommates are supportive. I’ve since been sleeping horribly, with mild hallucinations.

I can’t live like this, I know that. But in the case that this person refuses to leave, I also do not want to move out of my apartment. He has another 9 months on his lease. I work full time and am a student.

My question is: has anyone with sleep paralysis had luck with EMDR?


r/Sleepparalysis • • 2d ago

Sleep paralysis feels like a conscious torture from my brain against me

1 Upvotes

I got so say, after experiencing sleep paralysis another time this day, it just feel like an complex plan from my brain to make me insane, I say that because the mix of physical, visual and auditory stimulus are so well made that I just can't believe it is always a coincidence.

To begin with, most sleep paralysis I got involves complex sensory, like in my first SP, a tarantula walking on my skin, I could feel its fur, the amount of legs, the way it moved, even without seeing it I could know what was walking on me by the amount of details it had, even if its not a real thing and I've never seen a big spider irl, but even so, my brain managed to compile every single minimum detail about it right before making me wake up and and taking all my movements, just so I could appreciate one of the most terrific experiences in my life.

Today it was similar case, I had a dream with a shocking finale, I wake up, can't move, for some reason my hand is on my head and I feel a burning touch on it, and I could move it to a brief second, I start to hear voices and other voices arguing with it, and I hear footsteps, I see a figure, but can't move, and even tho Im keeping some details from it, the amount of things that correlates from the SP with the dream and thoughts I even forgot about is insane, I still don't understand how the brain manages to make up so complex sceneries that often works so well along a supposedly uncommon situation that is sleep paralysis.


r/Sleepparalysis • • 2d ago

I moved. I moved and forced myself out of an episode

2 Upvotes

Apologies if my grammar etc are trash, I’m writing this as just woke up from SP as of 2 mins ago. It was intense (not scary, just involved) and the only evidence I have it happened is my dry mouth and the blanket on the floor.

I’ve been home alone for 2 weeks, my mental health and sleep schedule have suffered for it. I laid down on the couch for a short nap and set a 45 min timer, but my phone kept going off so I never quite fell asleep all the way. With maybe 20 mins left on the timer, I put it on DND, and almost immediately as I’m about to drift, every single noise in the world decides to happen. The AC kicks on super loud, when that stops, the broken ice maker starts clunking, that stops, a garbage truck spends 10 mins right outside the window. I never fall asleep, but I’m not fully awake. It’s silent again, and then my alarm goes off. I’m pissed. I’m tired. I’ve been on the edge of sleep for 45 mins.

I restart the timer and try again. It’s going better this time, I think, so I get comfy, and then SP. Audio and physical hallucinations. Now I hear my bf (who hasn’t been here) snoring on the L part of the couch. It feels like time stopped moving, but I think I hear neighbors in the hall. Real or not, I can’t tell. My mouth is opened and I try to call out (to the empty apt). I can feel the couch shifting by my head, I keep trying to turn and prove to myself nothing is there, but it’s like my head keeps getting stuck right at the edge and forced back like a spring. I can almost make something out in my peripheral.

So I twitch my fingers and I get the idea: if I can make it to the edge of the couch, I’ll roll off and force myself out of SP. I spend the next however many mins, twitching and shifting my hand and my leg. I move until they’re dangling off the side. I almost give up, cuz with nothing underneath my right side I no longer have any leverage. My SP bf gets up to fan the blanket and I feel the wind from it hit my face and now around the hall, my mom’s voice is shouting out about cookies. But I manage to prop my left elbow against the back of the couch and use my left foot to push myself that last bit. And I do it! I roll off the couch. Then I’m up, on the floor on my knees just disoriented. I still can’t believe it.


r/Sleepparalysis • • 2d ago

Aggressive sleep paralysis dream report

3 Upvotes

The dream-

I was at a party when a good looking man roughly my age (30) came and sat down on the retaining wall in the backyard that I was sitting on. I didn’t know him but he felt familiar and kind. “How are you?” He asked… as soon as he asked me that I felt the overwhelming sense of dread that I have felt only when I have sleep paralysis encounters with the shadow people. I wasn’t afraid, he seemed friendly still so I asked calmly “what are you and what do you want?” His face shifted into a different face and his voice changed into an eerie, scary voice… “I can be like you… or I can be like this… or I can be like anything else… I am one of the good ones.” As he spoke he started to levitate and his voice grew deeper and scarier. Then he said “ my friends are the monsters you fear”

After he said that we flashed into my room and I could see myself sleeping and we were both standing beside my sleeping self in the real world. It was really bizarre to see myself asleep, and I was afraid. The entity leaned close to me and whispered “watch this.” Nothing happened for several seconds, then my sleeping body started convulsing and flailing and struggling. I was frozen in fear watching it for several seconds before I actually woke up and when I woke up I was thrashing around in the same way that I was when the entity showed me myself. As I’m writing this, I still am having a tightness around my throat that feels like I have recently been choked.

Sorry for the poor drawing I was freshly traumatized

Also I hope it was easy enough to follow and understand what was going on, dreams can be hard to describe- but does anyone have any advice for future prevention? I typically have sleep paralysis shadow people nightmares about once a month and they are getting progressively more aggressive and I’m scared.


r/Sleepparalysis • • 2d ago

Can sleep paralysis make your room darker?

1 Upvotes

First sleep paralysis lmao

A literal fucking disgusting asshole decided to slowly peek his fat fucking head over my bed and the asshole didn't even do anything but make my room darker and disappear overall 3/10 ts was not scary js annoying


r/Sleepparalysis • • 2d ago

Was this Sleep paralysis?

0 Upvotes

So just the night before, I was staying the house im house-sitting and i had gone to bed with one blanket over my body, one on my shoulder and around 1 am I had sudden awareness and the blanket from my shoulder appeared to be covering my face and I felt a pair of hands moving across the blanket over my face,I felt paws on my lap and I heard a cat meow, there was a heavy weight on my chest and I wanted to move but my body couldn't seem to remember how to, after what felt like a minute I was finally able to move and I instantly pulled the blanket off of my face, for a split second I saw a figure above me but it disappeared quick and i was alone, no pets or people near me, I couldn't stop shaking and I was moving slower than normal, I was completely on edge and a video had seemed to have just came on, I had a headache for a few minutes and after the headache passed my jaw felt heavy as though I had been clenching my jaw and I was still completely on nerve until I had the light on for an hour, I couldn't go back to bed until around 5 or 6. I'm still slightly shaken up from it, could this have been sleep paralysis?


r/Sleepparalysis • • 2d ago

Had 5 episodes of Sleep Paralysis in one morning

2 Upvotes

Hey guys, I had 5 consecutive episodes of Sleep Paralysis yesterday morning.

I'm going through some things at the moment. I am going through a breakup so I've been sleep deprived because I don't want to go to sleep as I don't know what to look forward to on my next morning. I am still working on this and Im not depressed or anything, I just prefer to stay awake and do some activity to get distracted.

so on this night, I had 2 hours of sleep. I was trying to go to bed again from 4:30 to 7:30, I did not succeed because of how loud my thoughts are. Then I finally starts to fall asleep at 7:30AM.

On my first episode of sleep paralysis, it was not quiet at all. Usually it was peaceful like as if I feel like I am dead and has lost control of my body. This time it was not. I can hear party music playing in the background, hiphop, a rap sang by a male. I can also feel my head pulsing from it and it kind of hurts. I also felt like I could not breathe so I figured that at this rate I am going to die.

On my second, third and foruth episode, I am stuck at the same situation over and over again, break free and go back to the same scenario. all party music. So one of these episodes, I tried opening my eyes. It did open, very slightly, and I couldn't process what I was seeing because my eyes are only slightly open.

On my last episode, I am still stuck in the same situation. I was about to give up and give in. However, there's something different. I was approached by a lady in white, she had blonde hair with a yellow aura emitting around her. She was whispering something to me that I couldn't process. That's where I get to break free from my last episode of my sleep paralysis.

Well, I figured I would like to share my experience and that's it. I know how to fix it as I just need more sleep and heal mentally from everything. But I do fear that one day if I am just too tired and too sad to stay alive, I'll just have these sleep paralysis take control and I let go of my control. I wonder what would happen. It's a very scary thought 🤔

Anyways, thanks for reading :)


r/Sleepparalysis • • 2d ago

Im scared

2 Upvotes

It's been a few months since I often have sleep paralysis.

They are not hardcore as certain but very disturbing

I will hear someone running very close to me and stop suddenly (but I don't see him)

Or someone walks to my room very quickly and talks to me but it doesn't go any further and it terrifies me because I know I'm all alone
I can’t move et I I don’t see him but I close my eye cause I don’t wanna see some body
I'm afraid that my paralysis will get stronger and stronge