Thread: Questions about Sleep Paralysis

So ths morning, two really awesome things happened to me. First, i woke up during SP, and two, fnally remembered a dream.

The experience taught me alot of things. The actual way i woke up during SP was interesting; i had dreamt that i travelled back in time to 1999 to play my old nintendo 64. As i was examining my room from 1999, i began to realize things were out of place, and suddenly the entire roomwent completely pitch black. I freaked out and told my dreamself to open my eyes, which i did in both the dreamworld and realworld, causing a strange combination of both my ceiling fan from 2010 and my ceiling fan from 1999. I started to focus on the "real" fan, and found that i could not move. I actually realized that i was in SP, and tried to fall back asleep, but it was too late; i was wide awake by then.

However, now that i think back to it, i have a few questions about SP. First, the actual memory of the event (as in being in SP) seems almost like it never happened, even though im 100% sure it did. Is this because i was still asleep, and hence it is harder to remember? Also, the only sensation i felt during Sp was a slight tingle. Is that bad; did i actually experience full SP? Lastly, is SP associated with only REM sleep, or all sleep cycles?

SP is when 2/3 elements of REM sleep are existant: imagined stuff, and paralysis. The part that is left out is unconsciousness of the real world.

That sounded like SP to me. You woke up...opened your eyes and couldn't move. A lot of people don't realize that the eyes can be opened during SP. As for feeling "a slight tingle". There really isn't much to SP a person feels. When people describe imagery, increased heart rate, heat, cold, pressure, pain or what have you, those are just hallucinations that accompany SP. Those hallucinations don't always happen, and they certainty don't define what SP is.


And for your other question. SP only occurs while going to sleep (hypnagogic), or waking up (hypnopompic). The paralysis that happens during REM sleep (to stop people from acting out their dreams) is REM Atonia.