Sleep paralysis/apnea experience

[Schuyler]

A couple of nights ago I had one. I had never understood what it meant, but it woke me up. I was "paralyzed" including one arm stuck out that wouldn't move and it felt like I couldn't move or breathe. It woke me up and I struggled out of it, with the help of my wife who was afraid of getting hit. (Her first husband was a Nam vet who threw her out of bed once in awhile.)

The interesting thing was, I 'saw' the 'alien shapes' clearly, though in shadow. I suspect that was because of my conditioning hanging around places like this. Or if it weren't, if it were part of the scene, it could have been interpreted that way.

It's no biig deal and I'm quite sure there wasn't a darned thing the least bit paranormal about it, but at least now I have some idea of what people are talking about when they invoke this. It's one thing to discuss it and quite another to experience it. Has anyone else?

 

[ALPHA ROMEO UNIFORM]

A couple of nights ago I had one. I had never understood what it meant, but it woke me up. I was "paralyzed" including one arm stuck out that wouldn't move and it felt like I couldn't move or breathe. It woke me up and I struggled out of it, with the help of my wife who was afraid of getting hit. (Her first husband was a Nam vet who threw her out of bed once in awhile.)

The interesting thing was, I 'saw' the 'alien shapes' clearly, though in shadow. I suspect that was because of my conditioning hanging around places like this. Or if it weren't, if it were part of the scene, it could have been interpreted that way.

It's no biig deal and I'm quite sure there wasn't a darned thing the least bit paranormal about it, but at least now I have some idea of what people are talking about when they invoke this. It's one thing to discuss it and quite another to experience it. Has anyone else?

Hi Schuyler:
Interesting story did you have any medication prior to sleeping if you don't mind me asking ? Yes I am interested in sleep paralysis and is there any academic written proof of cause hallucinations regarding ets/UFO? Furthermore, does it open a portal to another dimension when we are in that state?

Peace,
blowfish

 

[Schuyler]

Interesting story did you have any medication prior to sleeping if you don't mind me asking

Only if you count the medicinal alcohol!

 

[skeptoid humanoid]

It's no biig deal and I'm quite sure there wasn't a darned thing the least bit paranormal about it, but at least now I have some idea of what people are talking about when they invoke this. It's one thing to discuss it and quite another to experience it. Has anyone else?[/QUOTE]

Hi Schuyler,

Just a few weeks ago, my wife woke up screaming in bed. She had a dream that she was paralyzed in bed, and a dark shadow outline figure wearing a big-brimmed hat standing over her. She said it was a dream but it seemed more real than any other dream she had ever had.

The intersting thing is: she has no interest in paranormal topics, and I don't discuss them with her ever. I asked her if she knew what a shadow person or sleep paralysis is. She did not. I think this was a nightmare mixed with sleep paralysis. What I can't figure is how she got the image of a classic shadow person wearing a fidora hat? Where did that come from?

 

[Tom From Hong Kong]

Why do people who have these incidents report the same or similar types of visions or mental impressions during their episodes, including people who don't hang around paranormal chat boards? Is this something wired into the human brain or psyche? I doubt this -- there is no evolutionary advantage for this to be the case (or admittedly any meaningful evolutionary disadvantage). The consistency across people and geographies is quite odd.

Some have argued that this paralysis may be the commencement of an out-of-body experience which never really takes off . . . no pun intended . . . providing the subject a glimpse into different dimensions (????). I've never had an OBE or sleep paralysis, so I couldn't say one way or another, but this does raise interesting facts to be contemplated.

 

[NTS]

A few times I've had the experience of being asleep and then waking up a little and not being able to move. It's never been accompanied by any sense of a presence or being attacked though. In fact when it happens I've been vaguely aware that I'm lying in bed in the room I'm supposed to be in. After a few seconds I've always been able to force myself to move (one time almost flying out of the bed). So I guess not everyone has a sense of it being paranormal. For me it seems strange but natural.

 

[Schuyler]

What I can't figure is how she got the image of a classic shadow person wearing a fidora hat? Where did that come from?

I saw more or less the same thing. I have one theory: Obviously there is something physical going on here with your body. I know that when you get a migraine headache your field of vision will narrow so that you get tunnel vision. It's possible the same sort of thing is happening here. Your body is under a bit of stress because you have stopped breathing. The body knows this, of course, and starts to take corrective action for something that hopefully will be of brief duration, which with apnea it normally is. The 'shadows' could simply be artefacts from that process that we interpret as shadow 'people' or 'aliens' based on our experience, but are in reality just shadows which originate in our brain and manifest as if they were external.

 

[Hoffmeister]

I've had many a sleep paralysis incident, although not for years (they're more common in children and young adults). One or two of them lasted for a particularly long time, perhaps twenty seconds and they were so frikking scary. Were you filled with panic and terror during your incident? Was it as real as being awake or did you feel like you were half asleep still?

I personally believe that the source of many (but not necessarily all) abduction cases stem from people having sleep paralysis incidents and then embellishing the sotry so as to convince themselves that they arent going mad and that something really did happen to them.
I've had anything from screaming ghosts flying out of my leg (and my leg hurt for the next couple of hours after the incident) to the classic 'Taken' style lights enveloping the room and three greys standing at the door as it flys open.
Rather interestingly, the one with the Greys incident happened when I was young and had no interest or exposure to the UFO field. Don't believe any of the incidents were paranormal though... just sh*t scary!

 

[Schuyler]

Were you filled with panic and terror during your incident? Was it as real as being awake or did you feel like you were half asleep still?

Not really panic, more like a 'surprise, what's going on, get me out of this' feeling. I felt half asleep and went right back to sleep afterwards. I can see how a very suggestible person might be 'persuaded' this was something different. If you throw in the 'need for attention' shtick into the mix then you might have a full blown abduction for yourself.

I swear I've seen this happen with people. I watched an interview with Budd Hopkins many years ago on the local 'Ain't this weird' show. Hopkins explained his research and took questions from the audience and calls as well. One woman called up and said she felt like she might have had some experiences, and Hopkins says, "Well, do you have any scoop marks on your legs?" Oh, no, Hopkins NEVER asks leading questions! So the rest is classic. She says, "Why, yes! I never noticed (my cellulite) before!" So Hopkins, now very concerned, asks her to 'stay on the line' so he can talk with her afterwards. The host says the same thing, "Stay on the line." (WE can save you!) Like they both think they've caught a live one. Well, she did. She reeled them in. It was just sad to see and so damned obvious. It was like, hello? Do you realize what you just did?

 

[Roro]

Have you considered the possibility of a mini-stroke (I know, not a real medical term but you can Google it)? I had an experience once that sounds similar to yours, except I didn't see anything odd when it happened. I had just laid down in bed when suddenly I couldn't move or speak. I was alone and was trying to think of some way to make a noise that my wife would hear at the other end of the house when the symptoms went away and I was fine. My theory is that I had a mini-stroke. Being a male I decided to keep the whole thing to myself to avoid becoming the object of the extensive medical testing my wife would no doubt have instigated.

Of coarse it is possible that I was abducted and while what seemed to me to be a few seconds of paralysis I was taken aboard an alien space ship and subjected to bizarre and disturbing procedures but I think I'll stick with the mini-stroke theory. I had jogged five miles that day, the apex of my jogging career, and took this experience as a sign that I should not do that again. Having abandoned jogging for a life of lethargy I have not had a repeat of whatever happened to me.

 

[Hoffmeister]

Not really panic, more like a 'surprise, what's going on, get me out of this' feeling. I felt half asleep and went right back to sleep afterwards.

The reason I ask is that from what I have seen there seems to be two types of sleep paralysis. Some people report that they are sleepy and go back to sleep right afterwards. In my case, it was always like someone had jabbed a needle full of adrenaline into my heart and I was awake and buzzing, and I went straight from the sleep paralysis state to an awake state.

Its sods law that I always got Ghosts and 'Greys' in my SP episodes, I never got any of those super hot alien babes like some of the contactee's got lucky with

 

[Xylo]

I don't think that sleep paralysis is all that uncommon. I have episodes quite often, at least once a month, and some seem to last up to a minute. During this time I usually become quite paranoid and have the usual adrenalin rush (increased breathing & heart rates.) What I usually can move are my eyes, at least long enough to scan the room. If the cat & dog are sleeping peacefully, it reassures me and I will fall back asleep. If I cannot see either of them then my panic increases greatly for a few moments and once the paralysis breaks I'll get up, turn on the lights and look around the apartment before retiring again.

 

[Poi]

I don't know if it's related, but I sometimes wake up in the night for the usual trip to the bathroom when during the trip I realize my brain just turned my hearing back on. In other words, I was deaf and didn't notice until a sense of hearing night noise instantly turns on. Shocks me enough to wonder if my brain was slow in responding to waking or if I thought I was fully awake when that wasn't the case. Guess it could be a form of paralysis, but it's only happened in the last couple of years so it may be age related.

 

[Graphimancer]

I've had severe sleep apnea for almost a decade, and it nearly killed me before I got it treated about five years ago. I can say, in my case, that I've never had it mix with sleep paralysis or visions.

I'm not saying that I haven't had dream-state type of images hit my soon after sleep, or well into exhaustion, but I think that's normal.

 

[dyingsun]

What I wonder about is, has anyone experienced something like this more then once ? Happened once to me quite some time ago, after that, 'nada' .

 

[tortuegenial]

When I was in uni there was a period where I had quite a few SP episodes that were very intense. I would be totally helpless, I couldn't move any limb no matter how hard I tried, I would feel myself trying but to no avail, but I have never seen anything paranormal. Usually I'm in a sticky situation that seems to have no end, e.g. drowning.
What I found to be very strange was that my roomate also had SP's the same time, his were more dreadful. I think he claimed sometimes he was being attacked but couldn't move.

These days I rarely get them and only at work, although I just had one a couple hours ago (then coincidentally find this thread)... I was somewhat conscious but couldn't move a limb and I got intense head rushes, almost dizziness, adrenaline perhaps?...
A couple months ago I had the same experience but was totally conscious but paralyzed, any attempt to move was impossible, I then heard someone come into the office but there was nothing I could do. I saw the person's figure or outline but I can't even remember if my eyelids were open. It's a strange experience but I think harmless, sometimes I try to induce my own SP (position I sit, and going into half/wake state) just for that feeling/experience...

 

[Angel of Ioren]

I've had several sleep paralysis episodes and it's my main reason for being so skeptical about ALL alien abduction stories. I'm not saying that all alien abduction stories are related to sleep paralysis, but it just shows me what the human mind is capable of making us think that we see.

 

[tortuegenial]

I've had several sleep paralysis episodes and it's my main reason for being so skeptical about ALL alien abduction stories. I'm not saying that all alien abduction stories are related to sleep paralysis, but it just shows me what the human mind is capable of making us think that we see.

Right, never before had I realised any connections with SP and alien abduction let alone a paranormal event.
When I used to get them often in uni I associated it with stress and drugs.

 

[PamiP]

Have you considered the possibility of a mini-stroke (I know, not a real medical term but you can Google it)?

I agree that a mini-stroke could be a reason why this happens to some people. This is an interesting hypothesis that I would like to expand upon. My husband suffered a mini-stroke last summer, which wiped out one of his vocal cords. Since this occurred, he has had several odd occurences. One night, he jumped out of bed, trying to yell at me to get the gun because there was an intruder in the bedroom. I looked in the direction in which he was staring, and there was a shadow being standing there, that melted into the wall. Thank goodness we don't own a gun, as he would have used it. He told me that when he awoke, he felt heavy pressure on his chest and could not move. The violent jump he made out of bed occurred when he broke free. I can see where a stroke might cause him to see phenomena, but it doesn't explain why I saw the being in our bedroom. Maybe they are drawn to certain people.

 

[skunkape]

I've had similar experiences several times. I have never seen the typical alien shapes, but I have seen the "almond-shaped" eyes superimposed over my field of vision. I've also seen a crazy looking old man and a "tar-baby" type thing while in this state. It's scary as hell when it's happening, but it's kinda fun afterwards, if you know what just happened.