Sleep Paralysis is a troubling sleep condition that is deeply misunderstood in our culture. Experienced by millions as an incubus attack or being “ridden by a witch,” sleep paralysis (SP) has biological causes that are related to sleep hygiene, stress, and insomnia.
In SP, you are aware of the body’s paralysis that normally comes with REM (dreaming) sleep. This paralysis is what keeps us from acting out our dreams: a pretty important evolutionary skill that prevents us from injuring ourselves or our sleeping partners when we are dreaming about hunting tigers and bears.
This muscle paralysis is really frightening if you don’t know what is happening. It can feel like being pushed down into the bed, being suffocated, or like a heavy weight crushing down on the chest and throat.
And meanwhile, you feel like you are awake, with full thinking capabilities.
This is the original waking terror that inspired the word “nightmare” which is old Anglo-Saxon for “a crushing sensation at night.” The image above is Henry Fuseli’s Nightmare, painted in 1781, depicting an incubus demon sitting on a woman sufferer’s chest.
SP can also be a symptom of a more serious disorder, such as sleep apnea or narcolepsy. However, isolated sleep paralysis (ISP) is not a dangerous condition, despite how terrifying it seems at the time.
Sleep Paralysis visions have physical and emotional causes
About 20% of the time, ISP is accompanied by realistic, and often frightening, hallucinations. In my opinion, the underlying physical causes of ISP do not invalidate the psychological impact these visions can have on dreamers. Known as hypnagogic hallucinations (HH), these dreams are literally projected into the waking realm where we are laying down with open eyes. All over the world, across cultures and throughout recorded history, people have told tales of being sat upon by demons, ridden by witches, and haunted by spirits when they are in sleep paralysis.
A scientific worldview does not invalidate these claims, as medical historians and folklorists have argued for over 30 years. The night visitations of ghosts, monsters, vampires (and even aliens in many contemporary accounts) are psychologically real encounters, not simply stories that are fabricated because of a belief in ghosts and goblins.
In other words, the question is not whether or not if the demons are physically real, but whether or not they greatly affect the dreamer as an extraordinary experience.
Yes, they do.
These visions can be terrifying, and they can be equally life-changing.
Why demons won’t go away
So how do we cope with nocturnal spirit attacks in the 21st century?
Sadly, many people do not share their experiences, for fear that they will be laughed at, or that they are losing their sanity. Others try to forget these hallucinations in the daylight of reason, but stay up late at night afraid to go to sleep.
This problem has affected me too, as someone who has suffered from isolated sleep paralysis with hypnagogic hallucinations (ISP/HH) for most of my life. In fact, one of the reasons why I studied dream research in grad school is because I needed to find away to face these lucid nightmares that were robbing me of sleep and negatively impacting my life.
In the last five years, I’ve freed myself from unwanted nightmares, thanks in part to my nightmare reseach and dreamwork, and also to a supportive community and family.
A Holistic Approach to Sleep Paralysis
My solution is an approach that treats sleep paralysis and the accompanying visions in a manner that respects the physical, mental, cultural and spiritual levels of the phenomenon. This holistic approach to ISP/HH allows us to untangle the various influences on the experience.
In this way, we can work with each “thread” to reduce the nightmares, lose the fear of the unknown, and start getting better rest again.
With time, these unique visions can also become a reliable gateway to other extraordinary states of consciousness, including lucid dreaming, out-of-body experiences, ancestral encounters, and guided journeys to realms beyond our imagination.
Free Download – The Report
To learn more about sleep paralysis, I invite you to download my free Sleep Paralysis Report. This 14 page report discusses the symptoms, causes and practical ways of managing sleep paralysis– such as how to wake up from sleep paralysis and how to prevent multiple occurrences in the same night.
Download the Sleep Paralysis Report and Get Better Sleep Tonight!
I am suffereing from this scary sleep paralysis from my childhood, I suffer this twice a week. Do i need to consult psychiatrist.
MD,
If sleep paralysis is negatively effecting your life, then I do recommend seeking some kind of professional help. Therapists, psychologists and psychiatrists have different methods, but all can address your fears and concerns. Do what feels right to you. There no stigma with seeking help: this is one of the most profoundly disturbing maladies one can suffer with alone.
I have the help of a hypno-therapist who has helped me tremendously. I don’t have sleep paralysis, my mother has been plagued her whole life with it. I have bouts of insomnia and FEAR of sleep. I have learned to accept it and I sleep in the day time, not at night.
Hi my name is shanece. I am 16 years old and i google searched anything that would reffer to what im going through, and this website did. I have been having these dreams for 2 years now, not everyday but maybe once a month. I lay in bed alone, and then the terrofying moment happens. I begin to think that i am being watched i then try to get up but i cant. But theres the one night that will scar me for life. One night i couldnt move at all it felt more intense because i felt this sort of pressure on my chest and throat i tried to scream for help but i couldnt. Then something else happened somehow the a tap of water was bursting onto my bedi didnt feel the water though i just heard it and felt it. I prayed to god TWICE and finally it stopped and i ran to my brother and i told him what happened and he searched my room and the house but i knew for sure he wasnt gona find anything because it was spiritual. I eventually told him about this website and he just did not believe me. I have no one that undersrands. No one believes. They think im weird.
Hey Shanece! If you’re looking for more people to talk to, I also monitor a group on facebook for sleep paralysis for people aged 13 and up. here’s the link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/220967544642410/
does this happen when you sleep in another building?
I’ve had many sp when I called for help when I had a encouter with aliens it seemed so real the flashing blue light that just illuminated my room completely and I just looked at my window in fear and disbelieve I literaly stood awake for more than 2 hours in sp then I closed my eyes and I really don’t know what happened after that but I know I didn’t wake up right away this has traumatized me and wen I ask my family if they saw the blue light they though I wa joking
my first sp attack was really terrifying i awoke in my dark bedroom and felt as if i forgot how to move my body. i was so frightened that i began to panic. it was the panicing which made my mind imagine things that made the attack terryfying. i had a really loud high pitch ring in my ear and that was it. but eventually the attacks started getting calmer, shorter and, quieter
Diego,
thanks for sharing — you obviously are not making this up as your account has all the familiar calling cards of SP with hypnagogic visions. Have you ever seen the pilot episode of the X-Files? Mulder’s experience is quite similar (except in that fictional tale, his sister is actually abducted). Even in medieval Europe, tales of fairies abducting children was tied to sleep paralysis. it’s a very old cultural myth. If you do feel traumatized, I recommend talking to someone who believes your experience, and work on ways to relax before going to sleep.
Joaquin, yeah, panic leads to more panic and can instigate nightmarish visions. sounds like you were able to wait it out OK. I have found that controlling your breath — regular breathing– makes a world of difference, as well as trying one of the ways to wake up from SP that are discussed in the SP Report.
One question I know I will have with dealing with SP and getting through the initial fear (which I do a lot now) and experience less stressful, peaceful dreams while in SP is… Is my body still getting the sleep I need? Even though I’m not scared, I’m still conscious of what is going on therefore I feel I’m still not getting any sleep? Therefore, this tactic only takes the fear away but I’m still in SP. Any suggestions?
SP is usually not long lasting enough to cause loss of sleep (unless you’re losing sleep from fear and by staying awake on purpose). on the other hand, if you are experiencing more than 10 minutes of SP a night every night, this could be a symptom of a larger sleep disorder, such as sleep apnea. Again SP is not a major cause of loss of sleep, but may indicate that sleep loss is happening that you don’t remember.
For me, this started about 7-8 years ago. It usually occurs once or twice a week, 2-3 times per occurrence. It will happen sometimes right after I fall asleep, but mostly just before I awake. Well, I wake up because of the occurrence. I have only experienced “halucinations” once, all other times I was laying in my bed, in my room. The most recent one, however, started with me standing in my bathroom, then being pushed out into my room against one of the walls, where I was then pushed to my bed. I cannot move any part of my body from my legs to my head. At this point, when it happens, I know that it is happening, try to fight it for a few until I can wake myself up. Ultimately, it is a really creepy feeling….
hi,
omg i thought it was just me,this has been occuring for many years the feeling of being wide awake n paralised but cannot see who or what is pinning you down,i scream for help relentlessly but no-one can hear me (so terriffing) then only last week i couldntsleep yet again drifting in n out,tossing n turning then whist trying to lay on my back n really try to get to sleep i felt a force gragging me from my arms/shoulders towards the bedroom door n then it went n i finaly fell asleep around 4.40 am.
are some people just really perceptive to energies or is ita problem with our brians (ie) mind body n soul?
thanks for listening.
any feedback would be great!!! these sleep disturbances are just the tip of my iceberg xxxxxxx
Hi ive been having reacurring dreams of a unknown angry presence. Its a dark shadow of a man or something. It attackes me physically in my dreams throwing me around or dragging me. This has been happening for years and I believe its trying to tell me something in my waking life but not sure how to go about it.
Kady:
Just reading your comment made me feel better about my own dreams. I too have been having the same dreams for years where I’m running from a presence or hiding from a dark entity who’s trying to hurt me. I too wonder, what am I not addressing in my real life that makes these dreams persist at night.
It’s likely completely anxiety related and I do my best to never go to bed stressed. Though earlier this week I had an experience of sleep paralysis that scared me, where I felt I was being pulled from behind by an unknown entity into the darkness and could not make a sound or move. It was very frightening.
You’re not alone.
I started experiencing SP after watching a couple of eposides from real paranormal experiences on TV. I sleep by myself twice a week since my husband works overnight. I had an extremely dramatic experience when I was 7 years old when my aunt committed suicide in my house by burning herself and I have always been afraid of the dark since then. I feel that my fears are increasing daily and I find myself being scared of falling asleep. I know it doesn’t sound good but I am glad it’s not a rare case and that I am not alone. Thank you all for sharing your experiences!!
Thank you for hosting this topic. I experienced SP for many years until I managed to avoid the experience through a subtle and hard to define shift in how I dreamt (my SP was almost always triggered by an opening of lucidity in the dream — if I went that way, I either had what some have called an OBE or, more often, ended up in SP).
I am not sure any of know fully what this state is. At one end of interpretation is the appropriately conservative concept that this is the mental equivalent of a “holodeck” that the mind creates as a projected reality when it cannot access actual reality — a realm of hypnogogic visions if you will.
At the other end is the concept that the SP experiences are in fact real (some type of reality) and that they must occur within or touching into some other dimension or aspect of reality that is not available to us in our normal human waking states.
There is a rationale for both poles of the spectrum (and everything between) and support can be garnered for either.
The only view that I tend to reject is that SP is some sort of pathology. It might be in some cases, but I think those are rare. Lots of people experience SP, and the weirdness of the experience leads lots of people to never talk about it — lest they be thought nuts. Therefore, it is in all probability much more common than we realize, and it may be a simple artifact of a complex process of sleep/wake where one simple step gets out of sequence — we should go into a sleep state before our bodies lock up during REM to avoid acting out our dreams, but sometimes we go into REM lock up first, or wake up mentally before we come out of REM lock up.
So for those of you who still experience SP regularly, I know how frightening it can be. It becomes even more frightening if you believe what you are seeing is real. (In part of my SP I often had people in the room, heard voices, and felt someone something was pulling on my legs hard to pull me out of bed — very frightening especially if you think you are the only one having these experiences and that it means something is wrong with you.)
Eventually I found that the easiest way to resolve the state was to relax, put my mind on other things, and fall back asleep. It would seem that as soon as I fell back into normal sleep, I would wake up “the right way.” Of course, it took time to get to the point of mastering the fear so I could relax. To get to that point, I had to conclude that I was not in danger of immediate death or some sort of unwanted “ejection from the body.”
At times, in my early efforts to wake up normally, I would make a supreme effort to move any body part even slightly. Rarely I succeeded, but when I did I would awaken with an alarming jolt to the system. So I recommend not fighting the state, accepting the fear for a valid fear, and trying to relax.
Part of what makes me conclude that there may be more to this stat than meets the eye is some of the other experiences I had that one could call OBEs. That’s another story. And there is also the interesting experience of pronounced vibrations when trying to wake up normally (subjectively, it feels like one is trying to get back “in” the body / reconnect with it, and a vibration keeps bouncing one back “out” — until, seemingly, something gets “in sync” and the jarring vibrations go away and one wakes up normally. It is easy to see how other cultural interpretations make sense — the various vibrations of the chakras needing to be realigned, an “astral body” needing to come back in phase with a physical body and so forth.
What have I myself concluded? I lean toward the conservative. The very least I feel certain of is that the in a very Buddhistic sense the world we think of as real is largely or wholly a mental projection that we live in — we literally live in a construct we have made from our sensory input, organized in countless ways during our childhood and on.
Once I asked a group if they had ever seen a snake turn into a piece of wood. At first I got puzzled looks. Then one face brightened, a woman raised her hand and said “yes,” and I asked her to explain. She said she had been driving down a road in Texas and saw a huge rattlesnake on the side of the road. It was a monster. It was so big she went back to look again. Then she saw it was just a sinuous shaped length of tree branch that had fallen. But for her, in those moments before she saw the branch for what it “was,” it was in fact for her something else that her mind had created. She wasn’t mad or nuts, just doing what we all do — creating a construct of the world and then navigating.
So bottom line, SP experiences for me indicate that there is a profound capability of the mind to create realities in a state that is not quite awake but subjectively is experienced as if we are definitely awake. To those of you who feel fear in the state, my empathy to you and my layman’s opinion that you are safe to relax and find comfort. You are not crazy in any sense and anyone who knows what you experienced — and there are probably millions of us — can assure you that you are not alone.
I have been suffering with SP since August 2007. Whist I have read that you cant scream or that many people scream for help but their partners say they dont hear them, I actually do infact scream “wake me up” and as soon as I hear a family member open my door, I immediately wake up. There has never been a SP night where I didnt scream to be woken up. I keep trying to remind myself that when this happens again NOT to scream for help as it has alarmed my family for years now and they dont truly understand SP. Just thought I’d share
I’ve had experiences with SP for years but recently its been happening more frequently, about once a week. Most had been without hallucinations, but my recent ones are with. Two nights ago I had the most terrifying one to date. I woke up staring at a shadow in front of me, a dark shadowy person, and I started panicking. I tried reaching up to put the light on, I struggled, moving inch by inch, for what seemed like an excruciating amount of time. When I got close to the switch, the shadow grabbed my arm and started forcing me down again. Then I tried trying to scream and I was thrown across the room up against my door, with the figure gripping onto my throat, suffocating me. As this was happening I remember staring into the figure and telling myself over and over that it’s just a dream, and realizing that the shadow was a chair in my bedroom, the shadow started looking more and more like my chair. But then as I was calming down, the shadow turned its head to the side and opened its eye. I felt terror that felt like my heart stopped. I closed my eyes and can’t remember what happened after that, just that I woke up the next morning.
Last night, I kept falling back in and out of dreams wherein my house was being overrun by a demon or ghost (hard to tell); but firstly, things were being moved and this frightened me alone; as I often feel uncomfortable in my bedroom.
Anyway, after reading this forum, I believe I experienced an episode of SP, as I felt as if I had woken up (joking to myself about the dream I had just had to reassure myself), and then suddenly, it felt as if a pair of hands was pulling my head back into my pillow as I was struggling and attempting to scream for help. For some reason, I remembered something my mother had said about asking for protection from the archangels if I ever felt something was wrong in that sense, so instead of screaming for help, I resorted to that method, and instantly I was let go and woke up (I presume). This affected me emotionally, and left me in tears and breathing irregularly. I am only 16 years old and find this sort of thing terrifying; yet extremely fascinating. Just wanted to know if anyone else has had the same experience?
Well i guess i just figured out what has been happening to me. SP. Only mine is alittle different. After about the second or third time it happened, i felt like someone was telling me to relax and everything thing would be ok. I did. I now know how to break free from it, well most nights. I have had similar experiences in the past but they too were different. I could actually feel my self being lifted out of my body and looking down at myself. I didnt feel any pressure, just a rushing feeling when i would go back to my body. I have just recently( after a bad car accident) been experiencing SP.
Three nights ago, after i had SP i went straight to sleep, only to have a very strange dream. I saw a police officer and remember everything about him. He also wrote down his name for me so i could remember it. He then asked me to give his wife a message… I woke up before he could tell me. It was so vivid.
It is so hard not to imagine a more complex meaning to the SP episodes. I feel like it was my Grandmother telling me to be calm and everything would be ok. That is nothing new, as i feel her around often. As do my small children. But these new episodes make me feel like there is purpose behind them. Maybe that is just my fear talking.. I dont know. Just saying what i truly feel. Im very glad to have found this fourm. Im glad i got to share.
my sleep paralysis is always about not being able to move/ breathe, I always wake up gasping for air. there are always people I don’t know, doing things around me, aware that I’m there calling out to them to help me move but they ignore me. the last one was very scary, I was falling off the couch, fell off and still could not move my arms to get up, when I woke up I was on the floor and trembling, couldn’t catch a breath. what the heck is this about? I am pretty sure it’s stress related but they are getting worse because now the people in my dream ignore me, they don’t talk to me like my first few dreams / paralysis experiences where people told me I had to move or get out of there or I would die. Explanations anyone?
I googled being held down while sleeping and found this site. I suddenly don’t feel so crazy. At about 5:30 a.m. this morning right after my husband left for work I just had another episode of being held down. They scare me so much. I feel tingles run through my body and then I suddenly can’t move, I don’t see anything but my bedroom but I feel like something is there and it scares me to death. I try to call out for help and even try calling to my dog but nothing. I figure if something is really there my dog would do something right, at least I would hope so lol. Every time it happens I’m alone in bed its always after my husband has gotten up. I’m 24 and I believe this has happened many times before in my life but randomly. I know I suffered from night terrors when I was little starting from around age 4 to 13 before my night terrors stopped. I’ve had these episodes on and off through out my life and after I got married I really stopped having them and I figured it was because my husband was with me now. Well these episodes have recently come back and they are really disturbing to me because I’m pregnant with my first child. I’m 28 weeks now and these episodes started coming back when I was in my first trimester. Its scary, I try to relax but then I think of my baby and about how I can’t move to protect my stomach. I’m going to have to by your book Ryan Hurd! I hope it helps me because I really need to stop waking up stressed out or scared for my baby.
Hi Brittany thanks for commenting. Your story is a great reminder how sleep disturbances leads to SP. and what is pregnancy if not one gigantic sleep disturbance?? Seriously the hormones and later in the 3rd trimester, the uncomfort, disturbs normal sleep and triggers SP for those who are prone to it. It’s a part of the package for pregnant dreamers, apparently! Next time when you’re in SP try to breathe normally and say a prayer or an affirmation that helps remind you that this is normal and you and your baby are safe from harm. Or imagine a protective bubble of light around you. Then use the techniques in this article for waking up — I still think the finger/toe wiggle or face scrunch is the most effective.
I’ve had sleep paralysis episodes ever since I was 7 or 8. I’m 12 now, and they seem to happen more frequently, perhaps once a month. This latest one happened just today and, needless to say, it was the worst so far.
I must agree with Steph; sleep paralysis is terrifying but extremely fascinating.
I laid down next to my mom to take a nap with her. I dozed off in a sideways position, but when I opened my eyes I was in the subine position (face up) and I could hardly move. I wasn’t scared at first since I was used to this experience since I was little, but then my legs began to rise. Looking at my feet, I was shocked and didn’t see anything rising them. I felt hands holding firmly onto my ankles and lightly pulling me, though not strong enough to move my helpless body. I turned slowly to my mom as I could move, but bit by bit (I started by wiggling my finger), as I was shaking, and once I put my hand over her it stopped. I managed to speak but I don’t know if she heard me. I fell asleep almost a few second after. had a nightmare and woke up later than I should’ve. The dream was vague but it was about someone entering my bedroom. A dark figure, since it was well, dark.
In this apartment, I always feel watched (as I type this, for example), sometimes hear voices, windows open and things fall by themselves. I am often scared when I am alone and I am scared of the dark because of what might sneak in… my mom feels the same, she doesn’t want to say it’s a ghost since she is very superstitious but I have doubts it’s normal.
I’m very scared and alone now. Mom just left to pick up my little sister.
I have experienced this SEVERAL times after being grown & married. I believe with all of my heart it is demonic.
When attacked (feeling like a hand is pushing me down through the mattress), I am awakened…eyes open. Nothing is visible; but, I believe it is the hand of a demon. It has pushed me down continually while I try to get my breath. I know that if I even JUST SPEAK the Name of JESUS, it HAS TO (IS REQUIRED BY GOD) leave!
It has been difficult sometimes to even be able to speak…JJJJ…JJJJ..Je…Je…Jes…Jesus. WHEN I SPEK THE NAME OF JESUS IT HAS ALWAYS….ALWAYS! …..ALWAYS! LEFT IMMEDIATELY.
This has happened to me 4 or 5 times. EVERYTHING (even if it were an actual physical/medical condition) has a name and has to bow to the Name of Jesus…..as the Scripture says…EVERYTHING on the earth, in the earth and under the earth bows when the Name of Jesus is spoken!
There’s the cure! The CURE! THE CURE! Works every time! Demons cannot stay in the presence of God. Demons have to obey and leave. They cannot resist! Speak the NAME OF JESUS over yourself! Then, THANK GOD FOR JESUS!
God loves you and is on YOUR side!
I don’t know when exactly these paralysis type dreams/experiences started but it has been some years ago and they are very unpleasant, I never know what to make of them I just feel terrified when they happen. The last one I had was the most memorable happened I think in November of 2011 I was having them pretty frequently around that time and then I’ll go for months not having any. Which is how it always is. Anyway I was being dragged by my ankles all over the room ceiling walls floor, while this is happening I am screaming HELP and trying to grab onto something to hold myself from being dragged around. In this dream there were two friends of mine that I could see clearly they weren’t even in my apartment and I was screaming the name of one of them and he couldn’t even hear me. I am barely waking up and I just can’t even move not even to open my eyes the feeling of such pressure from head to toe is so immense and as I wake up my mouth is saying help but with no voice. I guess there could be any number of reasons this happens people have their own beliefs but they do feel demonic like Van said.
My sleep paralysis has only happened twice in my life and I am 33. Once lying face down I awoke and was paralyzed completely awake. I awoke because I felt something watching from the doorway. I prayed quietly aloud and like a wave the paralysis/fear left. The second time I was lying on my back half awake/half asleep. The covers were thrown back from my upper torso. I wanted to tell it to go away, but I couldn’t speak or move (felt no pressure). Then it said, “I am going to “sell” your strength” in a whisper. Which now it I think it must have meant “steal.” I probably would have been more freaked out, but I am somewhat used to weird activity. I have had the covers pulled back from my face a couple of times while awake. I am used to “strange” visitors I guess. Anyway, I can’t figure out why “it” wants to steal something from me. Who knows!!;-)
I have had SP for nearly 30 years now. each time the experiance is a little differant. but the feeling of being held down has never been their for me. My experiances relate to me getting up out of bed the feeling of fear encompases my body so I try to turn the light on and the lights dont work, this is how I know its an episode, I feel myself flying at times high in the air Halicinations (sp) of differant things Ghoasts, Demons, fill the ground area under me. I feel that I return to my bed and try to wake myself and nothing seems to work last night was a longer sp than a few min, it lasted nearly 45min the fear the unability to actually move no matter what I tried nothing worked. when I finally was able to move thanks to my cat moving her leg and touching my hand I felt relieved that it was over…. I am 37 and these SP episodes continue, I am not sure what to do, lying on my back or switching positions doesnt matter, the SP occurs no matter now I am laying.
thank you for putting up this site its helpful to know I am not alone but getting them to stop compleatly is beyond me.
I had been an SP sufferer for year, to the point that I thought I was an alien abductee. Because most of my earlier SP experiences involved my fighting paralysis and being absolutely certain that “someone” was in the house to do me harm, the crossover into HH and alien abduction hallucinations had me pretty well convinced that I had been being abducted since I was a child. Then I had an SP where there was a demon at the end of my bed. It was way more terrifying than the aliens. After that dream, I shared with an online group and someone suggested it was SP. From there, I put my experience online in an SP forum and was contacted by a group that were doing a Discovery Channel documentary on Sleep Paralysis. I agreed to participate because I wanted people to know what this was like and to know that it can be overcome… or at least lived with.
Unfortunately, they went the sensationalism route and named the documentary something like Alien Abduction, the Mystery Unraveled, so I believe a good many people who could have been helped by our stories were turned off by the title.
I have pretty much done the things Ryan suggests to control my SP. I do not back sleep. I try to be self aware when I am going to sleep physically exhausted. When I am having an SP now, after the initial panic, I tell myself to breathe and go on to sleep. In my mind, it goes something like, “Aaaaaack! Oh wait, it’s an SP. Breathe. Go on to sleep.” If my eyes are “open” in my hallucination, I always make myself close them and lay back. Then I wake up normally sometime later.
thanks for telling your story. it’s a long road to go from abductee to sleep paralysis sufferer. they are powerful experiences no matter what you call them!
I see the sensational documentaries all the time… what a shame, as they could be educating people, rather than just spread fear. thanks again.
I have a recurring dream about where i can’t move my anything on my body ie legs arms head. I try to scream for my wife to come help me but either very quiet or no sound come out of my mouth. Last night in this dream i seen what can only be described as invisible bands wrap around my body. Every time i have this dream it feels like there is an evil presence hovering over me. I have no idea what to do about this. Dose anyone have any idea. It is a horrible experience that i wish upon no one.
Sean, yes, download the PDF and check out my tactics for preventing this sleep symptom and working with it. you’re not alone in this struggle!
I have sleep apnea and the cpap machine makes me worse and causes my sinus to close and awake with chest pain and severe asthma attack..what do I do???
Dear Ryan,
I am 25 years old and have suffered from sleep paralysis for as long as I can remember – currently, I experience it almost every morning. I have never seen anyone or anything during my paralysis episodes, but occasionally, I hear high-pitched noises and feel numbness and/or vibrations in my body. I am – and always have been – indescribably terrified of sleep paralysis, because, to me, the worst thing that I can conceivably experience (besides being burned or skinned alive) is complete paralysis of the body. There have been occasions when I would stop going to bed altogether because of this, and it even got to the point where I would literally pass out through fear and exhaustion. What I am concerned about is this. My dreams are utterly unlike anything that I have ever experienced in reality – it is absolutely impossible to portray them in words. It would be like trying to describe colour to someone who has never seen any colours in their life. I have an entire Universe with landscapes, architecture and people in my dreams; a completely different life, which is as diametrical in every respect to waking reality as black is to white. I forget everything about my dreams once I wake up, but I can still see faint images in my mind’s eye while I am in sleep paralysis and think that if I could ever reproduce/remember them in waking reality I’d surely be the most famous person in the world, so astounding they are – I even see tracts of literature and hear music that would dwarf the works of the world’s greatest authors and composers. Trouble is, I sincerely don’t think that it is possible to consciously enter that dimension and ever return to the waking world. I believe that if I succumb to sleep paralysis and begin to dream lucidly (and every morning I fight like an animal to prevent that from happening) I will never see my family again; that I will remain in a coma for the rest of my life while my consciousness is imprisoned in another dimension. I have read that there is no evidence that such a thing is possible, but how would anybody know about that? What if that is exactly what happened to many of the billions of people who died in their sleep or became paralyzed/comatose for life? Basically, what I am saying is this – I want to explore the worlds inside my head but I am unwilling to take even the slightest risk that I will become permanently trapped in them. I also want to be able to stop my lucid dream immediately whenever I feel like it. If I cannot wake up from a lucid dream the second I want to wake up from it, then I will never want to experience one. Please advise me, Ryan. I am very frightened and troubled.
Johnny,
thanks for your note. I can tell you –with certainty — especially as you have been experiencing SP for years and are still alive — that exploring your dream states will not trap you in some weird bardo state. It’s a remarkably safe vision state, REM dreaming is. Still, it’s good to have an “exit strategy” — do you know how to wake yourself up from SP? test your methods, and if you ever feel out of control, you can do so! check out this article:
http://dreamstudies.org/2010/04/29/9-ways-to-wake-up-from-sleep-paralysis/
good luck!
Reading about other peoples SP experiences have really put my mind to rest. I just had a traumatic SP experience, i was dreaming about not being able to get to sleep, that i kept looking at my phone for the time and that i could hear my brother on his computer in the other room like usual, obviously this was not actually happening. The next thing i know a piercing buzzing sound begins that gradually gets louder, wondering what it is i turn to see if it coming from my phone but instead i see a shadow crouched on my bed beside my head staring at me. Unable to move or scream i stare back. Then the voice of the creature Gollum from Lord of the Rings appears, whispering creepy riddles in my ear as the room goes pitch black. Suddenly all i feel is a weight pushing down on my chest with the voice getting louder and angrier. I had no idea what to do as it was so so real, although i couldn’t move the slightest. I kept trying to scream “mum help me” but my mouth was wide open, dry and would not move. I remember being able to reach for my lamp switch, and successfully pushing the switch, nothing happened. I try multiple times before the shadow grabbed my arm forcing it by my side with its creepy voice getting louder and angrier again. The next moment my mum opened my door. Relieved but not released from my state i tried to tell her what was happening, again my mouth wouldn’t move and all i was doing was heavy breathing. Then i woke up, my mum wasn’t even there! i was sweaty and shaking, truly traumatised. I feel better knowing that i’m not alone. I just hope it doesn’t re-occur!
Hello,
I have always had the odd case of sleep paralysis over the years, but nothing too dramatic… it was always just the feeling that my mind was awake and my body was asleep and i would desperately try to prise my eyes open or jerk a limb to shake myself out of it. But 5 months ago I became a new Mum, and my little one hardly sleeps. I have now had 5 months of restless, disrupted sleep, up during the night every one to two hours with the little one. And have experienced a whole new level of sleep paralysis, including the noises, out of body encounters, nightmares and hallucinations. This is happening several times a week at present. I was really terrified the other morning when i finally woke up. Being a new Mum has enough challenges without having to deal with nighttime terrors. So i was amazed on doing some research to find out that some people actually try to enter this state in purpose in order to have out of body encounters or proceed to lucid dreaming. I dont feel as scared now, having read the explanations behind these bizarre occurences. As a first step, id like to master the techniques you suggest to exit sleep paralysis!! But now Im wondering if I shouldnt try turning the whole thing into a positive experience and attempt the lucid dreaming. Bearing in mind that i have limited time to study this fascinating topic in detail at the moment, what with the little one and no sleep, what would you recommend i read to gain some rapid insights into techniques to try? Thanks, great webpage!
Physiological symptoms of sleep paralysis are the same with those of syncope. Thus, sleep paralysis is caused by syncope. For experts in cardiovascular diseases, sleep paralysis or syncope is a common symptoms of cardiovascular disease?1?.For a long time, due to the ignorance of physiological knowledge of syncope , ischemie cerebrale , slow beat, fast beat and so on, psychological illusion in people’s sleep generated by such physical symptoms i.e. the nightmare really has puzzled the psychologists, therefore they put forward a wide range of wrong even absurd views onthe nightmares, which both have no scientific basis, and could not be confirmed, even more were not self-consistent.For example, a medical expert Debacke drew the correct conclusion that the anxiety-dream resulted from ischemie cerebrale according to the physiological symptoms of the anxiety-dream of a boy of thirteen. Freud called such view was a ” medical mythology” in the book of Dream Psychology. Most important,the experiment confirmed the idea. For example, a place in country , there is a “haunted” bed which makes people have sleep paralysis or syncope every night, and it is this fact that the pillow in the bed is too high will reduce cerebral blood flow.?1?http://www.medhelp.org/posts/Sleep-Disorders/Nocturnal-fainting/show/11612
Thanks for this article it makes you think. I experienced feeling held down, and fighting to keep my covers pulled up on me this morning. Then I felt as if my body was being pulled down towards the bottom of the bed. The whole time I was trying to wake my self up and kick my legs to get what ever was holding them off me even though I felt I was already awake. I knew I had to be in some kinda of in between dream stage.
I’m 36 and have suffered from this since I was a young child. There is always a “phantom presence” in my dreams or fear of it during the waking. I have horrifying dreams as well as hallucinations (visual and auditory) related to this disorder. A sleep study confirmed my self-diagnosis in ’06. I was very surprised to see the observation video and hear and see myself mid-episode. I was confident that I had spent the night in the clinic for no reason as I did not recall having an episode. This let me know that the frequency of episodes isn’t necessarily something I can track.
I hope that research will eventually yield some treatment. I use melatonin off and on to sleep through the night and dampen down the vivid dreaming. Other than that, lucid dreaming and attempting to make noise are my only ways “out” of the situation. My sleep doc didn’t advise the med commonly used for night terror.
Thanks for the article. I have enjoyed sharing the information with those confused and confounded (and frightened) by my disorder.
I feel like im being held down, and then its feels like something is moving me or im being lifted and it scares me and im afraid to go to sleep. What do i do
Thanks for this Ryan, the picture above is exactly what i saw.. but now i’m stronger when i encountered sleep paralysis.
i am 15 and have been having nightmares where an evil spirit approaches me while i am laying in bed, eyes open. the spirit either sits on my neck/shoulders or presses their hands on my neck/shoulders. then, when i wake up, i cant tell whether i have awoken or not, because EVERY little detail is exactly the same as in my dream…and i can still feel the pressure on my neck/shoulders. i always thought this was weird, and that people would laugh at me if i told them. I’m still very afraid and i don’t know what to do…Thank you for this article, though. it helped me feel less stressed with my situation, at least. 🙂
Hi Amanda, thanks for the comment! download the free report if you’ve haven’t already, as it’s full of tips and tactics for getting out of those scary experiences as well as how to relax before bed to reduce the likelihood of it happening the next time you’re stressed out.
Hi,
I am really glad to have found out what my sleep paralysis experiences actually were.
5 to 15 years ago, I experienced about a dozen of these episodes, while sleeping on my stomach, which I typically do, and with a whole bunch of weight on my back. Sometimes it even seemed like a entity.
In recent years, I have had a couple of experiences that really make me wonder. I have been up and wide awake when I felt like a crushing weight or pressure had me flat down – pressed to the ground on one occasion and to the table I was sitting at on another. I haven’t found any references to this kind of experience. Any ideas?
i woke up last night to something touching my hand , i then pulled my hand away, then all of sudden a giant weight fell onto me! i couldnt move in bed for about 15 mins, it wouldnt let me open my eyes or mouth! what is it ?!
I am 59 years of age and i have been having these type of dreams for several years. Its always the same the feeling of someone or something pushing down on me and struggling to breath. It is very frightening. I thought i was alone in this but seeing that others suffer with it as well i dont feel so alone because at times i was going mad.
Ive been having dreams like that since i was 16-17 years old im 22 now i never told anyone because i was afraid they would brush it off as just a dream. But it felt to real to be a dream like i was being held down by cinder blocks and cldnt breath or call for help. I just recently told my bf abt it and he suggested it might be astral projection which scared me more than the dream im kind of relieved that other have dreams like that
I have had sp since I got out of the army back in sept 1971. I have had it by myself and with other female partners. but in my situation they are mostly related to premonitions or warnings. I feel a presense in the room and its trying to tell me something or get my attention. and within a a few weeks to a few months , the warning or premonition comes true. I have been 100% correct with these warnings or premonitions the last 40 + yrs from deaths with family members or friends, to disasters like earthquakes,plain crashes, tornadoes, and even the 911 attacks which I saw 5 days before it happened in one of my sp epdisodes. I often feel something or someone trying to pull me down off the bed and the most common denominator I have is the rushing noise I hear in my ears like white noise. it gets louder as I fall into a deeper sleep and I force myself to wake up. it is easier for me to wake up from sp now than it was 40 yrs ago. I feel that whatever is associated with sp isn’t out to hurt me or harm me but to give me a warning or a message to pass on to who I think needs to hear about it. 40 yrs ago I was laughed at and made fun of . now I have been asked to let them know if anything is going to happen them if they fly,travel,go to a party, or is it safe to go outside. like I said I have not failed on any warning,premonition, or message that I have received. the va says I have heightened vigilant senses caused by my ptsd from the Vietnam war. I can sense things around me that most people don’t feel. I always thought it was a curse but now I don’t know if its a curse or a gift. I don’t smoke,drink, or do drugs so I have no other explanation why this happens except for the ptsd from Vietnam which I did 2 tours. I think I said too much already. thanks for reading this
powerful account Mikey. thanks for sharing. You may be interested in Louis Proud’s book on sleep paralysis — Dark Intrusions — which focuses on paranormal aspects of sleep paralysis. You may also be relieved to hear that SP is a common place to experience telepathic dreams, or dreams that later are found to pass on verifiable information. Simon Sherwood has done some research on this topic, especially relating to hypnagogic dreams.
im a 27 year old man who is a military veteran of two tours in afghanistan i was in the infantry. ive been out the army for over 2 years now and ive finally had a dream that felt so real it scared the shit out of me. i really dont wanna tell the whole dream but in the end i felt an unknown entity holding me down and it felt like it was crushing my chest. i immiedietly started panicing and tried saying the lords prayer. i got a few words out but it was so difficult to speak. then for some reason it sounds funny too me now since ive just awoke from this dream about 1/2 hr ago and had too research it. the only way i broke free was by putting my arms up some how and making a cross with my fingers and saying the “power of christ compells you” the same way like in the exorcist movie and after saying at least twice i woke up. the pressure off my chest was instantly lifted but my heart felt like it was gonna explode. yea i know i said somthing from the excorcist lol and it worked somehow. this dream confused the hell out of me even though i am catholic and i have made my conformation i still dont believe in demons or such. but after the dream i’ve been left confused???????
I’m sick and tired of being afraid to go to sleep! This has been happening to me since 1997, with or without a partner in bed with me, whether I’m at home in bed or on the couch, or if I’m somewhere else. I can no longer sleep upstairs in my bedroom and now I can barely sleep on the couch anymore either even though it’s out in the wide open. I look and feel like hell from not sleeping.
It’s 4:06am and I have been making myself stay awake since 2am.
Tonight, I had the most horrific out-of-body nightmare yet and I cannot do this anymore!Whatever it is, its always here with me (I have the chills just writing this). Can’t see the human shaped body’s face but it watches me as I suffer as if its studying me on how it can hurt me more. Tonight I was up, walking, trying to get out the front door, I saw my neighbors letting their dog out… I was at the window trying to scream for them. The image just watched me as I watched myself lay on the couch. It was wearing my clothes and had bags in its hand as it stood on the last step of my staircase!
I’ve learned that I cannot break through the paralysis and I TRY to just go with it but sometimes the panic and fear overcome me and I can’t. Once broken through, I literally have to make myself get up and stay awake for hours before I can go back to bed. If I go back to sleep right away it comes right back. Thank God for Facebook… The site that never sleeps!
Sometimes I wish whatever it was would just take me so I wouldn’t have to go through this anymore.
Thanks for letting me spill my words while I’m struggling to stay awake. Thinking I might give it a go and try to go back to sleep. If you don’t hear from me in a couple hours it means I was able to!!! Wish me luck!
Is this something I can go to my regular doctor about? And are there any study’s I may be ab;e to join?
~ Jamie
im a 27 year old man who is a military veteran of two tours in afghanistan i was in the infantry. ive been out the army for over 2 years now and ive finally had a dream that felt so real it scared the shit out of me. i really dont wanna tell the whole dream but in the end i felt an unknown entity holding me down and it felt like it was crushing my chest. i immiedietly started panicing and tried saying the lords prayer. i got a few words out but it was so difficult to speak. then for some reason it sounds funny too me now since ive just awoke from this dream about 1/2 hr ago and had too research it. the only way i broke free was by putting my arms up some how and making a cross with my fingers and saying the “power of christ compells you” the same way like in the exorcist movie and after saying at least twice i woke up. the pressure off my chest was instantly lifted but my heart felt like it was gonna explode. yea i know i said somthing from the excorcist lol and it worked somehow. this dream confused the hell out of me even though i am catholic and i have made my conformation i still dont believe in demons or such. but after the dream i’ve been left confused???????
I had the same dream several times maybe about once every few months. It feels like I’m awake but I can’t really move. I’m being dragged allover my bedroom by someone or something that I can’t see at all. Sometimes it’s just allover my bed and onto the floor. Sometimes it even on the walls and along the ceiling. It’s always back-and-forth in all directions. The weird thing is I can actually feel it as I’m being dragged. I always feel a little scared while it’s happening
I was sleeping in a room of a guest house I was visiting. And felt like someone or something entered the room as I slept. I was wasn’t worried at first then it felt like it was undressing me then it pushed me down via my neck. My first response was to speak then my knowlege of language disappeared. And I mumbled and mumbled till I screamed.then I awoke pretty embarrased this wasn’t home I didn’t wanna be the weird lady. Then in about a min I got it out my head and fell asleep again. But now its starting to unsettle me. What was happening. I don’t sleep alone anymore though. Lol
I have just had this happen to me. Im terrified to go back to sleep 🙁
As a child I frequently had nights where I was being held down against my will by some kind of forces.
I would try to crawl out of my bed to my parents room but I would be dragged back and have no ability to to break free or scream. I was unclear if these were dreams or were real.
During adulthood they have been very rare and last night was the first time for probably over 10 years. (Im 48).
I was in bed cuddling with my girlfriend resting my eyes, when suddenly I felt forces around me I tried to scream out knowing she was beside me but to no avail. I then snapped out of it and she told me I was making strange breathing sounds. Afterwards I found this site and was relieved to identify with others to try and learn more about what is happening. I have no issues in my life that would trigger these events. I doubt I will have this experience again anytime soon based on my adult history and I have no anxiety about sleeping, but certainly curious!
There are two main types of scary phenomenons in sleep(nightmare and sleep paralysis) that are caused by two main scary symptoms of cardiovascular disease {palpitation and fainting (syncope)}.
Physiological symptoms of sleep paralysis are the same with those of syncope. Thus, sleep paralysis is caused by syncope. For experts in cardiovascular diseases, sleep paralysis or syncope is a common symptoms of cardiovascular disease?1?.For a long time, due to the ignorance of physiological knowledge of syncope , ischemie cerebrale , slow beat, fast beat and so on, psychological illusion in people’s sleep generated by such physical symptoms i.e. the nightmare really has puzzled the psychologists, therefore they put forward a wide range of wrong even absurd views onthe nightmares, which both have no scientific basis, and could not be confirmed, even more were not self-consistent.For example, a medical expert Debacke drew the correct conclusion that the anxiety-dream resulted from ischemie cerebrale according to the physiological symptoms of the anxiety-dream of a boy of thirteen. Freud called such view was a ” medical mythology” in the book of Dream Psychology. Most important,the experiment confirmed the idea. For example, a place in country , there is a “haunted” bed which makes people have sleep paralysis or syncope every night, and it is this fact that the pillow in the bed is too high will reduce cerebral blood flow.?1?http://www.medhelp.org/posts/Sleep-Disorders/Nocturnal-fainting/show/11612
I’ve had these dreams in the last couple of years. Usually in my dream I’m face with something evil and I rage against it. I scream and invoke the Lord’s name and I feel intense pressure on my body holding me back, almost as if I’m paralyzed. I awake and instantly jump out of bed. I had the same experience last night, which led me to seek those with similar experiences, I dreamed I was with my sister’s and my younger sister was under the covers in a bed, only it wasn’t her all of a sudden, it was a squirming SOMETHING and my back between my shoulder blades started aching as if something were pushing me from behind into the nightmare. I didn’t feel paralyzed when I awoke, I simply woke up and jumped out of bed and began walking around my place until I felt safe enough to go back to bed with my kindle playing some random show. I fell asleep and everything was okay this morning. But the pressure I felt,and its memory I always feel when faced with these dreams doesnt leave me for days. I thought I was either haunted or crazy!
This happened to me! I didn’t know it was a thing!
It was absolutely frightening, I woke up from a cool breeze from my window, though my window was closed.
the corner my blanket was lifted up in the air but I didn’t see.
after I woke up I felt the crushing feeling and I couldn’t breath, I saw a face of a ghost look at me (I was lying on my front with my head to the side) I couldn’t see the detail of it’s face but it looked in the shape of a human face but in sort of all colours like oil but also transparent.
I tried to tell it to stop but I couldn’t say anything, after a while it stopped I think. I layed there while my heart was beating really fast and I was too scared to move.
I think eventually I turned on the light then waited a while then went back to sleep.
The next few days after it though, I’d regularly see a “ghost” in my room during day time.
while I slept and after I woke up it would try to scare me or get my attention. I remember once a spider appeared on my wall and started crawling at me then it wasn’t there. and once I heard a blow fly whiz close to my face while I was sitting on my bed but I didn’t see anything.
I would wake up at night with a feeling someone is in the room (I am very sensitive to that, I remember doing tests to see if I could tell who in my family were home, and who were unconscious, I’d always get it right.) When I felt someone was in my room I’d hear the floorboards squeak and other things.
It was a big ordeal and I genuinely believed I was being haunted.
I kind of wish I took a photo of the ghost, recorded it, or showed it to my family, but I have heard that if you give them attention they get more power and are able to physically manipulate our real world more, which is obviously something I didn’t want.
According to this article my experience could have all been in my head?
This is quite concerning. I believe I am and was in good health when it happened. I wonder why it all happened.
For what it’s worth, in the past I’ve recorded imagery and voices of spirits with someone else in my presence (not the same house) so I know that ghosts are real and can be recorded. (I deleted the data as I believed it was cursed. I took a photo in the dark after many strange things happened and a light appeared in the photo. I recorded sound a few minutes later while it was silent and the recording played back something like “I will kill you” in a creepy voice. I’m not even kidding. it also threw objects at me in the dark. all this was witnessed by another person)