The first time, my eyes were stuck closed and I couldn't move anything. I thought I heard soft knocking on my bedroom door, and I went 'whuhhh?' I think I snapped out of it after that, or I just fell back asleep without snapping out of it, but either way I went to sleep again after.

A couple nights later, same thing, eyes closed and can't move anything, trying desperately to open my eyes (because I thought I was dreaming and I guess technically I was halfway dreaming) or move something as I felt someone tickling me over my entire body. Not fun at all! and I cant remember how long it felt like but I went back to sleep.

Is it weird that it happened twice in such close proximity?

I rarely have SP and when i do i just think of how to stupid the entity is and make fun of it by saying oh yeah babe and is gone

Hey, I'm Alex! So, this is about something I experienced very often when I was little and I still remember very clearly (I'm in my 20s rn). I wanna warn that this might be upsetting to read bc it's kinda explicit (non sexual).

This one happened when I was very little, like around 1-5 years old, until I was like 7 or 8 and I lived it very frequently. For additional context, my mother always told me that, since I was born, I had nightmares every night when I was a baby. I remember very clearly that, when I was a kid, I had what I think may be either or just a nightmare or a sleep paralysis episode.

I was in my bed trying to sleep and, at one point, I was on my back and couldn't move. I also couldn't close my eyes and I felt like I could barely breathe. I could look around my room, I always slept with the blinds open so light from outside could lit the surroundings, so my room looked completely normal. Not long after, the walls of my room started to move towards me. For context, I slept on a big bed right next to a wall on my right, the window is on my left.

The walls started to get closer and closer and I see that they start like "absorbing the furniture" and they get to the point that basically the four walls start crushing me slowly. I remember very vividly how my bones crushed and broke under the pressure, how my eyes dried up bc I basically couldn't blink and how I just couldn't breathe. It was pitch black for a moment before I could see, move and breathe again and my room was completely normal but I was drenched in sweat and pretty literally trying to recover from suffocation lol.

I was VERY little and I lived this repeatedly until I was like 7 or 8 and I still don't know what that was. It kinda feels familiar to what I've read about sleep paralysis but I didn't have haunting shadows and I've never experienced this again since I was finishing primary school.

I'm curious if either this is sleep paralysis and/or if others had experienced this bc I didn't find anyone sharing this and it's very weird that, at such young age, I had wild experiences like that one lol.

24m, I Welcomed sleep paralysis into my life about a year ago probably due to a painfull 5 year long and unfortunatley ongoing addiction to amphetamines. It used to be a very rare occurence, but now im experiencing episodes almost on a daily basis, also worth mentioning that te episodes are progressively harder to break out of, the hallucinations more vivid and agressive but worst of all the paranoia started staying even when im not sleeping. I live with a constant feeling of being watched/hunted/followed by some presence. This especially worries me as multiple of my close friends (also addicts) have experienced theese exact symptoms before eventually being hospitalized for psychosis. It makes me question if there is a connection between sleep paralisis and schitzophrenia, im scared im plummiting down the same horrible spiral that my friends have fallen trough. The constant paranoia is harming my sleep schedule, as i often have a hard time falling back asleep espetially after praticularly bad hallucinations. I feel as if i have netered this unexitable loop of insomnia and that will progressively get worse.

Anyways hope you all find peace and wish the best of luck to all of you

Why is the orgasm like 10 x stronger?

It’s crazy. Maybe that’s how sex is really meant to feel.

Sorry for the long story but trust me it’s worth it. Ive also never heard a story similar to this so please share If you have. I went to sleep around 9pm last night and woke up at around 4 am, I decided to use this as an opportunity try to lucid dream again. I usually do it upon waking because it’s the most effective method for me but most the time I get too excited being in the lucid dream and end up just falling asleep. So I do the usual thing stayed up for about an hour til I felt my body start to buzz and closed my eyes. At first it seemed to be going great I started thinking about the things I wanted to do and where I wanted to be transported and after waking up several times I finally found myself In a lucid dream. Now one thing I noticed is that the more I woke up the harder it got to control myself in the dream as in like I felt myself start to get closer to either falling asleep or paralysis. But anyways in the dream I start to fly around this odd looking town and spawn people in when suddenly I lose control completely. I begin to become aware of my body again and just like that I realize I’m completely paralyzed. Because I have frequent paralysis I know to keep my eyes closed so Im not stuck with them open and seeing shadows, but I think this backfired and causes my headspace to still be dreaming but I can still feel my body. Anyways still in this dream flying around spiraling at insane speeds I feel the tinnitus start to get louder and suddenly I hit I guess the only way to describe it is fabric, its weirdly geometric in a way but bland and boring instead of colorful. As Im forced through this fabric I feel my body impossibly contort and squeeze through this geometric and extremely claustrophobic space like a jagged maze or a tunnel of some kind. I start to become aware of my body again and forget how to breathe and swallow like I was gonna choke on my spit. But then I hit another piece of fabric and rip through and I basically fell into a new place like I was transported through time or something. I was laying there for a couple seconds still paralyzed in my grandparents house then the floor gave away like another layer of fabric where I found myself now in the hallway outside my bedroom. At this point It feels like I’m able to force myself to kind of crawl or wiggle across the floor and get to my parents room where I internally scream for help but all that comes out is weak grunting and straining. I then “wake up” feeling super disoriented and almost like I’m still dreaming but Im completely oblivious to whats about to unfold, my dad runs in my room telling me to get up we need to leave. Im start telling him like I need to see a sleep specialist I cant do this anymore Its too intense too scary too real and he sits down on the corner of my bed telling me to get up. I start screaming at him with my eyes closed and when I open them again he’s still sitting there but completely frozen and facing away from me. His bathrobe was now wrapped all around him making him look almost like a pile of towels. I realize Im still dreaming and trying not to react to obviously because Im absolutely mortified I lean over and say something along the lines of “It feels like I’m in hell, like right now” and when I say “now” he turns his head to look at me and his face surrounded by the towels is all demonic and scary. He basically explodes into this big shadow thing engulfing my sight in darkness. I then enter the usual paralysis experience where I squeeze my eyes closed with all my force because it feels like something is trying to pry them open snd I know if I keep them open the paralysis will last longer and Ill see demons and stuff around my room. My body is being like I guess pulled in every direction like a full body charlie horse and all my muscles are contracting and my head is being forced backwards into my pillow. Along with my arms and my legs being fully extended and stuck there. The tinnitus gets extremely loud and my whole body and bed is vibrating like an earthquake. This comes in 3 waves each one getting more intense. I start to wake up a little and feel the paralysis wear off so I try to move but then Im sucked right back into it. I get two more waves of this, this time I just barely squint open my eyes and I see that demonic creature again sitting on top of me smiling with his claws grabbing onto my head. So I shut them now even tighter waiting for it to end and then I once again feel it start to wear off and then I finally actually wake up freezing cold but absolutely soaked in sweat. Only about 30 mins had gone by but the whole thing felt like hours and hours had gone by. Im very aware this isnt at all real but holy shit does it feel so real when you can smell, hear, taste, feel, and see everything happening so clearly. And Ive absolutely never had an experience where it feels like Im ripping through the literal fabric of space and time. The whole thing felt like a demented bad acid trip or something I’ve never felt so mind fucked and questioned reality so hard before. Please tell me Im not crazy and please feel free to share stories if you’ve ever had something similar happen to you thanks.

having SP alot lately (almost everyday and multiple times in a single sleep (idk how to explain like i try to wakeup, cannot move , so i sleep again without getting up mid SP), i hate sleeping atp what to even do???

Hello everyone,

I wanted to share an experience that happened to me years ago, and to this day, remains totally unique in my life. I have never experienced anything like it before or after, and I still wonder what really happened.

The Context

I rarely take naps, but that day, in the middle of the afternoon, I decided to lie down and rest a little. Nothing unusual. I fell asleep normally, without any strange sensations or particular stress.

The Dream… or Whatever It Was

In my dream, I was lying down. And above me, a dark figure was standing there. It had no distinct features, just a human-like shadow, motionless yet threatening. But it wasn’t just an eerie presence—it was actively trying to take something from me.

I physically felt a force attempting to pull something out of me. My energy? My soul? My consciousness? Impossible to say, but the sensation was undeniably real. It wasn’t just a scary nightmare; it was something tangible, visceral, far beyond simple dream-induced fear.

My Instinct: Fight Back

I didn’t hesitate—I fought back immediately. It was a pure reflex, instinctive, primal. I put all my willpower, all my mental strength into reclaiming whatever was being taken from me. It felt like I was summoning every ounce of strength I had and unleashing it in a single effort to take back what was mine.

I can’t explain how, but it felt like a real battle. Not a physical fight, not even a “lucid dream” struggle, but a raw, instinctual survival response in a dimension beyond the ordinary world. And I won.

Waking Up and What Came After

Suddenly, I woke up. Not in a panic, not with a jolt—just awake. But my state was completely off.

I was utterly drained, both physically and mentally. A crushing fatigue weighed on me, as if I had actually fought something. This wasn’t just a lingering sense of fear from a bad dream—I was shaken, exhausted, as if I had been completely emptied of energy. It took me a good hour of walking outside, breathing fresh air, just to feel somewhat normal again.

A One-Time Event, No Follow-Up… and No Explanation

What unsettles me the most isn’t just the intensity of the experience—it’s how completely isolated it was.

I have never experienced anything remotely similar before or after.

I don’t suffer from sleep paralysis, and my dreams are usually uneventful.

Nothing in my life changed after this event.

Just… this one confrontation with something unexplainable.

Hallucination or a Real Supernatural Experience?

The most rational explanation would be a hypnagogic hallucination, sleep paralysis, or some subconscious phenomenon. But then, why only this one time? Why the real sensation of a struggle and the distinct feeling that I had "won" something back?

Deep down, I like to believe that on that day, I pushed something away. That by sheer willpower, I defeated a presence that was trying to take a “piece” of me. And that whatever it was, after encountering my resistance… gave up.

Maybe it was just a dream. Or maybe, that day, I really faced something invisible.

It doesn't happen often but sometimes when I'm really tired and try to sleep, or I wake up and try to continue my sleep, my body gets stuck, it gets hard to breathe and I get overwhelming tinnitus, but my mind is fully awake so I try to shake whatever muscle I can, usually shaking my head works, and I can move again but as I'm still incredibly tired I want to sleep more and in seconds can go back to this state. This loop can happen many many times in a row until I decide to give up on sleeping and get up.

Does anyone else have similar experiences? And does anyone have any advice on how to fall asleep during these.

Hey everyone! 👋

I’m a final-year university student researching sleep paralysis for my dissertation. If you’ve experienced it, I’d love your help!

💡 What’s in it for you?
✅ Help advance research & innovation
✅ Share your experience with someone who gets it
✅ Contribute to a potential solution for Sleep Paralysis

It’s a quick 5-minute survey, and every response makes a difference!

Take the survey here >>> https://forms.gle/6Ctg2zqiZsKT5uGU8

Thanks so much! Feel free to share or DM me if you’d like to chat about Sleep Paralysis. :))

When I get sleep paralysis, I can’t move any part of my body to wake up EXCEPT my breathing so - I stay on call with a friend I start hyperventilating to let them know I’m getting it again They say something really loud and it wakes my body up.

But it’s like my paralysis is evolving- Yesterday I started breathing to my friend but I actually did it AS PART of my paralysis and my friend turned into some monster and grabbed me - if this method doesn’t work idk anymore idk what to do :( I hate sleeping

1. I sleep on my right side or with my back facing /touching something like a pillow.
2. I hold my hands together to feel every twitch and have a closure on my progress on waking up.
3. I count to 3 then try to move, if it fails, I'll do it again.

remember! not every SP is the same experience for everyone, I've only had 2 "SP dem0ns" which was most likely a nightmare combined with SP. I usually just can't move in general when I have SP, like I forget how to control my body and that's it.

Hello, don’t know if anyone will read this, but I hope someone does. I’ve been suffering from these random episodes in my sleep that I can’t really put a finger on what they could be… I’ve tried searching the internet for answers but I can’t find anything. (19M) This has all started happening about 7 months ago. The first couple of times I’ve woken up paralysed, no scary demons or anything but I’m pretty I was in a dream state as I could move slightly but would get snapped back into it with more progress I made with my movement. The being able to move slightly part makes me think this isn’t sleep paralysis though. This has been going on for months but has gotten progressively worse. Now I’ll wake up paralysed and shaking like I’m having a seizure. I can’t really tell if they’re seizures though because I’m fully aware of what’s happening around me and I’ll snap out of it in a completely normal state. I’ve noticed that these episodes happen right as soon as I’ve fallen asleep. Or, weirdly enough, when I focus too much on hypnagogic hallucinations. There’s been times I’ve woken up shaking and I would manage to get my arm up in the air or something and when I snap out of them I’ll be in a completely different position to what I was lying on my bed. The whole situation on these episodes is really confusing TF out of me as I feel like I’m in a dream state but I’ve also been fully aware of stuff like hearing the Youtube video I’ve fallen asleep to in the background while these episodes are happening. I’m genuinely terrified and I just wanted to see if I can get answers or if anyone’s experienced similar.

Hello. I usually only get sleep paralysis when I lay on my back at night. Because of this I’ve been avoiding sleeping on my back for about 3 years now. Every time I lay on my back to sleep I catch myself right before it locks me into SP and force myself to roll over. I was wondering if anyone knew anyway to help me to avoid/reduce the SP so I can lay on my back to sleep again. The sides of my body get sore quickly and I’m constantly rolling around in bed. When I move onto my back I tend to fall asleep quickly, but I am too scared of the paralysis.

Last night, I had a really strange experience. I dreamed I was walking toward a dog lying on the street, and when I approached, I started petting it. Then I looked at a dead tree, and I felt goosebumps all over my body. I woke up (or thought I woke up), but still felt like I was in the dream. My eyes were so heavy I could barely open them.

I saw my room normally at first, but after a short moment of looking at the other side of my room, I realized I wasn’t actually looking at that. I could move around, but everything felt distorted. I had other nightmares later that night, and they ended with me screaming. This kind of dreams has happened to me before

Its not sleep paralysis, I’ve had sleep paralysis before, but this is different.

Also this dream happend and ending all in one hour, which ik is weird. Rem sleep should take longer

Has anyone had a similar experience? What do you think could be happening?

I feel so content when I have sp

2 years agp i started having vivid lucid and sleep paralysis. It was mostly when i drank too much or did something else. Then it got worse.

Sometimes, it has happend a lot of times,, i go to sleepand halfd wake up in a sleep paralysis. I am hurt somehow, and i feel all of it. Whatever happens in my dream i feel all the pain. And a lot of pain. It dissapears as i wake up like nothing happend. But i felt it. So much pain. I cant move, but i know im not asleep, trying to wake up, it takes a while, my feet first, then my fingers, ect. Can someome help me?

Why do I feel so content when I have sp it's like it's where i belong

Multiple times this month when I wake up and fall back asleep, I feel like I can't move but I can see where I am. It never lasts long, but if I violently move and try to wake myself up I'm able to. Sometimes I can hear myself trying to wake me up, too. My partner asks what's wrong some nights, and I don't know how to explain it. I dont experience any hallucinations, just fear. Is this sleep paralysis?

I’ve had sleep paralysis for years , sometimes once a week atleast or more . Most of the times it’s regular sleep paralysis where I can wake up and what not . But sometimes I feel pain . Wether it’s electrical waves or sometimes feel like I’m being tickled to death . The other day I had a episode where there was some vampire entity , it bit my shoulder and I could physically feel that ! It lasted for about 3 seconds and I felt so helpless and had no choice but to let it happen . Soon after I felt something with Claws try to pin me down , this time I tried moving or fight it but the more I tried the stronger it got ultimately I had no choice . It felt like there was claws of a bird holding my shoulder and legs down while it bit my back . It felt so real and painful I looked in the mirror when I woke up . This happens rarely but when it does I know if I fight it it gets worse . Anyone else have similar experiences ?

I (31F) just had sleep paralysis last night and every time I have it it seems that I’m being dragged out of my bed and I actually feel like I fall to the ground and hit my head, does anyone else experience this? The pain and fear is vivid and there was a black shadow last night that was hovering over me the entire time. I get sleep paralysis a lot, doesn’t matter if I’m on my back or on my side it just happens but there isn’t always a shadow figure. The being pulled out of my bed always happens though, can anyone explain this phenomenon to me? I can usually tell I’m having sleep paralysis because when I go to look at my phone to call for help but my phone won’t work or will appear black.

So last night I was dreaming and I was asleep in my dream but I woke up and seen a shadow around my bed but I couldn’t get up at the time so I could feel my heart racing and I eventually was able to move in the dream and I was trying to wake up my boyfriend but obviously he didn’t wake up at this point I didn’t realize it was dream yet and got up to turn the lights on and they weren’t turning on so at this point I realized I was asleep and dreaming so I was trying to wake up at this point and open my eyes but it wasn’t working and I even tried making noises and I just couldn’t get up it felt like it went on for about 5 minutes and I finally woke up with my heart racing. Wondering why this happened? I’ve had it happen before where I try to wake up and it isn’t working but never during a “nightmare” hopefully this makes sense haha!

Im going to try to keep this short. I was probably in my early 20s when it happened. I randomly fell asleep on back at my mom’s house of the living room floor. I woke up randomly because I felt weird and wet and was feeling like I was having a sex dream. I seen this figure on top of me with scaly skin, yellow cat like eyes, and really long tongue with a grimace look face. I felt like it was giving me head. Mind you, I never even heard the word sleep paralysis before when this was happening. It was looking at me dead in my face and an evil like grin. I couldn’t move but my eyes and mind were obviously awake. I could hear my brother and mom’s conversation from the kitchen. No matter what I did I couldn’t move. Tried to shout for my mom but I couldn’t speak. So randomly I decided to close my eyes & started praying then opened them back up to see if it would disappear. It then gave me a weird look like a “huhhh ?????” face if you can imagine that. It was the first time it changed its expression after I prayed. Then finally after seeing that I broke free and it disappeared.

Afterwards, I ran straight to Google and YouTube like wth did I just experience and wtf just happened to me?? Then I learned it was SP. I went through a long deep rabbit hole learning about it and listening to story times. I feel like it was a sex demon, and almost absolutely positive it was a succubus instead of an incubus. I just feel it in my gut that it was female. Which I also thought was strange because I am a female myself.

Anytime I am asleep on my back it seems I am basically begging my body for sleep paralysis. I have always and forever been a tummy sleeper, but sometimes I accidentally fall asleep while laying on the couch or reading. And if I am on my back I will without doubt have sleep paralysis. The other day I took an accidental nap on my side and had it too. I always just fall back to sleep to get out of it after a struggle but I was wondering if there’s any ways to prevent it from happening? Sometimes its cool, but more often than not its just annoying and scary.

Day 1 of log sharing 01/30/2025 0200

Just had another episode: i was in a secret room in a dream. attempting to commit an unspeakable act. Something that was way too out of character to be true. I dont even remember what it was. so my body started trying to wake up then a demon appeared and tried to takeover my body. My body started pulsing and i tried to fight back. My defense is to sing worship music till i wake up. And i awoke out of it.

I just started experiencing this. I didn't think it was sleep paralysis because it isn't what I imagined sleep paralysis would feel like, but ChatGPT said it was. The first time it happened, I woke up in the middle of the night and was trying to fall back asleep. I kept almost falling asleep, but whenever I stayed still and closed my eyes, I started getting this really uncomfortable vibrating feeling in my head that would intensify the longer I stayed still. I kept getting scared and sitting up before the feeling got too strong, but then I decided to just tough it out and maybe I would fall asleep and the feeling would go away. I stayed still for a while, and then I got nervous again and tried to lift my arm, but it was really heavy, but I could still kind of move it. After that, I was too freaked out to try and sleep. That was about a month ago. Just now I took a nap and got the same vibrating feeling except I wasn't awake, and it was super intense. I dreamt that I got out of bed and fell on the floor, but then I woke up back in bed. The vibrating feeling was so strong it actually felt kind of painful. It feels like my brain is being shaken at super speed, and I feel it in my cheeks too. Is this similar to anyone else's experiences? It makes me really anxious.

Hi everyone, Can anyone explain if it is normal that I have experienced sleep paralysis a couple of times but without any hallucinations at all. I just couldn't move, I couldn't open my eyes and I felt panic, but after about a minute, I'm awake.

I recently had my first ever sleep paralysis episode.

I admittedly have always had pretty poor sleep habits. I don’t generally fall asleep until 2am almost nightly however, in the recent weeks I have been up until 3:30/4am most nights. This past Monday night was no different.

I fell asleep around 3am, and I’m not sure exactly when this all happened but I felt my body freeze up on me. I felt my legs hit the bed while I laid on my stomach and my arms tucked under me. I could tell I wasn’t completely asleep. My bedroom looked exactly like it usually does. Everything was in its place from what I could see. I heard footsteps in the hallway outside the bedroom. I lifted my head enough to look back and saw a figure in the crack of the doorway - peeking in. My heart was racing, my whole body was warm, and I felt a sense of dread. I thought, “this is it. Someone is in the house, we’re done.” And then it spoke and asked “do you know your way around here?” … I shut my eyes tight, praying it was all a dream but it felt real. The footsteps were loud, and grew louder as I felt it approach the bed. With my eyes still tightly shut, I felt a pet on my head and then again and again. And even in this state of limbo, I was trying to rationalize what was happening. I thought maybe I was, in fact, restless and maybe my partner had noticed and started to pet my head to calm me down. Eventually, things went quiet and I guess I fell back asleep?

I woke up Tuesday feeling pretty heavy and overall exhausted. My partner worked from home that day so when I greeted her in the morning she asked me if I’d slept well. I realized in that moment, she had no idea what I’d experience that night. I told her what had happened and only tonight did I give her the full details as I spent the last 48 hours trying to make sense of it all.

While the idea of “someone” being in the house was jarring, their actions towards me didn’t seem malevolent in any way. But if there’s one thing that has stuck with me this whole time, it’s the one and only thing it said to me during the episode - “do you know your way around here?” What does it mean? I tried to relate it to things happening around me in my conscious world but I can’t pin point it.

Has anyone else here been spoken to in their episodes and have you ever found any relation to what’s happening in your day-to-day life?

I don’t know what’s going on with my sleep yet but am not able to see a Dr right now about it. I’m using an app that syncs to my Apple Watch and I don’t feel it’s catching when I’m awake and aware of what’s around me and I feel it’s classing them as “light sleep” a few months ago my bf and I moved in together. He said he noticed bags under my eyes today. I have been really struggling this week with sleep.