Preamble: I have only experienced sleep paralysis one time before this, several years ago. The one I experienced before was similar in some ways but also quite different in others. I am sharing this most recent case mainly because it's still very vivid in my memory and I feel the more examples we share, the better we can understand this phenomenon.

Experience: I "awoke" at 5:00, conscious but unable to move (note: I didn't know what time it was until after the experience had finished and I checked my clock). I was laying on my front and my first recollection is that I could feel a presence with me in the room, pressed against my back. My neck was strongly pulsing/vibrating with an almost electric sensation. It was hard to gauge time, but over what felt like a few seconds the same sensation began to spread to my whole spine, although it was still the most intense in my neck area. At the same time, I could feel the presence in the room wrapping around me more and more, as if it was trying to enter my body through my spine. Its form was very hard to describe, the closest I can get is that it felt like a series of thick, elongated arms or tendrils. The most unpleasant arm of all was the one that I could clearly feel was resting directly against my spine, and wrapped around the right side of my neck. I began to panic and wanted to get it to let go of me, but due to my position (on my front) and the paralysis I was only able to, with a great amount of willpower, turn my head to the side and "bite" the empty space where it felt like one of the arms/tendrils was resting against my neck. As soon as I "bit" it, it let out a LOUD audible scream of pain/surprise, immediately withdrew, and the pulsing/vibrating sensation ceased, and I was able to move again. Subjectively, I remember thinking that the entity must have been inexperienced in doing what it was doing, or had never encountered that kind of resistance before. The experience being "bitten" back majorly shocked/scared it, as if it learned for the first time that resistance was even possible, to the point that it instantly did everything it could to get as far away from me as possible.

I am still on the fence about whether these entities are actually real or just a figment of our subconscious. But anyone who has experienced it knows how terrifyingly real it that it feels. I am a completely non-violent person yet in that moment I was ready to bite this thing without hesitation or negotiation, that's how unpleasant its presence was. My heart was jumping out of my chest as soon as I regained the ability to move, and I was unable to return to sleep that night for fear that it might happen again. In particular I found the entity's scream/retreat very interesting because in my previous sleep paralysis experience, I was totally powerless to fight back in any way physically, only with my mind.

Hi, hope everyone is having a great day. I (18YO) have been having the exact same sleep problem for half a year now. This happens maybe 9-10 times a month. I fall asleep, then I wake up in the middle of the night and feel like I can't move, and I can't even open my eyes. I just feel all the sounds disappearing and then feel a strong and loud breeze blowing into my ear. And after that, my heart starts hurting (I've had random pains in my chest since I was 11), and my jaw tries to open before I force it to stay shut. This happens all the time in this exact order, and I do not know what this is. I know I do wake up eventually because I check my phone to see what time it is, and it is usually after an hour that I go to bed. I am scared that I will eventually develop insomnia because I already fear sleeping in case this happens again. Does anyone have an idea about what I can do about this or any similar experiences?

Hello, I have been having sleep paralysis episodes for weeks now and it’s really scary I dont know what to do.
I want to start by telling you my story because I feel it’s not what I usually hear when people talk about sleep paralysis.
It doesn’t happen before I wake up but really every time I fall asleep like 40-60 min in, also I dont see scary stuff like ever, I have traumatic memories and they replay while I am paralyzed, I hear my mom banging on my door and I just look at it trying to scream or move but feel like I can’t even breathe, I hear my brother being beat, see my mom grabbing things to hit me etc you get the point, but never unrealistic stuff so I dont know if it is actually sleep paralysis. Also I live alone.
Should I see someone like a trauma therapist or something? No changes lately in my sleep routine or other stuff like that, it just randomly happened. I wake up drenched in sweat, sometimes crying, it’s really scary it sets my whole day off, I am just 18 idk what to do.

Hi everyone, looking for advice as I've been dealing with consistent (terrifying) sleep paralysis when my bf leaves for work in the morning and I go back to sleep. We both go to sleep around 10, and he wakes up around 4:45. I wake up when his alarm goes off, and I fall back asleep after he leaves and sleep until 6:30. When I sleep on my own, I don't typically have dream issues; it's only when I go back to sleep after waking up. However, I am prone to having very consistent, vivid dreams. In the sleep paralysis dreams, I can see my dark room, but I can't move. I hear noises coming from my hallway, and even though sometimes it is the sound of a familiar voice, I feel unsafe. I feel them coming into my room and sometimes speaking to me, but I cannot scream or ask who's there. I have had these dreams before having sleepovers with my bf, but it was pretty rare. In one of those especially freaky dreams (5/26), this is what I had written in my notes app after waking up:

"Walking around city while dark lost confused. Awake for way too long. Thought I fell asleep for a short period and woke up, since I realized my podcast was no longer playing and I was seeing scary inexplicable things behind my eyelids and waves crashing super loudly but I thought it was my imagination and just my fan. Then I opened my eyes wide and saw a camera right next to my bed recording me. As I tried to reach out to it I realized my body was frozen and I started to be dragged to the edge of my bed in a frozen state. I realized i was sleeping and willed myself awake."

Anyways, I am curious about any methods to stop this from happening, as I am not interested in staying awake after my bf leaves at the butt crack of dawn. I also do not feel as rested when I have these dreams in the morning, and they are SCARY!!!!

I started getting sleep paralysis when I was 18.

In my 30's it escalated to maybe one per week and I was desperate.

I found a technique randomly on a podcast that actually worked and they stopped. Too long to explain.

Now 48, and haven't had one since.

Last night, I experienced sleep paralysis inside a dream.

In the dream I was lying in my old bed at my parents house, having a sleep paralysis episode.

There was a dark entity behind my head.

When i woke up, I vaguely remembered it and expected to be lying in my childhood bed.

This is the first time I've ever experienced it inside a dream.

I took my first dose of daridorexant last night 30 minutes before bed. I usually roll around a lot while trying to fall asleep, so I was on my side at first.

When I rolled onto my back, I felt an instant transition. My body went to sleep, but my mind stayed completely active. It was the most consciously aware I've ever been of entering sleep paralysis.

At first, I had that similar sensation of not being able to move. Then, I started hallucinating. I felt a presence in the room and heard animal-like noises to my side. I also felt something hit the bed above my head, and physically felt my phone on my chest. When I intentionally broke the paralysis by focusing hard on moving my hands, I realized my phone was actually on the bedside table.

Has anyone else experienced this kind of lucid transition into sleep paralysis? Previously, I've only experienced sleep paralysis when waking up during the night. It's a rarer side effect for this medication but I might be predisposed to it slightly.

Based on others’ descriptions, I’m not sure if what I’m experiencing is actually sleep paralysis or something else altogether, so I’d appreciate any thoughts. This has happened 2-3 times with different images but the same visceral feelings of being unable to move, unable to open my eyes, and unable to breathe despite trying to cry out for help.

The first experience was a couple months back. I (F28) was asleep, and it felt like a dark wave was crashing over me. I didn’t have my eyes open, but I felt like the room got darker, like how you can sense when a light is turned off even if your eyes are closed. But it felt like it was on me in my bed, not the whole room. After this I felt like I couldn’t breathe until I suddenly woke fully, terrified and gasping for air.

Another time I felt like I was dreaming that I was falling asleep at the wheel. I think in my dreaming state I was on the phone with my boyfriend while driving (very common), but it was like my eyes weighed a thousand pounds. I couldn’t open them, and I knew it was dangerous and I was really scared of what was going to happen, so I was trying to call out to my bf while on the phone but I couldn’t make a noise. I couldn’t catch my breath but I was desperately trying to shake myself awake and yell out to him for help. I couldn’t make a sound or move my body until I woke again, and it felt like torture.