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[StoOgE]

The part that I find intriguing is that the hallucinations often tend to be described similar though - eg. creatures with big black eyes (ala those aliens or whatever people want to call them on a given day).
Seems like sleep paralysis often brings up a form of primal fear common to humans as species. The part I wonder is exactly where it originates from. Do those hallucination monsters resemble any species of predators in our past?

i agree that this is very interesting.. why so similar across regions and time?

 

[Laurentius]

The part that I find intriguing is that the hallucinations often tend to be described similar though - eg. creatures with big black eyes (ala those aliens or whatever people want to call them on a given day).
Seems like sleep paralysis often brings up a form of primal fear common to humans as species. The part I wonder is exactly where it originates from. Do those hallucination monsters resemble any species of predators in our past?

Well something I've read is that the hallucinations do seem to vary between cultures. For instance, North Americans seem to commonly experience that dark creature with big eyes. For whatever reason, our culture seems disposed to fear the grey (alien) type creature. Other cultures more often visualize ghosts, or witches (the "old-hag") during SP.

Anyway, I don't have any sources here so I don't know how legit that is.

 

[Fafalada]

In the middle ages people saw demons because that's what they were scared of. In the 20th century people saw aliens for the same reason.

But the demons and aliens from those tales look basically same(certain defining features at least) - across time and different cultural regions. What people call them doesn't matter - they seem to come from the same primal fears.

Well something I've read is that the hallucinations do seem to vary between cultures.

There are variations in descriptions(obviously it all boils down to verbal descriptions, which means cultural influences are abound), but they seem to share some common features (like black eyes and what not) from what little I've read. Granted I haven't conducted an exhaustive research into this, just something I noticed from casual reading on the subject.

Obviously there's no reliable way to tell until we develop tech to record human brains or something.

 

[Twilight Princess]

oh man i wish i could get some lucid dreams, i had it once when i was a kid. i realized it was a dream when someone was stuffing flies in my mouth and then i decided to wake up. UGGGHHH, and never got it again.
sleep paralysis, i got it about three times. it wasn't totally horrifying. i remember the second i got it, i was fully awake and my chest was painful especially when i was inhaling. i thought to myself not this shit again and then decided to try to re-gain control over my body. "WIGGLE YOUR BIG TOE" kinda thing, but it worked.

PLEASE GOD LET ME HAVE LUCID DREAMS TONIGHT, PLEASE

 

[Warren Ellis]

wow, i didn't know about it. When it happened to me, i thought it was just a really bad dream..

 

[pj]

I had it a few times. It was freaky the first time, but after that I did some research and found out what it is. What's there to be scared of if you know?

This happened to me once. Most terrifying experienced I have ever had. There was a alien (grey) on top of me looking directly into my eyes. I didn't get a good night's rest until about six months later.

...ok I could see being a bit freaked out by that

 

[StoOgE]

But the demons and aliens from those tales look basically same(certain defining features at least) - across time and different cultural regions. What people call them doesn't matter - they seem to come from the same primal fears.

and what would trigger the hallucinations? i get how the paralysis could happen, but the hallucinations boggle the mind`

 

[Aika'svyse]

=Armitage]


Are you posting from the middle ages? You're either trolling or extremely ignorant.

No i was actually joking there nurse molly.

But anyway i've had some extreme experiences with this, i started talking with a girl online and we had shared seeing a lot of the same stuff. The exact same, how is that possible that we'd see the same creatures while in this state.

 

[msdstc]

Yeah sleep paralysis has always fascinated me... it happens quite often actually. BUT I'm a lucky one I guess, because I never hallucinate. The first time it happened was during summer in 5th grade.

I thought I broke my neck or something, because you literally can't move... everythings blurry/fuzzy, your heart is pounding, and you are TERRIFIED. Seriously it's awful. When it happens now I just lie completely still. It's like having the urge to move, but you can't, you just have to ignore it and you fall back to sleep.

 

[StoOgE]

No i was actually joking there nurse molly.

But anyway i've had some extreme experiences with this, i started talking with a girl online and we had shared seeing a lot of the same stuff. The exact same, how is that possible that we'd see the same creatures while in this state.

my gut says its some shared primal fear of something untangeable.

 

[I_D]

The reason the "monsters" look the same:
* The lights are off, so features are distorted.
* People experience similar things throughout life, and see similar objects (people) so obviously they'll imagine similar creatures.




I kinda wish I could experience this... I'm interested in seeing what it's like.


The only real sleep episode I've ever had was I once had a nightmare so bad that it gave me an asthma attack, and I don't even have asthma.
At least... it had the same symptoms as an asthma attack.

 

[Aika'svyse]

Many people in my family have seen women with raven hair and no whites in their eyes while in sleep paralysis. One day i overheard some of them talking and this all came out.

So genetic, but then people online have experienced the same thing.

 

[mariofan361]

Glad to know it happens to others. It only happens to me as I fall asleep, and yes, I do sleep on my back. It absolutely terrified me when I was younger though, the only episode I really remember was somehow flying through my house being dragged by an unknown force, not being able to scream for help (I was less than 10 at the time), not being able to grab on to anything. Then I would wake up slightly, try to move one finger at a time (a la Kill Bill)... it was freaky.

Still happens occasionally, but they aren't like nightmares a lot of the time, just normal dreams, and once I realize what's happening, I just let it play it's course or work my way out of it, though it's hard to explain HOW to work your way out of it.

 

[Tristam]

HOLY SHIT THIS HAPPENS TO ME ALL THE TIME. I try to explain it to people but no one understands. Thanks.

Oh wait, I'm pretty sure I'm still sleeping though. I can never tell.

:lol

It used to happen to me regularly and NOBODY I talked to understood what I was babbling about. About a year ago I found out the info online and I was relieved.

I have had it a couple times since, but just because you know what's going on doesn't make it less frightening, because you still feel like you're fuckin' drowning. Once I get sleep paralysis I'll panic and start trying to wake up. I always had a strange old trick for it -- the one body part I could move during sleep paralysis was my left pinky, and so I'd wiggle my finger around till I got sensation in my wrist; I'd move that till I got sensation in my forearm; I'd move that until I was able to flail my full arm about, which finally woke me up.

 

[Omie]

Happens to me all the time, it's pretty fucking horrible when you hallucinate. I remember once I woke up and felt someone sitting by my legs and and caressing my thigh/ass area. I tried to move but couldn't and I didn't want to open my eyes. All I could hear was intense buzzing like bees in my ears...then I heard heavy breathing and when I opened my eyes I saw a demon shaped figure right by where I felt someone sitting.....I couldn't even scream...such a fucking horrible experience.

 

[Aika'svyse]

creepy. I've heard bees, breaking glass and fire trucks before the paralysis happens.

 

[noi5e]

I posted something in the LD thread about this... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangungot

I've had a specific kind of SP episodes ever since I was a little kid. For no reason, I'll wake up and I can't open my eyes or move my body. I feel like I'm slowly running out of air and the best I can do is try to wiggle my toe so that I can wake up and get more air... My male relatives also had this too...

My fam calls it bangungot and there's all kinds of superstitions about this, such as eating too much fish sauce or carbohydrates... Also, you really can die from it! Turns out there's somewhat of a genetic basis to this kind of sleep paralysis & young males all over Southeast Asia and East Asia get it. Pretty weird.

 

[Fafalada]

The reason the "monsters" look the same:
* The lights are off, so features are distorted.

I'm not sure how this matters - SP doesn't always happen at night, and above all, the hallucinations don't seem to be brain misinterpreting visual cues, but rather creating its own.
Eg. I only remember having SP with open eyes once, but it was during the day, and I saw things that weren't physically present at all in the room (no monsters, just weird stuff).

the one body part I could move during sleep paralysis was my left pinky, and so I'd wiggle my finger around till I got sensation in my wrist; I'd move that till I got sensation in my forearm; I'd move that until I was able to flail my full arm about, which finally woke me up.

I found something similar, I seem to be able to make a noise with my throat, which after a few tries seems to be enough to wake the rest of the brain.

 

[Ford Prefect]

I love how there's a lucid dreaming thread AND a sleep paralysis thread on the front page :lol

Surely this is some kind of GAF record.

 

[I_D]

I'm not sure how this matters - SP doesn't always happen at night, and above all, the hallucinations don't seem to be brain misinterpreting visual cues, but rather creating its own.
Eg. I only remember having SP with open eyes once, but it was during the day, and I saw things that weren't physically present at all in the room (no monsters, just weird stuff).

Alright, then about how the possibility that the eye receptors aren't functioning correctly?
I mean, the body isn't, so the eyes could also be screwing up, right?



That would cause a person to "see" odd things, and considering people have similar influences, I'd assume they'd imagine similar things.

 

[White Man]

I get this relatively frequently, maybe a half dozen times per year, usually accompanied by fuck terrifying dreams, like that one where Orin was trying to rape my butt.

 

[RevenantKioku]

I get this relatively frequently, maybe a half dozen times per year, usually accompanied by fuck terrifying dreams, like that one where Orin was trying to rape my butt.

Wait... Orin's black?

 

[HomerSimpson-Man]

This thread is fascinating and scaring the shit out of me all at once.

 

[Ford Prefect]

Wait... Orin's black?

:lol

Bravo.

 

[C4Lukins]

I get it pretty much everytime I fall asleep on my back. It is not a lot of fun. I would describe it as an intense sense of sudden dread and sometimes you see a dark evil mass over you. It is like the most intense part of a nightmare and it can last several seconds, or at least it seems to. It also seems quite painful while it is happening. I am convinced that people who believe they have been abducted are just people who have experienced sleep paralysis. I pretty much sleep in the fetal position to prevent it from occurring.

It was very scary when I was younger and did not know what the hell was happening to me. If you go back right to sleep afterwards it also has a tendency to come back instantly, so I will usually just get up and clear my head before returning to bed.

 

[Fafalada]

Alright, then about how the possibility that the eye receptors aren't functioning correctly? I mean, the body isn't, so the eyes could also be screwing up, right?

It's possible of course.
But the way I understand the phenomenon, what happens is your brain combines actual images captured by eyes with the still ongoing dreaming process.

At any rate, it'd be interesting to see some hard research on topic.

 

[Pochacco]

I also find that "sense of evil" that everyone gets quite interesting. Why does everyone feel that (including myself)? Why does no one feel happy when this happens? It's very strange that humans across the world and across the centuries have felt the same thing.
I learned in my university psych classes that our fears may be partly genetic. Humans generally fear the dark. They don't like animals that killed our ancestral cavemen, etc.

Btw, I've probably experienced it over ~100 times in my life and most of the times I was sleeping on my back. It sucks when you force yourself awake to escape it, but then fall right back asleep and get it again...and again...and again.

Like others in this thread, I have a "trick" to make it go away. I scramble for my tv remote control and turn on the tv in my room. The noise and light wake/keep me up until my brain "resets" and I can go back to sleep peacefully.

However, I've had times where I reach for the remote, turn on the tv, watch the tv for a few moments...and then I experience it again. And when I force myself up again, the TV isn't even on. It turns out me turning on the TV was just a dream... but it's so real because my eyes were probably open. Weird.

 

[Innotech]

I have sleep paralysis fairly often. Its gotten to the point wherE I just pull the covers over my head in casE I wake up like that. Its honestly one of the scariest things I ever experienced and I hate it. But I dont go back to sleep I usually force myself fully awake as quickly as possible, sometimes yelling out my moms name or some weird shit for familiarity. Other times, I will hear the clock radio alarm go off, reach to turn it off...and it doesnt. Then I wake up a few minutes later to discover that in fact I was still sleeping and while hearing the real alarm, I conjured up a dream of turning it off :lol
Seriously though, this shit is absolutely terrifying to experience. I dont wish it on anyone.

 

[speedpop]

I copped it once a few weeks back. Basically for a few days or so I had not been sleeping good at all, and on one of my days off I eventually decided to just have a nap at around 10am or so.

Basically "woke" up 10 mins after it, tried to move and couldn't and that's when I saw some weird white thing start to sink through the ceiling and onto the floor in the hallway just outside the door. Knew what was happening, immediately shut my eyes and tried to keep moving to wake myself up.

I didn't hear any noises other than some slight droning sound and it felt like my face was being melted off. The whole experience lasted about 20 seconds and there was no way in the world I was willing to open my eyes in case I saw something horrifying.

 

[OpinionatedCyborg]

Some of these descriptions are both terrifying and fascinating. I'd love to have a demon visit me, but due to my horrible vision and inability to sleep face up, I doubt it'll ever happen. I've also only had sleep paralysis once that I can remember.

I didn't get the "sense of evil" like a lot of you have. I just thought I was dying or something, and then I eventually snapped out of it when I need to breath. I imagine the dread experienced during these things can be similar to night terrors. Those are pretty bad, but since you rarely remember them (besides the pure rush of fear), they don't really compare.

 

[Ydahs]

My sister has this minus the hallucinations. Instead, she feels severe pain and can't move. She rids herself of this state by reading a particular verse in our Holy Book.

She's only had it a few times and she's too scared to tell my dad since he thinks all the people waking up, immobilized and seeing ghosts and being abducted are all a bunch of liars.:lol

She also once dreamed of my brother yelling her name and entering her room. Then she woke up and a minute or so later my brother called her name and ran into her room!


EDIT: I've seen a few people say they get it by sleeping on their backs. I sometimes do that when I have backpain. Never again shall I sleep on my back...

 

[tri_willy]

i get that sometimes when i eat fatty food right b4 i sleep haha

 

[Aika'svyse]

One of the weirdest sensations is liek electricity coursing over your body.

It's creepy, because it feels like something trying to find a wy in

I also notice before i go to sleep I feel uneasy most of the times this occurs, its like i can sense it's going to happen.

Others i've talked with agree, it seriously feels like something is waiting for you to go to sleep.

 

[lastendconductor]

I've experienced this a handful of times. Scary as fuck. My first reaction was to scream for help, and because I was paralyzed no voice came out, obviously, making it even scarier.
AFAICR I was sleeping lying on my back, which I do seldom, I think it's related.
One of those times, I had a very strong hallucination with witches, sacrifices and stuff and I'm still not completely sure if it really didn't happen. Also, I just remembered that when I was a child, I got this but just on the leg area, I felt pressure like somebody was sitting on them, and when I looked there was and old evil witch (why witches? I have no clue) sitting there.
Other times, I am just paralyzed, no weird stuff, and those are even scarier because that's when I think it's real and I've become quadriplegic or something.

EDIT: remembered more times.

 

[BlueTsunami]

Its just your body going catatonic before you hit deep sleep and REM sleep. Your normally supposed to wake up in phases but sometimes people wake up before their physical body itself is awake. Sounds freaky and it is.

 

[Cranehand2ndComing]

I remember having a couple of these episodes when I was a kid, but they weren't too terrifying, and I didn't hallucinate. I basically just remember being under my covers, completely unable to move, but I could hear my parents talking in the next room over. I would spastically try to move every muscle in my body at the same time to get out of it.

 

[jmdajr]

this has happened to me a few times.

It sucks big time. Glad to know I'm not the only one.

 

[Annoying Old Party Man]

Okay, i remember having the sleep paralysis thing one time, while i was a teenager (14-15).

I was lying on my back reading comics at night.

Then i realize that something is not going well, a sense of dread gets into my heart. Next thing i know, a figure of Jesus head or something appears mid air, transforms into a demon that is melting and as i look in terror, it heads straight to me and enters my body like an electrical shock. I try to move, yell, whatever, and i am unable for any physical motion. I just stand there, terrified, till after a minute or so, i am able to move again.

Even then - and before i red any proof about it - my own theory was that my mind got trapped between dreaming and being awake. Still, it was such a lucid experience that i still remember it in detail.

 

[xxjuicesxx]

I get this quite a lot except mine seems to be a bit different. I don't have any feeling of a dark entity and I'm never frightened in the traditional sense but more scared because I'm never quite sure if I will regain control of my body. I have very little control I can jerk my neck back and forth and it almost feels like my neck is going to snap, very scary. Eventually I wake up after ~3 or 4 seconds. If I fall back asleep right after it WILL happen again, so I have to get up and walk around. It happens to me about 2 or 3 times a month and sometimes it scares me to go to sleep when I think of it.

You are awake though and you can prove this because you can hear anything going on (I fell asleep with music on and was hearing the same song that was on when I finally woke out of this 'episode'). My eyes are always forced shut while this is happening.

 

[Nexus Zero]

I've had this a few times, the first time I was really high. I was out with my friends and we were all sat around a bench at our old school when my soul started trying to escape from my head (or at least that's what it felt like). It was terrifying and the more I stayed still the more intense this vertical tingling feeling felt, and it got to the point where I was losing my sight - it felt like the start of an out-of-body experience or something. Anyway I lived nearby and excused myself to go to bed. I started drifting off and had a really vivid hallucination of floating up through the place I lived at Uni, going through all the bedrooms (my mates, mine, my ex-girlfriends) until I turned around and my ex and our friend were standing there saying "what on earth are you doing?" because I was crawling around on her floor, but then I realised I wasn't, I was at home in Bridgnorth and yet there they were, two ghostly images of my two friends at the end of my bed. I couldn't fucking move until with all the strength I could muster I kicked out and hit one of them. That freaked me out even more and it took a good five minutes for me to realise I'd kicked my window frame.

The second time I remember seeing everything in my room but not really making sense of it, being scared shitless that I couldn't even move my eyes or control my breathing, until everything crystallized with this feeling of comprehension. I actually saw what waking up looks like.

Now when it happens, which is rare, I realise what's going on and sort of enjoy the state of immense relaxation. It's like having one of those great deep sleeps but actually experiencing the sleep rather than just the afterglow.

 

[Golvellius]

I read a thread about this here on GAF last summer, thought cool I´d like to experience that. I did later that week. Since then it's been happening a few times every month or so.

Being aware of this phenomena helps you recognize and remember it. After a couple of months I started to remember SP episodes from long ago, so this had happened to me before. I had probably discarded the experience as dreams.

This happens to me regardless of sleeping position, and I´m not typically bothered about being paralysed, cause I don't bother trying to move. Being aware while falling asleep can be scary and I used to panic and try to wake back up. When entering SP from a dream there's usually a sudden climax of lucidity in the dream leading up to the SP. For me there's also a big difference in quality between SP episodes. Some are more dreamlike and some are more wakelike.

I don't believe you see your actual surroundings and hallucinate, I think the whole experience is a hallucination in the same way dreams are. Although my room feels and looks absolutely real during SP, paying attention to details tells me it's not. There are usually differences in color and positioning of objects.

I mostly enjoy SP but it can be terrifying. A few months back I woke into SP facing my wall which was scary, cause I´d like to have a better view of the room. I thought I'll just close my eyes and go back to sleep. Then someone opened the door into my room(I live alone), slamming the handle down. When I heard that I was like: Wow, that sounded pretty real. Then I heard it again echoing in my head (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echoic_memory) and I realized that even though I know this is just SP the experience is real right now. Then I felt the absolute terror washing over me. I woke up seconds later.

I think audio is one of the things that define SP, in contrast to dreams audio in SP feels absolutely real, you hear things, outside of your head. You also feel things. I usually feel like there's an intense vibration going through everything, probably similar to what some of you describe as a sensation of electricity.

There's a relation between SP and lucid dreaming. Read this wiki article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucid_dreaming#Wake-initiation_of_lucid_dreams_.28WILD.29 Wake Induced Lucid Dream. It's a technique where you practice falling asleep while maintaining awareness, going through the stage of SP to enter a lucid dream.

 

[Mato]

When I was on zoloft i used to get that all the time

i would hear cars in the parking lot come and go and peopel talking.

the most recurrent vision was that i had this sense that i was walking around the room with eyes closed and feeling massively run down and weak. I was trying to reach the bed slugging and crouching but i just couldn't. i was trying to wake up but feeling amazinlgy sleepy.

Once i felt like i left my body and all of a sudden my spirit became amazinlgy light and felt like a wave of some sort billowing in the air, like a a manta ray in the water. I became aware of the the whole universe in it's entirety and the chaos and the fact that there was no steady place to step on and stop. For that moment I clearly recall i was 100% concious and thought I about leaving of earth and flying to explore the universe but the chaos and the upsidedowness terrified me and i instantly installed myself back in my body.

Worst decision ever, this filthy body would probably be in a coma and I'd be flying around the universe like a dragon.

 

[Squeak]

The part that I find intriguing is that the hallucinations often tend to be described similar though - eg. creatures with big black eyes (ala those aliens or whatever people want to call them on a given day).
Seems like sleep paralysis often brings up a form of primal fear common to humans as species. The part I wonder is exactly where it originates from. Do those hallucination monsters resemble any species of predators in our past?

What people don't often realize is that sight is not a passive process, in fact it's a very active one, pretty much comparable to the way a scene is rendered from assets pulled out of RAM in a computer, the reality and our memory and experiences with it, being the "RAM" in the case of humans.
Although of course the brain "rendering" works in an entirely different way.

When we look around and recognize things and make sense of the 3d world around us, we are constantly comparing with 3d templates in our brain to look for matches. Some of these templates are probably partially hardwired (like human shapes and faces) while others (like stuff made by humans) are learned.

Visual processing goes from the straight 2d, edge and colour detection in the retina to gradually more and more complex and abstract processing.
All the different visual centers in the brain has their say in the process (that's probably where the appeal of different art styles comes from).
One of the them has the "blueprints" for human shape. When you are in SP, this center probably projects is contents somehow on to reality (like in a dream) an bypasses the others that usually "fill in" the rest of the human shape. Thereby the scary shadowy figures that we see in SP emerge.

 

[mr_nexus]

It's weird because my father and two brothers claim to have this happen to them all the time but it has never happened to me once. Maybe I'm adopted.

 

[Pochacco]

Then i realize that something is not going well, a sense of dread gets into my heart. Next thing i know, a figure of Jesus head or something appears mid air, transforms into a demon that is melting and as i look in terror, it heads straight to me and enters my body like an electrical shock. I try to move, yell, whatever, and i am unable for any physical motion. I just stand there, terrified, till after a minute or so, i am able to move again..

My first memory of experiencing SP involved Jesus' head too.

I was dreaming about being in my friend's kitchen, talking to him and his sister. The earth began to shake and someone yelled "Earthquake!". Then I awoke into SP, my body was frozen and still shaking violently (which it usually does during my SP episodes). After this, the door of my room swung open and there were 3 or 4 heads of Jesus floating in front of the door. That's all I remember.

It took me about 2 hours to finally get up and have the courage to open my bedroom door that day :lol

I think that image came up because, a few days previously, I was watching Unsolved Mysteries and they were doing a story on Jesus' face appearing on a cloak.

 

[eudaemonic]

I've only had an instance where I woke up and could not feel/move my arm at all. I didn't freak out but I was pissed off.

 

[SpacLock]

Only happened to me once. Scary shit.

Tip: Sleep on your side. Never on your back.

 

[zguL]

I've had sleep paralysis twice. The first time was a very basic one, I couldn't move and I felt a strong sense of dread.

The second time was quite interesting because I started falling through my bed, and the "hole" in the bed through which I saw my room got smaller and smaller as I fell further down into darkness. Then suddenly I was on the bed again, and the whole scene repeated one more time. Then I fell asleep again I guess.

Both of these happened when my body was tense and I had been very stressed just before I got into bed.

 

[Laurentius]

Wow, I had no idea this was so common. I never sleep on my back, so that may be part of why I've never had it. Then again, quite a few people in here have said they've had while sleeping on their stomach or side. Freaky stuff. Even if I knew what was going on it would still scare me so bad...

 

[thomaser]

The one time I can remember having it, I "felt" a procession of black, hooded grim reaper-like figures walking slowly beside my bed. I knew they were looking for me, so I tried to lay completely still. Every time I tried to peek at them I heard a terrible scream, as if someone or something tried to warn or threaten me not to look, so I stopped trying to look. I was too sleepy to be very scared, though, and I went to sleep again pretty soon.