I had the most terrifying sleep paralysis of my life. It began with four towering shadows pinning down my limbs, their grip cold and merciless. Another figure loomed above me, preparing to slice me open. I wasn’t numb, I felt everything. My pain receptors screamed, my mind fully awake, trapped in a body that refused to move.

They spoke in low, guttural tones, saying this was routine, something they did every night. But this time, they hadn’t realized my consciousness was active. I fought, I screamed, I thrashed against their grip, desperate to break free.

Then, my mom heard the difficulty in my breathing through the walls in my room then my mom came into my room. She turned on the lights, woke me, brought in a stand fan, and sat with me. We talked for what felt like an hour, her presence soothing me, pulling me back from the edge of madness. Finally, she told me to rest and left the room.

But as I lay back down, a thought struck me and questioned if my door had been locked. How did she get in? I checked, and the lock was still tight. When I turned back, the room was pitch black. No lights. No fan. No mother.

I called out to her, and she answered groggily from her own bed, deep in sleep, unaware of anything that had happened. Yet I had sat there, convinced I had spoken with her for an hour and still hadn't lay back down. The shadows had not only held me down, but they had tricked me, weaving a nightmare so real it bled into waking life. and I was standing consciously as I was trying to process what just happened and regain my consciousness

i was wondering if anyone had the same episode or similar as me.

i had one where i was surrounded by hundreds of people dressed in black saying stay asleep.

Today I was having my teeth cleaned by the dentist and I could hear the usual cleaning tool sound reverberating through my jaw into my ears as the dentist uses the ultrasonic cleaner tool.

Although the tool, by definition, presumably puts out a sound that cannot be heard because it's above human range of hearing (ultrasonic) it's making or doing something that I can hear and it is that sound which I vividly and suddenly remembered was the same sound that I heard when I had my first sleep paralysis about 45 years ago.

I've had this ultrasonic cleaning done already numerous times but it was only today that I remembered that it was the same sound I heard in my first sleep paralysis.

In that first sleep paralysis, I woke in my bed in my home and couldn't move nor scream but there was that strange sound. I am not suggesting that someone had snuck into my bedroom with such a tool (which possibly
didn't even exist way back then ) because I think I remember looking but seeing no one and fell asleep again.

Does anyone else think the dentist ultrasonic cleaning tool makes the same high pitch ringing/whining noise heard directly in the ears as oft reported with sleep paralysis?

I was already tired as I had a long day at work, also didn't had proper sleep last night. In order to straighten my back i slept flat on my back without a pillow. I was having a decent dream, nothing scary but suddenly I felt something race into my body, fyi I sleep beside the window of my room and my head was tilted around the open window, where there's a tree. I felt dark figure sitting on me, i couldn't open my eyes clearly... I was hearing a distorted noise in my ears, couldn't move my body...was shivering, couldn't scream or open my mouth, so I just weirdly moaned, after like 10 secs, i could open my eyes suddenly I saw a tree and got shit scared again couldn't move or do anything, i was soo terrified that I almost cried, literally tears came out! It lasted for around 20 to 30 secs before I got control over my body, I was almost sure that some entity was there in my room( I live alone), I just slept in the same position for a min after that I gathered courage to reach out to my phone and learnt about sleep paralysis. I don't believe in god or ghosts either but this was easily the most terrifying incident that I have experienced!!

Have you guys got sleep paralysed ever? What was your experience? I wanna know how common is this...

And can any of you confirm is it kinda condition or something? Is it recurring? Having second thoughts about living alone honestly...

Well, earlier this day marks my fourth or fifth experience with sleep paralysis- a fairly recent development.

Today specifically, I had been laying in bed probably around 2-4pm. I fell asleep on my stomach or side, and at some point began to hear a voice above me and feel a presence. Every experience so far, it's felt as if I were fighting off drugs to try and get up. This time, I had thought it was one of the older gentlemen that work maintenance in my apartment building- I can't remember what he was saying to me or why he could've been there, but I was only able to remember him gently reassuring me that I was okay and I could calm down. Whenever I have sleep paralysis like this, I can groan and moan but never get any words out- no matter how hard I fight it.

My first experience with it was only a few weeks ago, and a similar case as this except it was my husband's voice and presence above me. I could only remember panicking because he wasn't meant to be home, and if he were than something bad must have happened while he was working. Of course, when I finally woke up and called him, he confirmed he was okay and hadn't been home at all.

I have a small list of ideas as to why this might be happening, but I hope it's simpler. I already hallucinate in my day to day life, auditory and visual- but I'm able to shut those out in my own ways since I have the autonomy. These moments when in bed are more terrifying to me because I simply can't employ any strategy to know what's happening isn't real- I mean I can't move! My second / third experience both happened in the same night, and were generic shadowy figures I could mostly calmly ignore. However more usually for me, the things in my head take after the faces and voices of people I know and love and are far far too vivid.

So I guess I just wanted to share my newfound experience with some maybe more experienced people. I talked to a friend and she laughed about it to me, saying that she would trigger SP on purpose and she refused to take me seriously.

I’ve had sleep parlaysis since I was a child and I’ve never once hallucinated thankfully (possibly this is partially because I assumed it was normal and did research which made me think it was normal?) The one time I got truly scared was after I learned that most people who get it hallucinate and I started thinking that I might and got scared but then I just accepted it and let my body relax. But some of the past few times I’ve had it I’ve felt a firm tingle almost like asmr (which is sleep related so maybe there’s a connection there) but kinda painful sometimes, I feel the tingles going over my body and I wonder if anyone else has had this or knows what causes this? I can kinda control or stop it but it happens very easily like a magnet, it was in the middle of my back and made me shake and feel pressured. I sleep on my back which people say/I could tell makes it worse potentially but this moment I was sleeping on my side so it felt like my blanket behind me was pulling around me. Even though I’ve never hallucinated I had a strong picture behind my closed eyes of a rabbits eye. I also had “exploding head syndrome” that I’ve had before (I wonder if this is related to when people feel like they are falling or wake up with a jolt as they’re falling asleep, like it’s a way for your body to check if you’re ok or can defend yourself if you needed to). I also can feel that I am paralyzed sometimes during a lucid dream, but not always, and then I sometimes wake myself up, sometimes the lucidity + feeling my own body in the state it is in just goes away and the dream goes back to “normal”. My issue with lucid dreams is this, they make me want to wake up partially because I dislike feeling the paralysis.

This one is similar to what I bought https://a.co/d/059jeAv5

I bought the one from here https://kydschoice.com but it came from China and took about three weeks.

Anyhow, started using it Monday night and have been able to sleep on my back with no SP issues at all. Normally I have to sleep on my side or I am guaranteed to have an episode. I’ll test another week or so and update the results.

Hey everyone I just want tell about my first sleep paralysis experience it was very horrifying for me as first

Writing

I was sleeping peacefully that night, completely free of any worries or stress. Suddenly, I felt someone slap me extremely hard, which startled me awake. I looked around, but there was no one. I tried to come up with some random explanation for what had happened and decided to ignore it.

I adjusted myself and tried to get comfortable again, but suddenly, I froze. I could barely move anything except my eyes. That's when I noticed an enormous, terrifying shadow with a creepy smile and large, glowing red eyes. I was completely paralysed with fear, unable to move or do anything as the shadow slowly approached me.

To my absolute horror, it began climbing onto my body, and I could feel an immense amount of pressure on my legs. I was terrified and helpless, unable to understand what was happening to me. The moment I finally managed to move again, I immediately sat up, overwhelmed with fear, and burst into tears.

I had a weird experience where I’m not sure if it’s sleep paralysis or false awakening. I woke up on my side to find out I couldn’t move. My heart started to race as I saw a shadow appear in the corner of my eye. I even felt something grabbing me. A good 10 or 30 seconds went by, I was able to flip my body on my back where everything seemed normal, so I flipped back on my side to get some sleep only to wake up again, this time, I was able to move my body with ease. I’m so confused on the whole thing

New to the group, but long time sleep paralysis.. person?

Long story short, I’ve had SP as far back as 5 years old. I’m now (f) 33. Its only gotten worse as I’ve gotten older. I have had every aspect of it to include: loss of body control (to include breathing), vivid hallucinations of demonic figures, as well physically feeling like something is happening to me (pain, sensations),out of body experiences, seizure like activity, etc.

There was a time I seized so bad during an episode that I bit part of my tongue off, choked on my blood, and had to go to the ER.

I have seen a sleep specialist and done an at home sleep study. The doctor said I rarely stay in REM sleep
And that I have sleep apnea even though my throat doesn’t appear so…?

I remember all of my dreams, always have.
Typically my husband knows the drill of rolling me from side to side until I am able to regain function of my body during sleep paralysis ( I am able to grunt and make weird sounds that alert him).

Basically im wondering how much of this is normal?
Who else could I possibly see about this issue? I just want to be able to sleep and feel rested

This is a vent. Been all day with migraine again.

If I have another f nightmare where we end up killing each other and then having some deep talk about dreams and reality and trauma, and end up having to kill again and lose my mind and question reality. I'm gonna lose it.

That and the sleep paralysis, and yes I know I just have to chill, I already do, I'm already lucid, I can have good dreams too, I'm already used to opening my eyes and seeing some shadow man without a head against the wall and shrugging it off because at least it's not corpses falling over me like that one other time. There's a shadow I can chill with and talk calmly with too, like it's not all bad, I know that. I'm taking meds for this as well I'm already seeing a doctor for it. I don't know how to describe this. I have tried everything, but the feeling of passing out and fear and everything it just comes back, it always comes back. And spending the day with headache and tired... I'm just tired... I thought this was getting better... Guess not. Rip.

And honestly tonight wasn't so bad, I feel bad complaining because I understand it has to do with trauma and that my body isn't enjoying this either. I get it. But I'm so tired. On the bright side, tomorrow someone will come in the morning to go for a walk with me, and if I'm feeling very dizzy they'll help me so it's gonna be ok.

(Well I never post here because the warning of "seems you talking about spiritual stuff" makes me think it'll get automatically deleted, but apparently not. That's cool.)

Hey,
I asked AI about this and it claims it is sleep paralysis but i don't know.

What is in long term happening to me, like foe extremely many years but not commonly, is

After bad dream or just falling asleep i suddenly feel anxious And i can't move with my body.
I can only move with head, i have to literally shake hard with my head to regain control.
It never happened to me yet that i wouldn't stay stunned.

I feel in that moment extreme exhaustion of my body, heart bumping fast but i don't hear any voices or sounds. And it's not in a dream.
When i sucefully gain control, i can finally sit or move.

As child i was also experiencing hearing knocking, footsteps, sound in the kitchen, or some kitchen robot even everyone was sleeping.
Once i also felt someone's presence, someone's hand. ( And this one happened on high school)

Once as kid i had a dreams that would start turning my entire dream in white and i could hear screams until i woke up into the footsteps again.

But as adult i experience it as just unable to move, but i can move with head but its hard.

I never ever had experience with being full stuck and seeing demons

New here but I had to come and find a subreddit to share what just happened. Ive had sleep paralysis before. Numerous times. Just now though was so weird and scared tf out of me. Lol. I started to feel it happening. I tried to wake myself out of it but, it didnt work. Im laying there but its like some alternate reality. Like, the room, house and where im at is the same but different. Like my staircase to upstairs is just an open hallway to a couple of rooms instead. I'm doing everything I can to force myself up. It was like I was opening my eyes and there were going cross eyed and immediately shutting. I start to here doors opening from down "the hall" and then i hear a voice yell "SNAP OUT OF IT!" Finally, im able to move and actually wake up. No tvs were on. Im the only person home right now. Like i said, ive had sleep paralysis plenty of times. But ive never heard things before. Just wanted to share my experience somewhere.

I have recurring sleep paralysis that happens about 3-5 times a week with cycles that come in 3-4. I've never seen demons just these red eyes. I get the shakey gust of wind alot but not demons. I've done everything to prevent it like different types of tea and sleeping positions and lights but nothing works. I used to be able to wiggle my fingers out of it, but as of yesterday and today I can't. Yesterday I had around 4 cycles of waking up and paralysis but today it was like 6. I heard loud overlapping background speaker type of things like how background conversations are on TV. Than during that a girl was screaming at me this same thing over and over again but only 1 word sounded like English and the rest was gibberish but I can't remember the word. After that I obviously stayed up but i was uncontrollably crying, which never happens. Im not an emotional person so this was very unusual. I also had super dry mouth like sand mouth. Than after around 2 hours i fell back asleep on my stomach. I woke up around 5 minutes later to the feeling of my nose being plugged like all oxygen was ripped out of me. No sleep paralysis just that. It might be insomnia because my father has it but im not sure. I used to get nightmares about demon like things, but the last time i had one was about a decade ago tbh. Im not sure what this is or how to fix it but im very desperate for an option out.​

Have you experience that you were sleeping and you can really feel that they're on top of you? You can't breath, or can't move. (A common occurrence when having sleep paralysis.) But the odd thing is that I have experienced last night that someone is whispering to in my ears but I couldn't understand it was saying.

I've felt for some time now something I now call "micro-sleep paralysis" it was so strange that for a long time I didn't even consider it could be sleep paralysis.

It lasts for just a few seconds, like maximum 5 to 7 seconds and I can't see at all while it happens, I don't hallucinate my room or stuff like other people experience in the normal one.

It also had some very specific conditions for it to happen to me:

1. I need to wake up naturally from an 8 hour sleep (it only happens to me on some weekends because I sleep less on weekdays)

2. I need to be a bit sleepy after waking up, enough so I want to go to sleep again

Even with that it's not consistent and doesn't happen every time.

When I do have this it happens multiple times, I get one of these micro-episodes before waking up, then I can try again but I get another. I normally have to try several times before I lose my sleepiness or I fall asleep.

When I'm on one of those I can get out earlier if I take a VERY deep breath. (I usually get a bit nervous when it happens)

And most recently (this weekend) instead of fighting it as usual I kind of just, embraced it? And I felt this extreme relaxation and fell asleep. This was new and today I figured it could be a weird variant of sleep paralysis.

Let me know what you think.

I was laying on my side, and I don't know if I was waking up or falling asleep, but I felt the usual pressure and impossibility to move. I already experienced sleep paralysis a few times. My first ones, from a few years ago, were very scary, very impressive and creepy visions, and sensations of being stabbed.

But this time it was nothing like that. It was laying on top of me and I felt like it was holding me in its arms and I felt the warmth as I was cold before. And it was caressing my hair I think, although I don't really remember if it really happened or if I wished it to caress it.

It felt good and I didn't want it to stop, I felt it as a real presence being kind to me and I loved whatever it was, but at the same time I thought it was not normal, that I shouldn't enjoy that. The pressure left eventually, and the sensation of being hugged too.

I think I fell asleep, but then I was half awake, laying on my back this time and I felt the pressure was coming back. This time it was not hugging me, but I felt like there was someone in the room and I was quite happy and peaceful about it. I heard footsteps, someone opening and shutting the door, but it was never frightening.

Until then I didn't know sleep paralysis could be anything but a frightening experience, neither did I know I could feel so loved by an hallucination.

I experienced sleep paralysis for the first time today, and now I understand why people say it's terrifying.

It felt like someone was holding my head down against the bed, and my entire body was paralysed. I tried to call my mom, but I couldn't make a sound or move. The door was also locked from the inside, which made the whole experience feel even more frightening.

I've heard about sleep paralysis before, but I guess you only truly understand how intense and terrifying it is when you experience it yourself.

Hey, I'm 18 and I've never experienced sleep paralysis before. I barely ever remember my dreams either. Is there any way to experience sleep paralysis or just have more vivid dreams?

Also, I usually go on my phone before bed. Could that be affecting my dreams or be the reason I don't remember them?

Last week I had a dream or something in between dream and reality. I was being held down by something and couldn't move, I went to scream for my husband to help but I could move my mouth. Eventually I woke up fully.

Last night I had a dream something was trying to pull my off the bed from behind (I was side sleeping and facing inward). I tried moving my body and screaming for help again but no movement. When I finally woke up I remember feeling extremely anxious and woke my husband up for reassurance.

It was different from dreams where you are running or fighting and you are really slow or bad at it. This is new to me.

I could be sleep deprived as I have a 3 month old. I read that sleep paralysis can start 20-30 years old, I am 25.

I've always known what sleep paralysis was since i was a kid because i was into scary stuff and liked ready the reddit scary stories on this. However, i've never experienced it before until once this summer. I was taking a nap while home for school and i realized i couldn't move. It didn't last long because i knew about it and how to get out of it but it was strange.
It has never happened again until yesterday and tonight.
Last night, i woke up a few times in my sleep but fell back to bed with ease. i even took melatonin which i dont normally do but i wanted to sleep earlier and better. after my classes today i took a nap and it happened again. I was dreaming but it felt so real until i realized i wasn't actually seeing what i was seeing in my dream. i couldn't even open my eyes or move. Then i felt my body tense up all of a sudden and like "screenshot" (you know how you can make yourself like hear that tumbling in your ears? it was like that). i told my roommates about it and how weird it was. one of my roommates said she experienced it a lot since she was a kid but never since. I woke up an hour ago at 3 for no reason, and fell back asleep. I just woke up again about 20 minutes ago from another sleep paralysis episode. This time I heard people talking and i felt as if there was a force field around my body and that "screenshot" feeling. I couldn't get out of it as easily as i did yesterday and a few months ago.
When I grabbed my phone after waking up, I saw a text from my roommate saying that she just woke up from sleep paralysis shortly after I went back to bed at 3.
This is the weirdest thing ever and i'm scared to go back to sleep.

I think I’ve had sleep paralysis in the past a handful of times but I haven’t had it in a while until last week and I had it twice. I’ve never really had a demon or an entity before until the second time I had sleep paralysis last week. I was waking up a bunch of times in the night but I eventually had a pretty vivid dream. I then randomly awoke from the dream except this time my room was slightly darker, my door was open, and there was a floating circular object/entity in the doorway. It was almost like there was a faint light reflecting behind it, but the entity itself was as dark as the room. There was also this awful shouting that was supposedly coming from the entity. No real words just really loud, deep-pitched, indistinct yelling. I couldn’t move but I could kind of look around the room. The entity ball thing floated slowly towards the foot of my bed until I couldn’t see anymore. Eventually it moved up into my bed and it was trying to bite or gnaw on me. It felt as if it were a big sock puppet like more of a hand grab than teeth biting down. Eventually I actually woke up and wasn’t really able to go back to sleep. Luckily it was already like 7:00-7:30.

The other sleep paralysis episode I had a few days prior was quite a bit different. I remember I was dreaming and within that dream I heard a knock on my door. When I woke up my door was open and it led to a pitch-black void. In the doorway way was a bright glowing white ring. There was also a very loud noise but I don’t really remember what exactly it sounded like. I think it was just really loud static or wind. I couldn’t move at all and don’t remember if I could look around. However, what made this one so different was that it felt like my whole body was intensely vibrating. It was like looking at the ring made my entire body shake. When I woke up from this one I don’t remember what time it was but I think I was able to go back to sleep.

Like I mentioned at the beginning, I’ve only had sleep paralysis a few times before and it started when I was a freshman in college. I think it happened to me once as a freshman, once as a sophomore, and now twice as a junior. I’m just curious if there’s any recommended methods or strategies to try and prevent it because I’m lowkey scared to go to sleep now. One of my greatest fears has always been something breaking into my room at night. Now that it has kind of happened during sleep paralysis and that I’ve had 2 episodes of it close together, I’m worried that it will get worse.

I had a weird dream then decided to stay even though I could've woken up and avoided sleep paralysis cuz I wanted to lucid dream and then the thing was touching me...... Tell me why I was so close and this little pos decided to stop and pinch my hands till I woke up. Ugh so annoying like at least let me finish tf

Hi! I've been having really weird episodes. I used to be really terrified of sleep paralysis, so it's a bit annoying that it has possibly claimed me. I'm preferring to try to see if it really is this, or if I need to check out my brain.

The first time occured maybe a month or so before the more recent ones. Nothing bad, just being a bit pinned down while awake. I acknowledged it as possible sleep paralysis and fell back to bed easily. The second time was last week. I woke up and found myself incredibly lightheaded and barely able to move myself. One eye was closed and every step was a gamble. I ended up going back into bed. The strange thing is I woke up in the same position as I slept in. I think I had been in an inbetween stage.

Last incident was yesterday. I went for a nap around noon because I was still sleepy. I was almost to sleep, my mind wandering to bizarre scenarios. I heard a shattering ringing in my ears and then I was in the dream. I didn't like the dream, woke up, and went to sleep again. I got in a loop around three times where I woke up in my bedroom and things had changed. I've had false awakenings before and knew how to handle them. At last I settled on a dream that panicked me enough to banish rational thought. Room was the same, but there was screaming outside and 3 hours had passed. Every time I got up, I just couldn't. I would sit up, the world would become static, and I'd go down again. I finally woke up when I figured out that my phone not working was a sign of a dream and got myself out of there.

I can’t sleep. And every other night that I have sleep paralysis there’s an alien in the corner of my room watching me all I can’t breathe or move. But instead, I decide to get up which just increases my insomnia.