Dream Paralysis

[lixluke]

I remember the first time it happened to me. I was very little. Over the course of my life, I would get it often. I in the past year, I would probably get it almost everytime I sleep. Lately along with some pretty bad nightmares.

Nightmares almost every night.


When humans go to sleep, chemicals in their body cause them to be paralized so they do not act out their dreams. When there is a defficiency, people act out their dreams moving and walking around while they are sleeping. Sometimes leading to injury.

On the otherhand, there are also cases in which people gain consciousness while paralized. This is sleep paralysis. Sometimes hallucinations occur as will. Seeing things, hearing things, etc. All the while, not being able to move. All thi hallucination is no different from the hallucinatory effects of dreaming. Dreams are nothing more than hallucinations while you sleep.

Sometimes without even having a real nightmare to go along with it, I still get the feelings of terror. I logicly know there is nothing there to be afraid of, and yet I get feelings of terror. This would probably be similar to laughing gas where people laugh from inhaling the gas. It's like sitting there thinking about any random normal thought that is not in anyway scary. Yet just feeling terror. Also including sensing a harmful presense.

 

[lixluke]

Ok, I don't know if this is what everybody else is talking about...but every now and then, I get totally freaked out by this.....it always happens before I've fallen asleep at night...never after I've slept a while, and woken up. It seems as if it happens when I'm close to falling asleep - though this isn't always the case. It starts with a noise....kind of like a humming or buzzing that begins quietly and gets louder. I am unable to move....blink, twitch, etc. Also, a feeling of terror quite often accompanies these sensations. I feel like if I don't shake myself out of it, I will be sucked out of my body or something like that. When I was little, I thought Satan was trying to kidnap me...of course, that's just plain silly....but, I've never heard anybody else mention anything like this happening to them. When I asked my doctor, he told me (get this!) that I should read up on alien abduction symptoms! Then he laughed....and said it sounded like I was having a bad dream, and not to worry. I don't think he really understood that this happens quite frequently.

What a jackass of a doctor. I have the exact exact same symptoms. There has to be some sort of explanation. My previous post was the best I could do. I need a cure though. There is sort of a strange repetative sound.

 

[nexusfruit]

Sleep paralysis is more common than you think. This is due to the fact that it happens every time you sleep. Your mind goes into REM and forces all motion to stop below the neck. Its a safety mechanism so that you don't do something stupid to yourself when you're sleeping, like say, get up and jump off a flight of stairs because you are having a dream about chasing a rabbit.

 

[MJL]

I can recal having about five experiences of both what I consider to be sleep and dream paralysis, two of which where in my dreams and three in a conscious state (as I was aware of the surroundings of my room just with the possible addition of hypnagogic hallucinations). They seem to be rapidly increasing. The first two I can't quite remember when I had them, the third happened all of a few months ago, the fourth was about two weeks ago and the last one was about three days ago. Because of this I decided it may be appropriate to look into the possible causes for the experience:

*Sleeping in a supine position (facing upwards)
*Irregular sleeping schedules; naps, sleeping in, sleep deprivation
*Increased stress
*Sudden environmental/lifestyle changes
*A lucid dream that immediately precedes the episode. Also conscious induction of sleep paralysis is a common technique to enter a state of lucid dreams, also known as WILD[1] .
*Artificial sleeping aids, ADD medications and/or antihistamines

But I believe these are specific to being in a conscious state, in dreams I am uncertain. Although I have been told that in dreams to be paralysed is a reflection of how you may feel about a particular topic in your life. As for me personally, I've probably done/still induce all but the last one from the list above.

 

[MJL]

Furthering Dream Paralysis

Suddenly I wonder if I have further induced the possibility of getting this by conciously trying to force myself awake once I realise I'm having a nightmare, and do not mistake me for having a hallucination in a conscious state. I'm literally reffering to something with the likeness of: Just about to be eaten by a zombie, in the back of some alley way and not being in my room thinking I can sense some sort of entity holding me down. Which actually lol that makes six I can remember.