Thread: Sleep Paralysis Not All It's Cracked Up To Be?

Many WILDers have experienced sleep paralysis, but are you really paralyzed? Or is it that your mind makes you think that you are paralyzed, that if you tried it wouldn't work?

These are some of the questions I have asked myself during WILDs. I start to feel heavy and tingly, but it also feels like if I just tried to move, I would indeed move. But the idea that I am paralyzed is imprinted on my mind aswell, so I don't try anyway. It is really strange, like my mind is arguing with itself. Have you experienced this, or is my mind messed up?

I have this happen to me every night... feels kind of like your body just "locks" into place and yo ucould move if you really wanted to but you just don't. I'm not sure if this is SP as I hear with SP people try to move but can't, and then they get scared and such. Either way, you should check out the thread I just posted called "stages of sleep", I talked about my experiences with this kind of stuff there.

- Pete

In cases of sleep paralysis, regardless of one's attempt to move, the body doesn't respond. In short, this is due to the fact that while your mind is awake, your body is still asleep; more specifically, it is the paralysis left over from the one induced during REM sleep to keep you from acting out your dreams. Due to this hallucinations, a sensation of a body on top of you, and a feeling of an evil presence are common.

This happens to me a lot, I don't even know what it could be I littertly am awake for a minute but Cant get my body to reconnect like im still half dreaming. Its so strange but i dont hate it

sleep paralysis is suppposed to happen outside of normal sleeping hours D=

its very rare for it to happen when youre going to sleep or waking up from a nightly dream

Sleep paralysis is your brain disconnecting from your body, so it is no longer sending signals. There's nothing wrong with your body to stop it from moving, it just isn't being told to by your brain. I once had a dream where whatever mechanism which does that failed, and by morning i had bruises all down my arms from moving in my dreams and knocking against the walls.

Also, in my experoience sleep paralysis is fightable, I have managed to hit the lights while in a nightmare (so presumably in sleep paralysis) as a way of waking myself up, so I think it should be able to be done in waking SP, although I've never tried myself.

I always feel this way, I know for a fact that I can snap my self out of paralysis at any time. The problem is not snapping out, I sometimes find it hard to stay in.

I once had a dream (I think it was very near morning) in which I was lying in bed. It was almost completely accurate - the only thing that tipped me off was the computer in the corner (I have no computer). Anyway, whenever I tried to move it was strange. Not sleep parylysis, it was more like moving through treacle. My limbs were heavy and it took a lot of effort to move them. Has anybody else had this?

I think SP is less of a yes/no thing, and more of a scale. Like for me, I get SP very, very lightly when I try to WILD. I never get it at all otherwise. But, sometimes I get it more heavily than other times. I have to put in more or less effort to actually move my body. Sometimes it feels just like heavy laziness, other times, it feels like my body is actually semi-paralysed but I could break out of it if I tried to.

Also, as for Old Hag Syndrome and other various negative nightmarish hallucinations related to SP, it is my opinion that such cases are NOT common and are the exception rather than the rule... but then again, it's hard to find any statistics to back that point up, so, meh.

Last night I remembered 5 dreams, but in the first one I remembered, I was going to raise my hand in the dream. As I started raising it, I woke up and was finishing raising my hand... except in real life.

i feel the same way. i feel that i could move, but i just dont want to, but i really just want to at the same time.

I am for sure. I can barely move. If I could, most of my WILDs I'd be physically rolling off me bed to begin my dream.

For me sleep paralysis is very light. It's just a numb heaviness throughout the body. Im still aware of it but Im not quite sure how the body is laying anymore. But as soon as I want to move, I can instantly, but ofcourse everything kind of remains tingly for a bit.

Hmmm... I think SP is just your mind being sort of "detached" from your body. So being unable to control your body is classified as paralysis in my opinion.