Sleep Paralysis!

[Emilym80]

Hi everyone,

Firstly, I'd recommend not reading this if you haven't had sleep paralysis yourself- I definitely had a great deal of anxiety about it after watching a doco on it and I wouldn't want to trigger another fear for anybody.

I had what I believe was a recurrence of my sleep paralysis this morning. I had had it a few times as a kid- during the worst of which I hallucinated and saw the grim reaper- but this morning was far worse than it had been previously.

I woke up quite early and tried to go straight back to sleep (I felt I couldn't resist). When I closed my eyes, I got pins and needles throughout my body which started and stopped quickly, like a switch was being flicked. I opened my eyes and it stopped, but I closed them again because I was tired and it resumed. I actually thought to myself, "am I having a seizure or a stroke?" but I'm fairly certain my arms/legs were still the whole time. I could move initially but it gradually got worse until the tingling was constant and I couldn't really move anymore- it wasn't impossible, but it felt very difficult to move. Towards the end, it was getting really hard to breathe and in my left eye my vision was disturbed, like a thick, dark, translucent liquid had been poured over my eye; I could still see through it, but it was black and white behind it. I managed to swing myself to the side of my bed and everything dissipated. It's a bit hard for me to remember now- it seems dreamlike, vague and distant, perhaps because I was in a state of anxiety at the time.

I spoke to a nurse over the phone and she was pretty sure I'd had a stroke and she even offered to call an ambulance for me! I went to A&E and got checked out (heart/bp and motor skills) and the doctor thought I seemed fine and that what I'd had was a variant on my sleep paralysis. I was wondering if anyone else has had this and, if so, how you prevent it or come out of it? I think if I'd had a proper bout of hallucinations, with shadow people/demons etc, I would've flipped out.

I really don't want to go through this again so if anyone's experienced it themselves and they have tips, they would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

[happy2b]

I've had this happen to me a few (maybe 5-10) times before. It seems to occur the day following excessive alcohol consumption for me. A few times it happened I thought I was having a seizure because my whole body was vibrating uncontrollably. I've seen some crazy demonic things as well. I don't tell people about it because they'd think I went nuts. During my scariest one this head pushed up under the sheets on my bed. I could see the sheets stretching around the facial features of this thing. It then began to slide forward under the sheets right toward my face.

I've read a lot about this and found that people talk about it occurring before a lucid dream. If you have it happen to you again, see if you have that vibrating sensation. When you do, try very hard to move your body or get up and you can float around and control your dream. I know this might sound like 'newage' or bullshit, but I tried it a few times and eventually succeeded.

Just to let you know I've gotten the pins and needles feeling too sometimes. One time my whole body went numb.