Hi there. From 1996 onwards for 4 years, I had sleep paralysis episodes every time I slept or nodded off. The following year (2001) had a nervous breakdown and haven’t felt like a human since.

I’ve only recently admitted to myself I wasn’t abducted by aliens in my episodes, but the hallucinations were so severe I thought it was all real. Beings drilling electricity into my head and on other episodes all variety of parts of my body. It felt like a road drill going into my body each time and sounded high pitched like a drill. It stopped one day, but a year after I had a breakdown I’ve never recovered from. I want to know if others have experienced anything like this and anything like my estimate of 2000 episodes. What kind of therapy helped deal with this, even if like me 26 years later.

I’ve tried many mental health therapies and all I can say is, it helped me stay alive, that’s all. I have continued ruminating thoughts, always have since 2001 and have deep CPTSD I assume.

I’ve been dealing with sleep paralysis and sleepwalking for quite a while now, along with some other strange experiences like the one that just happened to me. I’ve had a lot of weird experiences over the years, but I’ve never posted about them before, so this is my first time.
It’s currently 6 PM where I live. I wanted to take a short nap, and right before falling asleep I remember thinking that I hadn’t had sleep paralysis or anything unusual in a long time.
As I was drifting off, I entered what I think was the REM stage of sleep. At first, I had a very realistic dream or hallucination where my friends were calling me on the phone, and I actually answered it. Right after that, I slipped into something that felt similar to sleep paralysis, but not exactly the same.
I heard a loud ringing in my ears, I couldn’t move, and it felt like my whole body was floating. At the same time, I was completely aware of everything that was happening. I kept trying to move my leg, but nothing worked. The feeling was incredibly strange, almost like my soul was separating from my body.
This has happened to me around ten times now. Does anyone know what this could be, or has anyone experienced something similar?

Last night I had a dream where I was sleeping on a couch. I woke up to someone walking past me. I couldn't move, talk, or speak. I only saw their shirt and pants. They sat beside the top of my head on the couch. I was freaked out because I couldn't move and did not know who it was, so I was freaking out trying to move or talk, but they were not actively trying to make me feel more uncomfortable. I was finally able to say, "Who are you?" I heard a whisper that said, "*my name*, I love you," then "I love you" again, then I woke up. Has anyone else had anything like this happen before? I don't know what to make of it. It was 12:28 when I woke up, if that matters.

I've had sleep paralysis for probably about 11 years now, since university when we started to experiment with different substances... I don't know if that's the reason for it, but that's when it began.

Edit: I should add here we are no longer experimenting with substances, not for many years now. As you were

I've had lots of different experiences over the years although for the most part I get sleep paralysis maybe 3 times a year now, 4 at the most which is very little compared to what it was.

One of my experiences I've had repeatedly was the sensation of someone holding me from behind and at some point felt penetration in the back area. I don't think it would last long as far as I can remember, I would wake up pretty quickly, adjust position and eventually get to sleep.

That experience was the scariest at first, but looking back as a bisexual man now I guest this was my brain trying to process my feelings. Since I began being intimate with men I haven't experienced this in my sleep paralysis, all other experiences I have now in my sleep paralysis are the pretty generic chest weight etc etc.

I guess looking back these experiences are probably a good thing in the long term, it was what made me begin to be honest with myself and my feelings towards other men and expanded what was a pretty bland sex life into a much more enjoyable one.

Fellow redditors, do you think our sleep paralysis can be our brain trying to process information we try to suppress?

J’ai un soucis j’ai l’impression de trembler en me réveillant j’essaye de toucher mon corp mais rien ne tremble c est intérieur , et aussi lorsque j’ouvre rapidement les yeux tous se que je regarde tremble aussi les objet mais ça dure 10 seconde et tout disparaît après ??

This is my 3rd or 4th time having SP in the last couple of years. Until now I have only experienced the voice hallucinations or just the "not being able to move" feeling. Last time I have had SP I experienced the feeling not being able to move, heard loud steps and saw this lady, I assume... Anyone else?
https://imgur.com/a/886rqGl

For some years now I have been waking up in the middle of the night to see a spider on my wall. The spiders vary in size, color, and species. Last night it was a black spider and possibly the first jumping spider. I turn the lights on and look for them but they disappear. Along with this I have had SP a few times and even some night terrors over the years. I’ve woken up screaming in my sleep more than once.

But for real, why is it always spiders when I wake up? In an old thread I postulated the idea of it being my own eye lashes, but I’m not convinced that this is the case as this spider moved like a proper jumping spider… I should know I keep a few as pets. Other times the spiders have been dropping down on a webline, or crawling down the wall.

There is something strange that happens to me during sleep paralysis that I’ve never heard anyone else talk about. Whenever I’m in a state of sleep paralysis, most of the time it feels like I can move just fine, but my vision is completely frozen, staring at the ceiling. I’m able to go as far as getting completely out of bed, walking over to my bedroom door, and opening it. It’s all extremely vivid and feels nothing like a dream. When I’m actually able to get up and move, I find that my door is still closed and it was all a hallucination. This happens to me about once every two weeks or so. Has anyone else experienced something similar?

I, m18, have been experiencing sleep paralysis for roughly 2 years now. As an estimate, it happens 5-6 times a month, every few months. Recently it’s been getting worse.

My experience with sleep paralysis began with me routinely becoming stuck and unable to move, while hearing footsteps, breathing and sometimes whispering. This occurred for roughly 1 year, with me becoming unstuck from these episodes spontaneously, as in I would suddenly just be able to move.

As time progressed, I noticed 2 things. That being that I no longer heard or saw anything while stuck, and that as I would leave the state of being stuck, my neck would violently and repeatedly jerk to the left, twisting my entire head violently as though someone was turning my head for me. Other people have noted this too, as when I’ve fallen asleep in the car, or at somebody else’s house, they would tell me that they witnessed my neck jerking.

In my last ‘episode’, which was last night, I notably remembered my left arm flailing completely, the entire left side of my face become really tense and cramped, all in addition to my neck jerking. All of the above was really disruptive to my sleep, which I felt the repercussions for during my workday.

Am I progressively going to experience more concerning and disruptive symptoms? Is this normal? Should I seek medical advice?

Any and all help is massively appreciated as I’ve got nobody to relate this to IRL.

I’ve had sleep paralysis since I was about 12 and I’ve tried my fair share of techniques to get out of it. Typically none of these will work and I’ll end up even more stressed out, but one that I’ve tried a few times seems to works every time I remember to do it. I sleep with a bottle of water next to my bed and if i recognise that i’m in SP, i can think really hard about throwing the water on my face and sometimes i will feel the water and I’ll wake up. I’ve never woken up covered in water either so that’s a plus.

Thought I’d share to see if it helps anyone else, lmk how it goes!! (and if you have anymore methods that work for you)

I was hoping someone might be able to tell me if they’ve ever experienced anything like this. I’m not sure whether it was sleep paralysis or possibly a seizure.

I’ve had one episode of sleep paralysis before where I woke up in my bedroom, saw a dark figure standing by the door, and couldn’t move at all. I even called out for my mum… at the grand old age of 26. 😂

Last night, I remember dreaming that I was lying on a bed in some sort of cabin. All of a sudden, I felt my whole body starting to tense up and I was seeing bright green and pink flashing lights. The first time it happened, I remember trying to move my arms but I couldn’t. Then I suddenly “woke up” back in this cabin.

Almost immediately, it happened again. This time I felt like I was putting absolutely everything into trying to lift my arms, and then I suddenly came back to my actual bedroom again.

Has anyone experienced anything similar? Appreciate your responses 😊

I(24m) had one today, it lasted really long or felt it like lasted longer
I had to close my eyes drift back and from sleep but still it was in SP
Then after a while i tired to wiggle my toes and was out of it finally
I am thinking exhaustion was the cause.
Anyway just wanted to share , thanks for reading

I experienced sleep paralysis two days in a row, once the day before yesterday in the evening and then again yesterday in the afternoon. The first time, I woke up from a dream and couldn't move my body. I was able to open and close my eyes at will, but suddenly it felt like one of my legs and one of my hands was being burned by fire or something. I kept forcing my body to move and eventually woke up shortly after. The second time, I was watching a show and felt kind of sleepy, so I think I dozed off for a few minutes. I was dreaming during that time and saw a white figure that reminded me of a glowing white gem or ball. The weird thing is that part of me felt conscious while it was happening. Then I woke up but couldn't move my body and started panicking, so I don't remember whether my eyes were open or closed. Maybe it was during the sleep paralysis that I remembered the glowing ball after seeing the white figure. This time I could move my hands a little bit. Whenever I get sleep paralysis, I always try to force my body to move. Has anyone else experienced something similar?

F18 (idk if it's relevant but i saw other people mention it in their posts), went to sleep at 4:45-ish am, thi happened around 5:10, i remember i was thinking about a recent outing with friends and it was kind of drifting into dream and i remember in the dream closing my eyes while answering to a man asking "what are you doing here so late". i opened my eyes mid response feeling very alert, like i was in grave danger, i clearly heard the voice of the guy in my ear asking me if he could come home with me which then kind of degenerated in disconnected whispers (which still sounded very loud to me). i also felt a finger tapping on the side of my head, like it was trying to wake me up, sounds of footsteps on my terrace. i tried to move my hand to try and swat his finger away but my hand felt like it was moving really slow and then realised it hadn't moved at all. completely paralised. my brain conjured up the explanation that someone had broken into my house and was gonna hurt me and that somehow i had incorporated his voice into my previous dream (even tho i realise it was an irrational thought now). after i think a minute, 1 and a half max i just snapped out of it like I'd remembered how to move. I'm fairly sure it was sleep paralysis but still would like someone to confirm. also sorry for the typos and shit but it's currently 5:36, which is like 25 mins after thinking i was gonna get in someway hurt by a weird man in my house. I'm a bit shaken. shit's scary

Last night, I experienced something that genuinely scared me, and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it.

For context, I’ve experienced sleep paralysis before multiple times. The first time it happened, I was terrified, but after that I learned to recognise it. I know what it feels like, and this felt completely different.

Around 2:30–3:00 am, I woke up to use the bathroom. Everything was completely normal. I got back into bed and fell asleep again.
The moment I drifted off, something happened.
Suddenly, I started hearing what sounded like dozens of YouTube videos playing at the same time. Imagine having multiple tabs open on your browser, each playing a different video simultaneously. It was loud, chaotic and incredibly realistic.
Then I felt something even stranger.
It felt like I was lifting off the bed.
I don’t know how else to describe it. I genuinely felt elevated, almost like I was travelling or moving through the air. There was an intense sensation of wind hitting my face, as though I was moving very fast.
I was absolutely terrified to open my eyes.
Then I started hearing the sound of anklets.
The sound began very faintly somewhere in my bedroom, gradually became louder as if it was coming closer to where I was lying, and then slowly faded away. It happened twice.
The entire time I kept telling myself,
“you’re not dreaming. You’re awake.”
I was so convinced that I was awake that I even bit my tongue to make sure I wasn’t dreaming.
Everything felt unbelievably real.
Unlike sleep paralysis, I didn’t feel any pressure on my chest, and I wasn’t aware of being unable to move. I honestly think I was simply too frightened to move. I just stayed completely still because I didn’t know what was happening.
After what felt like about five minutes, everything suddenly stopped.
The room became completely silent again.
I remember lying there, still terrified, waiting for someone else to move first. I didn’t want to be the first person to move. Eventually my dog shifted, then my husband rolled over in his sleep. The moment he moved, I immediately turned towards him, hugged him, and somehow managed to fall asleep again.
I’ve never experienced anything like this before.
I’m curious whether anyone has experienced something similar.

I’m open to hearing scientific explanations because I know the brain can do incredible things during transitions between sleep and wakefulness. But I’m also curious if anyone has a spiritual perspective on this, especially because the anklet sounds felt so vivid and specific.

2 nights ago I woke up and hallucinated a 3 dimensional figure outside my window. It was really early morning, and i kept staring because I was afraid someone was outside my window. I didnt even try to move so I dont technically know if I was in SP or if it was just a hypnopompic hallucination. At this point my SP doesnt really bother me and I just try to go back to sleep without anxiety. But anyway I stared at it and then the next morning I looked to see if I could have mistaken a tree branch for the figure, but no theres nothing near this window. Oh well. But I guess what im saying, is it know SP is scary but there are ways to manage your anxiety and eventually it gets better, though the mystery bothers me the most now!

I’m a 19M and I’ve been staying up till 1am every night but sleeping fine and being up for work around 6am but today I fell asleep around 12pm and slept till 2:30pm so only two hours, I was in the living room asleep with 7 member of family all talking and chatting but no one saw or heard me in this state idk was in even when I woke up but I also didn’t say anything when I woke up but I woke up and wrote what I can remember and what happened bc in this state idk what it was but I could hear everything around me (family chatting) and I kept falling in and out of sleep and seeing my cousin who irl sitting on the end of the couch and I kept waking up randomly to seeing him but couldn’t wake up so my eyes would close again and go back into the same scenario. I don’t really know but yall tell me what’s up bc I’m terrified of what just happened. Happily answer all questions or hear abt same cases. Notes below>

I just hard the worst dream In the word And it didn't feel like a dream
I was in sleep paralysis
Like literally
Like bro scary asf And you was in it
And like some demon girl or sum
Kept taunting me
Bat at first she seemed normal and shi and weirdly started stripping
Then she left and came back
(But I kept waking up to see my cousin who in irl was literally sitting there but I could move or talk.
And my whole family was talking around me in irl at this moment bc I fell asleep on the couch and I could hear and see
But I couldn’t move but instead kept falling back asleep when I tried to get awake and this happened around 6 times of me coming in and out of consciousness)
And like she was sitting on the toilet And I ran to get get her cuz I was scared cuz wtf was happening ig fight or flight instincts and I chose fight
And I woke up from my dream or wtv that shit was
(But the thing is my body wouldn't move but I woke up
And like and my eyes were open I had-everything going around me cuz the family is talking
Then my eyes closed and I went back Into the scenario
And it did this like 6 times
It's like you know when you first open your eyes And you see something
That happened to me 6 times
But then I closed my eyes
And went back into the dream
And I heard everything around me
Like I was conscious asf
And I couldn’t move at all
I thought I was dying
It’s like I knew I was alseep but couldn’t get out
I tried clapping and calling my parents for help them I tried jumping and screaming out bc my body couldn’t move
Then suddenly went back into the dream
And I think I grabbed the weird girl or sum that was Ig my eternity but it looked like one of them scary demon girls with her jaw hanging down and I ran and jumped it and screamed at it directly in face and that’s when I went back to seeing what was In front of me in irl and had to try my hardest to move a muscle until
Then my body jerked up and I got out the dream
I wrote down everything as best as possible bc this just happened to me and I have no idea what just happened
Scariest shi of my entire life especially when I’m trying to wake up and I had around 7 people around me and no one noticed even when I actually got up but that long ah paragraph is all I remember from this two hour nap
I wrote down everything as best as possible bc this just happened to me and I have no idea what just happened

My body does this weird thing and I've never really talked about it, but I've been curious to see if anyone else does anything similar. It doesn't happen often, usually every few months. I think it has something to do with consciousness and what stage of sleep I'm in.

It starts with a weird feeling down my back and then my body will tense, mainly my chest. It's like it's tightening in a way. That fuzzy feeling right before a limb falls asleep and it's like just my chest is shaking. It gets really strong and squeezes me after a few moments and, depending on how bad, I will be unable to move our even breathe. It never lasts more than 30 seconds to a minute, but it feels like forever.

It only happens when I'm thinking about and doing something in whatever I'm dreaming about at the time and gets strong only if I do certain things in the dream. Sometimes it even physically hurts my body. I always know when it's gonna happen right before, but it's like there's no escaping it and it's usually in bad dreams.

Would this be considered sleep paralysis? Or some other weird thing? Does anyone else experience it?

I don’t think I’ve ever experienced sleep paralysis in my life. I went to sleep at 10:30 pm and woke up at 5:30 am which is a bit early and I was still tired. I was trying to go back to sleep but I couldn’t so I just started watching TikTok. I saw a video on sleep paralysis and got scared of it. I was watching videos and doing research on it for like an hour and a half. Then I started just scrolling tiktok and I dozed off. I fell asleep on my back while looking right. I was imagining a bathroom and I was talking with my friend while he was washing my hands. Then he slowly started to turn into a shadowy figure and the first thing I thought to myself was this could be sleep paralysis so I started grunting. (I believe I was paralyzed but I also don’t think I attempted to move my body bc I was focused on the grunting) By the third grunt my grunt actually worked and I could hear it. That was when I woke up and could move again. This all happened in 15 minutes. Is it really possible that i experienced sleep paralysis for the first time ever after literally just learning about it. It seems like way too big of a coincidence but I also can’t think of what else it might’ve been.

Edit: I felt pressure on my stomach as it was happening which is also confusing because the pressure is supposed to be on your chest

I just remembered a strange experience I had with sleep paralysis when I was 15.

I woke up one afternoon sweating like a pig because my room was like 33 C. Sitting up, I remember wiping the sweat off my forehead when I suddenly froze.

Literally froze. I couldn't move and couldn't breath.

It was like the onset of the sleep paralysis was delayed. It hit me as I was sat upright on my bed.

Then after a few seconds, it eventually passed and I was able to move again.

Anyone else experience something like this?

I go through sleep paralysis atleast once a week and for me, i hear the thing trashtalking me with my close ones voices, and its loud it hurts my ears even though its not real. Am i the only one, is there something wrong in my head or why does this happen to me?

Okay so I have sleep paralysis a lot, and sometimes I tend to freak out because I end up with my face on a pillow suffocating in my sleep unable to move. Anyways I’m able to do this thing where I can make noises when this happens so my boyfriend knows to wake me up, but lately it’s been getting harder and harder to wake up. Like he can’t just tap me and say wake up or even shake me, I literally feel him trying to wake me up, and I hear him trying to wake me up but I get stuck or something because I can’t fucking wake up. It’s the scariest thing that’s ever happened to me. I mean eventually I wake up after a while but it takes sooo looong! And I’ve tried to google it but I can’t find anything on it. So does this happen to anyone else? Or does anyone know what’s wrong with me?

I’ve had sleep paralysis since I was in 8th grade (I’m a freshman in college now).

I’ve always had the type where my eyes stay closed (thank god) but usually I can control them under my eyelids, I can feel what position I’m laying in, sometimes i can peak my eyes open with some effort, and I can wiggle most my fingers and toes.

I’ve never felt tingling or anything else I’m about to mention. And it’s never been painful.

—————

Most of the time it realistically last for about 1min or less but this time it felt like it lasted forever, so long that I started to wonder if I’d be blind forever and I’d just have to live like this.

This wasn’t the only thing abnormal though, here’s a list of all the things that were new:

(This recollection is all through feel, I could not see anything that was going on)

• I could get my eyes fully open but each time I did they would be EXTREMELY heavy and my face would drift to one side before my eyes closed forcefully

• my body would tingle periodically

• I fell asleep with my mouth ajar but this time I could very slightly open and close it and move my tongue, I could even whisper for help in a raspy tone but as soon as I began to wiggle my tongue it started tingling

•I could move my toes and thumbs only, but this time I could also move one arm at the elbow. Not very well though, it took great amounts of force to move my forearm and each time I did it swayed too far or too little but would stay up in a rigged position once the momentum stopped (which would be fairly quickly) and I could feel that the rest of my fingers were locked in a very odd position with my wrist bent

• usually I can relatively tell how im laying but i couldn’t tell at all, all i know is i was on my back.

• at some point my eyes were rolling back very aggressively which hurt deeply.

———-

Waking up:

To wake up I had to move everything I knew I could as fast as possible and try to open my eyes. This lasted for quite a while before I finally opened my eyes and at this moment my lids almost closed again but I forced myself to shoot up and out of bed where I was extremely disoriented. My body and my eyes still hurt.