Thread: The Sleep Paralysis Experience Bank

Sorry, but what you describing is not SP.

They are normal sensations that we feel when our body is shutting down and falling asleep. Normally we don't experience it, because our mind falls asleep pretty much at the same time when body does.

But when we WILD, or condition ourselves to pay attention to sensations while falling asleep, we do notice them.

True SP is a disorder, when we notice REM atonia. REM atonia (paralysis of muscles) is a normal thing that happens to everybody everytime we dream, so several times a night. Purpose of REM atonia is to paralyze us not during sleep, but only during dreaming in REM, so we don't act out our dreams and hurt someobody or ourselves. It starts as soon as we start to dream and it ends the moment we stop dreaming. Evolution made it that way, so when we get starled out from a dream by danger, we can move right away. If it doesn't work like that on occasion, it's not normal.

So SP is a disorder of a REM atonia not shutting down on time, or starting sooner than it should. If we notice it, it could be because we are Lucid dreamers and we train to notice, or we simply have an occasional disorder.

The true SP is characterized only by having no ability to move no matter how hard we try, and possibly seeing our room around us, or something else. It can get ver scary, because you wake up, you think you are awake and you see around you, but you can't move. No matter how hard you try, to try to roll off the bed, you yell for help, but nothings is happening. This is frightening and this can summon some scary images, only because we are already scared and making up scenarios what happened.

Most of the sensation we experience while WILDing or falling asleep with awareness are called HH 0 hypnogogic hallucination. They can be tactile - we feel touch, auditory - we hear all kinds of sounds, or acceleration - when we feel like we are moving.

I just thought I clear this up a bit, since I know all those sensations used to be called SP and some websites still don't make any distinctions. Here is a few threads that we here on DV worked on to shed more light on this amazing phenomenon called HH and even SP.

http://www.dreamviews.com/wake-initi...mystified.html
http://www.dreamviews.com/wake-initi...explained.html

So to answer your question:
Most of my HH used to be visual and accelerations - I started to see dreamlets and dreams while WILDing, and also cool animations. And the movement HH was just incredible - flying through space at incredible warp speed, being twisted, falling down...

I have only had a handful of audio HH, and only one tactile. I love them all.

Wow, thanks Gab. That is a good answer, and thoughtful.

I thank you for trying to clear things up. But what I am experiencing, and have been for at least 8 years, is Sleep Paralysis. I'm not talking about WILD. I have no interest in achieving WILD.

I try and fall asleep, then decide to turn to another side, but find I am paralysed. Or I wake up from a dream and am paralysed.

However yes, my thread is referring more to HH rather than simply Sleep Paralysis. But distinguishing them wasn't the point of this thread.

I have not had a single.instance of Sleep Paralysis (as correctly defined by gab) in 1.5 years of steady lucid dreaming practice. Neither have I experienced a single case of REM atonia scary hallucinations. Just want to let readers know that expectation can drive experience and there's nothing to be scared of.

I did have true SP twice in my life, looong before I ever heard of lucid dreaming. Both times as I was waking up. I woke up, saw my room (btw my eyes were closed and it was HH as I learned later), tried to get up but could not move. I didn't see or hear anything scary. I tried everything I could - to move, yell, flex my muscles, nothing worked. I guess I fell asleep and woke up normally later.

It's actually easy to get out of true SP. You can start by changing the way you breathe. Since while asleep, our body controls how fast and deep we breathe, if we change it, our body realizes we ar awake and it will end the paralysis. You can also try to wiggle tips of your fingers and toes.

Or, you can stay calm, take it as an opportunity to observe something unusual. And if yo completely crazy like some of us, hehe, you can relax and stand up with your dream body into a Lucid dream. Or give yourself mental commands to stand up or levitate up. You can thank me later : P

My most recent true SP (third one) was when I woke up from a lucid dream and didn't fully woke up, but consioussly entered another lucid dream. In the transition between them I realized I can't get up. I wasn't really trying with the physical body, but with my dream body, so I can stand up and walk away into the dream and start my fun., But it felt like a true SP. But, and here is a HUGE BUTT, haha. I experienced it as something happening in the distance. I knew I'm transitioning to another dream, I wasn't scared at all, because I never had any scary experience during my hundreds of attampts and LD, so I just realized it as something that can happen. But I was so far into the dreaming process that I couldn't really care less. SP is not the goal, LD is, and I already had my goal. I wasn't gonna ruin it by worrying about something like SP.

On the other hand, all the HH I had were out of this world, incredible sensations and feelings like I could never imagine or even describe. Unbelievably intense and realistic. I love my HH dearly.

I love HH too! It can be as cool a hobby as LDing. Note: it is often called H.I. and is awesome because it is one healthy and legal way we can all get HI (lol)

^^ I've had true SP also a few times, and also yeeeeears before LD practice. Freaked me out. I finally did look it up and found out "it was a thing." Unfortunately, the internet was not "such a thing" back then and I was not lead into the wonders of lucid dreaming way back then (or I ignored it).

Here are my two experiences with Sleep Paralysis (Tell me if they're not )

1. Death
In a dream, my family and I were driving down a long dirt road. I had just escaped the disease infested jungle. What a relief! The mood was good. But then, the driver stirred off-road and we fell in a bottomless crack. I felt present (although not lucid) because I was waking up, but I didn't know. As the car fell down in the abyss, I knew I would die. And then, nothing. I could only feel my body, but it was a strange sensation. There was nothing. So I thought, I'm dead. I guess I'm about to witness what happens after death. And I was a bit excited. But nothing happened. And then, without any noticeable change in my consciousness, I realized I was in bed. I tried to move my body but couldn't. After a little bit of trying to move, I finally could move and get out of bed. I was a little worried when I ended up in a car, driving to school with my family because there had been so much snow, buses weren't running. The dream wasn't prophetic, phew! But it was interesting, that I was convinced I was dead, when I was actually awake.

2. The Old Hag.
This happened during a night in South America. I don't know if I was truly awake at the time or dreaming but in the "dream", I was in the bed/room I was sleeping in at the time. The door opened slightly and an older woman peaked, I couldn't really see well from my position. I thought it was the owner of the house, coming to wake me up. But I couldn't move. I recognized it as an SP so I was not afraid, I just waited. The woman came closer to me, her face so close, but again, I wasn't facing that direction so I couldn't see who she was exactly. I just assumed it was the owner trying to scare me (which wouldn't have been impossible... ). I was just thinking she was being silly. But then, she grabbed my ear and twisted it. I felt a manageable pain. Then, I don't remember what happened after that. I guess, I woke up. But I thought it was funny that I might have had this world-known phenomenon of an old lady who comes to torment you during SP, but just thought it was a friend of mine the whole time so I wasn't scared as I should have been.

My first experiences with lingering REM atonia upon waking were quite a few years ago, and I would usually be so groggy I wouldn't really notice. I would just sort of try to get out of bed but think I was too tired to do so. It wasn't until several cases of this that I started to notice that I literally couldn't move, but since I had already read about SP before, I pretty much already knew what it was, so it wasn't too freaky.

I generally never have hallucinations with them. They've never been scary to me, just annoying at worst. In other words, my experiences are pretty boring; sorry to disappoint

It's actually been quite a few years since I last experienced it, though, for some reason.

I have never been unable to move as soon as I figure out what is going on. One time I woke up and there was a huge brown Teddy Bear flying around above me in circles and I couldn't feel my body. I was not afraid, but I was very confused. After a minute I finished waking up and the Teddy Bear turned into the blades of a ceiling fan and I became aware of my body again.

In my twenties, when I was living crazy night life my sleep pattern was a chaos. I had dozens of real SP. Always frightening. Never really visual. Allways feeling the presence. Sometimes tactile. The "things" touching me. One time they beat me up. Throwing my body in the room, from one corner to the other. Sometimes illusion of some brutal heavy cramps. I was thinking my teeths or some bones will break.

Again: this was the side effect of a dissipated life style.

Today it is very rare. Last time I was in my tent on the border of dreamland, and there was somebody coming and jumping on my tent. It was collapsing on me with the strangers body. I am ownest. It is heavy for me to overcome the fear of SP, but I dont find it imposible, just somehow I am not ready and aware enough in the moment.

I have sleep paralysis not often, but with some regularity. I would say maybe 2 or 3 times a year, every year. That is why, though I used to experience mind-numbing terror, I now am used to it enough that I soon recognize what it is and relax. If you relax, stop fighting, and focus on your breathing, it ends quicker.

I usually don't have visual hallucinations or visions. I usually just see the room in which I am sleeping, with occasionally a scary shadow somewhere just in my peripheral vision...or more frequently the sense of danger, like someone is going to come in my room and kill me.

Is hypnogogic hallucination those images and sounds your hear just on the edge of sleep, which you usually have trouble remembering if you're woken?

Originally Posted by Manat

I have sleep paralysis not often, but with some regularity. I would say maybe 2 or 3 times a year, every year. That is why, though I used to experience mind-numbing terror, I now am used to it enough that I soon recognize what it is and relax. If you relax, stop fighting, and focus on your breathing, it ends quicker.

I usually don't have visual hallucinations or visions. I usually just see the room in which I am sleeping, with occasionally a scary shadow somewhere just in my peripheral vision...or more frequently the sense of danger, like someone is going to come in my room and kill me.

Is hypnogogic hallucination those images and sounds your hear just on the edge of sleep, which you usually have trouble remembering if you're woken?

Yes, the sounds and sensations and colors you see on the very edge of sleep.

I've had SP for as long as I can remember. I started getting it when I was around 10-12 years old, and not knowing what it was, I would assume it was ghosts holding me down when I slept. It got so bad, I swore my room was haunted. I would sleep in the living room with the TV on.

The one big SP I had as a kid was, as I fell asleep, a giant monster running up the stairs to my room, jumping on me and suffocating me. Imagine hearing a loud, crashing commotion coming up the stairs. You can't see the thing doing it, but then you feel it jump on you and weighing down on you. That could have been my first SP. Not sure.

When I was in college, my SP became more crazy. I slept alot back then, and recorded alot back then, so many times these SPs involved me swinging around, twirling around quickly and things like that. The vividest one had someone swing dancing with me in my dorm room, spinning and flipping me around. But I had my eyes closed the entire time. Scary, yet also fun. I heard alot of voices talking as I twirled, like I was part of a party.

And then one time during college I actually had an LD experience with my SP. I went to college in NYC, and suddenly as I came under the SP, my "spirit" flew out of my body, and I was flying around NYC, going through parking garages and over buildings. Very cool

As an adult, it was the stereotypical SP. Loud noises, growling, colors, the heavy weight pushing me into the mattress. Worst of all, hands. Giant ghoulish hands grabbing me and pulling me down into the bed, or pinching me.

I continued to fear SP. I learned to "get out" of them. That makes me angry, actually! Now, I know you can do WILD via SP. Now I am fighting against my subconscious, trying to retrain it to respond in a LD friendly way, rather than it forcing me awake, as I previously trained it. Some results! But its still a struggle. Also I have SP alot less now. If only I had known in my childhood. All the missed opportunities! Sigh.

I've only awoken to sleep paralysis twice and neither was good.

-Being pinned down by something.
-Being watched by Slenderman.