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Sleep paralysis ?!?!?! - MEGA MERGED

I went through a period during my junior year in high school was I was constantly opiated for at least a few months, typically on 40 mg oxymorphones. I used to get sleep paralysis constantly in class or when I got home. I mean every day! Prior to the opiate use I had never experienced it whatsoever, so it freaked me out the first few times, but nothing major. There was on experience that REALLY sticks out in my memory, though. I was in chemistry, pretty much on the nod (come to think of it, I didn't even realize it, but I was on the nod most of my junior year). Anyway, I kept drifting into sleep paralysis and absolutely could not stop myself. But every single time, I would have an extremely vivid and realistic dream that the bell had rang, I was stuck in sleep paralysis, everyone in the class walked out, and I was stuck there unable to move. So I kept waking myself up because this underlying fear of getting caught all oped out was bugging me. I had the exact same dream/vision at least 10 times in a row and when the bell actually rang to get me out of class...well my mind was totally fucked. I really kinda thought I was stuck in like a permanent dream loop where I'd keep reliving the same moment forever and waking up. But I ended up fine.

Point of the story is, through later experimentation, I realized that a good dose of an opiate is very likely to cause me sleep paralysis, especially morphine. A 30 of morphine up the nose and I'm guaranteed to be in sleep paralysis within the day. Most other opiates don't seem to do this to me quite as much. I think certain people are just more likely to experience sleep paralysis than others, and for some reason opiates bring this on. Something to do with REM sleep and the sleep cycle I'm sure, but I'm too out of it to bother figuring out what exactly I mean or what exactly it is.
 
I get variations of it all the time.

Often its incorporated into dreams/hallucinations which can be very dark and frightening. A recurring theme is thinking or seeing something attacking me and I can't move.

GBL's given me a new variant of it whereby as its knocking me out I start to black out but then remain slightly awake mentally. Usually with sleep paralysis it occurs when I'm waking up, not falling asleep.

I probably get sleep paralysis most days. Sometimes I wake up and end up screaming out for help (or trying to) but usually I know whats going on now and ride it out
 
Has anyone ever woken up to find that just there fingers, or whole hand is totally numb? It has been happening to me alot lately and I wonder if it is poor circulation because I smoke cig's.
 
theotherside26 said:
Has anyone ever woken up to find that just there fingers, or whole hand is totally numb? It has been happening to me alot lately and I wonder if it is poor circulation because I smoke cig's.
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I get it. Often just because I'm lying on it I guess. But I also am randomly finding my limbs can be numb when I wake up I think because of mephedrone abuse and the resulting circulation issues.
 
glitterbizkit said:
Sleep paralysis freaks me out, the worst part is hearing sinister voices and seeing 'entities'. I usually end up trying to scream for somebody to wake me up, but of course I can't because I'm paralysed....
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god that shits scary, exact same thing happens to me when i get SP. the voices and people around me that really arnt there :|
 
Have any of you gone to a sleep lab? They might be able to definitively tell you whether you are actually awake while feeling paralyzed, or whether you're having a nightmare that you're paralyzed, causing you to wake up.

Having a nightmare about not being able to breathe is not uncommon, for instance, and one may wake up with adrenaline pumping, gulping for air--even though one's breathing was fine while asleep. The memory of not being able to breathe is very vivid, and is reinforced by the feeling of gasping for air once awake, but it's really just a conjunction of a harmless nightmare and one's reaction to it upon awakening.

I'm not saying that sleep paralysis is a phenomenon along these lines. I have no idea. Just saying that it sounds like a possibility, and that a sleep lab could help.
 
^ I have not been to a lab, but I'd let them hook nearly anything up to my head if it meant better medically understanding the phenomenon. I might have to spend the a few nights at the lab, though, since ya....it's hard to predict when it will happen.

To me, the dream element and the physical element seem kind of like a "chicken and the egg" thing. But I am inclined to reject that it is soley based on a nightmeres causing it, becuase I know for certain that it's linked to me using certain drugs, both illegal (habitiual MDMA use with a very strong correlation) and then a lot of pharm sleep aids (notibly trazadone). It could be that the drugs trigger such dreams and then your theory would work, but I don't always remember having a dream along with it.

But I'd definately do this if I could find out more information.
 
Heuristic said:
Have any of you gone to a sleep lab? They might be able to definitively tell you whether you are actually awake while feeling paralyzed, or whether you're having a nightmare that you're paralyzed, causing you to wake up.

Having a nightmare about not being able to breathe is not uncommon, for instance, and one may wake up with adrenaline pumping, gulping for air--even though one's breathing was fine while asleep. The memory of not being able to breathe is very vivid, and is reinforced by the feeling of gasping for air once awake, but it's really just a conjunction of a harmless nightmare and one's reaction to it upon awakening.

I'm not saying that sleep paralysis is a phenomenon along these lines. I have no idea. Just saying that it sounds like a possibility, and that a sleep lab could help.
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I've definitely experienced the "gasping for air" when waking thing. Thought I had sleep apnea, but the doctor told me it was a "panic attack" caused by a dream. it was fuckin scary though.....

i've also experienced sleep paralysis which was induced by high dosing of mdma and/or repeat doses over a couple of days.....it is scary as fuck, it feels like youre completely unable to move and you struggle to get out of it......
 
ChexMix said:
I've only experienced sleep paralysis once, that I remember. It was quite terrifying and I didn't know what it was at the time. It was as though I was half in a dream but half awake. I could look around and see the room I was in, but my brain was still sending me images of my dream state as well. It felt as though my body was spinning on the bed but of course I wasn't moving. It took a long time for me to eventually force my head to the side to look at the clock, and once I saw what time it was I sort of 'unfroze' and woke up.
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Ya, when you try and turn your neck as the "breakaway movement," it's probably the worst. I've learned to try and rotate my body instead, because the whole neck thing just is really scary.

I've been taking a lot of psychology classes over the past few years (planning to major) and one of them talked a bit about sleep paralysis. I can't remember the finer details but I believe it has something to do with the sleep cycle. We pass through the stages of sleep one at a time until we reach REM, the deepest sleep, and the only one where we dream. At this point a chemical is released that paralyzes us so we can't act out our dreams. It seems likely that, if it weren't for sleep paralysis, we WOULD actually act out our dreams. The brain waves seen from REM sleep and a normal awake state are extremely similar.
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Hmm, interesting. Do you recall what this chemical is called?

I also tend to think, logically, that if you just didn't fight it and put your mind back to sleep.. you would just slip back into your sleep cycles normally. Again, just a guess on my part because it seems to make sense.
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Oh, such a great example of "easier said than done!" I have never been able to do this, but I have read others who have. I am jealous!

Either way, it's a pretty fascinating phenomenon, albeit a fairly annoying and scary one for a lot of people. I'm not sure on any relation between drugs and sleep paralysis.. that would definitely be an interesting thing to study!! Masters thesis, anyone? x)
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There's definately a correlation, so it's just a problem of causation. I just don't know how one would go about showing such a causation - I don't have an identical twin who's drug free, to go with me, sometime he's free, so we could see what's happening to me :\
 
There's definately a correlation, so it's just a problem of causation. I just don't know how one would go about showing such a causation - I don't have an identical twin who's drug free, to go with me, sometime he's free, so we could see what's happening to me
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Yes, definitely related to drug usage, although mine started at around 10, 11 years old and I wasn't taking drugs back then.
 
Man this is a great thread
i spent forever trying to figue out what this was

seconds before i was out for the count, i would feel fuzzy and ide think i felt like i was shaking, and it kept happening over and over again, some times over and over again in the same night

I just now realized it happened after i rolled, and it hadnt happened in a few long time, then i did some mephedrone the other day and it started happening again
 
Well, for what it's worth here is a link to WebMD on the matter:

http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/sleep-paralysis

The gist is that, as several posters here have said, it's likely caused by one awakening before REM sleep has concluded; it's not at all harmful.

In the US at least, many health insurance plans would cover all or most of the cost of a sleep lab, and if you're near any major urban center it shouldn't be hard to find a good one. Might be worth checking into.

To the extent a drug alters one's sleep architecture, I could understand the drug having an effect on the phenomenon. Or perhaps certain drugs tend to cause certain experiences prior to sleep that raise the likelihood of awakening before REM is concluded.

The bright side is that your brain doesn't allow your motor functions to work in order to prevent you from hurting yourself, so, when you wake up during REM sleep, realize that you are perfectly safe.
 
sleep paralysis is bad! i havent had it in ages i dont even know why its stopped actually! but i was gettin it a fair bit, it helped me have a couple lucid dreams once though which was mad, but they only lasted for a few seconds and then i woke up into the paraylisis, what i do is try move like my toes, something small then i can try move something big and that gets me awak then i jump out of bed so i dont fall asleep again haha.

horrible feeling though, you try scream and nothing happens! and you feel if someone is going to come and try kill you haha, different for each person though.
 
Sleep paralysis symptoms?

Hi, I've never posted in healthy living before, but I'm wondering if anyone can shed some light on something happening. I'm curious if I'm experiencing something like sleep paralysis/apnea.

The first time this happened was about half a year ago, and its happened maybe four times since. The symptoms I've gotten are: on the cusp of falling asleep, I feel myself entering this weird, semi-lucid conscious state, which is characterized by a feeling of extreme lightheaded-ness, more powerful than any chemically altered state I've come across, with a buzzing feeling that's reminiscent of nitrous, but unpleasant and electrical; I also get a feeling of powerful apprehension or dread that seems to come from nowhere. Every time its felt a little stronger, but I do have some control over it, I can let myself slip into the state or jerk out of it, up to a point. After that though, I feel myself become unable to move or control my state, and feel almost like I'm caught in an undercurrent.

Anyway, its a very strange and unpleasant experience, and I'm curious if anyone has experienced anything like it, or could say guess it is. Also, does sleep paralysis/apnea just randomly start to occur in people without any prior symptoms? Thanks for reading and any responses, this really just a curiosity question at this point.
 
Sleep paralysis is one of the most terrifying experiences I have ever had, next to almost overdosing and dying on ephedra + st Johns wort and Kava.

I usually experience it when I wake up after being in a deep sleep, and I am completely paralyzed and unable to move. I cant even scream, I can barely get out a moan or breath heavily and even that takes effort. I completely lose control over my physical body but all my senses are in tact. I often get a feeling of dread like I am being haunted or something but am totally powerless.

Its terrifying and I dont know what causes it. I hear there is a movie about sleep paralysis. I wonder if I should see it.
 
^^ Sentience, your experiences sound very typical of sleep paralysis. It's thought that sleep paralysis occurs because when we're asleep the part of the brain that controls motor actions/movement is shut off, so that we cannot act out our physical movements while we're dreaming, and sometimes when we're just in that transitional phase before or after dreaming our brain is becoming concious but that part of the brain isn't yet switched on again. This actually creates the feeling of physical paralysis. I am guessing that in our sleep/dream state at the time, the feelings of vulnerability and fear naturally follow and the brain conjures up all sorts of horrific hallucinations and visions etc.

Tambourine Man, what you've described definitely sounds like sleep paralysis. SP can manifest in all sorts of different ways, but basically if I hear someone describe an experience just before sleep, or just coming out of sleep, i.e. dozing, and the words "dread" or "panic" or "fear" etc are mentioned, I immediately think of SP. I suffer from it a LOT and have experienced it to many different degrees/levels.

I get SP approximately once a month on average so I've researched it quite a bit. It seems that it can occur at any age, in any individual, without warning. It also seems apparent that most people will experience it to some degree at least once in their life, but then again some people might never ever go through it.

It also seems that certain situations and substances can exacerbate SP. From my personal experience if I have recently indulged in recreational drugs, particularly MDMA, I am 100% likely to get SP for at least 2 nights afterwards. It also occurs if I'm particularly stressed in my waking life, or if I've been sleep-deprived for prolonged periods of time, and sometimes if I've had a lot of red wine. It seems that these reactants are quite common with other people who get SP.

Keep in mind: Sleep paralysis is absolutely nothing to fear, it can do NO harm to you, regardless of how real the hallucinations are or how scared you are at the time.

If you have any questions please feel free to PM me :)
 
I was unable to move my head when I was being smothered by my pillow one time. Also I was really hurting my nose by bending it sideways and I couldnt turn my head to make it stop.

Other than that, I dont think it would be dangerous unless there was an earthquake. I couldnt for the life of me will my body to wake up. It took an extreme act of will just to get out a groan and I couldnt speak even when there was another person in the room. They thought I was sleeping. Somehow I could open my eye lids though and move my eyes.
 
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