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I go to sleep and use to wake up paralyzed in my sleep, but...

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Answer by Lily
Submitted on 12/6/2003
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Well, REM (rapid eye movement) is a portion of your sleep where in addition to your eyes moving rapidly beneath your eyelids (hence the name), you also become physically paralyzed so you don't act out your dreams. This is the portion of sleep where you have the majority of your dreams, and it is a mechanism that our body adapts so we are not moved to physically act out our dreams. For example, sleepwalkers have a glitch with this mechanism in their body, which is why they move around while they are dreaming. As for what is happening to you, I have never heard of a case like this before. If you are describing this accurately, it seems like you may also have a disorder that does not allow you to properly experience REM. You should not be awakening during this period, and it definitely is not a good sign that you are. You should see your doctor, explain these symptoms (because it certainly is not healthy for you to be depriving your brain of oxygen during these periods), and they will either handle the issue themselves, or direct you to another person (sleep doctor) who can address this problem better. Hope this helped.

Answer by Jennifer
Submitted on 12/9/2003
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You have what is called "sleep paralysis". It can be a sleep disorder unto itself or could be a symptom of narcolepsy (another sleep disorder). I have episodes, myself, of sleep paralysis, where I'm not completely awake and not completely asleep. My eyes are open but I can't move or scream. I also get "hypnogogic hallucinations" during these episodes where I think I see someone or something in the room. This is terrifying seeing as I am unable to move or speak. Usually there is a buzzing noise that gets louder and louder, too. During these episodes all I want to do is to fully wake up and usually after a minute I am able to do it usually by managing a small sound like a moan. These episodes of sleep paralysis always feel absolutely terrifying and when I do finally wake up for real there is a moment of confusion about what is real and what was a dream/hallucination and then a moment of great relief.

Answer by John
Submitted on 3/5/2004
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I've been having this problem for 30 years, I grew up with it. I never know what it was. It was very bothersome and strange to me without a clue. there was no way to explain that to anyone, they wouldn't know what the hell I'amtalking about. Sometime while I'amasleep I be feeling like a truck is on me I want to get from underneath it but I be feeling so weak and powerless I can't move nor doing anything. When it bothered me so much I began to pray to God asking him not to let me deal with those dreadful moments while I'amasleep. God told me that it is too much sweet things that I drink before I go to sleep and that I need to quit drinking sweet things such as juice, sodas, orange juice or anything that has a lot of sugar. One night, before I went to sleep I drank a tall glass of orange juice just to find out. It was not that I did not trust God, I was just hard headed and stubborn. That night was the worst I've ever had. I dreamed that the mattress was on my face suffocating me, I tried to move it off me but I was too powerless to do so, I wish someone could help me. The next night I went to bed without drinking anything sweet. Nothing happened. the second night I did the same thing nothing happened. The third night before I went to bed I drank a bottle of apple juice. That night I dreamed that I was upside down in a water hole wishing someone could wake me up. It was then I really find out that it was sugar beverages at night before bed that caused those sleep paralysis. I find out that you can also have those bad sleep by covering your head with bedsheet or blankets.

Answer by Kappy25
Submitted on 5/6/2004
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I've had basically the same thing happen to me. It didn't start till my Jr. year in College, I'm now 23 and still having this weird dreams. My problem is that there is a strong force pushing down on my body and won't let me go. Also I can't move, talk, scream, etc. Sometimes the room will begin to spin around real fast, but this doesn't happen all the time. Also I do hear a sudden humming noise that gets louder and louder throughout the dream. I end up saying in my head since I can't talk to let me go please let me go and then I will be released from my dream all the spinning and pressure is gone and I'm now awaking. Does anyone else have dreams like this with this effects?

Answer by Summer
Submitted on 8/3/2004
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I just was wondering if this could be anything close to psychic stuff or not, or like a medium? I also have episodes of sleep paralysis, and hypnogogic hallucination, but I see people that I don't know and they talk to me. Most of the times I cannot remember what they say, because I'm so scared while it's happening. Until recently my father passed away, it was the first time I could tell the sleep paralysis/hypnogogic hallucination was coming on but wasn't scared this time. And I looked over and my dad was right next to me reading. Then a week later, I was lying in bed thinking about some crappy choices I have made in my life, and I heard him say, "it's ok sweetheart." I started to cry. I wish I was more able to control what happens, can you? Is it even possible? If anyone has reply's please e-mail me at summer@doorpi.net Thanks, Summer

Answer by Celcius
Submitted on 9/12/2004
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Sleep paralysis and the astral body link. Sleep paralysis: About 40 to 50% of us suffer from sleep paralysis, which is waking up asleep. I suffer from this myself. When we wake up, most of our senses work, but we are paralyzed and unable to move. For me this is very uncomfortable because it's a bit more then just being paralyzed. It feels like you MUST snap out of it and wake up. What I do is kick my foot or wiggle my hand or arm. This is the only movement I can make while in the state of sleep paralysis. Slowly my body wakes up and I snap out of it within a couple minutes. While paralyzed I am actually still technically asleep, yet my mind is awake. I can see my room or my face buried into the pillow through my closed eyelids. This is due to seeing with my astral body. During this period, if I wish to, I can also have an out of body experience, which is floating to the ceiling and looking down on my body sleeping. For those of you who don't know, an out of body experience is not a near death experience. You can actually train your spirit to leave your body and fly around. Most of you would have heard stories about people floating above their hospital beds and looking down on the doctors operating? Same thing. The main reason for sleep paralysis is that you wake up in your astral body until you are converted into your physical body and woken up physically. I must also explain what the astral body is. We are made up of 3 bodies.The physical body, the astral body and the soul. But for simplicity, let us dwell on just two. We have our physical body, which is what you see in the mirror and are able to move around in. Within the physical body we have the astral body and soul. The astral body in all of us collects the energy our physical body needs and uses. With training, one is able to move his or her consciousness from the physical body to the astral body. One is then able to fly around the house and neighborhood in spirit form. To go into the subject more fully: to achieve this you have to learn how to put yourself into a trance or meditate. Just before you fall asleep, picture yourself being pushed out or flying. The astral body is put under pressure and is ejected from your physical body. If you are lucky, your mind will be placed into the astral body from being in a meditative and relaxed state. You will remember flying around when you wake up as if you were really there, because you were. If your mind stays in the physical body, then you simply fall asleep and watch what your astral body is doing through your dreams. My experiment with this was only for research purposes. I will not perform out of body experiences again due to the astral realm being home to a wide range of entities (most of which were never alive as human). Some of the entities are other human spirits having their own out of body experiences while their physical body lies asleep on their beds. The fact is we ALL have out of body experiences every night while we sleep. Our astral body hovers just above our physical body while sleeping. This is how our bodies recharge our energy levels. Sometimes our astral body flies away, which is where some of our dreams come from. Have you ever woken up from sleep with a jolt that made you feel like you just jumped a couple inches off the bed? That's why!The astral body depicts its travels as our dreams. When our astral body returns to our physical body, we literally "snap" back into each other. I hope I'm not losing you all here; it's a very hard topic to try to explain.

Answer by Justinm
Submitted on 9/22/2004
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This happends to me very very often. It use to happen in my bed, and I would 'see' shadows in the dark that I knew were trying to get me. I'd be paralysed and could only look around. However now I seem to ONLY do it when I'm sleeping at work. If I fall asleep at work. I'll suddenly think, man I've been asleep too long and try to wake up. I'll find myself paralysed. Then I'll start hearing things. My boss is asking where I'm at and they think I'm sleeping and there trying to find me. Then I get scared they'll catch me sleeping and I try to wake up. But of course I'm paralysed. When I finally do get up I usually find that nothing is going on. Its great we have a webpage to share our experiences. I try to do complex math problems or holding my breath. (I've never heard any humming or felt my heartbeat or been unable to breath)

Answer by Kyle the Saint
Submitted on 9/28/2004
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Interesting, I just had one of these earlier today so I decided to research it online. I've been having them for about a year, and everytime they deal with some evil spirit being in my room, and most of them come straight out of a nightmare I just so happen to be having. The first, I was dreaming that I was hearing eerie voices to my right, when I turned my head I opened my eyes, I was paralyzed, then two arms jutted out from behind me/under me (I was lying on a bed) and grabbed me, I heard the evil laughter, and I couldnt move until about a minute later when the arms took the shape of my covers. Just a few hours ago, I was dreaming something about a haunted house, and someone walking behind me and starting to choke me, when I awoke, I was paralyzed, and something was shaking me violently from behind. Creepy stuff, but I think it's very intriguing.

Answer by Fallon
Submitted on 10/21/2004
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I am 22 years old and have been experiencing these types of episodes for years. I always feel as if I am out of my body (wide awake), yet something is holding me down. I can't move at all and feel as though I can't breathe (although I really know that I am breathing, just more slowly). I have been reading on the internet about astral projection, and am beginning to think that I experience that, but I am not sure. Astral projection, in short (from what I have gathered)is when your astral body leaves your physical; your body is asleep, but your mind is still awake. I never go far when my episodes occur, I guess because I have always been afraid to even experience these things. What do you all think?? Any feedback is appreciated!

Answer by NEFF!!!!!!! IM SCARED TO SLEEP
Submitted on 1/4/2005
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Im stuck with the horror of knowing what death is like to struggle for that last breath before yo0u Die!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and im only 13 (male)!!!!!great time to learn huh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I wake up go to bathroom come back and lay in bed 5:00am I was perfectly ok i was looking at my door (awake) I see this black flash and turn my head close my eyes to go to sleep (sleeping begins)i fall asleep and almost emediatly my eyes are open (i dont know if i was asleep or awake im shure i was awake) i see my wall right in my face im perfectly fine as if im laying there Then all of the sudden i cant breath, I try to turn my head and scream for help but i cant move my headl, so i try to get out of Bed with my legs/arms thinking call 911 your having a stroke!!!!!!!!!! i cant move my arms or legs so then i relize sorry Ben you had a good life but it ends here!!!!! but i dont want that so i just will myself harder to move and i just start shaking harder and hader and i just dont give up i push with all my might i have in me and im serous it was a long fight!!!!!! im telling myself if you can move your gonna die but i never ended up moving i just kept fighting it and shacking harder and harder. then outa nowere im back in my bed eyes awake ( it was a bang that got me outa it ( brothers helped not on perpose though) and i jump outa bed freaking out about ready to call 911 i run in my brothers room for the phone and one of thems like whats up with that your mattress was going up and down (bouncing on the bed) its 5:30am and i explained what happend and he told me what it was and said he had it to. so i feel better about it until today were i am up at 4:00am afraid to leave my room thinking anything could happend loke ghost,monsters, fall and hurt myself i mean i am paranoid and i'monly gonna get worse PLZ !!!! i really need help right know i cant sleep anymore

Answer by anne
Submitted on 1/12/2005
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I have had the experience of suffocation and even something trying to have sex with me. A few months ago I was taking an afternoon nap and I experienced having a connection with this external force. It literally connected with my g spot and it felt like it tapped into my soul. I was freaked out and I made an appointment with a "well know" psychic. He told me it might be my "twin soul" trying to connect with me. I, of course, had no clue what a "twin soul" was. I researched on the internet. Basically, my question wasn't answered and I [again] had another queer experience in my sleep the other night. I keep a rosary in my bed and it had fallen off the bed one night and that was the night I had this dream again. Keep a rosary under your pillow and have faith in what it stands for and you might not have these dreams anymore. -Just a suggestion :)

Answer by sicknosis
Submitted on 1/27/2005
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Hi my name is Scott K. im 17 years old. this all seems very interesting, I have had this about 7 times, and it started about a year ago.like most of you its just as you describe, you hear a sound it gets louder as you become more conscious. I had one of these disorders this morning but from all of the ones ive had it doesnt feel really scary to me i dont know why, im glad i dont feel the same way about it as some. To answer tamiraz' question, from what i can recall, every time this happens to me is when i am waking up by myself, it usualy happens when i dont set my alarm, in my room, it happened twice when i was camping in a tent, and a few times at my cottage. all with no alarms, anyways i find this very interesting, because this morning it was like i could see but it was all so dark and weird, like the outlines of things were in purple / green (very light) and everything else was black. anywho i hope someone finds and explanation for this and i wouldnt doubt if it has anything to do with self awakening. Another note on my self is that i have an anxiety disorder if that may help solve anything. Thanks for the help and its good to know im not alone.

Answer by driven
Submitted on 1/31/2005
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This weird experience has happened to me as well. It's kinda hard to explain but in my own experience it has happened more than once throughout my time. I am asleep and suddenly I am awaken in a terrifying fear not able to breathe or possibly wake up yelling with my body paralyzed only able to stare at the ceiling. I can't yell for help and that's all i want to do when this occurs is for someone to wake me up but noone is ever around when this does occur. It really does feel terrifying like there is someone pushing down on my chest and all i can do is watch the ceiling or wherever i am looking .But anyways this is my addition to this growing disorder or event. I wonder what really is happening to so many of people out there? why are there so many with the same experience?

Answer by klaus
Submitted on 2/4/2005
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I have had this off and on for the last 15yrs. The buzzing in my head feels more than a noise,it's like an electric current. For me i now realize that this along with the loss of breathing and movement, is not going to kill me so i don't tend to worry about it anymore.My advice is enjoy the dream that plays out in front of you for the thirty or so seconds that it lasts,i do, even though they are extremely vivid and horribly real.my most frightening one was when i watched a man dressed in a type of black ninja outfit enter my bedroom,stop, and look right over me and then carried on to the bottom of my bed,crouched down then proceeded to pop his head up and down very slowly a number of times then start to crawl up my bed,but nowadays i think of that as a good one.You never know you may be lucky and slip straight into another one when you try to go back to sleep,i used to get about 4 or 5 attacks in a row! don't get me wrong i used to be terrified of them and dreaded going to bed when i first got them. As time goes on you will find that you can actually control the dreams. Just remember that what you are seeing is just a dream and that you will be able to move/breath in a very short while,you can actually tell yourself this as you are having the attack. I have also learned how to initiate the attacks and although its not easy everyone could do it.

Answer by wonderer
Submitted on 3/17/2005
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hmm. well i can't give any expert opinion or any sacred little tales of ghosts. all i can do is present my own experience. it happened when i was about 7(i think)and i'm now 20. i remember it was on a sunday morning because it kept my family from attending church. when i went to bed everything was normal (lol from what i can remember) and when i woke up i was paralyzed. but unlike all the other stories i've heard in here i could move only my head. i was screaming and yelling for my mom because i couldn't move. she said for me to just calm down and that it'll probably go away in a sec. so i stopped yelling and after about 5 min or so i was able to get up and get out of bed. that has to be one of the wierdest things that's ever happened to me and i'll remember it till the day i die. maybe it will be some help to someone else i really don't know but that's my experience.

Answer by Toni F.
Submitted on 3/25/2005
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I am 22 and I have been having these episodes every since high school. I just had one last night and I had to look this up, because it is really making me think. my mom and dad had them, and some of my brothers and sisters. Lastnight when i had it, i was extremely tired and i fell right to sleep. for about 2 hours i couldn't move and talk. i kept dreaming that i was awake, but the same dream kept playing in my head over and over. at that point i knew i wasn't awake, and i tried my best to wake up. after a while, i woke up in a panic and i couldn't breathe. when i have these episodes the same thing happen to me. one time i did experience a loud humming sound in my ears, but it didn't stop me from falling right to sleep. i did research on narcolepsy some years ago, and i found out that this what we are going through is a symptom of it. my mothers dad had narcolepsy so i think that is where mine come from.

Answer by kashelle
Submitted on 4/6/2005
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This has been happening to me since I was five years old. I'm 18 now and it's only gotten worse. I go to sleep and then I feel like I'm being strangled. I'm partially up, I know this because I can hear my family or tv set in the background, but I can't move, my eyes are sealed shut, i can't breathe. I feel like I'm going to die and then seconds before I'm sure it's the end I manage to breathe again and wake up. It's so scary. When I was little I used to be afraid to go to sleep. Sometimes I'd stay up days trying to avoid it. I've tried everything to stop it. I tried different sleeping positions, herbal teas, and certain nasal strips but it keeps happening. This happens at all times of the day not only at night. Sometimes while riding in the car with someone I would just lean back and close my eyes and then it would start to happen again. I'd hear them talking to me but I would be paralyzed. I never heard a noise associated with this but still this is the first place I've been where other people claim the same thing is going on. It feels so good to know I'm not alone in this.

Answer by Atlanta
Submitted on 4/29/2005
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I was just chatting with my friend in Cali about my experience, this so called "sleep paralysis." I'm so relieved that I'm not the weird guy or seeing ghost... I got up pretty early this morning for something... afterwards i went back to sleep. For a short period, maybe i was dreaming this, i was sleeping pretty soundly, I opened my eyes briefly and I saw someone or something standing in front of my bed. It absolutely freaked me out! So I tried to move and get up, but my physical body was paralyzed, i wasn't able to move at all! I really had to struggle to lift my arm up, then "it" disappeared and i was able to move again. That was so weird. I've had similar experiences before, but this is the latest. Sometimes I couldn't breath, either, like I'm going to suffocate. Just when I think I'm on the brink of dying i function normally, again. Fcuking sucks!

Answer by Sophia
Submitted on 5/3/2005
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I came on this site looking for answers - but found people with similar experiences to myself instead! Basically, I begin to wake from dream sleep, but can't quite make it into the waking world for what feels like hours, but probably is only some minutes. I can talk to myself in this state and generally I find that telling my self to 'relax', rather than giving way to panic-filled struggle, actually helps me to 'wake up' much quicker and more comfortably. I think the basis is neurological - some kind of unusual connection in the brain between wake-sleep instructions. In fact, I first developed this pattern after a period of particularly acute stress in my life. The first time it happened, I thought I was going to die, or had entered a coma. However, I did struggle to the surface! I developed the 'relax and go with the flow' technique since then! I hope this is helpful to you out there - to find your own voice in this half-state and ease your voyage back into the waking world.

Answer by Jay R
Submitted on 6/16/2005
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Hi my name is jay and i have been experiencing these horrible sleep paralyisis episodes scince i was around five years old and they really stress me out because they are so terrifiying! they are getting worse! I didnt have a clue what it was that was happening untill i read Jennifer's experience submitted in the 12/09/03! it's exactly what happens to me! Last night was the worst one ever! I woke up paralized and saw something that seemed to be hiding behind the door frame of the bedroom and evertime i looked at it! it vanished. it was dark coloured and had a evil look to it! i still could not move!i was lieing on my left side paralized from the neck down and i could see my girlfriend in the mirror oposite me doing things that she had done days before, the mirror looked like it was broken in to sections of which my girlfriend was in each of them! puttin her chain on around her neck, playing with her children in another part.But the whole time she was asleep next to me, it felt like i was taking my last breath then i started to call for my girlfriend who was lieing next to me, she actually said she was awake from experiencing something simmilar but hers only lasted for a few seconds! she said she could hear me trying to say something but she thought i was dreaming! and then all of a sudden watever it was that was holding me released me and i shouted out her name! i felt scared and confused about what had just happend! and now today the day after i still dont feel normal, i have a pounding headache and am still trying to work out why this happens to me!The whole episode lasted about two minutes, could this be a spirit because it happend to my girlfriend liening next to me seconds before?

Answer by Daniel
Submitted on 6/20/2005
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Hypnagogic(predormital-before) and Hypnopompic (postdormital-after) associated with sleep paralysis is quite common and is not life -threatening. This is different that CSP (common sleep paralysis which is caused by secrete hormones from our macro glands that are released to the muscle-skeletal system that keeps us relaxed and essence 'paralyzed'). However, there will be times when a sleeper will 'abnormally awake' before the hormones wear off,it becomes 'isolated sleep paralysis'. It happens as far as I understand, when a person might produce too much of these secreter ,or too less. It's non-life threatening,and certainly does not deprive your brain from O2(oxygen). This happens even in healthy individuals. I started to have this 'Hypnogogic/Hypnopompic Sleep Paralysis' since the age of 14; and now at the age of 33, rarely do I get it. Yeah, the feeling of being crushed by the 'Old Hag Syndrome'(having a difficulty in breathing and the sensation of someone pounded their weight on your chest and seeing a malevolent entity upon you--it is uncanny and bizzare). But, do not worry, according to David J. Hufford in his book "The Terror that comes in the night: A Experience-Centered Study of Supernatural Assault Traditions" --concludes by conducting numerous interviews with people with "The Old Hag Phenomenon", 15% of the general population will undergo 'HSP' at a point in their lives. As of now, did you know that 25% of America has this sleeping disorder which is non fatal . Sleep Apnea (obstructive breathing during sleep,likely caused by snoring or enlarged and a partially obstructive nasal septum,where the sufferer snorts and gasps for air) is prov-en to be fatal; and at one time was misdiagnosed with this type of sleep paralysis. HSP is found with 'most' healthy individuals. And yes, I know there are ways of breaking off the paralysis. Hint: try making psychical movements ,such as wiggling your hands and feet ,even before going to sleep as a habitual practice. I really hope my explanation does help for you all who suffer from HSP.

Answer by Doug
Submitted on 6/27/2005
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I've gone through the exact same paralysis in my sleep. In fact I just had an episode last nite which freaked me out. I began by dreaming that a i let a friend down by not watching his 5 year old girl for him ( i think she went missing ) and he got ticked off. So he came over to me while I was lying on my bed and began twisting my leg. I vaguely remember pinching him back and hurting him but that's all I could do because I was paralyzed. Next, my eyes were open but I was still being hurt by my friend ( And the background of the dream was the same as what I was actually staring at in my bedroom ) After about 15 seconds of struggling to awaken from the paralysis of the dream my friend vanished. I'm pretty sure this is just a dream incorporated into my sleep paralysis but...The first time this occurred I was looking at the same corner of my room and there was a 30 year-old dead woman hovering above me and she turns to me and starts mumbling obscenities under her breath and spitting on me. Then she twist my leg, as happened last nite, and I started calling out to God to make her stop. Then, as before, I struggled to awaken and she disappeared. My eyes were open the entire time though - so when I say I awaken the image just vanishes. Needless to say it freaks the crap out of me. I'm a skeptical mind so I slough it off like it's just a dream but a part of me thinks it's a spirit in my room telling me I'm unwelcome. Does anyone else have a mixture of dream sequence and the sleep paralysis?

Answer by siara
Submitted on 7/8/2005
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I just had one of these dreams or "fright-mares" the other night for the first time. I was staying at my boyfriends new apartment and I was totally comfortable. I woke up and could only open my eyes i tried to move my arms and couldn't. It felt as if there was an enormous weight on top of me. I tried to scream out his name and not a sound could come out. It was the most terrifying moment ever. I closed my eyes right away because i am also afraid of ghosts and such. I fell asleep right away. If you can I suggest just closing your eyes and trying to relax and fall asleep. Also I never sleep on my back and this time I had.. maybe that had something to do with it. Apparently our minds switch from alpha to beta while we sleep and our body remains in one stage as our mind shifts to the other. I hope it never happens to any of us again. Sweet Dreams from now on to all!!!

Answer by jojo123
Submitted on 7/16/2005
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Hi I was discussing something similar to this with my girl friend, we both have experianced this only once, but find it a little disturbing that it was basically the same experience. for me I woke up on my back looking infront of me, and I saw this shadow move over me, it wasn't like a ghost or anything just like when you move your hand infront of the wall, but only it was big and it slowly moved over me, I could not move at all, and I could not speak or yell, and my teeth were grinting together really hard, and i could not stop it. then after the shadow went away I was able to move. I know this seems a little bizzar but my girl friend told me she experienced something like this, without me telling her before hand. What my theory is that simply Im waking up but my body is asleep, but it just doesn't explain the shadow or the grinting teeth.

Answer by wooo
Submitted on 7/24/2005
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The reason you wake up and can not move is because when you go into a deep sleep your body goes into a natural paralysis. It does this because when you go into a deep sleep (one of the natural stages of sleep), you dream. If you can't remember the dreams, it doesn't matter because you still dream. When you dream your body paralyzes itself so you don't get up and start acting out the dream. This is why sleepwalkers walk around. Their mind doesn't shut down their body so they are not paralyzed, causing them to walk around and act out their dreams. When you wake up paralyzed you wake up out of a deep sleep and your body has not yet realized that you are awake, so you still can not move. This is because your brain and body think you are still dreaming and do not want you to act out your dream (get up, run, or something dangerous like thinking you can fly) After your body realizes you are awake, you can move. This is why it only lasts a short time.

Answer by mike
Submitted on 8/31/2005
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Way late to this, but this has happened to me 3 times...happened twice in a 10 minute period the other day, and once a couple years ago. I'm 28. I'll be breathing, but I just can't consciously control it. All I can do is make a faint murmer of a sound. I get the "buzzing"/"rushing" sound, too...I actually am fairly certain it is the sound of blood rushing through muscles around your ears...why it happens I don't know, but that's exactly what it sounds like to me. When it happened to me the other day, the second time actually didn't scare me at all, and I paid close attention to how it felt rather than struggling. When you know it's just a sleeping "glitch", it's really not so bad. Part of your brain thinks your sleeping, and the other thinks you're awake. Nothing to be afraid of. It's easy to think some "spirit" is messing with you, but it's just your brain.

Answer by Sofia
Submitted on 9/2/2005
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I just had this last night like five to six times. Right after my husband left to work at 2 am, I just had a strange feeling. After I fell asleep for thirty minutes, I couldn't breathe, move, or scream. It happens to me often so all I did was relax, but that didn't help me. I'm paranoid by evil spirits and when it happens to me, I think it's the evil spirits. Luckly my toes started to move and I felt a sudden relief. I turned on the light and try to fall asleep, but the same thing happened again!! I could feel my veins on my head moving like I needed air. This happend to me three more times. It was finally five o'clock and I fell asleep. The first time it happened to me, I was scare to death. I don't know why this happen.

Answer by Jessica
Submitted on 10/27/2005
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I just started suffering sleep paralysis about a year ago when I started college. I moved away and lived with my best friend and her family who are Christian as well as myself. One night this happened to my friend who slept in the same room as me, and woke up in the middle of the night crying because she was half asleep, half awake, and couldn't move at all. The next day she told me she felt as if something was pushing her on top of her chest, stopping her from breathing. She said her eyes were somewhat open because she could see her room, but she saw a shadowy figure of her dog sitting next to her bed. That night, she left our room to go pray with her parents in their room, and ended up falling asleep there. Me, not knowing what she was talking about, and too tired to stay awake to find out, I went back asleep in our room, not worried or afraid about anything. Only a little while later the exact same thing happened to me, only i could breathe fine, and I just saw a shadowy figure standing next to my bed. I couldn't move, couldn't scream or do anything. I tried to move as best as a could to wake up, and it worked. Except I woke up to a perfectly normal dark room with no one in there but myself. I convinced myself that it was nothing, but still a little scared, I put the bedroom light on dimly, and fell back asleep. It felt as if it was only 5 minutes later when I saw an image of my mother in the ugliest form, and this scared the heck out of me. I woke up crying, not knowing what was going on, and no one to talk to. At that moment, I began to pray asking God why this was happening and for it to stop. Desperately tired from the lack of sleep, and the crying I fell asleep only to feel something very uncomfortable in the room. I woke up with a sudden and opened my eyes to see nothing abnormal. I fell back asleep after maybe 10 minutes, until the sound of books on the shelve next between my bed and my friends', fall to the side. After that I was convinced it was a spiritual demon in that room. We prayed it out the next day and it didn't happened again until several months later when we would get occasionally, it at different times, and me, only in the morning. Since then, I'd have episodes of sleepy paralysis every now and then, but not to often. I've moved back home due to financial situations, where I sleep in my bedroom. My little sister sleeps next to me and 2 days ago, we've both had it--her in the middle of the night and me around 8 in the morning. Except for her, just like my friend, cannot breathe. I've gotten it this morning as well, around the same exact time, and this being the 3rd time I've gotten it in this house, have no idea what is causing it. I noticed that both times it has happened this week, I went to sleep later than usual, around 1 am, and resulted in me being very tired when I go to sleep. Maybe it has to do with how tired you are, that it affects your REM. All I know is that, that night at my friend's house, it had to have been associated with something spiritual. I don't know what else would have caused it.

Answer by Yannis
Submitted on 11/5/2005
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in my country's culture they say that when this happens it is because of the Devil sitting on your chest causing you paralysis.. Since my fifteens I have been experiencing it for about a hundred of times. and it is always very scaring. it usually happens when I wake up from a nightmare or a unpleasant dream (feeling ashamed or something). When it happens I feel that my eyes are open (but they are not), I think I can see the room (which is also false, I just "make" the image myself), and I cannot move my arms and legs, or open my mouth to scream, and that I cannot breathe. I'm also hearing this buzz in my ears getting louder and louder. I'm in panic. After a while (which seems like a long time..) a manage to scream very loud, and this is my escape from the mind trap. I have read that this is happening because of a failure of the brain to perform a smooth passing from the sleep state to the awaken state. In other words, your brain awakes and you can think, but the centers responsible for moving your muscles are still in the sleep state. As I get older it happens less often. There must be at least 6 months since the last time.

Answer by A.M.N.
Submitted on 11/11/2005
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Only a few times so far have I had the same experience as you guys, but it was enough times to tell me that it's horrible. It's the only real thing in this world that scares me half to death. And I'm 15! It's strange really, when it happens to me, I usually wake up from a very bad dream or no dream at all. But it's always a dream that I feel very conscious in, alive. And then all the sudden, my eyes open, and I see around the room that I fell asleep in, only I can't move anything except for my eyes. Just this last time it happened to me, my eyes opened, and I remember looking at my hands, lying next to me. I tried really hard to concentrate on moving my hands. But I just couldn't do it. In fact, I couldn't really feel anything, or hear anything either. It was mostly scary, because I felt alone, trapped, because I couldn't wake up. It was hard, because in my eyes, I felt that if I relaxed them for one moment, I would go back to sleep. And I didn't want to, because I was just having a nightmare, before these sensations occurred. And I didn't want to return to the nightmare! But for some reason, I felt I had to wake up. I was fully conscious, and while trying so hard to keep my eyes open, I suddenly could move again, and I was fully awake. But what was weird, is that I remember everything so well after awakening. And the transition from just lying there, to fully awakening, made me realize, that everything I saw- my surroundings, my body, everything- was real. I wasn't visualizing or dreaming it at all. And when I went to tell my mom or someone, they didn't understand me, and they just said I was dreaming. From what I remember, when I was looking around the room, wondering "Why can't I just wake up! somebody! Can't you see me! My eyes are open!"--I noticed, that everything was a little cloudy, fuzzy, blurry to my vision. It was so silent, that I almost think that I heard a low drone, or hum. But I definitely wanted to wake up, because I was so close to awakening, that I felt the need to fully awake, before going back to sleep. It's frightening, because you're just so close! Yet still very far away. I don't ever want to experience this again. Now I am afraid to go to sleep tonight. Can anyone shed some light?

Answer by Lindsey
Submitted on 11/17/2005
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I'm so glad that I've found other people who have experienced this! It happens at least once every 2 or 3 weeks. I'm 17 and this has been going on for about 2 years. I just lay there, and I can talk in my head, but nothing happens. It either feels like somebody is in the room or I actually see what appear to be somebody standing near my bed. I'll be screaming and nothing will happen. About twenty seconds later, I manage to shake out of it, sit up, and turn on a light. There's nothing this scary that I can even compare this too. I had a horrible one last night and decided to finally figure out what this could be. Last night, especially, my head felt like it does when they give you laughing gas stuff at the dentist, a sort of numb-like feeling.

Answer by corey
Submitted on 12/1/2005
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I have the same symptoms. It will only occur every once in a while like every 3 months. But it sometimes feels like somebody is holding me down and shaking me and I can't move. I haven't really concentrated on breathing so I don't know if I am able to. But, I have tried to yell and get up but moving is not an option. I will see dark figures sometimes in the room or faces, which makes me feel like I am being posessed. I have heard that these symptoms are caused by stress, anxiety, or being bipolar. I have also heard that if you concentrate on your fingers and try to move them that you will snap out of this sleep and awake limbo. I haven't gotten a chance to try this out yet, but I will the next time it happens.If you try it and it works let me know

Answer by corey
Submitted on 12/1/2005
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I have the same symptoms. It will only occur every once in a while like every 3 months. But it sometimes feels like somebody is holding me down and shaking me and I can't move. I haven't really concentrated on breathing so I don't know if I am able to. But, I have tried to yell and get up but moving is not an option. I will see dark figures sometimes in the room or faces, which makes me feel like I am being posessed. I have heard that these symptoms are caused by stress, anxiety, or being bipolar. I have also heard that if you concentrate on your fingers and try to move them that you will snap out of this sleep and awake limbo. I haven't gotten a chance to try this out yet, but I will the next time it happens.If you try it and it works let me know

Answer by Diana
Submitted on 12/5/2005
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About 5 or 6 months ago, I rearranged my room. I put my bed on the opposite side of the room. I "woke up" one morning to find myself unable to move. I was on my back and paralyzed. Looking around I decided it wasn't a dream. everything in my room was in it's place. But there were these almost invisible, ghost-like images/figures floating toward my head, as if trying to get into my head. It was very scary and seemed to last a long time. That was the only time that happened. I had decided to move my bed back to it's original location. But then, only a few weeks passed, when one morning I once again woke up, laying on my back, not as if I was paralyzed, but as if gravity had multiplied by a thousand. I dragged my foot to the edge of the bed to try to pull myself off, it almost felt as though it was working, but then suddenly I was back again where I had started. I tried over and over and it was useless. I put my hands together to pray and suddenly a voice said, "oh, so Now you want to ask for help!" (I hadn't much turned to God for anything but around this time wanted to learn more and expand my faith in the Lord) and I saw a calender in front of me and the days being marked every day, marking my sins, and I confessed to these sins and I woke up. I felt immense relief. Though it was more like a "dream" it was so real. And I know it was a miracle. I thanked God and continued to thank God. I have a few more relatively similar incidences that I will write in another post.

Answer by Diana
Submitted on 12/5/2005
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Last week, I fell asleep around 11:15am in my parents' room, our dog asleep at the end of the bed. I wanted to stay up until 12, when my boyfriend would call on his lunch break, but I dozed off. When I "woke up", I wasn't paralyzed. As far as I knew I had waken up and was walking toward the door, only to realize when I got there that there was no doorknob. I looked to the right where there is have a full-sized mirror on the wall, and in it there was a reflection of a little toddler curly-haired girl wearing pink. I don't have curly hair, nor am I a toddler, and I wasn't wearing pink. I noticed then that it wasn't my reflection. There were two people in the mirror, myself and this little girl. I don't remember how or when I climbed back into the bed, but what I remember next is being paralyzed, lying on my back, trying to lift my upper body or even just my head. The nightstand with the phone was just to my left. With all my will and might I tried to get closer to the phone. I would move about and inch or two successfully, but then be back where I was again. You don't know frustration until you are in this position. My arms weighed a hundred pounds each. I would grip the edge of the mattress and pull and pull, only to feel weaker and weaker. I then began to shout to the Lord. "Jesus! My Lord and Saviour, help me! Jesus! Jesus!" I was looking in the direction of my dog while shouting, and behind him, what looked like a videotape sorta bounced each time I said Jesus' name. With each bounce, the paralysis faded and the veil between dream and reality faded. I felt lighter and lighter until I was fully awake. I felt like I had been stuck there for so long, and that it had to be about 1:30 or 2:00. I looked over at the clock, and it was Exactly 12:00. My boyfriend's lunch break just started. I called him and told him the dream and after I told him the part with the little girl in the mirror he said, "I wonder if that means it's going to be a girl" (My boyfriend has curly hair, and we found out a few weeks ago that I'm pregnant).

Answer by Diana
Submitted on 12/5/2005
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Just today I had another "paralysis" incident. And that is why I came online to look it up, see what it means and if it happens to anyone else. I dream all the time, and I remember my dreams almost every morning. Today I laid down on my parents bed around 11, the sun shining in from the window to the left of me. I once again woke up paralyzed, laying on my back. I could see the sun's prismatic light in my eyelashes, just as one would in reality, I could feel it's warmth. I tried climbing off of the bed to my left. Impossible. I struggled for a while but recognized my situation, for it wasn't the first, second, or third time it had happened. I heard my sister walk by in th hallway, that's right, she doesn't have school today. I tried shouting her name but no sound came out and she continued to her room and shut the door. So I reached over to the nightstand and grabbed the bible. I expected to find relief but opened a book full of blank pages. I put my hands together to pray but they were invisible. (To others who wake up paralyzed, have you ever tried to look at your hands? Could you see them? This is the first and only time I noticed I couldn't see my hands) I could, however, feel my palms together and I proceeded to pray. There was a faint visual of Jesus in front of me. I prayed in his name to help me. And after a few times shaking my head and trying to open my eyes wider and force my surroundings to be real, I indeed woke up again, dog sleeping at the end of the bed, at 12:05. The strange thing is that the Bible in our home is not in my parents bedroom, but in the living room. And that makes sense why the pages were empty. But I am going to place the Bible next to me when I lay myself down to sleep, and if it happens again, I will reach for it.

Answer by JOrge...
Submitted on 12/17/2005
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I love When this happens... it started this year I'm 20... at first it was so scary that i didn't want to sleep no more.. then one time i felt like a force pushing me of my bed and then pushing my head into an electric outlet and i couldn't move or scream but still i felt that i was doing allot of strength.. when i woke up, i was in my bed and not on the floor, so that's when i knew that its really just a dream... and if you feel you can breath or can move.. when you wake up about 30sec later your totally ok... now when this happens to me, i know instantly that its one of those things.. and i just try to figure out ways of waking up faster.. one time i tried allot of force that i was able to turn my self around and woke up .. but know i just don't move or try to talk and just close my eyes and wait for it to go... but the feeling of not moving is so cool!>.

Answer by xtim
Submitted on 12/23/2005
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I know the Absolute Truth! Please Read it. That means there is a spider on your bed. A Big One too!! Duhhh, Come on guys, it's not spiders and ghosts and spirits. It's called "sleeping paralysis". It is usually ran through a family line. So if you have it, it's more likely that your mom, dad, grandma or grandpa had it. You get it in the stage of REM. This is when your brain waves don't go back and forth between your body as much. That is when you can't feel pain well, etc. Sometimes the brain turns on the waives too late and your brain cannot tell your body what to do the first 2-3 minutes, so your body cannot move for a few minutes. Here's what you can do to lessen the "sleeping paralysis": -Try to go to bed and wake up on the same time basis. -Don't stress out too much. It usually lessens within years. Here's what helped me: learning medicine and the effects of "sleeping paralysis". And reading Bible really removes stress:)

Answer by James
Submitted on 1/5/2006
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When I was really young, 3 or 4 I recall laying in bed and thinking that I was awake. Then I saw a large triangular shaped, black tongue touch my foot, and I felt an extreme amount of tingly and frightening energy, passing through my body. This energy is very similar to what I've felt, on and off, later on , and still. I'm 23 right now; for the past 10 years or so, I've had periods where, in my dream I feel paralyzed, I'm trying to move, but it's very difficult. When I finally think that I'm awaking, I open my eyes and can see the room, that i'm in. Everything is identical to how my room actually looks, but I just can't move or scream. I keep feeling this intense energy, which at times, I have actually purposely allowed to progress. At times I liked this energy, despite that most of the time it's very scary. I think that I kind of like it, when I know that I'm half asleep and It's not so intense that I feel unable to awake. This hasn't happened in a while, until a few nights ago, and for the past few nights. I was having a dream where I was behind the guesthouse, in the yard. I was practically falling all over myself, barely able to see or move, in some bushes. I awoke and I could see the room, and felt this scary energy; I couldn't move. Even after I fully awoke I still felt this energy, but hardly compared to when I couldn't move. It doesn't always happen after a dream, in which i feel a lack of control; it could happen shortly after I go to sleep, and I know where I am and my eyes are closed, but this energy is growing. I don't want to go to sleep with the lights off, right now. As far as hallucinations, I don't get that, but likely, I did when I was very young.

Answer by jack
Submitted on 1/7/2006
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Well i was reading all of the above and i am happy to know that i am not the only person to have this kind of strange dreams... I have this kind of sleep paralysis since i was very young. And i have noticed that the only way to get awake is by trying to move my legs. I have tried to shout and everything else but my only way is to move my legs. I also tried to get calm for some minutes but the problem is that i feel a lot of pressure in my body... I also think that this dreams have a meaning and we should try to understand why do we have them. Another strange thing that i have are my dreams. they are so vivid and I almost always remember them when I get awake. Does someone knows what does this mean???

Answer by bakagaijin
Submitted on 1/8/2006
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Sounds like something I have been having sometimes at random once a month, but sometimes it can happen 2 times a week. I feel a Strong Presence over my body holding me down from head to toe. It feels like it is trying to come into my body. I can't speak, move, or even breath. The only thing I can do is Think, and I am thinking I am dying and pray whatever it is does harm me and hope it goes away. I concentrate on fighting it off and asking God for help, and after several seconds the force slowly lifts away from my body and then just like that I just snap back to being able to breath, move and speak again. Then I lie awake remenencing for a few minutes with a pounding heart, but can fall asleep again like nothing happened. I have No Clue what it is. I always was thinking I am going crazy or something, like I can't tell this to a doctor or anything. I've also had spells where I was lying on a couch watching tv and I wantto get up to do something but I can't move at all. It had nothing to do with sleeping because I wasn't asleep. I just can't move. I concentrate really hard on wiggling a toe and then I just snap back to normal.

Answer by Frangucc
Submitted on 1/23/2006
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I've had this my whole life. When I was young, I thought I was being abducted by aliens. That was more likely the result of watching too much TV. As I grew older, I experienced it from time to time and have learned to control it. To describe what happens; as I am awakening, I usually am exiting a dream of some sort. When I awake, open my eyes, I find that I am in COMPLETE SHOCK. Call it "Sleep Paralysis" whatever. I cant speak, breath, move, scream, nothing. The harder you fight it, the louder the buzz and the more the shock. Quite literally a shocking sensation as you fight the feeling, using what seems to be all your physical strength. I'm awake, it's not a dream. To everyone else, I'm crazy, telling stories, or full of crap. What I learned is to release the tension and escape out of it slowly. Being catholic, throughout another phase of my life, I once believe that it was the DEVIL. I would slowly evnsion myself making the sign of the cross with my fingers, the way a priest would fend off a vampire, and for some reason, envisioning this, would allow me to escape it. What was really happening more likely, was that I was trusting in GOD to protect me, hence escaping it by relaxing. I find that it happens when I sleep on my back. Sometimes with my head tilted back, causing blood to rush to my head. Other times I provoke it in my dreams. It's like I know it's about to come and I can either wake myself up or choose to take things a step further and face the dragon. The halicinations sometimes occur. One time I was simotainiously ?SP... dreaming or halucinating that my Step mother was poisoning my by ingection and i couldn't move. The sleep paralysis then kicked in and I went through about 5 attempts to escape it. Very scary. Doctors don't recognize it. Some aren't sure we're liars. After sitting up in bed after an episode it feels like the life has literally been sucked right out of you. Left weak and scared. Parents should be concerned and explain escaping sleep paralysis to their children so they eventually learn to control it.

Answer by nick
Submitted on 1/23/2006
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It seems that I too have these problems. I remember one night i fell asleep on the couch , I was waiting for my older sister and her boyfriend to arrive. In the mean time I woke up paralyzed I guess you would say but i didnt hear any ringing. I imagine that my sister came home, in my mind i was looking at them and moving my feet to try and get her attention to help me. I was dreaming that i could hear also , they were talking to each other by the door about 10feet away. In the mean time i was trying to scream but i couldnt, and the top of my lungs screaming with nothing coming out! At this point I knew my body was messing with me. Finally not knowing how long it took i woke up with a pillow over my face, throwing it off I look around for my sister, no where to be found. Calling her she said that she was never at the house. Another wierd thing is I imagine everything my sister and boyfriend were doing, wearing , saying and it all seemed so real.

Answer by Ire
Submitted on 2/3/2006
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Not all the time but mostly when I wake up and go back to sleep I have had experience the same thing. I can't move at all. I want to reach my husband and I can't move. I cannot articulate at all. At times I have felt like if someone has gotten in bed and at the same time I experience a gust pumps all over my back. Lately, I hear a noise like newspaper being crunch and again like If something is trying to get inside of me. Always through my back. I cannot talk, I cannot move at all. I am completely paralyzed. I think about God. I say in the name of the father please get rid of this feeling. Sometimes it has worked then I wake up I guess. While having this experience I feel that am awake and not sleeping. Could it be I have been possed by a spirit? Can any one answer me? I have not had this episodes in a while now. But you watch tonight it may happen because I am talking about it!

Answer by Dwain
Submitted on 2/6/2006
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Well let me have a stab at this : There are two explanations to this scenario, being a bit of a realist and a bit of a spiritualist I believe neither explanation is wrong nor right. And yes I experience this on occasion too for a couple of years now, with the humming sound, the paralysis, the terrible I'm going to die feeling, which I am proud to say have since mastered and I wake up relatively easy now without too much discomfort) First off the Scientific Explanation : When entering deep REM sleep, you brain releases a chemical which puts your body to sleep(your mind never sleeps btw.) What happens when you wake up is another chemical is released to "unparalize" your body, with people that suffer from whatever this disorder is called you wake up a little bit before your "wake up juice" has properly entered into your system. Thus giving you the sensation of being awake and paralyzed, when this happens simply tell yourself that it will be over in a minute or so and that you will breath/move/scream whatever it is that your body needs to do in a short while, remember your body is an amazing thing and will never let itself harm ...well... itself. Then there is the Spiritual Conclusion : When you go to sleep your spirit leaves your body and floats about 1 foot above it, when you start to wake up your spirit tries to re-enter your body but doesn't quite align itself, so it takes a minute or so to re-align itself and settle again, the humming noise is associated with OBE's or Astral Projection, as is the paralysis of "unalignment"

Answer by Jeff
Submitted on 2/9/2006
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I've had this happen to me twice in my life, but a lot worse than what anyone here has described. The first case happened at my Grandma's when I was around 7. I arrived at my Grandma's after a six hour drive, but when we got there, I noticed a light in the sky. It intrigued me so much I pointed it out and it stunned my family even; so much my uncle went inside to grab a rifle to look at it through a scope. When all attention left the UFO that was hovering there changing light colors, it was gone when we looked back. Keep in mind this is in the country... no military bases around for miles. Well, that morning, (around 3:00am so it was still dark out), I decided to play NES and passed out alone in the living room there by huge windows with no blinds. I woke up only about an hour or two later out of nowhere, only to realize I couldn't move at all or talk. While I was in this fully paralyzed state I was having a live nightmare. In the nightmare there were these creatures trying to get to me and I kept having to run away and try to lose them, but it seemed like I couldn't ever get away from them. I then started moving about 15 minutes later and immediately pulled myself up and started screaming for my Dad who told me it was just a nightmare, but I tried telling him I was staring with my eyes open looking around the room and that my eyes continued to be opened until that moment I gained control and called him out there. I will tell the other half of my story to whomever wants to hear it, just request it. I'll bookmark this page.

Answer by kenny
Submitted on 2/10/2006
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i have been having the same thing happen to me for as long as i can remember.it used to happen almost every night in my old house id be just dozen off and the blankets whould tighten around me and i could not move. only by moving a small part of my body like my toes then graduly moving my whole body was i able to wake up.then when i moved it has only happened 5 times or so in 4 years . i also travel alot be in a different place every month and some time it will happen and sometimes not.last time it happend was in my girlfreinds house when i was in bed with her and i had my arms around her and i thout she was talking to me then she started not making any sence and talking funny like high pitched and when i relized that i could not move i new what was happening and tryed to let go but could not that was probly the worst time yet

Answer by Jess
Submitted on 2/13/2006
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Basically everyone has had the same symptoms of this. But your not dreaming. I have done ALOT of research on this and you are in a state of JUST falling asleep. Which is why you cannot move however u are aware of everything that is going on. I mean, I could be wrong but I have had this disorder for a long time. I am 17 years old now, and i have had it since i was about 13 but didn't think anything of it. The first time i just couldn't move. The second i could feel myself floating off the bed and onto the floor and yes you do hallucinate i have had these episodes EVERY NIGHT for the past month and the most horrifying one i thought my mother was trying to wake me and i couldn't talk or move all i could do was look at her....and when i woke she wasn't even there. I might not be making any sense but i know what I'm talking about. The episodes are getting worse worse lately for me. Every time i close my eyes it happens over and over and the more and more i experience it the more i hallucinate i keep thinking someone is around me trying to wake me up or they are just there watching me. its scary..but yeah i just figured I would write something...

Answer by Liz
Submitted on 2/16/2006
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I am thankful to find this site, today it happened again, thats how I found this sight tonight. It only happens when I nap during the day, but I'm sleeping on the couch (taking a break from school studies) My body is asleep for a little while then all of a sudden I'm wake up but my eyes are closed. I'm fully awake inside myself, I'm yelling out "please wake up, just open your eyes, Please god, let me open my eyes, just move, move your legs, get up..." then all of a sudden I feel this electrical buzzing that goes all through my body, I feel the vibration of this buzzing, like I'm being shocked but it doesn't hurt, it just feels weird. The first time the buzzing happened while I was awake while sleeping, I saw an electrical man coming at me when he touched me the buzz went through my body, I was terrified. I told my husband about this and said if I fall asleep and you hear me moaning please wake me up. Next time it happened he was sitting in the chair and heard me moan and could see I was trying to move my legs and jerking, he woke me up. This only happens when I sleep in the day, but it is terrifing and the only way to stop this is to not sleep during the day, also it happens when I stress out because I have a big test to take, and stressed from school stuff. I am so glad that I'm not alone. Liz

Answer by Diana
Submitted on 2/24/2006
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My symptoms are pretty similar to everyone else.. but I don't think there is a humming noise. Right before I experience this thing (ugh) I think to myself ( i guess when im dreaming) about a ghost being around me. Then I start shaking but I can't move by myself. I can't scream..I also can't breathe, and it really freaks me out. I feel like something is on me (ok but truthfully I imagine a ghost taking over me.. yes im serious lol). anyway.. about a month ago it happened and I was trying real hard to breathe.. i thought to myself 'ok i'm going to die so i'm gonna give up now'... it's really scary remembering what i thought. buuut.. the last time it happened.. 3 nights ago.. when it was happening i said 'it's ok i'll be able to breathe soon'. so .. i guess i'm getting better :) haha but i really don't understand what is going on. my dad has been experiencing stuff like this too, but i think his is more severe.. he makes a lot of noise when it's happening and then screams when he wakes up. i think personally for him.. it's guilt. so yeah i hope everyone starts having peaceful nights :)

Answer by Kait
Submitted on 3/2/2006
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hi. this same exact thing happened to me just last night for the first time. i had a very weird dream about a giant tiger but i KNEW i was dreaming, and i wanted to wake up. next thing I'm laying in my bed and all i hear is this loud buzz almost and my heartbeat racing. and it kept getting faster and faster and i couldn't open my eyes at first or move. finally i opened my eyes and the buzzing got louder. then i heard like a huge boom and turned my neck and everything went away but i had like cold sweat on my face, was shaking, and my heartbeat was still racing. and it felt like when this was happening that it lasted for HOURS but between the dream and waking up, it was only like 8 minutes. and then the same thing happened this morning when i went to sleep. this has never happened before, and I'm kind of creeped out.

Answer by gnumeric
Submitted on 4/2/2006
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This is a highly compressed version of my experiences with the "Night Terrors" as I call them. I am 31 yrs old and I began having the half asleep/awake dream terrors at the age of 13, these times in my childhood are as easy to recall as last nights supper. The dreams began as just that, a dream, but these dreams didn't end when I "woke up", they continued on with no break in the subject or flow of the dream. In these early years of my life, I had total control of my body. I could sit up and move freely while interacting with what I knew was a dream. I describe this effect like this: My conscious mind becomes aware of my own unconsciousness causing a conflict of a sort with my subconscious mind. This conflict was not powerful during the first years, I could get up and run through the house to my parents room, all along the way seeing, basically whatever i wanted to see. Whatever my conscious mind presented to me I saw in dream form with the background being wherever I was at at that time, in my bed, running down the hallway, in the kitchen, etc.As the years have gone by the "conflict" became a "TERROR", the utmost meaning of the word. Gradually, I lost my ability to move on demand or with ease. My breaths became shallow which evolved into the very essence of these "TERRORS", which is can only describe as being suffocated through your own breaths into coiled python lungs. Now, at my current age, as far as the "TERRORS" are concerned, they have never went away completely. I usually have one or two a month. There are times though, when they continue on for weeks. Night after night. Now before I go to sleep, I make sure that I am prepared for it by not twisting myself up in the blankets or laying in an awkward position that would render my arms unusable. BECAUSE HERE'S THE ANSWER...The goal is to move, just move that finger that you see there on your pillowcase, no matter how small a movement it may be cause if you can JUST MOVE...you can escape it. I've told my friends and others whom I have slept over with that if your see me with my eyes open and I'm looking at you while trying to move my mouth I am needing you to YANK ME THE HELL UP!!!! I've discovered that shaking me only makes it worse, yet sometimes all it takes is simply the touch of another and I'm FREE.

Answer by Shell
Submitted on 4/3/2006
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Hi, Would you be able to tell me if this is paralysis. Im 20, this has happened to me 3 times in my life. All 3 times have been this year. The last time was this morning and i thought i'd better look into it as it is scary!! I can't remember if I had had a drink the last 2 times but i had a few last night. Basically what happens is, well the only way i can explain it is as if i am stuck between a dream and reality. Like my brain has woken up before my body. I can hear and see (although i can't move my eyes), but i cannot talk or move. I couldnt see normally though it was sort of snapshots that i saw. I didnt hear a humming sound this time but my phone ringtone, getting louder and louder (although when i finally woke I didnt even have a missed call!!) In my head i was thinking this is horrible its happening again, and i really wanted to shout for my mum but i knew it was pointless. Finally panic kicks in and i wake up. Horrible!!

Answer by Vic
Submitted on 4/6/2006
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I've been been having these "sleep paralysis" moments lately. When I get these I feel like I just woke up and that I am completely paralyzed except for my eyes. I can finally move if I try hard enough, but boy is it a struggle. Last night I had one and I decided to test it out. I tried to concentrate on visiting a friend. I managed to move my hands near my head. I closed my eyes and concentrated hard. I then felt such strong energy connecting my hands to my head and I started to see an opening to another setting instead of the plain darkness. I got scared and then stopped myself. The weird thing is when the morning came, the friend said to me first she had a dream that I visited her.

Answer by allen
Submitted on 4/11/2006
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hi my name is allen , i am posting because i believe that last night was my first paralyzed dream .. but it was kind of different then anything i have read i have been searching dream interpretation websites looking for answers but it goes like this. but first a little about me I am 23 year old truck driver I just moved out of my parents house and into my own house this past weekend i bought the house 3 months ago and when i would come home i would paint work on it. well ever sense i bought it i just always got the Jeeves just being there it was built in the 1940s nice big house well my second night being there last night i was watching TV and passed out and seemed like no time at all i was standing where i believed was my living room empty no lights no windows doors any where i spun around looked couldn't see anything i held my right hand out to reach for something to familiarize myself with my surroundings i took 2 steps to find myself touching someone somethings arm! next thing i know i am laying there in the floor looking around couldn't move not even lift a finger i was looking right at my finger couldn't move it i guess i fainted off woke up after fine I was terrified i have never been through anything like this before if anyone's can help me please email me at hudaman02@hotmail.com my first reaction was that my house is haunted i just need to know so i can determine what needs to be done to correct this.. thx allen

Answer by Michael
Submitted on 4/29/2006
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Yeah, I have the same thing. It gets so bad, that when it happens, I try to roll over off the bed to wake myself up. It happened me to a few days ago, my neck was stiff and my ear was itching really badly. While it was happening, I said to myself, "O no, not again. Move your damn hand...move it, scratch it...dammit, lift your arm, roll over..." I could feel my hand coming off the bed towards my head, I also tried to move my neck side to side with no success. I managed to hit my face, and then all of a sudden I "fell back to sleep." I read the comments before this, and their all interesting. I'm experimenting...my mom says it's a process of death, if you don't fight it or pray to God, then you may die. She says that how a lot of people die, is in their sleep. After you manage to wake yourself up, go get a drink of water. That's the best thing that you can do. This was passed down from my mom's mom, mom. Well, every time this happens to me, I try to see if I can move my arm, out of curiosity. When it happens, all I see is my room in a lucid fall brownish color, like an old photography film, taking photos of the world as if it were in the past, hard to explain. Before, it was so bad when I was young, I was sleeping in my mom's room, and I was screaming with all my might. I managed to scream in the real world and not just in my head. I was kicking and screaming. My mom comes racing him trying to wake me, shaking me back and forth and pouring water over me. I could see her holding me, but all I could do was scream. Scream my heart out. I kept telling myself that I must try and reach out to the real world. I must fight with my entire being. It was frightening.

Answer by Steve
Submitted on 5/15/2006
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I have same problem and usually this happens to me when i sleep for 2 hours after 2p.m. and then i will sleep again at night.. and probably, it will happen to me at that night... if I wake up paralyzed and then, i go sleep again, 90% this will happen again... but it will go if i stay awake and get focused and THEN I sleep.. and that way it seems i will have a goodnight sleep. I don't really get scared anymore when this happens to me, the first time offcourse is the worst, but when this repeats itself.. you will get use to it and you will know how to control it more. I noticed, if i be in sleep paralayzed, at that moment, if I think of anything.. it will happen! Offcourse, not for real.. but like an illusion. Something weird, that sometimes when I wake up... is that I see faces.... and this will be all my illusion.. and after some minutes focusing on that face.. then I will see something else.. maybe a shirt! And the most weird part is.. that the shirt, has the shape of that face! I even took photos to prove myself during the day. One day I even drew it but unfortunatly, lost the picture. you can see the photo at www.steveborg.com btw, i like art and illusions! And last thing, when I do see faces sometimes, I mean, I see faces! moving and even with sound fx!! Cool? :) (someone mentioned spiders, sometimes i see this spider shadow moving.. very weird.. why a spider? :).. ) I want to say some last few things... Probably when this happens, your going to feel pressure and same symptoms like, can't scream (why scream? At that time that is what you want to do! scream! and you can't even talk) and if you think its a demon or a ghost.. you are probably going to experience THAT! As I said, what you will think at that time, it will happen and you will feel it! So its no ghost or demon.. it is something natural.. probably not all body parts get waken same time.. and you will be between awake and sleep.. just wait a minute or so, and you will be fine :) Steve

Answer by james
Submitted on 5/16/2006
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sometimes this happens to me when i sleep to much usually during the day. i'wake up fully paralized but i can hear everything thats going on around. After a minute or so i can break out of it. i usually do this by hyperventilating, breathing really hard to try and get some movement in my chest area. Sometimes when i break out of it i will stay laying down trying to stay awake and i can feel myself slowly slipping back into paralysis. If i dont stay awake for at least a half an hour or more the paralysis will continue to happen. it happens to me so frequently now that i usually dont even panic anymore. Ive had instances where it has happened 4 to 5 times back to back because i refused to get up and stay awake until it wears off. but if anyone knows of a remedy or what causes it i would really be interested.

Answer by howellusmc
Submitted on 5/22/2006
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i thought i was going crazy, the same thing has been happening since i was in the 110th grade and it happened to me 2 days ago and i just finished my freshmen year at college. at first it happened to me and it didn't't happen for like another year and all of a sudden it happens to me almost 2x a week. i am terrified to sleep. i wake up in my room and i cant move it feels like something is holding down every part of my body. the only thing i can move is my eyes as i look around my room. i would hear something like it was in my pillow. it sounded like a deep evil like voice mumbling something in a language i have never heard. i would pray to God to have this thing release me. and as soon as i would i heard it laugh. my husband is in the marines and usually has to get up at about 5:00am to be at work so i would wake up when he did to help him get ready and then i would go back to sleep. when i did i woke up(this last time)and i was paralyzed i was so scared and i swear i felt something go under my sheets and touch my toe. to tried to move my foot away because i was terrified but i couldn't't't't move. Finlay when i could get away i called my husband crying. he believes me. at first it would only happen when i was alone but it has happened when we where asleep together. i was able to make a noise and Andrew, my husband, woke up and i tried to say i couldn't't't't move, but all you could hear was air coming out and a terrified look on my face. and he grabbed me and pulled me up hugging and i started to cry. i am terrified to sleep because i am afraid that it will happen again. i honestly think it is something evil. is there anyway to make it stop?

Answer by jaydelta
Submitted on 5/29/2006
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I've been dealing with this quite some time now, i can remember far back as 3 and 4 years old having this... im not 19 and it happen to me twice just last nite. its horrifying, sometimes it last for minutes, and sometimes happens more than twice after go back to sleep. i wake up i can see everything, move my eyes, but i struggle to move but it dosent happen. finaly i have to close my eyes and focus on waking up and force my self out of my slumber, its very difficult. i dont hear noises like some of you say, but sometimes i do feel like someone is there in the room and i need to defend my self but i cant. and sometiems i wonder, are my eyes actually open and im seeing everything, or am i dreaming that eyes are open and i see what i last saw when i went to sleep and cant move. =/ i wish it would stop sometimes i think im literally dying....

Answer by Rollin20z
Submitted on 6/2/2006
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I've done some research on this also, 2 of my friends have this, and my Father too. This sounds crazy but from what i'veread it effects the people that have some sort of "Psychic ability" one of my friends he says he's so used to it happening he forces himself back to sleep and that's that. My other friend, he has it more intense where he can't go back to sleep, he hears a buzzing noise that gets louder and louder and then he'll hear a man's voice, that tells him he is coming, so he gets ready to fight him, he tries to punch him but his arms just won't go any where, he can't move/talk or anything. Then he tries to pray to God but can't so he says everything in his head for help.

Answer by mrWaffles
Submitted on 6/5/2006
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I just had this happen to me 3 times last night. and it scared the hell outta me. I thought someone was standing over my sholder just to the point where i could not see them. And i was frozen. Unable to move. I did not hear a buzzing or humming noise getting louder and louder. After the first time this happened i went and got my cat (Hannah) and layed her next to me. I wanted to see if this was a dream or i really was awake while this was happening. When this happen for the second time in the same night i could see my cat moving around and she had a look of terror on her face. IT scared me also and i began to moan. And after a minute of moaning i was able to snap outta it. I could also hear wispering.

Answer by Geees
Submitted on 6/8/2006
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When I was younger these things happened to me at least once a week. It happened to me on a beach while I was resting there I was trying to move but couldn't, all I could do was move my eyes and sort of moan.I could see people walking passed talking about me this was so embarrassing. Had tests and I was told I had some rare sleeping sickness called triad.This is when you are going into sleep and coming out at the same time or vise versa and the brain gets confused so your physical body is still asleep but some of your senses are working. Doctors said it wasn't severe enough to warrant any medication. I wasn't happy with this diagnosis as whenever it happened there was always a feeling something evil being around. Other research suggested that it was me almost leaving my body "OOBE's" eventually these episodes stopped as I got older.But now I would like it to happen as the fear of them as gone and maybe I could leave the body !!

Answer by CUGRL00
Submitted on 6/9/2006
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I have the same kind of dreams. It usually happens when I am really sleep deprived but last night it happened and I wasn't overly tired. When these dreams occur, I feel like I fall into a deep sleep immediately and then I can feel myself paralyzed and it's like I'm lying there feeling so great to be asleep. Then I start dreaming and I feel like I'm going to die or something. I feel like I can't breath and I can't tell if I actually am breating or not. I'll see someone in the room with me and try to get their attention but I can't move or make a noise. All of a sudden, I'll wake up and I'll be able to feel myself become unparalyzed. It's almost like I can feel the activity in my brain. Once I wake up and go back to sleep, I fall asleep like normal and what not. This only happens at the beginning of falling asleep. Someone asked if it was different if an alarm clock wakes you up. Wouldn't know b/c it happens so quick and at the beginning of the night when I fall asleep. I would imagine the process is only a couple of minutes but it feels like much longer.

Answer by Holly
Submitted on 6/24/2006
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WOW! i didn't realise this happens to so many people! mines very similar and scares the hell out of me...its like I'm having a real bad nightmare usually someone is trying to get me or there's a spirit in my room then all of a sudden it turns into real life n I'm awake...but I'm not...im paralyzed.. I'm so scared i scream out for one of my parents but no one comes n i cant figure out why...i cant move any part of my body or open my eyes....eventually after 5 or 10 minutes of this i can open my eyes n then I'm totally awake...i asked my parents if they heard me scream for them n they say they heard nothing... i was screaming my lungs out in my head but obviously was unable to produce sound...if anyone knows why this happens please tell me!! thanx!

Answer by Paudieb
Submitted on 7/3/2006
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Hi. 34 years old I am and I suffer from this. I believe it started when I was about 14. It has to be the most terrifying thing that has ever happened me. It usually happiness me about 15 to 20 minutes after I go asleep and will happen me about 2 or 3 time in one night. I might only happen one night in a month. Its strange. I fight to try to wake but that does me no good. I find I come out of it best when I relax. Over the years it hasn�t happened as much but I always notice when I am under pressure or stress it will kick in. Really hard when you are young because it not really something you can explain to somebody without sounding like your mad. Takes a long time to comes to terms with it. Hope this helps. Paudie (Ireland)

Answer by anthony
Submitted on 7/5/2006
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a couple of weeks ago I was sleeping in my bed with my fiance and my 2 yr old son.i woke up at the crack of dawn and had the most evil dreadful scary feeling in the world that there was a demon holding my legs down.it felt like a demon "i hate to say that word" woke me up by holding my legs down.I was on my back and I then felt it move up to the side of my bed.I tried to scream out helena to my girlfriend but I realized i was muted by this force.I then tried to roll over and I was totally paralyzed.I tried to say gods name because I new an evil spirit would flee if I spoke god's name but I could not.I tried with all my might to slowly reach over to my fiance and after 2 minutes or maybe just 1 minute I finally reached her leg.I then heard a loud thud come from my air conditioner, like a power surge.I then had her leg and I squeezed as hard as I could.the rest of my body could not move and I could not scream and the evil presence got stronger and more terrifying,I was so scared I get watery eyes thinking about it and I am not a puss either.I continued to squeezing ,hoping to wake her and finally she moaned OOWWE! and it was like I was out of the that horrible hypnotized state and everything was fine,no more evil presence and I could move.I told her what happened and asked her if I squeezed her leg to make sure it was real.she said yeah you squeezed the hell out of it.I am still not sure what happened but I pray every night that it will not happen again.I have pity for anyone who experiences this.it is truly a frightening experience I cannot fully describe.thanks for reading.

Answer by The J
Submitted on 7/15/2006
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I am only 18 years old, but my first episode happened when i was 17. It is very similar to Jennifer's explination (3rd box down). The first time it happened i awoke and found myself staring at my wall. I thought nothing of it at first until i tried to move. The scary thing is i used all my will power to move and i couldn't budge. After a few seconds i tried again and snapped out of it, like you would a bad dream. Since then i have had about 4 or 5 other episodes. Once i had this occur twice in one outing. I was napping on a car ride (lying flat in the back seat) when i woke up face toward the seat unable to move. Eventualy i snapped out of it. The i fell asleep again and thought nothing of it until i woke up and realized it was happening again. I tried to yell and discovered i was unable to speak. Very scary. I have heard that this is caused from stressed and lack of sleep. I am glad to know there are others...

Answer by STAFF
Submitted on 7/24/2006
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Ok So This definitely happened to me the other night. I just opened my eyes in my sleep and i couldn't move a single muscle in my body. I was actually really confused, not quite scared. I can't recall if i could breathe or not. I tried to move my hand but nothing. then I tried to make noise and i couldn't get a sound out. then out of no where I could move again. I think the only reason i can't recall if I could or couldn't breathe is because Breathing becomes subconcious when you sleep and since your still in a state of sleep(REM). You dont realize that you are even breathing.maybe?? Idk i haven't looked into this that much. I just went back to sleep after. I think it has to deal with great amounts of stress. Caused by anything, whether your scared of monsters or evil spirits, or your in relationship problems. These things can drive someone to awake during REM I'm guessing.

Answer by jonjon
Submitted on 7/25/2006
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ok after i found this thread i felt very relieved that i was not alone. I have been experiencing the cant wake up dreams for a good 2-3 years, and pretty much everyday for the past week. However in my case my eyes arent open (that would be freaky). The way i can describe it is like being stuck in the middle between being awake and dreaming but you cant fully get your self to the other side of reality, a force is holding you back. The only time I can prevent it from happening is to sleep any other way than on my back. Tonight while I was paralyzed I saw a google site pulled up for cant wake up dreams nonesense and the first thing i did after I managed to wake up was jump online.

Answer by Breez
Submitted on 8/15/2006
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Hey I dont mean to bring a dead post back to life. But I also have this problem, and nothing is being done about it. My symptoms are eyes open while i cannot move, talk, or breathe. I tried not fighting the paralysis one time and it felt like I was slipping away. As if to say I would never gain back control of my body, a permanent paralysis. After multiple episodes I learned to brace myself once it starts to happen. I have also learned that it takes and EXTREME amount of willpower to break out of REM. I beleive that people who die in there sleep are possible victms of this. So, my advice is to use all the willpower you have to get the thoughtprocess going and break out of the REM state. There may be medication in the future. But for now thats all I can do for myself. Be strong...

Answer by Shelley
Submitted on 8/17/2006
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Finally decided to look up this sleep issue I've had for as long as I can remember. Thank you!! I consider these occurances recurring nightmares, with the only differences being the setting. By this, I mean whereever I happen to be sleeping (bedroom, couch, old house, new house, etc.) it's like I'm seeing everything exactly as if I were awake in that room. I try everything in my power to move, yell, scream and nothing. It can be quite frightening as sometimes I sense other things going on (intruders, strange noises...). All I want is to wake up in the worst way. I still don't get why it happens, but found that I am able to realize that it's "one of those dreams" sometimes and just tell myself to give up, relax and go to sleep (even though I probably already am). It works! It's like the light goes out for a moment and then I'm awake in the real world again. Now, if I could just get it to work every time. If anything, maybe this "relaxation" idea could help someone else.

Answer by Ricardo
Submitted on 8/23/2006
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I've had these type of experiences too. Waking up without being able to move, talk, scream, only able to move my eyes. At first I would freaked out, the harder I tried to move the less I could, when I would relax, in a couple of seconds I would be able to move. The first time it happened to me I was about 15 years old, since then, it has happened to me quite a number of times. This last time though it was kinda different, 4 days ago I woke up and I could'nt move at all, I could'nt even open my eyes, also I was seeing images of several people looking at me (I was awake), also I could hear a strong buzzing noise, and and my bed was shaking. I really wanted to move and get up because I was freaking out. after that I saw a flash of bright white light and after that I was able to move. I got up and I wsan't able to go back to sleep for about an hour. This last time was a way wierder experience than the other times, but I would'nt mind if it happens to me again that way I might be able to understand it more, to understand what was happening to me.

Answer by Gidgette
Submitted on 8/24/2006
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I use to share rooms with my older sister but, she was gone for the week. One night when sleeping It kind of felt like a dream but, I know this was not. I felt pressure on my chest I was not able to move my body or even talk. I was trying to call my sisters name but I could not. I was not even moving and all that I heard was the twin bed that was next to me still had the plastic over the mattress and, it sounded like someone was rolling on the bed and all I could hear was the plastic. All of a sudden I was able to to move my body and I ran to my other sisters bedroom. When I opened the door to her room she was wide awake and she looked so scared. It turned out that the same thing had happened to her while it was happening to me. Has anyone expirienced this?.

Answer by Abel
Submitted on 8/24/2006
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I have had sleep paralyisis at least once per month for the last 8 years. I am 29 as of this writing. I just had the experience about 1 hour ago and thus has caused me to do reasearch about it on the net. I noticed that many Dr.'s contribute this to anxiety, stress and other factors. My question is ... why is there always an evil presence in that concious yet body is still asleep phase? Today I heard a loud static sound, and opened my eyes to a spider crawling all over my arm. When I prayed to God, or said His name (Jehovah) the spider would start to disappear. I finally went thru my mental prayer when I awoke. This leads me to believe that it is more of a spiritual occurence, because I never have positive images while in this paralized state. I know there are many things in which our ancestors thought it was demonic rather than scientific, only to find there was a scientific explanation. However, I think this is different and cannot be simply written off as "scientific". There is not enough proof to show that it is scientific. About a month ago I had another episode of sleep paralysis and I saw a small presence in the room with me. It was dark, and I could not see it's face (I am getting chills typing about it right now). My question is, why is there always an evil presence not only associated with my episodes, but so many others I have read about? Thanks, Abel

Answer by Compton
Submitted on 8/27/2006
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I hope this thread isnt closed.... Anyway, I used to have sleep parlysis all the time when i was little, and i could never move and could only manage to speak very short words or letters after a few minutes. I also heard a buzzing noise, that got louder every passing second, and i hated it. I use to moan for my mother, but she always thouhgt i was hallucinating and told me to go to sleep. I didnt have enough energy to argue and she left the room, so i was forced to go back to sleep. When i woke up it was gone. The next time I had it was when i was 12, but this time around it was easier to talk, and although my mother refused to throw me off the bed like i asked her too, i was able to sit upright after much struggling. I was always sluggish when i moved and It usually left me exhausted and tired causing me to go back to sleep, only to wake up an hour later and find out i couldn't move again. This same cycle repeated about 3 times before i decided to fling my self off the bed, and the sudden knock seemed to cause me to loosen up a little. I washed my face and then it went a way. I think its been about a year and a half since its last happened, and at that point i was also able to force myself to get up. All I want to know is why this strange occurence happens?

Answer by oscar
Submitted on 8/27/2006
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I've had this happened to me: I felt as something/someone/or a strong force pushing down on my body and won't let me go in the middle of my sleep. I was unable to move, talk, scream, etc. It happened for a minute or couple of minutes and then it was gone and i fully woke up. And I used to hear buzzing sound throughout the incident. But I figured that a fear (something had happened in my house which I dont wanna talk about) in my mind was most probably causing this phenomenon rather than an evil presence. What did I do to get rid of this? Well after I experienced it couple of times, and after I figured that it was probably from fear in my mind....i simply did not try to fight it, meaning i simply did not try to move, scream, etc..i just let it happen until it stopped without being scared....and it hasnt happened since then...i initially thought this was caused by some evil presence but that wasnt the case....like some people say, it's all in the mind....

Answer by 12343
Submitted on 8/30/2006
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I have the same dreams like some of the people. I just don't know what it is. sleep paralysis or something but it started about a little over a year ago. at first it was scary because I never experience something like it before. the first incident started when I just shut my eyes and soon as I did I felt a presence in my room then I open my eyes and I'm paralyzed can't do anything but move my eyes. I felt a tingly feeling all over my body but mainly my mid section seems like something was going on. I felt a hand push my stomach down becuase the presence was doing something to my body.then all of a sudden a woke up with a creepy tingly feeling running up my spine like something scary happened. other times when it happens they try to pick me up and move my body to a different position. one time they picked my body up and floated me all the way to my bathroom then I struggled and broke free then I woke up in my bed.other times they just push down on me pushing me all the way down until the bedsprings touch. can't explain what's going on. but I'm not scared of the incidents anymore. sometimes when I just shut my eyes and I feel it's coming on I try to open them as quick as possible. it works sometimes. when I tried that once I just got off school had to go to work layed down shut my eyes and opened them. I did it a few times because it tried coming on every time. didn't get any rest cause of it. the last time I did that just before I opened my eyes there was a tug on my shoe and I heard short scream.

Answer by Melissa
Submitted on 8/31/2006
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I have something similar that happens to me. I will be conscious of everything around as if I am awake but I cannot wake up. I try to haller and connot. I had an episode once while on the couch in a room with my cousin. She said I scared her. I was throwing my arms and trying to hit her and she said my mouth was moving as I was trying to holler at her. I wanted her to wake me up but she didn't. She just said it scared her. I told her everything she did and said on the telephone and even told her what she watched on TV for the last 30 minutes and everything that happened on the show. It freaked her out. It is very frustrating when this happens to me. I had someone tell me that I was fighting trying to come out of my body. If anyone reads this, can you please comment?

Answer by A friend
Submitted on 9/1/2006
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Hi folks, I have read through the posts about this and its surprising how no one really linked this sort of thing to the work of a demonic force. This has happened to me on a few occasions and I also know people who this has happended to as well. You feel as if somethig has you pinned to the bed and you can't breath, you want to wake up but you can't move, it's usually the same every time. Two things I was told to do that stopped these episodes for me. One thing is to never sleep on your back and the second thing is to pray and ask for the protection of Jesus and St. Micheal. I myself have grown into the habit of praying in my dreams whenever i am confronted with a difficult situation.

Answer by trust me i no this for a fact
Submitted on 9/22/2006
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if u wake up during the night and u feel u can not move, and it feels like u have a heavy weight on u, but u can look around and see clearly, also any noise u make cannot be heard and u feel somethings stopping u from trying to make noise, then i can assure u that the cause of this is a ghost, u can check it up in greek or turkish history ( karabasan ) is the turkish name for it, think of it as an evil soul, u may try flicking the light switch, or try sleeping with a small pair of scissors underneath Ur pillow trust me it might sound stupid, but who will know u tried it, trust me i no for a fact, lol almost most of my family members whitnesed it, it also happens to new born babies up an till they are 40 days old, ill be back to see if anyone actually pays attention, hope it helps

Answer by sleepycalif
Submitted on 9/23/2006
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I have had them and interestingly enough my mom had a few in her day (i read where they can run in a family) I "wake up" can not move my eyes open up extremely uncomforatble feel like I can't breathe...sometimes I can almost tell I am in the hallucination state because if I look in my room where I sleep something is always incorrect, a color, a chair etc...that is why it is likely that time of hallucination...I have had them in the middle of the night, just before I awaken, and even a short nap...I usually have to make a sound or fight them with every physicial strength I can muster to awaken..I can fall back into the state even after I wake up if I do not get out of bed...I recall once having5 in a row..waking up but fell back to sleep and right into that hallucination..my doctor stated they were not uncommon and there is a word forthe type of hallucination that comes with the "sleep paralysis" but even that term is so broad..re: what can be a sympton...they are so scary, so stressful...I may have some one month and not have them for 8 months to a year later...I personally think stress can add to the occurance...but you will have to be the judge of your own self

Answer by flame1902
Submitted on 10/4/2006
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I have had this condition since ive been living in halls in uni.) It only happens for me when i wake up of my own accord, never when the alarm clocks going off. When im lying there and cant breathe or move, i sometimes wake up looking at the clock praying that it will go off and "slap" me back into awake land. Its horrible, I just wish that you could call someone, or move a little bit and fall off of the bed or something to properly wake up. No idea why this is happening more so, now that im at uni. I dont drink alcohol anyway , but ive been drinking less milk, and more fizzy drikns / j20. All sugary drinks like john sed made it worse for him. Ill try and cut down on sugary drinks for a bit and see what happens.

Answer by Bridget
Submitted on 10/8/2006
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I've had this happen to me every now and then. It hadn't happened, though for a while, but just last night I awoke from a dream and couldn't move anything, not even speak- all i could do was move my eyes and look around. After a min or so of concentrating enough on my fingers, I was able to wiggle my fingers and I could fully move then. However, I closed my eyes for it seemed only a couple of seconds and opened them again to find that i couldn't move. This time though I began to hear a humming noise and saw a black shadow in my room that was circling around on my ceiling above me. I was very afraid, but still couldn't move. It flew down at me and the humming got louder in my ears and I really began to freak out and tried to shake my head as hard as I could, but it took like 5 sec. before i could move my head. I sat up and was very confused at my experience.

Answer by Clarence
Submitted on 10/10/2006
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My friends, i understand all of you, and i have been through everysingle thing you have mentioned. It started with me at a very young age, at 12. I am now 19. It really had me traumatized. Every time i put my head on the pillow i began to panic. There is only one way to deal with this, and i am convicted to the heart. The only way to free yourself from experiencing such wreched dreams and episodes, is to pray to God in the name of Jesus before sleeping. Sometimes it can still happen, then while it's happening say jesus in your heart and it's grip will weaken. believe me, Test it out and believe. They are evil spirits and they do exist. No one can explain why these things happen, Doctors will tell you the syptoms, but there answers are not satisfying. Only Jesus Christ can free you of such torment. believe, confess and repent. Trust me, the change is so profound!!

Answer by e.b.
Submitted on 10/12/2006
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Today I woke up early today a lot earlier than I usually do, and when I came home I took about a 3 hour nap. But right before I had woken up, I turned onto my left side and into a fetal position and my arms were over my eyes. And all of a sudden it felt as if someone was climbing onto my bed maybe to wake me up and I thought it was my mom or sister. And I tried to open my eyes to see who it was but I couldn't MOVE, SPEAK, or OPEN MY EYES. And it still felt like someone was next to me, but then it went away. I didn't open my eyes because I sort of went back to sleep but then about 2 seconds later it happened again. And in my mind I was telling myself to open my eyes and I was forcing myself to move but I couldn't and I felt like I was telling myself to call for help, I tried to move my legs and I thought I felt someone next to me. But as I kept trying to move it ended up going away. I told my boyfriend about it, and he said that it may have been the "Choking Ghost." Because I guess this has happened to some of his other friends. Because in Hawaii there are a lot of superstitious people and I wouldn't be surprised if this was true. I also told my mom and she was thinking that it might havebeen my grandma who passed away a little over a year ago trying to wake me up. But in my mind I was thinking "wouldn't I be able to move?" because that wouldn't be something she would do, she's not an aggressive person. So if anyone has any answer to what may have happened please let me know.

Answer by Hannah
Submitted on 10/18/2006
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I've had some dreams like that before. It's usually when I am very stressed or tired. I'm not so sure that they are dreams though. Every time it happens, I try to remind myself to wake up my roommate after it has happened, that way I'll know if I'm dreaming or not. I talked to my friend about this, and she also said that it has happened to her. It actually happens to alot of people out there. Her father, who is buddhist and very spiritual , said that there's an old wives tale that says situations like this occur when a spirit is in the room, and trying to make contact with you or lies down over your body. Has anyone else heard this? Also, When I was younger and this would happen, I would pray to God to make it stop, and the first thought of "His Name" passing through my thoughts IMMEDIATELY made it stop. I'm not a very religious person, but at the time it was the only "sanctuary" that could pass through me....So what makes it happen, is it evil or just your mind, and can you make them stop?

Answer by Jesse
Submitted on 10/24/2006
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I was surprised to see this many people going through the same thing. My first experience was probably the worst. I was 16 or 17, and I woke up paralyzed. I couldn't move I couldn't breath and I couldn't utter out any sound. I was terrified, I then began to feel like I was being pushed down into the bed, over and over. Terrified doesn't even begin to describe how i was feeling at that point. I began to pray, the pushing stopped immediately. I felt like something was surrounding me. I began to hear this noise above me like nails scraping against a chalkboard in rapid succession. I prayed even harder, if I could have cried or screamed I would have been. It stopped and I was back, left wondering what had just happened to me. Like I said the first time was the worst. Now, I know its coming because I too hear the loud buzzing noise that grows in intensity and sometimes is pulsing. I still can't move or breath. I don't ever see anything, and occasionally the noise sounds like screaming. One of the more recent episodes I heard a female voice. That was out of the norm (if you can call it that), My last episode took place just a few days ago, where it happened more than once in the same night. After the first one I woke up my wife and tried to explain to her what was going on. She asked if I could squeeze her hand or make a noise to let her know what was going on. I went back into the episode like I had never missed a beat. I was scared, the noise grew louder and more intimidating. I tried all I could to squeeze her hand or make a noise. I failed. I began to pray, and after what seemed like a few minutes I was awake and moving again asking my wife if she could tell I was going through it. She had no idea. I talked to her about it the next day, she really couldn't make out a whole lot of what I had been saying the night before, but again, I wasn't able to give her a sign that it was happening. I'm 26 years old now, this has been happening to me for a good 10 years. Some years are worse than others. I wonder if I truly will find out what is happening to me and some of the rest of you. I will post here again sometime down the road. Don't let fear run your life. Just keep going.

Answer by Barb
Submitted on 10/26/2006
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I've experienced this 'sleep paralysis'-for many years. Wow. Weird. I'm somewhat relieved to have found this webpage with others suffering similar symptoms to me-friends/family have no experience of what I'm talking about! I seem to 'wake up' not necessarily from a dream. Every sense of me feels awake, yet I can't move a muscle in my body from my eyelids to my toes! At first I always assumed that or at least it felt like I had my nose and mouth covered by the pillow and would be feeling the struggle to draw breaths. This thought of 'arghh can't breath/move my head position!!'.. would send my mind haywire until out of fear I gained a magnificant strength to maybe twitch one of my toes...then blam! I'm awake! Drawing a fabulous deep breath and realising that the pillow is positioned totally behind my head-nowhere near my face! Over the years I've managed to control it...somewhat! I still wake paralysed, but as soon as possible recognise what is happening and remember nothing is covering my face..I CAN breathe,because I'm thinking!!??..then in my mind I tell myself "right, after ten move your toe barb" (I focus on which toe if I'm not starting to panic too quick-if not, I just focus on TOE and count!) I then begin a slowish count from one to ten. By three there's slight panic that this time it's not working-but by four/five..I'm out of it-the toe woke me! I can move, breathe..RELIEF!! I've used the 'mind count' as I call it for many years now-hopefully it may help one of you? Twist the fear and panic-which I think causes the 'suffocating'feelings and use your mind which is obviously very powerful to be so 'alert' and scared - into bullying a part of your physical body to move-whether that be your toe, finger, eyelid-It feels like the biggest effort you will ever make but in reality it only takes a 'twitch' to 'bring you out of it' Good luck everyone!

Answer by Spook Show Baby
Submitted on 11/8/2006
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I'm a 22 year old female from UK. This happened to me for the first time last night, hence me searching for info and finding this site this afternoon. I was just nodding off when I started to feel very paranoid. I pulled my covers over my head and my whole body went all tingly and waves of heat rushed over me. I felt like I was falling or running really fast, quite a dizzying feeling and I was petrified! I felt something pull my ankles down my bed and that's when I screamed out for my Mother. No sound came out even though I was roaring in my head! I tried to hit the wall to get her attention but my whole body was frozen - total paralysis apart from my eyes and my brain i guess! It seemed to last for an age but probabley only a minute in reality when i "woke up" I didn't remember falling asleep so I had real trouble believing it was a dream. It felt so real and my heart was beating ten to the dozen! Everyone I've told today has not believed me but I swear it happened. I have to admit I was feeling a bit spooked before I went to bed after hearing ghost stories so I may have just given myself a horrid dream but I don't think so? I don't believe it was anything "paranormal" I just really want to know what happened to me!!

Answer by descendingDarkness
Submitted on 11/17/2006
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I've just had one of that paralysed and can't wake up in your dream thing. even though you're forcing yourself to wake up, trying to scream but you can't.. totally paralysed as if something'sclosing your mouth and pushing your body into the bed.. I've read the symtoms of others, and found that it happens to many people.. learnt that, as it was explained: you think you are awake while you're still in deep sleep. so what happens is this that you open your eyes, can see the window of your room though but can move, speak, shout becuz you're still ASLEEP, thinking that you were awake by a misunderstanding of your brain. so what to do is to give yourself the sign that may notice your brain that you're still in the dream. so, then, maybe you'll understand you're still inthe dream itself not awake, so to save yourself from it first 1-know that you're still dreaming, not awake as you thought you were. 2- after this comprehension now try to wake up my dear friend.. oh my .. now I think I found some peace after I shared this with you people. the next time I want to do as I wrote,,, good dreams all!!!!!

Answer by descendingDarkness
Submitted on 11/17/2006
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I've just had one of that paralysed and can't wake up in your dream thing. even though you're forcing yourself to wake up, trying to scream but you can't.. totally paralysed as if something's closing your mouth and pushing your body into the bed.. I've read the symtoms of others, and found that it happens to many people.. learnt that, as it was explained: you think you are awake while you're still in deep sleep. so what happens is this that you open your eyes, can see the window of your room though but can NOT move, speak, shout becuz you're still ASLEEP, thinking that you were awake by a misunderstanding of your brain. so what to do is to give yourself the sign that may notice your brain that you're still in the dream. so, then, maybe you'll understand that you're still inthe dream itself which means not awake, so to save yourself from it first 1-know that you're still dreaming, not awake as you thought you were. 2- after this comprehension now try to wake up .. now I think I found some peace after I shared this with you people. the next time if it happens to me again I want to do as I wrote,,, good dreams all!!!!!

Answer by Sancho
Submitted on 11/27/2006
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I've been having these symptons for 10 years, infact I had one of these just 20 minutes ago, i was laying on my side and my right arm/leg felt as though they were being pushed down with force. I managed to lift my hand up with some force and all of a sudden a loud screeching loise cried out. It scared the f.. out of me because this is the second time i've heard this noise in a situation like this, I asked God for his assistance and stood up. The sound was something of a cat crying in pain yeah weird, i'll also add that i used to be haunted by demons physically and this "cat" appeared in a shaking bush only very loud and more vicious in my opinion these are either weak souls or weak demons draining your energy.(nothing to worry about)

Answer by Ash
Submitted on 12/16/2006
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I have this, i see flashing images of random things and shapes and i go into it, its less scary now but ive been reading some ghost sites and they say its poltergeist related..so i duno :S 1 time i had this (first time) i cudnt move, i opened my eyes and saw like...death at the end of my bed, black figure with hood..Doesnt sound scary but believe me i tried to scream..no sound. Then the other nite same thing happened, i cudnt move..didnt try to speak but the harder i tried to move the louder the screaming got..this wasnt humming this was the worst scream in my ear. i opened my eyes and saw a black figure above me as though holding me down, i shut my eyes and saw sum 1 being held down and strangled. Strange... Ive found it onli tends to happen when u sleep on ur back and even more often if you sleep with ur legs bent up. I try to explain to my mates but they must think am making it up lol as no1 else experiences it.

Answer by susan
Submitted on 12/18/2006
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I had one of those experiences 27 years ago. It was absolutely terrifying. I felt awake with my eyes wide open and unable to speak or move. The buzzing noise sounded like crack a crack a crack and got louder and louder until it sounded like it was in the room with me. It left me unable to sleep for more than 3 years. Now all these years later my 2 children and a friend heard the same noise just last night in the house when they were awake. The noise got louder and then lessened and seemed to move around the house. If anyone knows what this might have been let me know. The 18 year old was so terrified that he sat motionless curled up in a chair. Less than a week earlier he and a friend saw a blue flash of light that lit up the car. He is really concered. Anyone have any insight or similar experiences out there?

Answer by Lovely_L
Submitted on 12/18/2006
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I had a what is called a "night terror" this morning actually. I was dreaming about my church camp I used to go to and in the middle of my dream I felt something. In my head I was thinking it was my cat. It felt like he used to when he would walk around on my bed trying to find a spot to get comfortable and I kept feeling it and sometimes it would be on my pillow and other times around my legs. Only thing is my cat is no longer an inside cat and wasn't inside this morning. As soon as I remembered that my cat was outside there was this weight I can't explain it but it was all over my body...I opened my eyes and tried to lift up my head to see what was on me and I couldn't move my neck and then I realized I was paralyzed. I could hear my parents in the kitchen getting ready to leave for work and I tried to yell for them but I couldn't speak. I was motionless and mute for about 30 seconds to a minute and then all at once I felt this weight lift off of me and I could move and speak again. It left me with a feeling of terror that I have never felt I couldn't stop crying and it wasn't just tears falling down my face I was crying so hard I couldn't breathe, I shaking and I had goosebumps all over my body. It was by far one of the most terrifying things I have ever been through which is weird to me cause I can't even explain what it is I'm afraid of.

Answer by Jacob Bohall
Submitted on 12/22/2006
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WOW... I can't believe I am seeing this. I have been having this problem on and off for about 5 years. I experience all of the symptoms described above... mine are most like Jennifer. I see/feel the presence of someone else in the room, which is most terrifying. I actually think that I have been shot up with drugs by this "person" and that it was the prick that woke me up, and now I'm just too drugged to move. The other scenario, which I feel most often, is that I am dead, and that I am my soul leaving my body. Both of these FREAK ME OUT It mostly occurs as I am falling asleep. My body goes to sleep, but my brain is still fully aware. I can never just "wake up" it takes me struggling violently (not actually moving more than maybe a twitch) to "jerk" myself awake. I have not been successful at the moan by any means. The worst thing is that when I have these experiences, it is usually when I am extremely tired, and they continue to repeat themselves completely ruining any nights sleep. I can't afford to see a doctor, but it seems to me that I/we should be able to find help from a doctor who is interested in this phenomenon, and would be willing to help us in exchange for monitoring our sleep. I know that I am open to any suggestions, as it is a most terrifying experience. If anyone can help me... please call me.. Your not supposed to put your number on the internet, but I think the people in this room are here for help, and if someone who can help stumbles in this room, area code eight four three, two nine eight, one six four seven. I couldn't have been more happy to find this forum.. It is relatively small though.. which is still kinda scary. Thanks to everyone who has shared their experience, as it helps me relax more with mine.

Answer by clark
Submitted on 1/3/2007
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yeah i get these every now and then and im 19. i just had 2 of them about 30 minutes ago (so i woke up to research them). i always dream that a friend is in the room and about to play a prank on me like hitting me in the nuts. it sucks to not be able to move. the thing is, since part of us is conscious, it is possible to awaken the other parts of us to. what i just did 30 minutes ago to get out of it, and this is odd, but you have to take a "leap of faith". i told myself in my dream to run and jump to the 2nd grade. i believe psychologically there are 2 parts to why this wakes me up. 1. to run and jump, "the leap of faith", implies going all out, letting it all go, hence, your muscles relax as well. 2. when i "jump to the 2nd grade" (or the 3rd grade, or the 9th grade, or whatever) it implies going to a new phase in your life. hence, the phase of waking up. yes it sounds wacky and you probably dont buy into it, but when you're half-conscious you will buy into anything, which is good in this case. also, i find that a sharp pain will jolt a sense of reality into your brain. i personally try to stiffen my neck and bend it backwards some. the feeling helps me understand what is really going on.

Answer by joe
Submitted on 1/3/2007
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hello...this has happend to me many times usualy when noise is involved in my wake up....i'm not positive but i'mtold that there is a chemical in our muscles that is removed as we sleep same reason we to wich while we start to sleep. If you are wakin during REM ocasionaly this chemical that is in your muscles have blocked your motor skills and your body was not prepared to move yet...this is why after a short time if you can manage to stay awake you will come to be able to move....or most ppl tend to fall back asleep because they were in REM. NO scientific terms but i know it has to do with chemicals in your muscles and your body not ready to wake up yet!! As for the juice guy i back that method up...anytime i drink pop right before bed i seem to have much better chance of it happening!!

Answer by hays
Submitted on 1/5/2007
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I have had this experience a few times, and it is terrifying! It happens to me when im dreaming and i wake up inside a nightmare. Meaning, i wake up and am aware i am dreaming and suddenly want to wake up and escape the bad dream. I sometimes talk to people in the dream and say, i know im dreaming, this isnt real, and i struggle to get my eyes open and once i do the rest of my body won't move and i cant talk. I lie trying to get up for probably around 5 seconds. I think the body is 'paralysed' to avoid us acting out our dreams. I tend to have bad dreams when i have too many blankets and and get too hot. I dont think its a good idea to have sugar before bed as it gives your body too much energy and may cause restless interupted sleep.

Answer by Morrisha
Submitted on 1/12/2007
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The same thing happens to me often at night. It's been happening to me since I was like 13. I am now 20. When it first started, I was trying to go to sleep and I woke up and found myself not being able to move, but could look around the room. Then I heard a voice saying my name then starting talking gibberish. I tried to call out to my sister laying in the bed next to me, but could not move my mouth. I finally shook it off by getting enough strength to move my head. When I fell back to sleep, it happened again about 2 more times. I was scared a deamon was trying to pocess me. It stopped happening after a while, but started back up about a year ago. I don't always hear the noises, but every once in a while I do. I just pray when it happens. I was doing some searching on the internet and found a sleep disorder or something called sleep paralysis. Try looking that up.

Answer by defected
Submitted on 1/25/2007
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well Ive been having this sleep paralysis now for a year ..tryed Ambient to make me passout and will not do anything for me now ...I truly take ambient just to make me feel at peace. Ive been lookiing for what problem I have about this ..I was thinking I was dieing or somthing.. But yeah when I wake up I feel better as if I had a second chance at life.. But when this sleep paralysis happens it freeks me out so I fight it somtimes and I shake Violently but I do wake up .. somtimes I say to myself if I can understand this will not kill me I would just go with it but I have no clue aboout this problem.mabey I should get some Weed becuase Ambient dose not do anything for me .

Answer by jonefbee
Submitted on 1/29/2007
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I know what you all mean, I get these same sleep symptoms but there are times when I lie down to sleep and I know that I'm going to have an episode, within minuits before I even go to sleep I can hear the buzzing begining, getting louder before I drift off, I have to get up and move around or else I cant fight it and I go straight into the paralised stage without sleeping for any amount of time, I try to "jerk" myself awake or "jump" in my sleep like stage and that sometimes, but rarely works, this only satrted to happen a year or so ago (I'm 35 M) and unless I wake myself fully I can have 2 or 3 of these episodes in a period of about 15mins. it's very scary stuff and I so wish there was a cure.

Answer by Cherry
Submitted on 2/6/2007
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I'm an 18 year old girl and I've these dreams since I was 15. I thought I was the only one with this problem, but I've found out that it runs in my family. For me, its like you're half asleep, yet half awake. I'm in my bed, and I cannot move, or scream. There is also pressure on my chest and tummy. I can't see anyone sitting on top of me, but it feels like they're trying to squash me and touch me. One time I was trying to punch it. Its always scary and uncomfortable! But I usually go back to sleep again and I wake up and its all over. But I think if I could move in these dreams I'd be sleep walking. One of the signs for me before these dreams occur is that I get a throbbing headache in the top of my head and I feel sleepy. My mum says it happened to her when she was younger, but it eventually went away as she got older. Are there any ways to stop these dreams? Or is it something that you can't change? Hmm?

Answer by regina
Submitted on 2/9/2007
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hi, its a strange thing isnt it. i have experienced sleep paralyzing for as long as can remember. i absolutly hate it. i usually happens after a dream...good or bad, and i want to wake up, my eyes are closed (or maybe they are half open), i know whats going on around me, and yet i cannot seem to move any inch of my body. i struggle in my mind, over andover again to move even my little toe or something, but it is extremely difficult. my partner says try to surrender to it, but its impossible, i feel like i would die, or drown os something. in that space i even think i almost stop breathing. allot of the time now, if my partner is there i will try my hardest to scream or make a noise, and he will lift me out of it...you feel dopy, drosy and drug like, like your under a deep paralyzing spell. for those who have a good homeopath, i would try telling them your symptoms...this worked for me, my paralyzing dissapeared for almost a yr. it was fantastic, to go to sleep and know you will awake without the struggle. im starting to get them again now though, so im off to my homeopath for another remedy. from what i know, homeopathy is all natural, and works energetically to each persons constitution. it may cost upto $60 for the first consultation , but is cheaper there atfer, and can cure all types of things. i truly recommend it (if it doesnt work the first couple of times, tell them and they will reasess you and get you another remedy) hope this helps, and comfitted to find others that have the same experience xxx genie

Answer by Cuz....
Submitted on 2/19/2007
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Im thinking its spirits.............me an my friends came back from mardi gra/gasprilla type of event, an they had jesus ppl there protesting telling us where gonna burn for are sins........an later that night we went home an after a couple hrs, we went 2 sleep..........so in the mourn my friend tells me about this dream where he cant wake up an this an that(like the ones stated above) an he wants to wake up really bad........but when he does getta chance...he wakes up and hears footsteps walking off on the tile floor......an everyone else was sleeping in that room cuz the door was locked......so in my opinion this could be why its happened 2 me an him........so idk......spirits or not....its creepy

Answer by aub
Submitted on 2/19/2007
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I have these sort of things happen to me about 2 or three times a year. Not very often. (Thank God) I just had one last night, that's what brought me to this site. I fell asleep on the couch and my husband fell asleep on the floor. The tv was on when I fell asleep. I was having a dream, and in my dream I felt tired and like I was going to faint. So I tried to wake myself up. I usually can. I learned to do that when I was younger. So I woke up but I couldn't open my eyes. I heard my husband turn off the tv and then he came to cover me up and kiss me on my forehead. I tried to speak to tell him that something was wrong. No words would come out. I tried to grab his hand, but my body would not move. I heard him lay down, I fell back into REM. Ten min later I awoke again (i wasn't dreaming this time) hearing whispers, and rustling. I couldn't move again or open my eyes. I heard my husband snoring. I tried to move our coffee table into him, to wake him. I felt myself moving it, but when I when I was able to move and truly awake, the coffee table was not moved. I have had many of these types of "night terrors" b4. I have once thought that my eyes were open and that someone was looking in my window, and then they appeared in my room, trying to smother me w/ a pillow. I jerked awake, no one was there. I was finally able to move, but not all the way. I had to roll off the bed and crawl to the bathroom, to wash my face to wake me up. I have heard the buzzing noises b4, thought it was a ceiling fan in my dream, but it was really coming from inside my head. (that was in a dream though, not between wake and sleep) If anyone finds out why these things r happening to me, please post it on here. It scares me half death. Sometimes I am scared that I won't be able to wake at all. Any feedback is very much appreciated. ~Aub

Answer by MasterOfSleep
Submitted on 2/21/2007
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Ok, I experienced the same thing for years, exactly as described above. It happened so often and over such a long period of time, that I was able to learn some things about these situations. For a long time, I "thought" I was waking up and couldn't move, but upon closer inspection, I figured out that this wasn't the case. When I would "wake up" paralyzed, I trained myself to look around the room at the details of the room. I started noticing that the room that I saw at that time, and the room that I saw after fully waking up, indeed had their differences. My conclusion was that this was just a VERY REAL dream and not a state of being half awake. Secondly, I too was able to curb these occurences by cutting my sugar intake back during the evening time. Its been almost a year now since one of these episodes.

Answer by Alhana
Submitted on 3/28/2007
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I don't know what this condition is called, but I experience it several times a year, not so much that it disturbs my life for long, but it is disturbing for a while after each isolated incident happens. It happened to me this morning. I woke up at 7 with my boyfriend to see him off to work, and then fell back asleep. I woke up naturally some time later, and found I was paralyzed. And actually, I say I woke up naturally, but what really woke me up were a couple of sounds I was hearing. The first was my landlord calling my name and jiggling the handle to my door. The second noise was a lecture on tape I had been listening to the past several days in my car. The sounds were extremely real, as is the case in all of my episodes, and I remember feeling frustrated because my landlord was trying to get in. I tried to call out to him, to tell him I'd be right there, but nothing would come out. I couldn't move. I tried to muster up all of my internal energy to get my body to move, but it wouldn't. Not one bit. I was scared that he was going to find my key and come in. Finally, at some point, before I could move, I realized that no one was really at my door and there was no tape playing in my house; I don't even have a tape player in my living quarters. However, I was still paralyzed and mute. It's an extremely disconcerting feeling, one that is not understandable unless experienced personally. My own idea about it is that the "state" I'm in during these times is an in-between stage between sleeping and waking. Lucid. My friend asked me, "Have you ever tried going back to sleep during this time?" And I don't know about any of you who have experienced this, but I told her I was too scared to try falling back asleep because when I go through this, I think the things I am hallucinating are real.

Answer by cristina
Submitted on 4/2/2007
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I just woke up from one of those 5 minutes ago. I don't hear humming and the room does not spin fast, but I try to drift off to sleep, and when I do, I wake up paralyzed. I can't talk, breathe, scream, move. But after about 10 seconds I began to wiggle my fingers, then the rest of my body begins to move. I've been having these episodes for a year now and I'm 17. They started once when I was sleeping in my bed. It happened and I woke up sweating and breathing fast. It was never that bad again, but after it happens once, I'm scared to go to sleep again. This is why I'm writing this, because It happened to me and wanted to see if I could research what was causing it. I think it happens when I go to sleep really late. Some nights it will happen 4 times, then I can't go back to sleep.

Answer by ashley jamie
Submitted on 4/9/2007
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i wake cant move my eyes most of the time i can never move my body ether i don't speak but can sometimes mumble some times its easy to jump out of but it can be very hard i mostly get it when i lay on my back this position has effected my breathing especially when i try to talk i don't like to fall asleep and ignore it when its happening or it will properly be harder to jump out of. i start with small movements (fingers feet) to help me jump (as i call it like a big jolt of movement ). the jump is my whole body suddenly moving allot if I'm i it deep or a twitch if its miner (miner i usualy have multiple episode's) . i think being worried ,scared or if something is playing on my mind courses this . i think it used to happen when i was about 2-5 id have a dream i was flying but being sucked though a black hole (tube) and stooping at different places as if it was a memory of another life . from 5 it didn't happen or so i think. when i terned 10-11 i started having weird dreams and visions that cept coming true it scad me at times but i got used to it . but this all bought back the sleep problem it would happen rely but bad . I'm nearly 18 now and last night it happened for the ferst time when i was with my girlfriend it happned allot it was hard to snap out of one of the worst iv had i was mostly lying on my back. its horrible

Answer by gooky576
Submitted on 4/11/2007
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This dream state is probably the most unnerving and frightening place to be. I have these dreams alot. Especially if I have been exposed to other people who have been around demonic spirits. When my older kids come over to visit, this is usually the time when this type of dreaming occurs. It's symptoms are all very similiar to everyone else's, however I do not recall any humming in my dreams. The most scary part is when I realize I have fallen into this paralysis and I know that an entity is about to show up. It usually does, but it comes first as a friendly acquaintence then morphs into something that my spirit recognizes as evil. I try so hard to wake myself up! I begin to shake my leg and try to move my head and cry out to anyone in the house to awaken me, but nothing happens. The scary part is after I hav eshaken myself, I suddenly feel awake and a sense of momentary relief comes until I realize I haven't awakened at all.......I finally gather myself and begin to pray, I ask the Lord Jesus to delivery me from this evil, sometimes I see in my vision an angelic being come into the scene and actually remove the other being, I then get more courageous and begin to command the spirit that has come to leave in the name of Jesus Christ......All in all, however, these dreams are very frustrating and cause me not to even want to try to sleep at night....

Answer by nate
Submitted on 4/11/2007
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I've been having this ever since i was a kid, but it only happened every once in a while. Lately though I've had it every night. I never knew what it was and whenever I try to explain it to other people, they think I'm crazy. To make it worse, when it does happen and I manage to wake up it would happen again 5 seconds later and continue on indefinently. Sometimes, this would keep me awake for hours. What I began to find out though is if I wake up and turn on the lights and watch tv for a little awhile, I could usually fall back asleep fine. If anyone is having this problem, try doing this and see if it works. But I really wanna know is, how do I get rid of this permanently?

Answer by Natell1983
Submitted on 4/15/2007
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Hi everyone. I must say that I am rather shocked to see that there are actually people out there who suffer in alot of the ways I do! It is now 3.25am in the UK and I'm searching the Internet for help due to not daring to go back to sleep yet again! I am 23yrs old and I have been suffering with this for nearly 5 years or so now. Basically, it started with sleep paralysis after waking from 'the dream' (I am very awake in my dream and always wherever I am at that time, once it 'turns to the dark side' so to speak, so it doesn't actually feel like a dream). Usually, there is a dark entity present, throwing me violently around my room or pressing into my ribs causing great pain. I would basically have to push against the thing in order to wake up, in effect, hurting myself to get out of it! Because if I just stayed there, I'd stay in the dream. When I woke up, I was still paralysed and then I'd have to fight out of that before I fell back into 'the dream' again! My brother suggested praying while it was happening, which I did, and it worked for a while, but then when I would pray, I would hear hundreds of childrens voices repeating my prayers, as if I was being mocked! Anyway, this continued for 3years or so, sometimes a couple of times a month, sometimes every night for months. However, over the last 2 years, it has developed into something else. I now don't see 'the entity' as often. Instead, usually when trying to fall to sleep, I get an incredible shaking sensation, along with the humming and paralysis/spasms, and it feels as if 'something' is doing this to me (I can't see anything however, as I'm not actually dreaming) but I try and fight against it. The thing is, when I fight against it, it only makes it worse! I stop breathing and the pressure on my head and body (more from the inside out now rather than the outside in) becomes unbearable and very painful. Now to break free, I need to try and relax (which is nearly impossible) then I feel a certain point where I can break out although this is always very difficult to do too as I keep getting the feeling of being dragged back into it because I guess I still need to sleep (it all probably lasts 3minutes in total on average). When it first started, it would happen on my back but if I laid on my side, it wouldn't happen. It's now progressed to the point where it happens laid in any position and also happens when I am awake - meaning that I am in bed but my eyes are open as I haven't started to sleep yet or I can open my eyes after it's started, which makes it worse in alot of ways because I do sometimes feel like if I keep fighting it, I will eventually die, like my heart will stop beating or something as my breathing stops when I fight it. It also happens now after I've been asleep for a while opposed to just when I'm falling asleep, usually when I dream of something that makes me scared. It's gone from once a night every few weeks to continuously now, every night, all night and as a result, I am getting to a point where I'd rather stay awake than deal with it. I just hope every night when I look at my clock (when I've finally had enough and decide to stay up) that I will at least have had a good few hours sleep. Tonight I've had 10 minutes in total and I have been trying to get to sleep for 2 hours. I am going to book yet another appointment with the doctor tomorrow, who will no doubt ask me yet again, if I'm taking drugs, which I'm not. They're useless in the UK with this I believe, as I don't think they recognise sleep disorders as a problem, so alot of us suffer in silence most of the time. Anyway, any advice is welcome x

Answer by Courtney
Submitted on 4/20/2007
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The same thing kind of happens to me as in a few of the other posts. Except I almost never have any dreams that go along with not being able to breathe or move, and the rare occasions I do have a dream, it has noting to do with someone/thing suffocating me, drowning, etc. And I can't even open my eyes--they're always shut, but I'm fully awake of everything going on around me. I've fallen asleep in my family's living room and had this happen to me while my mother and brother were in there, and I can hear and remember the conversation they had, but I couldn't breathe, move, or say a word. People have mentioned "Sleep Apnea" to me before, but I've been told it's more common in unhealthy, obese, smokers/drinkers, and/or middle-aged people, and I'm none of the above. I'm healthy, 17, never smoked, never drank, and an athlete. I'm going to research more on this "sleep paralysis", but I took a "Sleeping Disorder Test" (a few times, might I add), and it keeps bring up "Sleep Apnea" and "Insomnia". Maybe this could help some other people? Here's the link for the test if anyone would like to give it a shot: http://www.sleepnet.com/sleeptest.html?sleepapnea2=ON&sleepapnea2=ON&sleepapnea2=ON&insomnia=ON&insomnia=ON&insomnia=ON&insomnia=ON&insomnia=ON&insomnia=ON&narcolepsy=ON&narcolepsy=ON&checkbox=ON&plmd=ON&plmd=ON&submit=Calculate+Score

Answer by Melissa121889
Submitted on 4/30/2007
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hey....i have been experiencing these dreams ever since i can remember, as far back as from when i was little. i am 17 now and just actually experienced one earlier today and was curious enough to start looking it up online and came across this site from google. i have episodes where i feel like im moving my arms and kicking my legs and stuff...one of these days we should put cameras near our beds and tape ourselves sleeping, and then if we have one of these episodes see if we actually move around or anything...its really weird. today when i was trying to wake myself up i saw a cat, and like ghosts and stuff. it feels like your trying for like ten minutes to wake yourself up....i have trouble breathing and moving and i feel pressure on my head, its pretty scary but after a minute or two you wake yourself up....today i actualy saw myself open one of my eyes partially a few times and i couldnt wake myself up all the way..and then i tried to lift my arm up to pull it open the rest of the way, lol...but you cant...i try to get myself to relax when its happening because i know its happened before and i eventually wake myself up but its scary.

Answer by brian
Submitted on 5/12/2007
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i used to have these dreams where i was locked in and couldnt move or scream the more i fought against it the harder it was to wake up but if i relaxed i would wake up it is a horrible feeling but ive not had an eppisode for a while now allthough there was one time when i was dreaming that i was floating around my naghbourhood and i saw my cousin walking down the road with her son in a pushchair it seemed real and also scary i had the feeling that i had left myself behind and as soon as i felt that i was in my bed fighting to awake again with all the same feelings now i know i didnt just take a flight around my naghbourhood but i did tell my cousin about what i dreamt and she told me she was there and i discribed what she was wearing and a lot of other things which were to accurate for my own liking this was a daytime dream and not a day dream im woundering if at all its possible that i was astral projecting at this point and its not the first time this has happened though not for some time now

Answer by Sarah
Submitted on 5/15/2007
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So so happy that I am not alone. I know they are not dreams. I feel a great pressure throughout my entire body like I am being held down and can't move at all. Even with all of my strength I can't move a muscle. I also have no strength to push noises out to call for help. I can look around and even see my partner sleeping and cant scream for him to help me. Then I hear and feel a loud gush/jolt like electricity and its all back to normal and I can move. Its so scary. For a while I thought it was a seizure but its not the same symptoms.it doesn't happen often and sometimes I don't remember that it happens but it happened last night so I'm doing some internet research. Nice to hear that I'm not alone. Is it a neurological problem or a sign of something wrong? It feels so negative... Like bad energy surging through my body.

Answer by ambros77
Submitted on 5/27/2007
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I've been experiencing this exact same thing since i was 9 yrs old the first time i was introduced i saw a long snake of fire floating through a large room of pillars with this drum beat sound getting louder and louder as it was getting closer and closer illuminating the pillars it was circling since it was pitch dark. after that i had had this noise in my ear before falling asleep sometimes even while I'm awake . i get this roller coaster felling and like something was pulling me. afraid of dying i would pray to god to rescue me.I'm now 29 and i have on many occasions just let go ..and what i have experienced can only be described as scary but exciting! i'veseen my friend on her computer chatting online in the dark smilling as if to be flirting in the dark late at night i floated right in front of her face. the next day i asked her if she was on her computer and she said she was bored and met some guy in seatlle on yahoo chat. ianother time i floated of my couch and looked at myself sleeping with my mouth open with the t.v on. THIS IS REALLY HAPPENING. I SWEAR I'M NORMAL.i have many experiences and ive even been to strange places and communicated with different entity's. if you go into this state scared you're going to have a bad experience and make yourself very voulnerable..you need to be confident and you'll go to places i cant even explain and even when I'm not experiencing this state, my dreams ar so far out there i meet people and go to places not even my imagination in real life can come up with i have the longest dreams and some time s visit the same dream more than once even months to years down the line and it seems as if the places in my dream continue even after i wake up. sometimes i don't want to wake up i get emotionally attached to some of the people in my dreams.e-mail: ambrosio81477@yahoo.com

Answer by kronicklover
Submitted on 6/3/2007
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this has happened to me several times. it happened last night for the first time in years. i thought it was because of drug use and that i was just trippin because of my drug use. with me, it feels like i am between sleep and wake. for some reason i feel fear and the desire to move is only overpowered by my desire to speak. it feels like in the Matrix when NEO takes the pill and he sees that his hand is turning into a liquid type and that it is spreading to his face. it starts at my feet and is cold and feels wet. i can feel it slowly moving up and i feel that i will die if i dont wake before it gets to my face. anyways last night i tried to yell but couldnt. my girlfriend was laying beside me and i thought if she just woke up that she could help. i finally felt like i let out a yell. it didnt wake my family up or anything but i feel that i really screamed.

Answer by Emdog
Submitted on 6/10/2007
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This issue is simple, and although I hate to sound like a new age person with this there is much literature surrounding this same phenomena. All the literature refers to this as the result of an out of body experience (OBE). I had the same problem for years- waking up in the middle of the night paralyzed- trying to move and being unable to. I fought it with all my might and eventually after some time, the paralysis went away. As expected, this is called the "paralysis state." During this state, you eyes may be slightly open or closed and as the state gets stronger, you may see lights images. You enter a different stage in which you hear the sound of buzzing bees... This continues and gets louder and louder until it feels like your entire body is buzzing! It is! This is thought to be your body reaching a different energy state- that is, the transition to a higher spiritual level (our bodies are basically energy as defined by Einstein). As you continue in the process, you may next begin to hear sounds or voices and may see apparitions or occasionally feel a sense of flying or falling. They key here is to not be fearful. This transition is the beginning of an OBE. It could spontaneously happen or you simply go back to a normal state of being. For more info look online for OBEs.. Could be interesting.

Answer by chel
Submitted on 6/16/2007
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thank god i'mnot the only one that this happens too! i cant remember when i first started getting the sleep paralysis but after years of this happening i confided in a friend who thought i was crazy coz she never experienced it, after that i thought i might have something wrong with me and it worried me for a while, my symptoms were the same as well, i could always see and hear but just could not move and it always felt like something was comming after me and i would use all my strength to move and scream!!!! but i cant make a noice, then eventually after about 5-10mins or so it seems, i close my eyes and then i wake up very scared. i have looked it up on the internet and it goes back centuries. i dont know about the sugar thing before bed but i do like to stay up late and then wake up early for work so most probably mine is caused by sleep deprivation but everyone is different we just have to find out what is causing ours. also i fond a good book that is based on sleep paralysis called "the terror that comes in the night" by david huffords, i hope this everyone i know i now feel better i'mnot alone xxxx.

Answer by Josh
Submitted on 6/21/2007
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ive had this prbolem all my life and been searching for the answer why i sleep yet with my eyes open but i cant move. then i tryed adapting to it and now whent hat happens it takes about 2 or 5 minutes to try super HARD to move a nerv to wake my enter body system. also last time that happened i could feel my body already breathing then another time ago i could move my eyes!!! it was so wierd yet very very boring staring at the wall for 8 hourse of sleep......omg i hated that day....my dad said going into my Subconscious i can use all 100% of my brain if i adapt to it and learn to use it...he said its like a computer where i can look in my past and edit things or even learn some wierd powers...i think hes right becuase last week ive been touching a cable cord and then i hold it and touch the outlet with my other hand and then the tv turns on?!?! why is that? also the 3rd time i was in subconscious i started having a nose bleed then my eyes rolled back and i started getting up from my bed and walking around but then all of a suden i woke up still in my bed still in my subconscious its as if my mind created a video of my body do something odd......how is that? im not lying at all, ALL OF THIS REALLY HAPPENED!!! why?

Answer by amcman
Submitted on 7/3/2007
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I had this symptom when I was a junior in college. It only happened when I took naps in the daytime, never at night. I would fall asleep but my eyes were open and I couldn't move. I never thought there was anything in the room with me, but I thought I was going to die. I would try as hard as I could to roll off the bed or couch in order to fall down and wake up. Usually I would just try to scream as loud as I could and finally moan just a little and that would snap me out of it. My wife was in the bed only one time and she said I was making the most horrible moaning sounds and so she shook me to wake me up. Since college it has stopped and I definately think it has something to do with stress levels and your mind not being able to relax while your body is exhausted. I have also read it has to do with low melatonin levels

Answer by Mike
Submitted on 7/18/2007
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I have experiences almost all of what everyone is describing. And they are all forms of sleep paralysis. I have has "episodes" where i am able to open my eyes but i am fully paralysed, to hearing the loud buzzing, or in some cases almost sounds like screaming. The first time it happened i didn't go back into my room for 3 days. I found after doing more research on it and discovering what is it, i am able to handle it better when it happens. I find that when you are in that paralyzed state you are able to move your toes and your fingertips, as well as many others i have spoke to. Concentrating on moving these part will start to wake your brain up and bring you out of it. I find that what causes it for me tends to be stress. I didn't start to get them until i was in college, but know i get them from time to time.

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Question by YoGi
Submitted on 11/6/2003
Related FAQ: Dreams FAQ Pt.1/4: General Information, dream interpretation
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I go to sleep and use to wake up paralyzed in my sleep, but not asleep, just laying there eyes wide open paralyzed. I couldn't breath, i couldn't speak, move anything but my eyes. I could look around but i couldn't even breathe. This has happened a few times in my old house, once in my mother's house (she lived by a graveyard), and then only once in my new house. What is it, and what do you think is causing it?

Answer by Jay_Yang
Submitted on 12/24/2003
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Did your ceilings have some spiders or their webs clinging onto them. There is a strong belief that spider's webs could cause some souls could not freely react their dreams. Clear your ceilings from any spiders or spider's web.

Answer by Newfie
Submitted on 1/7/2004
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Well I've heard that many people went through this, from my province, and actually read about it. Here its kinda more folklore (Newfoundland) and its called "the old hag".

Answer by Britty
Submitted on 3/12/2004
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I'm 13 years old and I'm extremely interested in lucid dreaming or OBEs. Is it possible to master one of these at my age? And another question: I know blankets and duvets are ghost proof. but what about OBEs and lucid dreaming? Can you have one under a thick blanket?? like in bed?

Answer by cheetah_dream
Submitted on 6/14/2004
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hi I have searched all over and now, only now have i found someone else with my symptoms,I experience all of the above and the humming only gets louder but i can make noises with my mouth and yet i can't wake up i jerk my head and i try to concentrate to wake my self up and it seems to work. The truth is that i feel like i am dying and i am being shook so hard while the humming takes place, it is real scary no other feeling in this world can be compared.If there is a cure or a true way to help me stop this horrible thing from happening and i think everyone would agree that it feels horrible.Please let me know.

Answer by Mike
Submitted on 1/3/2004
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Ive had sitations exactly like that before.(1st post) I have no idea what caused them but they are quite frightening. I used to have them all the time then they just stopped I reccomend you research it further on the internet.

Answer by Bill
Submitted on 6/15/2004
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Yeah i have the same thing too. Since about a year ago when i was fifteen i started having the same symptoms. Now if i sleep a certain way on my side, i'llget the sleep paralysis thing and it ususally happens more then once unless i turn on my other side once i snap out of it in about 5 seconds. Also once i was at a sleep over but when i fell asleep i woke up and couldnt move but this time i could still talk, then five seconds later i snapped out of it. it was really strange. but i think its cause i dont get alot of sleep anymore.

Answer by Joan
Submitted on 7/7/2004
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I sometimes get this. It is so horrible. I think i know why i get it though. The thing is, is that im terrified of evil spirits and when im trying to sleep, ill open my eyes every 2 minutes to see if there is anything in my room. Then when im starting to go through REM, my mind tells me to open my eyes. When i do open them i am parylized, i feel like im being shaken, and i can hear my heart beating extremely fast. I tell myself to cry out, but i cant move my mouth. After half a minute of laying in fear, i manage to shake my head,and i am fully awake.

Answer by tamiraz
Submitted on 7/10/2004
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What about alarm clocks? Does this paralysis appear only when you wake up by yourself or also when you are awaken by an alarm clock?

Answer by Jeremy
Submitted on 8/11/2004
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I'm glad to hear other people are experiencing this phenomenon. I'm glad I'm not the only one. I drink a lot of Caffeine and sodas so that may contribute to the problem. Any treatment for this condition?

Answer by quickyman1974
Submitted on 8/23/2004
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this is the wildest thing i'veever read--- i mentioned this to my dr of many years and he acted as if it were no big deal. to me, it's a huge problem-i hate to go to sleep---it's horrifying. i wish i knew of someway to stop it. any suggestions how to shake the paralysis? thanx quickyman1974@aol.com

Answer by shauna
Submitted on 9/3/2004
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i've had this happen twice before. it's definately scary, and you feel as though you're being posessed. i was watching montel one day and Sylvia Brown was on and a person from the audiance said they experience this... and she said to not worry... that it's just your waking up before you're soul is back in your body... that more than likely it is just floating over your bed... and she said to just tell your soul to get back into your body, and it will. i havent experience this since i watched montel that day, so i dont know if it works. but its worth a try if its still a problem.

Answer by bklynitalian26
Submitted on 9/3/2004
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well i just had this experiance again i haven't had it in a long time i woke up could not move this black thing was on top of me , as soon as i could move i pushed it off went for the light as i was moving towards it the black thing or ghost i thought it was floated thru the door and i turned the light on and it is still on at 430 am and i searched the computer and found this site, if any one wants to talk about this email me at bklynitalian26@aol.com

Answer by Domonique Monte
Submitted on 9/9/2004
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I sometimes have these same dreams.One moring I woke up and I couldn't move or talk. I was sleep but i wasn't sleep. I felt someone walking around me but my eyes would not open.This is not the first time this has happen to me,but every time it happens I go through a struggle with my body to try to wake up. I'm not sure why this happens but I know it doesn't happen to everyone because a lot of people don't have a clue to what I try to explain to them.

Answer by unknown36
Submitted on 9/12/2004
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I got used to it, it's kinda fun after a while, since I know nothing bad will happen. Except one time when my eyes open and couldn't move or talk I began to feel as if I was floating to other parts of the room. I knew this was impossible since I can still feel myself in bed. That's when I started to freak out. I also noticed it only happens when I wear a blanket and get really comfortable and relaxed. Then my heart starts to slow down to a point where this happens.

Answer by Kyle
Submitted on 10/5/2004
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When you sleep you probably lying on a nerve because it has happened to me. I could not move or call out for help.

Answer by Vu
Submitted on 10/19/2004
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I agree with Joan, I think that is the reason why I also experience that sleep problem. In my vietname culture, theres a story that when that happens, there is a ghost laying on top of you. I was told that as a kid and the story stuck with me ever since. Once i also saw a movie with a picture that depicted this but i cannot remember the name of the movie. Anyways because i was scared of this, i also believe my mind to my eyes to open during REM which caused me to experience the paralyzed feeling

Answer by reyoo30309
Submitted on 10/31/2004
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Like many others i have had this problem. The only help I can really give is when this happens to you try to focus on pushing your self off your bed or moveing your arms.

Answer by dan
Submitted on 11/11/2004
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i've experienced this a few times before too! im 17. first time it happened, i woke up after sleeping in the living room and my dad was there watching tv. i was looking at him but i couldnt do anything at all!

Answer by aha!
Submitted on 11/30/2004
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Sleep paralysis is very essential at times. If you are in REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep and you wake up, you will automatically act out your dream (sleepwalk). Your body paryalizes itself to stop this, as this would be VERY dangerous. Some people can overcome it and sleepwalk, others can't. It is NOT a disorder or disease, it is a natural bodily function.

Answer by email: aznlay@sbcglobal.net
Submitted on 12/5/2004
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I have the same symptoms. I sleep and have visions of a person or people, and as I kind of wake up(or still sleeping) I feel like cant move or breathe. Outside sounds like a buzzing sound turns into a whispering voice saying "get up" and the only thing i can do is touch my fingers to whatever is near. The way i dealt with this is to not drink alcohol and sleep comfortably with no blankets by my face. Try not to be scared and go back to sleep. If this doesnt work email me.

Answer by wyldvelia
Submitted on 1/9/2005
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i'm a 42 y/o woman and this has happened to me about 5 times now and only within the last 3 years. today i learned 'it' has a name: Awareness during Sleep Paralysis, ASP. doesn't matter that i has a name now, it is horrible. i had an episode this morning with all the classic symptoms. aware, wanting to scream but not being able to, 'seeing' my whole body and trying to rock myself awake. wanting to call for help. and with all five times... thinking, "this cant be happening to me"

Answer by nottheonlyone
Submitted on 1/18/2005
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I have the same thing. Not too often. Last one is over a year or two ago until last night. I felt the bed shaking and then I saw a figure at the end of the bed. I could not scream but forced myself to and something felt like it was holding me down. Finally my scream came out and my wife woke me up.

Answer by Dreont
Submitted on 1/24/2005
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I am glad that i'vefound people who can relate to my problem. i have the same paralysis usually up to five times in one night. it is very scary. i can feel it when it starts though, usually with a buzzing feeling rather than a sound, and usually pressure, like something'spulling me from underneath. it usually takes about five -ten seconds to get out of it. but the longer i let it happen without trying to get out it, the harder it is to get out of. i have noticed though, that on the nights that i am extremely over tired, are the nights i have them the most.

Answer by a_new_dawn1957
Submitted on 2/3/2005
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I truly believe that when you wake up and you feel paralyzed, it's actually your spirit coming back into your body after a night of astral-projection, and it gets caught by you in the process of returning.It's actually half in and half out when you wake up.During this time, you usually feel paralysis, can hear strange noises like rustling, etc., and it terrifies you but you have to try to keep in mind that it doesn't last very long. To put a little humor to it , it's like your spirit goes out on town, has a good time visiting places then returns home after a busy night and sometimes gets caught!

Answer by Shasta
Submitted on 2/12/2005
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I started having sleep paralysis when I was about 11 till about 19. It's such a horrible feeling. Then I found out that my mom had it when she was young and so did my grandma so I do believe it is genetic. Ask your parents if they have ever had it? It is such a relief to find out that we were not the only ones experiencing this. I wonder why you never see anything about it on TV if it is somewhat common. The good news is I think some people grow out of it cause my mom and grandma did and I'm 22 and haven't had one in the last 3 years.

Answer by rik
Submitted on 2/20/2005
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I have various episodes when I'm more likely to have "fits" of sleep paralysis, i try and concentrate on a smaller sound anywhere in the room, a ticking clock, a computer fan, or anything like that, and make sure that i look at something different every five seconds or so, then i try and move parts of my body gradually from my eyes, to my mouth and limbs etc. i find I'm more likely to get sleep paralysis when its summer, possibly because I'm drinking sugary things, or because of the temperature, I'm not entirely sure, but it's a frightening ordeal, and there are ways of staving it off for a while

Answer by Joe Mama
Submitted on 2/26/2005
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You all are retards now ill pretend to be you "Hi guys lets talk about how FRITE-N-ING dreams are they are so very scary please help i'm oh so very scared help" u shure do need help, go to a mental hopistal.

Answer by Brandon
Submitted on 3/12/2005
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Thank God! I thought I was the only one and that I was going crazy. I believe that this is somehow related to lucid dreaming. Sort of the equal and opposite, maybe the minds way of balancing itself out. If you also have lucid dreams like I do then that may be part of it.

Answer by Jenny
Submitted on 3/31/2005
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I have the same things but it don't feel like anything is holding me down. it just feels like i cant move and then i stop breathing and i try and yell for help but i cant and then my eyes close and i see that I'm laying in a field of grass and flowers and I'm always in front of this billboard and there is always a person on it but i never know who it is! i want help for this but i dunno what to do!

Answer by Steve and Brett
Submitted on 4/1/2005
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I personally feel the exact same way as most of the people on this thread, except for the select few...you know who you are. Except when i have them i also see black, domelike figures moving rapidly across flat surfaces, almost like heads or something, and i also feel about five or six inches above what i am laying on. ive noticed i have alot of these experiences are when i have gotten up in the middle of the night, usually for homework or studying, and ive tried to go back to sleep. it never seems to get routine or un-terrifying, im just glad people can share my experiences too.

Answer by Stan
Submitted on 4/8/2005
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I have the same thing with all the typical symptoms that were described above. One thing that I noticed is that it only happens to me when I am lying on my back. I have this things once every three months or so but it always happens several times in one night. Sometimes I am trying to experiment and avoiding to do anything to snap out of it, but when I've had enough I turn on my side and it stops. So for those who have really bad once try to change your body position.

Answer by ABE3K
Submitted on 4/21/2005
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I have the same thing too. But somehow I feel this thing coming while I am sleeping. It starts as my body begins to get Goosebumps all over and start to get numb I open my eyes suddenly and inhale just before getting paralyzed.

Answer by bradfresh
Submitted on 4/21/2005
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This sounds like the symptoms of a panic disorder known as Isolated Sleep Paralysis. It is not considered serious unless you worry about them when you are not having these episodes. There really is no cure but you can treat them like any other panic disorder.

Answer by James
Submitted on 5/14/2005
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Hi, Occasionally I experienced what you guys are talking about. Sometimes it happens when I start falling asleep and sometimes after I sleep. Usually after a nap though. They are very terrible and frightening experiences and all I wanted was to fully wake up. Sometimes, I managed to move my fingers, then my hands to wake up only to fall into another one. I found this page from Standford University about sleep paralysis; it provides a lot of information. James. http://www.stanford.edu/~dement/paralysis.html