Sleep Paralysis

[iksaxophone]

Someone I know (let's call her C) has occasional experiences during sleep where she becomes aware, but isn't receiving sensory input from the outside world. She sees changing splotches of colour and feels as though someone is prodding her face. These are not good experiences, and at first she thought they were nightmares. However, she is not sure now. I was thinking an odd form of sleep paralysis or some other dissociative disorder.I also noticed parallels in her description with alien abduction experiences and accidental awareness during general anaesthesia.
What do you think? Has anybody experienced this also?

 

[thetaxidriver]

Someone I know (let's call her C) has occasional experiences during sleep where she becomes aware, but isn't receiving sensory input from the outside world. She sees changing splotches of colour and feels as though someone is prodding her face. These are not good experiences, and at first she thought they were nightmares. However, she is not sure now. I was thinking an odd form of sleep paralysis or some other dissociative disorder.I also noticed parallels in her description with alien abduction experiences and accidental awareness during general anaesthesia.
What do you think? Has anybody experienced this also?

I have had many experiences of this kind, since I was very young. I also have a surprising number of friends and family with the same experiences. Our joined experiences have included everything from quick movements of shadow in the peripheral vision to something actually talking to you, attacking you. Unfortunately I think we'll never really know enough about how the human mind operates to get a definitive answer, but my theory is; the human mind is the product of millions of years of evolution, and in this process we developed the capability to interpret the world around us when it would assist in our survival. It would not be strange if the mind ignored outside influences that had no effect on our physical survival, but when the mind is in limbo between sleep and wake, perhaps we can see something that we are blind to normally?

 

[iksaxophone]

Perhaps! C described more geometries and fewer entities....although she did say it felt like 'someone' was pressing on her face.

 

[Kittycat5]

Sounds like night terrors. Ive had both since childhood (paralysis and terrors) and thankfully they dont happen too often. About as uncomfortable an experience one can have.

 

[nuttynutskin]

I had to quit remeron because it was inducing night terrors and sleep paralysis. That's pretty much the only reason I quit taking it.

 

[dipitch]

this doesnt exactly have something to do with your friends problem, but statistics (I think) have shown that people lying flat on their back experience sleep paralisis way more often than people who sleep on their tummy, on the side, ect.. Hope this can help someone.