Hypnagogia / Sleep Paralysis

[Lane Visitor]

Does anyone else experience it?

[chim]

Yes, about twice a week. It's always scary to wake up feeling stuck in some odd posture and feel like I'm not getting enough air to breathe. But I'm so used to it that I instinctively know to not panic and try to relax through it. Often I will try to yell my way out because your voice capacity is not paralyzed, and little by little "wriggle" out of it as the paralysis withdraws. Going back to sleep immediately follows. I don't hallucinate anything scary, but the whole phenomenon is not far from the dreamworld.

 

I don't like to theorize why it happens, I feel like I get enough sleep and am very active during the day. I do know that my sleep pattern is a little fragmented, I usually wake up for a short stretch sometime at night. I used to have much more difficulty sleeping, I even tried various medications and hypnotics but they were all shit. Decent sleep hygiene and an active lifestyle are super important.

[QQQ]

thread title could be a new Burial 12"

[hello spiral]

Yeah all the time

[manmower]

When I fall asleep on my back there's a good chance it will happen, but I don't sleep in that position very often.

 

I used to try to struggle my way out of it, but now that I know it's nothing to worry about I think I just wait for it to end?

 

Although I do still get a kind of audio hallucinations from it sometimes, like there will be a cat walking on the roof but it sounds like a dozen people in combat boots, lol.

[diatoms]

I've never experienced it but two of my friends do. It happens to them when they fall asleep on their back, like manmower said.

[Echolalia]

Get this after a weekend on it. Hallucinations of things in my bedroom and towering beings in the room. Grown to quite like them now, all part of the experience. Everyone will meet their demons at some point, when you do, do so without fear, as they will reciprocate to quote Alan Moore. 

[cwmbrancity]

its a huge part of ptsd, hypnagogic states where auditory/visual hallucinations creep in when on the cusp of sleep, or having been awake for 2/3 days = living nightmares

 

try explaining that to a traumatologist w/out recourse to various potions or pharmacology

 

the paralysis aspect has a huge presence in myths & certain folklore traditions, usually attributed to a witch sitting on your chest....far out maaaaaaaaaan

 

sleep disorders now (kinda) have their own treatment plans having been recognized as falling outside the usual mental health paradigms

 

again the problem is usually compounded by over-medication/dependency on prescriptions, so a v tricky landscape to navigate in extreme circumstances

[cwmbrancity]

google says "the Night Hag" (for sleep paralysis)

 

 

 

 

plus the liminal one, where you feel like yer physically falling off the bed/world, just as you pass into sleep phases,

 

thats funny when it happens to a partner next to you & you're still awake

[qnio]

yes. it usually happens in periods of above-average stress and anxiety. but through adulthood i've been always aware when it starts so it goes out quickly (it's always a relief when its over, though). weird shit!

[Salvatorin]

I have intermittently had extremely bizarre lucid dreaming mixed with endless false awakenings followed by terrifying sleep paralysis. Power combo

[cwmbrancity]

[joshuatxuk]

Had it a long time ago, two times in particular where I remember an out of body experience and watching myself struggle to move in bed. A third time I was on my back and a shadowy figure passed over quickly. Felt paralyzed each time. Very different and vivid compared to dreams where you feel stuck, or falling, or screaming, etc. because the setting is real. It feels physically constraining. Tried screaming in each incident to no avail. They were brief in hindsight but it is terrifying when it occurred.

 

Incidentally at the same apartment I recall waking up and hearing scratching, knocking, and laughter around the windows and walls. Wife (then gf) didn't talk about it again. I think it was people pranking residents (it was Halloween) combined with a sense of dread at being half-awake. Also saw a ghostly hand in a window once but that's another story altogether. Was fully awoken when it happened. I was crashing overnight at a notoriously haunted dorm.

 

Anyway, nothing like that again recently. Same with teeth grinding - I did that when I was more stressed out in the past and dealing with emotional issues with family that's long since past. 

[beerwolf]

Yes, very much so. Sometimes I can be screaming (more like a panic stricken yelling) for over a minute, trying to kick myself out of it, sometimes I'll be struggling to breathe. It's always a very intense experience.

 

On a good note after my serious heavy use of drugs from 32-37 and afterwards the years of recovery and rebuilding, during which I thought I'd wiped out my power to lucid dream, the skill has returned (even more so than before) which makes me very happy indeed. As we know its a great thing,

[Leon Sumbitches]

I don't experience it all that often but it's always a strange one; less so when you know what it's called/what it is, though. Much like having a nightmare in that you experience 'the fear', which you can objectively look back on in your waking state whilst still recognising that it was scary as fuck at the time

[Pipenik]

I first read about the horrors of sleep paralysis at age 11 and became deathly afraid of falling asleep on my back because supposedly that increases the risk of experiencing it. It had never happened to me personally until age 15. Basically something dramatic happened to me in the dream, can't recall what exactly, and everything went black. I realized that I'm in my bed with my eyes closed and can't move. I just thought "oh, finally". It wasn't scary or distressing at all but I decided to keep my eyes shut just to be safe. Then I started hearing some distant banjo music that a medieval vibe to it and felt like I was slowly spinning around. I was fighting the paralysis the whole time by attempting to move my fingers and as I felt my index finger budge, I realized the music and the spinning had stopped. I opened my eyes, everything was normal and ever since I haven't been afraid of sleep paralysis. The funny thing is though, I still can't fall asleep on my back. Used to do that shit every night prior to age 11. Stupid sleep paralysis fearmongering probably fucked up my posture.

[mcbpete]

Get this after a weekend on it. Hallucinations of things in my bedroom and towering beings in the room. Grown to quite like them now, all part of the experience. Everyone will meet their demons at some point, when you do, do so without fear, as they will reciprocate to quote Alan Moore.

Mine all got 'killed' by Fluoxetine. It's weird, I totally knew they weren't real but was always too freaked out to touch them to test out the rational part of my brain - especially big teethy or spidery ones coming out the pillows ! Maybe it's the same chemical thing as your comedowns: a huge lack in serotonin to the brain causing the waking-sleep world to go all Cronenberg

[cwmbrancity]

sleep is such a natural aspect of life, but when it gets fucked up over a few years every conceivable malfunction imaginable will manifest, have found 20mins of deep meditation with Oophoi, Coil's Time Machines & various ambient in the background to be a great remedy, just wish i'd learned about meditation earlier

 

if you really are struggling, in small short terms doses both Zopiclone 7.5mg/15mg & Chloral Betaine 707mg are minor miracles as short term interventions

 

the latter are these surreal purple William Gibson-esque lozenge shaped t'ings, but the best night's sleep is guaranteed (again for v short term use only)

 

Temazepam has a direct & proven link to severely compounding the early onset of dementia & aggravates the symptoms of folks already with dementia so severely most health care providers now consider it dangerous (thank fuck eh), so if anyone does get prescribed that i'd question wtf yer doc is doing, terribly addictive substance too

 

[Boxus]

I had this many times when I was younger but haven't in the last 10 years. I think it's really fascinating, especially how similar the experiences are from person to person. Mine always involved the usual hallucinations of people entering the room, trying to talk to me or just looming over while I would struggle to figure out how to move my body.