Paralysed When Waking Up

[melody]

Wow, it always blows my mind to read threads that I could have written myself!

This is terrifying and I have to say one of the reasons I avoid sleep. Mine always tie into a nightmare of either my abuser getting into the house, coming down the hallway, or climbing on to my bed and I'm awake and aware he's going to get me, yet I'm paralyzed and can't move. It feels so real... And in a lot of cases, I can feel the bed moving and that scares me even more.

Here's wishing everyone sweet dreams with no sleep paralysis! And I'm sure you're thinking the same as me, "If only that was all it took aye - a wish from someone who can empathize." But what can it hurt?

 

[Pompadour]

I have had this a handful of times too.

Aspects of dreams spill over into the room too, but I am awake and believe it to be real.
The worst one was painful as well as distressing. I woke up paralysed and my sister came to hug me from behind, but for some reason the way she was hugging me was really hurting me - and the pain was building fast. I desperately tried to scream or move but couldn't. Then suddenly I could, I turned around and there was no one in the room.

 

[Robert N. Lee]

I suffered from sleep paralysis/hypnogogic dreams for years. I had the "hagging" ones, where a witch sits on your chest, when I was little, and the "demon in the room" ones when I was a teenager.

My mom actually taught me a trick to make them stop when I told her about it - she'd had them, too, when she was younger. As you're drifting off to sleep, if you feel a buzz in your body (you can't mistake it), wake yourself up, don't fall asleep. Start going back to sleep, if you feel it, wake again. Fall asleep only when you don't feel that buzzing, right on the edge of sleep.

I did that for a few months in my teens, and...it stopped. I've had to deal with regular nightmares, since, but...never that. It's kind of a pain to keep waking yourself up, but it worked great for me, anyway.

Hope that's of some use. Those things are terrifying.

 

[Anna]

I suffered from sleep paralysis/hypnogogic dreams for years. I had the "hagging" ones, where a witch sits on your chest, when I was little, and the "demon in the room" ones when I was a teenager.

I had this one as well, except it wasn't a witch but a demon like creature. Was really unpleasant.

 

[Lionheart]

I suffered from sleep paralysis/hypnogogic dreams for years. I had the "hagging" ones, where a witch sits on your chest, when I was little, and the "demon in the room" ones when I was a teenager.

My mom actually taught me a trick to make them stop when I told her about it - she'd had them, too, when she was younger. As you're drifting off to sleep, if you feel a buzz in your body (you can't mistake it), wake yourself up, don't fall asleep. Start going back to sleep, if you feel it, wake again. Fall asleep only when you don't feel that buzzing, right on the edge of sleep.

Robert,


Thank you for posting about your sleep paralysis experience and being "hag-ridden". I have suffered sleep paralysis and the "Old Hag Syndrome" for many years. It's kinda funny.... I hunted down the old hag in a dream and told her off and she never came back. Sort of goes along with the idea of facing one's fears, but there is of course, more to it than that!

I appreciate that you confirm to me that avoiding "the buzzing" is the trick! I haven't found anything else that works as well.

 

[Robert N. Lee]

I read something recently about a rash of sleep deaths in the seventies and eighties in the US, among Hmong immigrants, that's puzzled people ever since. One prevailing idea, now, is that they had heart attacks due to exactly this. Apparently their culture puts great stock in hypnogogic dreams as real supernatural events.

I can totally buy that it could give someone a heart attack...

 

[blynn895]

I've also had the paralysis dream with the addition of it felt like a big black heavy monster was on top of me and it was growling. I had that several times as a kid. I would hide under the covers terrified trying to scream.

I told my mother about it once. She told me it was because the devil was coming to get me because I had been so bad.

I'm so sorry to hear that Lizio, thats awful.. hugs and hope you're ok now with sleeping.
Brenda xo

 

[a3a2]

I know from my husband's experience with this that it can be a side effect of certain medications. If I remember correctly, certain ssri's or snri's.........I can't be certain as there have been so many meds. But if you are suffering from this hellish condition, you may want to look into it.

 

[AlmostHome]

6 months after my motorcycle accident I had these. Had one and several of the floating ones. This was the start of my meltdown.

 

[ericaboo]

This used to happen to me almost every morning when I was a young kid - it was so terrifying, and nobody believed me.

 

[bitzer]

My wife suffered with these for years. One day I made her a dream catcher, and they stopped - just like that. Go figure!

 

[Red Feather]

I've had it happen to me several times too. It was really terrifying. The last one was when I was in the psychiatry. I was sleeping in the same room with two old ladies. One of them was demented and psychotic. I was on meds (doxypin) so it might have been influeced by the meds. I woke up but couldn't move and this old lady was coming closer and closer to me and she wanted to curse me. The visual image was the same as if I had my eyes open in the room. So there is no way of knowing if it was a dream or not. Geez. And I couldn't move until suddenly I just screamed and literally woke up. Very scary. :eek: