Questions about my experience with sleep paralysis?

[Foxy]

I had woken up from a just a perfectly normal dreams. I got up and got a glass of water to drink and went back to bed. I was then drifting back to sleep when suddenly I felt this sensations like how the blood around my body was rushing around my body extremely fast. I couldn't move and instantly the first thought that came into my mind was, "this must be sleep paralysis". I just kept calm, knowing that it's just a normal process. I just continued to lay there, with my eyes open, waiting for it to pass. I then see a black figure next to me shaking around. I ignore it but then I start to get freaked out and then suddenly the black thing disappears and I can move and talk again and I just lay there in fright until it's morning and got out of bed. I have two questions about this: 1. How come I didn't fall asleep or wake up? It just happened. Shouldn't I have fallen asleep, wake up into SP, experience SP and then wake up from the SP? I had my eyes open the whole time. I didn't wake up in fright from a dream. It all took place in my bed in one episode. No falling asleep or waking up? Is this normal? 2. Even though I stayed calm, knowing perfectly well that it's just normal and yet automatically I started to get freak out? As if I had no control over it? Even after seeing the black figure, I was calm till a couple seconds later I just started to get freaked out for no reason. How do I not get freaked out?

[gab]

It could have been SP. But also a dream. I frequently start seing my room or some other place through my closed eyelids. I'm sure I'm still awake, but I'm already asleep. Sometimes transition into sleep is so smooth, you are still thinking daytime thoughts in your head, you are so sure you are still awake, but you already dreaming. What you did was WBTB. You got up at night and went back to sleep. That's how WILD is initiated.

[Xanous]

Congrats on staying calm for the most part. Still, something like that would scare the heck out of anyone the first time. I was then drifting back to sleep when suddenly I felt this sensations I had my eyes open the whole time. So you closed your initially, right? Or do you typically fall asleep with your eyes wide open? I'm not making fun of you here. I just want to be clear. You typically can look around and physically see your bedroom when you enter SP but there will be hallucinations layered into your vision. I would say you were falling a sleep but maybe you didn't realize it. SP and REM atonia is sort of like the in-between stage of dreaming and wakefulness. And, like gab said, the transition can be so smooth you don't even realize it happened. Sleep paralysis is a phenomenon in which people, either when falling asleep or wakening, temporarily experience an inability to move. More formally, it is a transition state between wakefulness and rest characterized by complete muscle atonia (muscle weakness). It can occur at sleep onset or upon awakening, and it is often associated with terrifying visions (e.g. an intruder in the room), to which one is unable to react due to paralysis.

[Foxy]

So you closed your initially, right? Or do you typically fall asleep with your eyes wide open? I'm not making fun of you here. I just want to be clear. You typically can look around and physically see your bedroom when you enter SP but there will be hallucinations layered into your vision. I would say you were falling a sleep but maybe you didn't realize it. SP and REM atonia is sort of like the in-between stage of dreaming and wakefulness. And, like gab said, the transition can be so smooth you don't even realize it happened. No what I meant before was, after getting the glass of water, I went back to bed, closed my eyes,drifted off to sleep and as soon as I started feeling those weird sensations, I quickly opened my eyes in fright. My eyes then remained open till the rest of the episode and until morning when I got out of bed. Thanks everyone for all the answers, what I think happened now that I think back over it is sort of what Checker666 said. I dreamed the entire thing, including getting the glass of water.. :S

[Scionox]

Are you completely sure you weren't able to move or was it just hard to and you were thinking that it might be impossible? If it's the first case then like gab and Xanous said, it might be either rare episode of SP or false awakening dream about having SP, SP can happen while falling asleep after all. If it's the second case then it might have been just hypnagogic imagery, i personally can slip into hypnagogic state very quickly and easily when i lie/sit still, sometimes even too quickly, and in hypnagogic state we are often relaxed to the point of feeling that it's hard/impossible to move but it's actually not.

[gab]

Sometimes you may feel like you could not move, when in fact, you can. It happens when you are extremely relaxed. it happens to me when I'm waking up. I say to myself "ok, I'll move now, I get up", but I never send out the signal to move, because it's just so incredible comforting to be relaxed like that. This is not associated with fear. On the other hand, I have had SP twice, not in relation with lucid dreaming. I didn't know I'm in SP. I tried to get up, but couldn't. Tried to yell, but couldn't. During my struggles to move, I could see my room in one case, in second, some strange room. But both time I struggled to move just an inch, straining my muscles, sending signals like crazy, to no awail. Now this IS associated with fear. Maybe this will help you figure out what it was you had. But I wouldn't worry too much in either case. You are becoming more aware of sensations and things that happen between wakefulness and sleep. And that's a good thing.

[Runeword]

"i had my eyes open the whole time" no you didn't. you definitely felt like you did but you didn't.

[Foxy]

I know. I stated, "what I meant before". I thought I had my eyes open before. Then I realised I was dreaming the whole time. That's why I said, "I dreamed the entire thing".