Hi, I have sleep paralysis disorder and hallucinations that make me dreadfully afraid and finally wake me up. Is it a sleep disorder known in medicine?
Sleep paralysis and hallucinations are conditions frequently associated with other sleep disorders. Narcolepsy is one such a condition. It is not so rare but stays unreported. Paralysis can occur while the body is in any position, but mostly the sleeper is lying flat on the back. It is followed with intense fear, and other strong emotions. Sensation of pressure on the chest is also seen, making it difficult to breathe. Floating feelings and out-of-body experiences are noticeable. From time to time they even feel like they have been attacked, perhaps strangled or suffocated. Sexual attacks are also experienced, along with other dreadful hallucinations.
Sleep paralysis was explained by my sleep doctor as a fairly common thing but it can be severe for some people. It occurs because the brain causes the body to be paralysed during REM Sleep (the dreaming stage) so you don't act out your dreams. When you wake up normally, the body is released from the paralysis and life goes on. However, sometimes you wake up in the middle of the REM stage and your body doesn't get the signal to wake, and you are stuck in whatever position you happened to be in when you slipped into REM sleep.
He said they don't know what causes it, but it's often related to narcolepsy and sleep apnea.
Knowing what it is helped me deal with it, because I don't panic anymore, but I'm still very uncomfortable when it happens, mostly because I can't predict it at all. When it happens, I can't open my eyes or move anything, except occasionally a finger or two or open my lips to let some sound out--breathing is short and shallow because usually my arms are clenched against my chest and I have a blanket up to my chin. I also feel a sharp rise in my temperature upon waking most of the time, and this makes me feel like I'm overheating when I'm in the paralysis. The dreams I remember in this situation are almost always stressful situations--being lost in a scary place, unable to get away from something scary, etc.
If my husband hears me "squeaking"--the only sounds I can make--and wakes, if he moves my arm out away from my body it's enough to get the signal out and the rest of me can move again, often with shaky strong stretching, like after a serious yawn. I'm a little shaky for a while, but if I get up and walk around I can usually go back to sleep with no problems.
Being able to relax when it happens, knowing what's going on, sometimes I am able to slip back into sleep and wake later more normally.
I have been diagnosed with apnea and have a C-PAP machine (continuous positive airway pressure) now, but it's really, really hard to get used to and after many months of trying new face masks and being frustrated and exhausted, I'm having a little success, but still not able to use it for more than a couple of hours at a time. That's a whole other issue to discuss.
He said they don't know what causes it, but it's often related to narcolepsy and sleep apnea.
Knowing what it is helped me deal with it, because I don't panic anymore, but I'm still very uncomfortable when it happens, mostly because I can't predict it at all. When it happens, I can't open my eyes or move anything, except occasionally a finger or two or open my lips to let some sound out--breathing is short and shallow because usually my arms are clenched against my chest and I have a blanket up to my chin. I also feel a sharp rise in my temperature upon waking most of the time, and this makes me feel like I'm overheating when I'm in the paralysis. The dreams I remember in this situation are almost always stressful situations--being lost in a scary place, unable to get away from something scary, etc.
If my husband hears me "squeaking"--the only sounds I can make--and wakes, if he moves my arm out away from my body it's enough to get the signal out and the rest of me can move again, often with shaky strong stretching, like after a serious yawn. I'm a little shaky for a while, but if I get up and walk around I can usually go back to sleep with no problems.
Being able to relax when it happens, knowing what's going on, sometimes I am able to slip back into sleep and wake later more normally.
I have been diagnosed with apnea and have a C-PAP machine (continuous positive airway pressure) now, but it's really, really hard to get used to and after many months of trying new face masks and being frustrated and exhausted, I'm having a little success, but still not able to use it for more than a couple of hours at a time. That's a whole other issue to discuss.
i barely found out that i have sleep paralysis but i realize that when i smoke medical marijuana i actually sleep better without inturruptions which i feel good about because i always knew it made me feel better but i do not have a prescritpion from a doctor which i dont care about because i use for my needs only
I've had sleep paralysis for years. I no longer freak out when it occurs because I read wiggling your fingers or toes helps to release the body from a paralyzed state. It really does work! Also, remembering that you are in no real physical danger helps.
Hello! [:
I'm not a medical expert or anything, but I can give you information based off of my experiences.
I have severe sleep paralysis. I usually wake up during the REM Stage, and before I found out it was sleep paralysis, I used to think i was being haunted. It is known to have halluciations while in sleep paralysis. When I'd wake up during the REM process I would see ghosts, monsters, and spirits, and wouldn't be able to move or scream. It feels like a strong force or person is holding you down. My friend who also had it thought she was getting abducted by aliens, but in reality it is ISP.
Sleep paralysis could possibly be caused by medication, if it is a drug that makes you hallucinate. But some side effects for SP is rough sleeping patterns, eating disorders, stress, and panic attacks. These are usually what make me wake up during the REM process.
I'm not a medical expert or anything, but I can give you information based off of my experiences.
I have severe sleep paralysis. I usually wake up during the REM Stage, and before I found out it was sleep paralysis, I used to think i was being haunted. It is known to have halluciations while in sleep paralysis. When I'd wake up during the REM process I would see ghosts, monsters, and spirits, and wouldn't be able to move or scream. It feels like a strong force or person is holding you down. My friend who also had it thought she was getting abducted by aliens, but in reality it is ISP.
Sleep paralysis could possibly be caused by medication, if it is a drug that makes you hallucinate. But some side effects for SP is rough sleeping patterns, eating disorders, stress, and panic attacks. These are usually what make me wake up during the REM process.
I know it just your brain playing tricks, but I saw so many different beings during sleep paralysis that talked to me and said my F&CK!NG NAME!
and said such statements as "Your @$$ is mine tonight!", "Don't you wish you can move Paul?" and the most scariest of all one creature that looked like a combination of Gollum and a reptile told me "I'll waiting for you when you die."........ I seriously think there are some type of interdimensional beings.
note; not all my encounters were terrifying.... there were some peaceful ones.
I've had sleep paralysis with both auditory and visual hallucinations since i was 7 years old. At it's worst point it would happen 5-6 times per week... i recently read that in an extreme case sleep paralysis occurs once a week...I'm wondering now what that would have made my case at that point in time!... Now it is more typical for it to occur once a week or about 2 or 3 times a month and to me this is NOT severe. I can relate to hearing terrible things being said to me and about me and i think that was almost as terrifing as the visual hallucinations which were typically demonic in nature. This is deffinately not a fun thing to experience!! I was offered some comfort recently when i learned thru a psych course i am taking that it is in fact a diagnosable disorder and is listed in the DSM-IV. ...this means treatment is available! (if a person so chooses)
It is interesting to read that you have had peaceful experiences Paul, I would love to hear about them as i have had no such thing!!
Do you really beleive in them as interdimensional beings..??
I've never spoken to anyone before who had sleep paralysis so its nice to be able to share my experience! I hope this stays active!
It is interesting to read that you have had peaceful experiences Paul, I would love to hear about them as i have had no such thing!!
Do you really beleive in them as interdimensional beings..??
I've never spoken to anyone before who had sleep paralysis so its nice to be able to share my experience! I hope this stays active!
Ive had sleep paralysis. For years but this past year its been more frequent. I wake up and usually have a very loud ringing in my ears then it turns into screams....then i hear voices of people i know talking or screaming...then i hear things running or moving around...today i heard someone messing with the birxd cage in the other room and then ring the bell. But my bird died a few days ago and u put the cage in the basement....the noises are very vivid and sound very real...to the point you cant tell if there real and i can hear them in different areas. Not just directly in my ear...when i was a kid i used to have visual hallucnations along with it but i but not anymore....im calm when it happens and can usually snap myself out of it now. But it still sucks lok
I used to get sleep paralysis quite regularly. During that time i was into occult practices such as tarot cards, meditation and hypnosis. My brother who i was sharing a house with a that time who was participating in similar things also experienced SP, I was in his room one time and i saw him bounce at least 1 meter off the bed screaming horribly, ive never seen anything like it. He told me that somebody was disemboweling him on his bed. You are awake and see your room but there is an evil presence there, sometimes you can see it, sometimes you cant and its in the corner of your vision, and it as as real as anything until can move and then it all stops. I experienced being raped once. The word 'pharmacy' comes from the Greek word 'pharmakeia', which appears in the new testament of the Bible and was translated to witchcraft. Medication is not an answer to sleep paralysis but rather a cause of it. Human science cannot explain things like this neither remedy them. 'The angel of the LORD encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them.' Psalm 34 7
I began having sleep paralysis when I was an adolescent. Had no clue what it was other than being completelI y horrifying. I am completely aware of what is going on, knowing I am in a dream, knowing i have to fight like hell to rouse myself due to the overwhelming fear of not getting myself out of it. I am able to get out but it's a tough fight but when inspired by this overwhelming feeling that going down into it, which it feels to me, that i'm being pulled down and I simply know without a doubt that going down into it would be really bad, That is a light statement though.
I was born a sensitive, empath, runs in my family. I did Tarot cards but my studies of them were integrated with studies of many mystic traditions. I am an ordained minister, I do have ms. Yet when they began, I was young and not yet studying mystic traditions. Drawn to them, yes.
I can feel if one is coming on and i lack the adjectives to describe what it is I feel. Something is off and underlying dread.
I get in dreams from the paralysis and know that i'm in the dream while i'm dreaming. I make decisions and such in the dream. Lucid? Not really. It begins with the paralysis. Hit rem too fast, I'm told. That runs in my family. My brother, myself and perhaps my daughter.
I am a sensitive, empath and if you need to say clairvoyant feel free. I dislike the tags. For this is simply myself, born this way and trying to avoid it, avoid mysticism yet it is me, or rather an essence that exists in me.
Does my spirituality, my seeking transcendence the cause? I think not. I rather wonder if the more mystic types don't invite it, and none of the traditions I embrace are certainly not "evil". Maybe sleep paralysis comes to people with this type of essence for a reason. First, we won't go nuts because we study things that relate, if another without any mystic quality were to experience what we do, they would probably lose it.
I know I don't have narcolepsy. My sleep disorder is rem beginning to fast. It has nothing to do with my ms. I think it has everything to do that I contemplate the incidents, i don't fear them when i'm not in the midst of using my will to break through the paralysis, I can always do that. i have no idea what would happen if I didn't. Only that whatever I'm falling into, which i feel, falling......i wouldnt come back. Drama? I'm not that type of person. I'm a philosophy major/mystic. They go well together.
So what are the personalities of those effected? What is their essence and does that alone attract this phenomena. I don't believe there is a medical reason other than rem sleep coming on so quickly. Only during the times I xpereience. the rapid rem onset. Giving me the cognition of being in the dream, making decisions as to what and how I'm going to get out. I fight like hell to break out of it, fear makes one very strong.
Can anyone else break out of it? And is there shared personal qualities? I have found many empathic people such as myself experience this. Very open minded, spiritual types. Their essence seems to attract this condition. Scripture does nothing to help nor do i try it for yes, I am a constant student of mystic traditions. Given a term of "gnostic" but terms are just that, merely adjectives. I go within to find the Divine, that is my belief and my belief comes from what I've experienced from transcendence.
I have sorrow for those who suffered so with rapes and such. I never got that far into it as somehow could fight it and rouse myself.
Anyone have thoughts on my rambling post?
Love and Light,
Kelley
I was born a sensitive, empath, runs in my family. I did Tarot cards but my studies of them were integrated with studies of many mystic traditions. I am an ordained minister, I do have ms. Yet when they began, I was young and not yet studying mystic traditions. Drawn to them, yes.
I can feel if one is coming on and i lack the adjectives to describe what it is I feel. Something is off and underlying dread.
I get in dreams from the paralysis and know that i'm in the dream while i'm dreaming. I make decisions and such in the dream. Lucid? Not really. It begins with the paralysis. Hit rem too fast, I'm told. That runs in my family. My brother, myself and perhaps my daughter.
I am a sensitive, empath and if you need to say clairvoyant feel free. I dislike the tags. For this is simply myself, born this way and trying to avoid it, avoid mysticism yet it is me, or rather an essence that exists in me.
Does my spirituality, my seeking transcendence the cause? I think not. I rather wonder if the more mystic types don't invite it, and none of the traditions I embrace are certainly not "evil". Maybe sleep paralysis comes to people with this type of essence for a reason. First, we won't go nuts because we study things that relate, if another without any mystic quality were to experience what we do, they would probably lose it.
I know I don't have narcolepsy. My sleep disorder is rem beginning to fast. It has nothing to do with my ms. I think it has everything to do that I contemplate the incidents, i don't fear them when i'm not in the midst of using my will to break through the paralysis, I can always do that. i have no idea what would happen if I didn't. Only that whatever I'm falling into, which i feel, falling......i wouldnt come back. Drama? I'm not that type of person. I'm a philosophy major/mystic. They go well together.
So what are the personalities of those effected? What is their essence and does that alone attract this phenomena. I don't believe there is a medical reason other than rem sleep coming on so quickly. Only during the times I xpereience. the rapid rem onset. Giving me the cognition of being in the dream, making decisions as to what and how I'm going to get out. I fight like hell to break out of it, fear makes one very strong.
Can anyone else break out of it? And is there shared personal qualities? I have found many empathic people such as myself experience this. Very open minded, spiritual types. Their essence seems to attract this condition. Scripture does nothing to help nor do i try it for yes, I am a constant student of mystic traditions. Given a term of "gnostic" but terms are just that, merely adjectives. I go within to find the Divine, that is my belief and my belief comes from what I've experienced from transcendence.
I have sorrow for those who suffered so with rapes and such. I never got that far into it as somehow could fight it and rouse myself.
Anyone have thoughts on my rambling post?
Love and Light,
Kelley
i hope you're still reading this page SashelyS. i have suffered severely from this since i was about six or seven.. very vivid demonic visions. however one thing no one has mentioned is a feeling of being in the middle of an electrical current running through the body for the duration of the paralysis ..also mine too can sometimes be a number of times a week. i'm 57now and still get them.thank god i found this page..i thought i was mad
I had this between the ages of 5 and 9. The dreams were so vivid I can remember them to this day. I seemed to have "conquered" or overcame them on my own, never knowing what they were until years later. I did not have narcolepsy, so I don't know what caused them. They never happened while falling asleep, but always during a nightmare where I became aware that the means of escape was waking up - or in my case - trying and failing! So that means my hallucinations were hypnopompic, not hypnagogic.
The hallucinations were similar to what others described; they were so scary I thought I was dying and WOULD die if I did not or could not struggle free and WAKE UP. I was paralyzed, and also felt glued or sucked or pulled by some force into the bed, could not breathe or cry out for help, and unusual for me, I could not open my eyes, which I also struggled to do. In addition I would feel tingly vibrations or electricity through my body, usually starting from the back of my head then slowly moving down my spine. And, what nobody else mentioned (other than "ringing") was a loud EVIL BUZZING sound that intensified with the experience, which broke after I was able to finally struggle free.
To me, the experience was more terrifying than the dream which preceded it, so that the sheer visceral sensation of utterly helpless terror was more overwhelming than any plot of horror could describe. In a sense I was afraid of the feelings of fear in the dream, which were stronger than anything I ever felt in sleep or awake, then or since.
I could have this dream while on my back OR stomach, but I did notice that the dreams on my stomach seemed milder and easier to "escape" since I felt my vulnerable parts were hidden and I could "push up" with my arms more easily than "sitting up." When on my back the experience was more terrifying, more intense, longer lasting and more difficult to struggle free from.
Two more lessons I learned were: get up and walk around after you wake up. I made the mistake once of closing my eyes too soon and was IMMEDIATELY "sucked" back into the heavy paralysis, suffocation and terror to struggle free from again. It seems the after effects of this dream last several seconds and aren't completely broken until you've fully waken up. I also learned to save up my struggling energy into a single burst, like a shout and movement all at one calculated moment.
Eventually it happened less and less, and when it did I could wake up easier or the feelings of terror were milder or gone completely. It seems it is the terror aspect, not the paralysis per se, which hold the "victim" hostage in the experience seemingly helpless and longer than humanely necessary. Now it never happens, nor do any nightmares happen, since I also learned to instinctively jolt myself awake at the earliest sign of anything sinister creeping into my dreams. That's my story.
The hallucinations were similar to what others described; they were so scary I thought I was dying and WOULD die if I did not or could not struggle free and WAKE UP. I was paralyzed, and also felt glued or sucked or pulled by some force into the bed, could not breathe or cry out for help, and unusual for me, I could not open my eyes, which I also struggled to do. In addition I would feel tingly vibrations or electricity through my body, usually starting from the back of my head then slowly moving down my spine. And, what nobody else mentioned (other than "ringing") was a loud EVIL BUZZING sound that intensified with the experience, which broke after I was able to finally struggle free.
To me, the experience was more terrifying than the dream which preceded it, so that the sheer visceral sensation of utterly helpless terror was more overwhelming than any plot of horror could describe. In a sense I was afraid of the feelings of fear in the dream, which were stronger than anything I ever felt in sleep or awake, then or since.
I could have this dream while on my back OR stomach, but I did notice that the dreams on my stomach seemed milder and easier to "escape" since I felt my vulnerable parts were hidden and I could "push up" with my arms more easily than "sitting up." When on my back the experience was more terrifying, more intense, longer lasting and more difficult to struggle free from.
Two more lessons I learned were: get up and walk around after you wake up. I made the mistake once of closing my eyes too soon and was IMMEDIATELY "sucked" back into the heavy paralysis, suffocation and terror to struggle free from again. It seems the after effects of this dream last several seconds and aren't completely broken until you've fully waken up. I also learned to save up my struggling energy into a single burst, like a shout and movement all at one calculated moment.
Eventually it happened less and less, and when it did I could wake up easier or the feelings of terror were milder or gone completely. It seems it is the terror aspect, not the paralysis per se, which hold the "victim" hostage in the experience seemingly helpless and longer than humanely necessary. Now it never happens, nor do any nightmares happen, since I also learned to instinctively jolt myself awake at the earliest sign of anything sinister creeping into my dreams. That's my story.
The description of an "evil buzz" is exactly how i used to describe it when confiding in my brothers or friends. A "piercing" that floated in and around my brain. I would add that when the "buzz" started i would "feel" a kind of 'protective head shield' form. Rather like the old fashion ladies hairdressing things you see in films of say the 50's. it wasn't a pleasant "shield though..quite the opposite in fact, like it was all the same movement..there is so much more i can remember but i thank the people who are sharing their experiances so much..to know that i'm not the only one who suffers or suffered this brings a strange peace of mind. I'm sure others feel the same. thank you.. i'd love to see more
I had this for several years in my late teens early twenties. I remember being scared to death and always waking up soaking wet from my body being tensed for however long this happened. It was usually witches I could see - complete with the hats etc. A couple of times I was being eaten alive.
I was a basket case during that time period and really couldn't function normally. I was seeing a neurologist and had been for years for temporal lobe epilepsy that I had since I was 7. He told me my brain was waking up before my body but he never could explain the hallucinations that accompanied it. I found out years later it was called sleep paralysis. I never told anyone but him about these things because I was afraid of what people might think. It stopped and I couldn't tell you why either but I'm not sure I could deal with it if it started again. I always associated it with my TLE.
My neurologist used to ask me all the time if anything abnormal was happening to me because TLE can have some really weird effects and I remember telling him - How do I know whats normal anymore? TLE often goes undiagnosed and is believed to be a lot more common than previously.
For anyone that is having these now, I feel for you. Just hang in there and hopefully it will stop soon. There is nothing 'wrong' with you - I mean its not like you are being punished for doing something wrong.