By far the most common question by those who get Sleep Paralysis seems to be: “Is my Sleep Paralysis experience normal?” It’s not surprising that especially for those who experience SP for the first time, it can be a confusing, frightening experience that often leaves people feeling alone and full of anxiety. To help combat these feelings, here are the most commonly reported experiences of SP.
Inability to Move
It goes without saying that the most prevalent symptom of SP is muscle paralysis. When you first awake or fall into SP (SP can be experienced both upon waking and falling asleep) the first thing people notice is that they can’t move. When we sleep, our bodies go into a temporary paralysis to keep us from acting out our dreams. Once we wake up, our body sends a signal out for our muscles to stop being paralyzed. During SP, this signal is delayed and we are unable to move upon partial waking. This is probably because our brains are still partially asleep during SP – which explains the next occurrence.
Visual and Auditory Hallucinations
During SP, many people see or hear things that aren’t actually there. This is because our brains are still partially asleep. During REM sleep, a high amount of stress hormone is present. REM sleep is the stage of sleep in which SP occurs. This can cause us to wake up agitated or fearful which affect our hallucinations. These hallucinations become projected onto our actual surroundings. Common visual hallucinations are: Aliens, lights, shadowy figures, monsters, dark clouds or shapes and normal everyday people. Some people hallucinate a sexual attack or somebody choking them. Others feel as though someone is watching them from their door or their bed. However, not all hallucinations are scary. Many people see family members or deceased loved ones. Some audio hallucinations include high pitched ringing or buzzing, growling, television or radio sounds or conversations in another room.
Feeling Unable to Breathe/Feeling as Though You are Being Choked
Another very common experience is the feeling of being choked or that your lungs are also paralyzed. During SP, your lungs are still functioning. However, because you can’t move, you may feel as though you can’t breathe. However, this isn’t the case at all. You are still able to breathe normally. Many people also feel as though they are being held down, pressed on tightly or strangled. Again, these are all due to the muscle paralysis which makes you feel heavy or oppressed. Taking long, deep breaths can help alleviate this feeling.
Floating Sensations s & Out of Body Type Experiences
Because our brain is trying desperately to “ground” itself during the sudden, brief paralysis, it’s common to feel as though you “float” out of your body of as though you aren’t connected with it. This is an extremely common experience and is actually completely natural. Many people have actually embraced this feeling as a way to feel apart from their physical form. However, this is a natural experience and is not related to any type of paranormal influence. It is, however, quite interesting to experience.
Please feel free to share your SP experiences with us in the comments, or visit our community on Facebook!
Image credit: Vishalandra Dakur Artwork – http://www.fine-art.com/vishalandradakur
September 13, 2016 at 7:34 pm
It’s a very terrifying experience as far as the waking dreams go, though I have somewhat gotten used to the paralysis.
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November 6, 2016 at 3:51 am
Thanks for this information and shedding sleep paralysis is a natural light as it can be terrifying. I had sp a lot when I was pregnant and one time where it was very intense. I woke up to go to the bathroom and was having difficulty falling back to sleep and then I opened my eyes and realized I couldn’t move. Experiencing this before I tried to relax and closed my eyes and when I did, at first it was all black and then I saw flashes of light and could even hear electrical like crackling/snapping. I even began to shake or at least thought I was shaking. And it seemed like a long time but was probable only 1 min total. I was worried it was a seizure, but I discussed it with a neurologist and ruled that out and he agrees it was sp. Has anyone experienced it like this?
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January 21, 2017 at 5:40 am
It’s freezing outside, lights out early as its Sunday Night and
Tucked in bed all await a good night sleep..
Start of the work week tomorrow, fresh morning everyone expects;
I too set my alarm and pull up my blanket, All set for a visit to dreamland..
So cozy inside my blanket that I fall to sleep immediately..
I keep thinking of food as I know what can give me peace.
The cheese melts and I know I am smiling in my sleep
When suddenly the scene shifts to something not so pleasing..
I feel myself sleeping but hear someone from the other room
Try hard to un-hear it but in vain, as the voice keeps calling my name..
I feel a sense of relief as its my Mom’s voice,
but why is it calling me? why at midnight is what confuses me?…
Here’s the full story- https://yourmagnet.in/poetry/sleep-paralysis-last-night/
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March 12, 2017 at 11:46 am
Sleep paralysis first happened to me when I was about 11 years old. The first time experience was very frightening, I saw two elderly looking at me and smiled, and I was scared like hell. From that day, every single day, I was so scared to close my eye and sleep, however, the sleep paralysis still continues to haunt me. It happens quite frequently, maybe 3-4 times per week. I was so miserable as nobody can help me, even though I had explained to my mom and siblings, they were just helpless and didn’t believe me. One day, my mom bought me a god necklace, which she thought it may help me. I wore it and it gave me more confident when I was going to sleep as I knew that I was blessed by god. However, sleep paralysis still happened to me. One day, my grandma told me as well that sleep paralysis happened because a demon is sitting on your body while you’re sleeping, and she advised me to lean your body to side while sleeping. It works and the sleep paralysis occurred less frequently after that. I also stick god’s figure at my bed, hopefully, it does help too. Then, for years, I went through this miserable experience, I woke up in the middle of night, can’t sleep back and I almost immune to this kind of experience. Surprisingly, as times go on, sleep paralysis happen less and less frequently until a point where it rarely occurred to me (maybe once a year). Now, I’m 30 years old adult, it may happen once in while, when I didn’t sleep at regular hours/ very tired in which I fall asleep without knowing it/ stressful from work. I know very well when sleep paralysis is about to happen. I will first felt weird about my dream (e.g. why all people in my dream not moving and I’m still running here and there), hear ringing sound, the scene of my dream will freeze and I will see hallucination afterward. I saw a ghost going in and out from my mouth, saw my friend sitting on the floor (which he still sleeping on bed when I’m awake), someone looking at me and many more bad experiences. However, it didn’t scare me, I will just tell to myself, “Nah, it happened again”. Sometimes, I even look back at the figures with my fierce expression like “What do you want? A punch from me?” Well, as sleep paralysis happened, this is what I do to make myself able to move. I will use all my energy to contract all my muscles over my whole body, trying to move my body. The faster and forcefully you do it, the faster you awake. If you can shout, just shout out loud (but in reality the sound is very soft). I’m even tested which part of my body can move, as I know, I’m only able to roll my eyes and make some sound. Until now, I still don’t know what caused sleep paralysis, but here are some of my advice based on my experience:
Prevention:
-Lean your body to side while sleep
-Sleep at regular hours
Trigger when:
-stress
-very tired
-not sleep at regular hours
To overcome:
-do whatever you can such as shout out loud, contract all your muscles
-pray to god
-do not scare of hallucination, the more you fear, the more frightening hallucination will appear. Brave yourself, it’s all just hallucinations.
I hope my experience does help you (real story). Thank you
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