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Sleep paralysis ?!?!?! - MEGA MERGED

^^ Yep that sounds absolutely terrifying! :(

Re: the sleeping on your back thing, I found this as well and after I was getting a lot of SP episodes about 5 years ago I asked my boyfriend to please wake me up if he noticed me sleeping on my back and making muffled noises. A few times he did, and I was indeed experiencing SP.

I have always assumed that when I sleep on my back (because I snore when I'm on my back as well) that at some point I stop breathing for a few minutes, and that the lack of oxygen in my brain triggers sleep paralysis to occur. Of course I have absolutely NO scientific evidence to back that up, but that's one thought at this stage... :)
 
Im sorry could someone briefly explain what Sleep Paralysis is? I read a little on wiki, but still dont understand it. Is it like you wake up, and somehow the DMT that you produce naturally in your brain in deep sleep, is causing you to hallucinate or trip when you awaken? Or is it something else completely different?

Random times throughout the year I have something like, where I "wake up" and all i can see is one spot that is in view from my eyes. As if i woke up and cant move ANYTHING not even my head, not my body, im completetly still, trying as hard as i can to move but simply can't do it. And then, when i think i get up and do something, after a few minutes i realize is a dream and then "wake up" again, and its ANOTHER dream. It has happened anywhere between 1-5 times at a time. I want to call any yell DAD or SOMEONE WAKE ME UP, but i cant. Im sleeping still i guess, so strange.
 
I used to get picked up by some unseen entity and pushed face first into the ceiling and flown room to room. It was terrifying and I was completely disorientated when I came out of the paralysis to find myself still in my bed because I was convinced that what happened was real.
 
Im sorry could someone briefly explain what Sleep Paralysis is? I read a little on wiki, but still dont understand it. Is it like you wake up, and somehow the DMT that you produce naturally in your brain in deep sleep, is causing you to hallucinate or trip when you awaken? Or is it something else completely different?

No it's something different.
Basically, when you sleep the body needs to be paralysed so that you don't literally act out your dreams in your sleep e.g. kick your legs as though you're walking, or actually get up and walk around etc. So certain chemicals are produced or shut down in your brain to cause this paralysis. So then you go to sleep as normal, dream as normal etc, but then when you're just entering the phase of sleep where you're about to start waking up, sometimes your brain wakes up before your body becomes unparalysed (and it can also happen when you're just drifiting off to sleep as well but it's more common when you're waking up). So you're literally lying there awake and able to look around etc but you can't move a single muscle. That's the physiological side of it.
But with the paralysis comes hallucinations of all different types, visual, auditory and tactile (touch) hallucinations, which can be extremely realistic and terrifying. We still don't know exactly why this part of sleep paralysis occurs.

Random times throughout the year I have something like, where I "wake up" and all i can see is one spot that is in view from my eyes. As if i woke up and cant move ANYTHING not even my head, not my body, im completetly still, trying as hard as i can to move but simply can't do it. And then, when i think i get up and do something, after a few minutes i realize is a dream and then "wake up" again, and its ANOTHER dream. It has happened anywhere between 1-5 times at a time. I want to call any yell DAD or SOMEONE WAKE ME UP, but i cant. Im sleeping still i guess, so strange.
That is a classic form of sleep paralysis that I get :)
 
Well I feel a bit selfish now realising that most other peoples SP is a lot worse than mine. :(
I also noted a few days after the attack whenever I drifted off to sleep I would get that strange sensation I would first get like the mind falling into the SP, but I would immediately wake myself up if I feel that.

I would also like to add that DMT being released in the brain during sleep, near death experiences and death itself is just a theory, hell not even a theory, just a thought expressed by Rick Strassman the author of DMT: The Spirit Molecule.
I've even heard he regrets mentioning it because so many people regard it as fact.
 
No it's something different.
Basically, when you sleep the body needs to be paralysed so that you don't literally act out your dreams in your sleep e.g. kick your legs as though you're walking, or actually get up and walk around etc. So certain chemicals are produced or shut down in your brain to cause this paralysis. So then you go to sleep as normal, dream as normal etc, but then when you're just entering the phase of sleep where you're about to start waking up, sometimes your brain wakes up before your body becomes unparalysed (and it can also happen when you're just drifiting off to sleep as well but it's more common when you're waking up). So you're literally lying there awake and able to look around etc but you can't move a single muscle. That's the physiological side of it.
But with the paralysis comes hallucinations of all different types, visual, auditory and tactile (touch) hallucinations, which can be extremely realistic and terrifying. We still don't know exactly why this part of sleep paralysis occurs.


That is a classic form of sleep paralysis that I get :)

Well I've woken up and thought i was up and unable to move and just stared at one spot, im not sure if i was in a dream still or not. But it felt as if i was up cause i cant normally remember what the exact details in my room or whatever i stare at are unless im awake. But idk.

I think mine is like called false awakenings.
 
I have been very interested in SP for a long time, after hearing about it from friends who had suffered from it(at first, not knowing what it was)

not too long ago, I suffered my very own episode, and it was also a false awakening, infact a double false awakening, and the SP came with the second awakening
false awakenings can lead into SP and SP can also lead into false awakenings, there is some good info in this thread, definitely true about it being VERY HARD to control yourself(ie be calm and go with it)

I mean, i was fully aware of what sleep paralysis was, and when i was in my second false awakening and in a SP state, I knew it was SP, but even though I was perfectly aware what was happening to me, it was so extreme that I just screamed like a baby!(which came out like a whimper according to my wife).

I was even shook up to go back to sleep, and still so the next night.
I think I have had *lighter* episodes of SP, which lead to lucid dreams, and these have not effected me, but that double false awakening SP episode, literally challenged my understanding of reality!!!

i am not really adding much to this thread, sorry, its just that I really enjoy the threads on SP, as it is something that I am extremely interested in.
 
I always expierenced sleep paralysis after abusing methamphetamine and mdma. I mean after abusing it alot.
 
^^ I suspect there is an actual link between the alterations in neurotransmitter levels after amphetamine use/abuse, i.e. that it's not just caused by the sleep deprivation from using drugs. I know from my personal experience with amphetamines and sleep paralysis, I always manage to get a good night's sleep after using MDMA etc, and I still get SP.

But hey, it's not like anyone's done any official studies on it yet ;) So we don't know for sure. You could be right, or it could be a combination of factors.
 
^^ I suspect there is an actual link between the alterations in neurotransmitter levels after amphetamine use/abuse, i.e. that it's not just caused by the sleep deprivation from using drugs. I know from my personal experience with amphetamines and sleep paralysis, I always manage to get a good night's sleep after using MDMA etc, and I still get SP.

But hey, it's not like anyone's done any official studies on it yet ;) So we don't know for sure. You could be right, or it could be a combination of factors.

Thats the problem with drugs being illegal, there can be no studies on certain things such as this, and if there are studiest that involve illicit drugs, there are very few.
So with a huge portion of the world using drugs, and having certain types of illnesses or problems, doctors dont have any studies to look towards and just say, stop using drugs. but really have no definitive answer of why things happen, or if its directly responsible to a certain drug and how to relieve it.
 
Thats the problem with drugs being illegal, there can be no studies on certain things such as this, and if there are studiest that involve illicit drugs, there are very few.
So with a huge portion of the world using drugs, and having certain types of illnesses or problems, doctors dont have any studies to look towards and just say, stop using drugs. but really have no definitive answer of why things happen, or if its directly responsible to a certain drug and how to relieve it.

I know man, I know. It's frustrating huh.
 
^^ Have you got any articles which specifically state that? I'm not challenging you because I've always suspected that to be the case as well but I'd love to read up on it if you've got some links to further reading or something :)
 
^^ Have you got any articles which specifically state that? I'm not challenging you because I've always suspected that to be the case as well but I'd love to read up on it if you've got some links to further reading or something :)


Hi, I originally read that altering serotonin levels cause sleep paralysis on wikipedia but they removed that now (maybe due to lack of research).
I know from my own experience its directly related because if I've been up a few nights on a pure stim I never get sp, but if i stay up on meph or mdma that drain your serotonin I get it big time.

I put a few articles below which briefly mention it, from the impression I get is if your serotonin levels are too high or too low then you are at risk of sp.
Hope it helps:)

http://www.mental-health-today.com/articles/sleep.htm
http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/exchange/node/1737
 
If it's really bad go to a doctor or a sleep clinic.

I only had it one time and it happened when I was camping and I went to bed after drinking beer and I woke up later in the night very confused and wondering WTF was going on and why I couldn't move but it didn't last long.
 
thx for this thread. Just want to add my own experience with sleep paralysis, I have had them several times. Never when actually going to bed, but they happen if I take a nap after a meal for example, and always when drifting off, laying on my back, lights on. (I usually sleep on the side). Interestingly, 50% of the time I'll get a "wet dream", not really frfom an erotic dream,, it's just the physical sensation/semen release, and I'll wake up. Otherwise I can slowly bring myself back by concentrating on moving my one foot for example, but it's like soooo hard work. Strange thing.
 
I have had this happen more then a few times, it's scary as hell and I always wondered what it was. I am glad to have read this thread and know I am not alone in this. If it help any, I have also noticed that it only happens when I sleep on my back.
 
^^ I'm glad we could shed some light on what you've been experiencing! Yep, it also happens to me a lot when I lie on my back.
Lena, have you had it recently?
 
Read up on out of body experiences. If you want to have one, it's a lot easier to do if you wake up into sleep paralysis first. I always get excited when that happens xD. I've had it a few times, though it wasn't particularly terrifying...a little unnerving, but I didn't sense anything negative during this experiences.

Also worth noting, I never actually experienced anything like this until I read a book on OBEs and became aware to their existence. (and that also led to my interest in psychedelics haha)
 
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