I woke up around 2.30am after falling asleep to a movie. I checked my phone and lay on my back frustrated that I had woken up. I closed my eyes briefly and then it felt like I slipped.

Then it felt like I woke up but I heard this ringing. I mistook it as crickets as I had the window open.

But then the ringing got louder and I tried to pop my ear to see if it would go away but I couldn't move my arm.

It came in cycles, each time getting louder then quieter. Then there was this vibration. It felt like my whole body was shaking in cycles too.

But then I hear this voice whispering to me. It's telling me to not look at it. To admit that I have no control. I try to yell out. Nothing. I keep my eyes shut as if there was a paralysis figure, there's no way I'm looking at it.

Each time the cycle happens, the ringing gets louder and the energy holding me down gets stronger. The voice tells me to relax and just admit that I have no control.

I want to wake up and I finally reply in my head that I have no control and then I snap out of it.

I'm able to move my body, the ringing becomes the crickets outside, and now my bed is covered in sweat.

This is my first time experiencing this. I certainly don't wish for it again.

I had sleep paralysis the other night and I was being violently shaken by the sleep paralysis demon/man/entity . He was screaming in my face and aggressively shaking my by my shoulders and blowing air into my mouth. It was very strange, so strange I would have bet my entire life it was real. I was even at that point where you are fighting to open your eyes and you know it’s about to be over, but this time I thought I was going to open my eyes to see an intruder hovering above me. It’s getting bad, I’m afraid to go to sleep sometimes

this may or may not be sleep paralysis related, i'm not entirely sure. i originally wrote this for r/paranormal but turns out i cant post there cause of my karma so i'm gonna see if anyone here can relate:

it's 2 am, i'm staying at an airbnb and i'm trying to sleep but i'm having this scary problem. i'm hearing people shuffling around, somdtimes moving things, and ever so quietly speaking. the sounds seem to be coming from the same room too. its especially bad when i turn my back to the room. its not bad when i'm eyes open and facing the room. i've had a good amount of sleep paralysis in the past, some of it being very strange, involving my little sister. this right now is just making terrified to try to sleep. giving me an eerie kind of feeling. a bit of a dreadful feeling? i got up and started writing this because one of the spirits (idk if thats actually what they are i just call them that) felt like they got real close to me and made a quiet grunting sound in my ear.

This has happened before, mostly in my grandmas old basement but not quite this bad.

anyone have any experience with this?

Is it normal to hallucinate a violent struggle, sexual assault or breathing your neck during an episode?

I’ve been experiencing sleep paralysis since my early adolescence & I always thought it would be something that slowly went away. However, it has gotten to a point where almost every night I have had experiences that have left me traumatised & scared to go to sleep. I am deeply worried that this could be a sign of an underlying condition as I often wake up being attacked by an invisible/sometimes vaguely visible enemy.

I’m 26 and I had sleep paralysis for almost all my life ( since age of 11 as far as I remember). The major identification for me is inability to move, initially I did not feel pressing against body parts that frequently but it happens constantly now. Most of the time for me it is like I have someone on the other side of my bed and I can’t turn to that side or check if it’s real or not.

Scary thing, sometimes back I thought lack of sleep is the core reason but I have been sleeping a good amount of time and still getting it.

My experiences also involves sex sometimes like I’ll be in a middle of a wet dream and next I know is I’m pinned down and unable to move or so.

Can someone explain/tell me a good reason for the same ?

It's been a year since I last experienced sleep paralysis, but today it came back. I woke up early in the morning when it was still dark, around 4 or 5 AM, and struggled to go back to sleep. When I did manage to fall asleep again, I felt extremely tired and sensed the onset of sleep paralysis.

I normally sleep on my stomach and felt the pressure of something or someone getting onto my back and holding me down. I couldn't move. Later, I felt someone holding my head down on the pillow. Pushing me deeper and deeper into the bed. I could hear sounds happening around me, like my parents snoring, but I still felt extremely tired. I managed to wake myself up at certain points but fell back asleep again, and the sleep paralysis cycle continued.

At some point during the sleep paralysis, I tried to call out but couldn't. I heard auditory hallucinations like thundering hoofbeats and also felt tactile hallucinations, such as sharp, claw-like hands pushing my head down. This continued for a while before I could drift off into a normal dream state.

I found the experience quite uncomfortable and felt very tired when I woke up. I have experienced sleep paralysis like this before and thought it had gone away for good, but it seems to have returned because I have trouble sleeping.

I used to have texile hallucination on the claw dragging up and down my back and now it changed to this sensation.I woke up later with a headache as well on the top of my head.

I honestly don’t know what’s wrong with me. All my dreams result in my death and are pretty gruesome. But every time after I “Die” and feel my chest caving in on itself which is pretty painful. I wake up into sleep paralysis with the same chest pain but after I break free there’s no pain at all. My sleep paralysis doesn’t allow me to see or breath (Yes I know I’m breathing but just can’t feel it) Not to my mention I get sleep paralysis inside my dreams! Sometimes I “wake up” into other dreams that feel like reality and oh goddamn is it crazy.

Anyway was wondering if anyone had experience with this and could provide some recommendations. Thank you!

18m, never had SP before in my life, until finals happened. in poland theres finals going on for all high school seniors and i guess the amount of pressure and stress is making me as uneasy as ever, because getting 3 SPs in the span of a month is actually crazy. i experience all the symptoms - waking up from a nightmare, shallow breathing, feeling as if theres something sitting on my chest, i hear repetitive sentences being said out loud, i get high on thc quite often and something that i experience during greenouts is also present during my SP - the sounds i can hear start banging against my head faster and faster, the number and volume going from 2 to 4 to 16 to 32 to 64 etc., until i can only hear incomprehensible Noise. one could call me harlan ellison because during the episodes (can they be called that? if not, sessions?) i feel as if i have no mouth and i must scream. i found that listening to white noise makes matters worse, so i dropped it, but instead now i can hear the sounds of the always busy street right outside my window and that one time i heard an ambulances siren i thought i could actually die of a heart attack. so i guess the factors that really matter when it comes to SP is avoid stress and 10 hours long white noise spotify playlists?

Woke up in bed and I remember hearing/feeling my comforter depress next to me like someone was laying down next to me and I was hoping a cute girl was going to reach over at first but to it cause I was in a dream state but it quickly turned into fear and I felt like a hand was slowly going to cover my mouth and I tried to yell and realized I couldn’t so I immediately opened my eyes and woke up fr looked at the clock and it was 4am so I just sat there for a good 20 mins tried to bring good vibes and positive energy into the room and eventually drifted back off into sleep. Is this normal have any of y’all had similar experiences?

Hi reddit!

So I have only had sleep paralysis twice and it was exactly the same both times except for one difference. So it starts out that I 'wake up' and I see that my door is slightly open and theres a weird light and mist coming in from the hallway and thats when I try to get up to close the door and realize that I cant move. The door opens further and about ten figures clad in white robes from head to foot (they look like they are in the triple k) and they are even wearing white gloves so that not a single part of their skin is showing. As they walk in they chant in this language I dont understand and their voices are horrid. They sound very gravelly like they have something stuck in their throat and they sound horse. After they finish surrounding my bed they stick their arms out over me like theyre trying to reach out and grab me, still chanting in that weird language. Then they freeze and fall silent and they say my name in their awful voices. The first time I had sleep paralysis they didn't say my name. I was just wondering if any ony else had expierienced anything similar?

Got my fifth recently and for the first time i knew it was a dream as soon i picked my phone from under the bad to see the time, phone no battery, i feel another phone pick it up and its the same, i dont have 2 identical phones

I think to myself ok im dreaming statmrting to worry

I look left, im on the couch from one corner to another, cats walks from behind me to left next to me

I see my cat, she stops and starts looking at me, i see my other cat, as i do my arms start getting heavier as if they are falling asleep

At this point im 100% sure i am sleeping and noticing i cant move anything i know im in a sleep paralisis episode

I start trying to blow air at my cat next to meto make her move or just to do something, anything while i think in my head "wake up waaake up wake up" over and over again because i wanted to wake up before it got scary

Then i see third cat left, or at least what looks like to be a third cat since ita behind my 2 cats and i can only see hears moving down the couch in direction of my feet

At this point i try extremely hard to think wake up wake up screaming it in my head non stop

I have only 2 cats. That wadnt my cat, idk if it was even a cat i didnt want to try look down, i kept my eyes up

I scream and scream trying my hardest

Like 15 seconds and i hear a "musnfp" or at least something high high pitched that would come from a small animal, and it sounded like when you hear a foreign language, you know its a word but you cant understand it

That sound comming from direction of third cat made me instantly wake up, where i realize i was in the same exact position i was in my dream. Didnt move an inch. Looking left i see cat sleeping on her favorite spot, same where in dream she looked at me. Kther cat right behind me on one of his spots.

Usually i didnt know what happen until i woke up all sweaty and scared jumping up

Now i woke up calm after being aware of what was happening in my dream.

I fear next time thw voice wont make me wake up. I dont want to see anything, i just want to wake up from a boring dream

Is there anyone who takes medicine for sleep paralysis. I was so scary for SP before joining this group and I went to psychiatrist and told him about SP. He suggested me antidepressants. After taking antidepressants I am facing reduced level of SP however, I faced extreme side effects of antidepressants. After taking first day of medicine, the next morning suddenly I feel nausea and sweating and my BP was dropped down significantly. I was forced to pour down water on my head to normalize the situation. Since then I have been facing this situation multiple times, however I am taking lower dose of antidepressants now. I want to stop the medicine now. Is there any suggestion from the experienced person? Thank you.

I often experience difficulty waking up. However, there's nothing scary in my dream, no frightening voices either. It's just me lying there, struggling to move to wake myself up because my body feels so heavy. I can't even move my body.

But recently, I've been able to move it, but I'm still in the dream. My indicator is my phone—if it doesn't work, it means I'm still dreaming.

What kind of sleep paralysis is this? Has anyone experienced this?

I am 23F. Anyone knows how to resolve this?

Heya. So I've been trying to get out of my sleep just a few minutes ago, and there were tens of failed attempts to do this: after a nice afternoon dream I just wanted to wake up, then I realised I've been in bed, I tried to move intensely (usually it helps to make the body more active and change the position, grab a phone or do anything to wake up better), it was all good but then my eyes started closing back with severe sleepness increasing and I couldn't do anything but to fall into another several seconds of a weird dream. Then again, I got conscious, tried to wake up, being able like a hand to raise up, then my eyes close and here we go again. Then again some random small dream. Getting conscious, trying to wake up, realising I'm in bed and I'm moving slowly to wake up my body, then suddenly I hear and see my parents approaching me from both sides of the bed (which is impossible in my room), saying kind words and patting my head (which is even more impossible haha), then I realise it's fake, getting all my strength to move at least anything irl, moving like my arm and a finger slowly, then again, smth painfully drags me into being unconscious. Some random sound from anyone working, dropping something loudly at my house, a loud sound from the street could get me to the point of trying to wake up again but it all ended the same way: I could hear everything, sometimes even see (as long as I open my eyes) and move my body even changing my position from the back to the side or even stomach, but then I was quickly asleep again. Tens of scenarios come after that, I've been desperately trying to wake up but it was all useless, trying to shout for help but only few growling sounds escaped from my closed mouth. What else, each time I was being dragged back to the following small sleep it went really painful like smth similar to losing consciousness with a headache. After that it somehow feels like a sleep... leaving me with a headache for the following day and myself being really frustrated and sleepy so I can't study properly. As I'm just awake, I remember some of the details but they slowly fade away to the point I can't explain anything properly about this process while staying awake.

What is that? Why does that happen? What can I do? It's happening quite frequently lately (like almost each morning) and feels to me like ages: several times longer compared to the following time being awake at least.

P.S. I don't take any medications regularly, I don't smoke, drink alcohol, take drugs or anything like that, having a pretty healthy lifestyle.

Just woke up from sleep paralysis. Before this happend, I was dreaming. In the dream, I was on my computer and my mom was sleeping on my mattress. Everything was normal, but I felt something was off. I turned off my computer and went to bed (in my dream) then the sleep paralysis happened. I had an auditory hallucination of my sister outside my door

Does this happen to anyone, where you sleep in your dream but you wake up in sleep paralysis?

The worst part is hearing voices around me or outside my room. For some reason it’s almost always either my mom or my sister. Never heard my brother or dad. Wonder why this is

I have been suffering from it for about 20 years. It can vary in occurrence from once every few years to multiple times a month.

After the first few times, I have been able to identify the sleep paralysis while it is happening. Something about it will alert me, whether it’s being unable to move or struggling to speak, I’ll realize it is sleep paralysis and not real.

Once I have made this realization I will close my eyes until I can move or fall back to sleep.

I’m not sure if becoming aware of experiencing sleep paralysis while it’s happening is common or not, but this is what works for me.

Still, always jarring and scary when it happens. I had my most vivid sleep paralysis experience last night that I’m still kind of reeling from.

For me, there was a specific character in my dream that would always chase me into sleep paralysis. Do you have the same?

Have there been any reports of sleep paralysis draining u in the middle of sleep? Like I woke up and I had sleep paralysis but I was so drained I wasn't paralyzed normally I felt my body was heavy like I couldn't move cuz I was drained of energy I could bearly open my eyes even and have there been any reports of sleep paralysis demon fusing into u? Like laying in you and feeling like u just got a demon sucked into u? (It ended up leaving my body after I said jesus- yes I'm religious) and after the sleep paralysis as I said I was drained and I fell into a deep sleep immediately didn't wake up till 5:30pm

If u wanted to know this is the 2nd time I've had sleep paralysis with a demon perhaps I've had it before but I wouldn't count them as it's cuz I had fell asleep on my VR and woke up without VR and I couldn't move but that was it

this is how I have been struggling to wake up the last few days, I feel like I am exhausted af

what’s the way to solve this sleep paralysis?

Best friend of 6 years & I lost her the second time, I’ve consistently been having sleep paralysis & it’s driving me insane. This is what’s happened so far:

May 9th

woke up a little scared. I dreamt I’d drowned again. I dreamt I was so incredibly fucking wasted i tried taking a shower & remembering seeing blurred lighting from the floor underneath a shower head. I remember someone getting in & telling she’s not coming to. I remember getting picked up on the shoulder of a man but the same vision withheld. I kept hearing muffles of people saying to call the police & that I was gone. In that exact moment I felt my vision & my breath come back… suddenly everything that was preventing me from being alive was expelled, water i felt something retreated my mouth as i saw the unknownness turn into nothingness. I never woke up or opened my eyes again,. I woke up paranoid to that feeling.

may 10th

i had sleep paralysis twice. I cried for you i remember crying for you in half awareness.

Where i was ? in my mothers room. I wasn’t sure why, i felt her get over me & tell me to stop.

when i woke up i saw my ceiling

I fell asleep

I woke up again to a paralyzed feeling. My younger brother & another dark figure, held my hands & started whispering shit like “are you obese” like what the fuck

i yelled out loud & i remember my breathing getting so heavy i woke up

the split second before my eyes adjusted to the night i saw two figures disintegrating

God. Let me sleep

May 14th 1:28am

I had sleep paralysis three times

First time around ai wasn’t sure exactly who was around me but i felt like someone was gonna touch me so i started wheezing the word help out. I slightly woke up & fell back asleep. Second time I thought my dad had came in to see what was wrong. I kept limping slightly & the only signal I could give I was awake was breathing heavily & trying to say Help.

I slightly woke up, fell asleep in the same position.

Third time It felt like someone was on top of me while i was laying down on my back, I felt like I was getting raped. I was so scared I let it happen for like a brief second, I tried yelling I TRIED SO HARD YELLING for help but it wouldn’t come out of me. I had left that small feeler stage of slumber so i was a little more awake when i leaned upwards for a second & started cursing out the darkness in my bedroom . I turned on my light again. Gonna pray.

As above,

At about 2 am, I was trying to close my eyes, but when I closed my eyes I saw a dot of purple light. Opened my eyes and it was just darkness. Closed again and there it was. Suddenly, I could feel my breathing become heavier and heavier until I could feel my heart beat stop. And I couldn't move at all. And then after a few seconds, I gasped for air, and I could finally breathe.

I sat up, and started hitting myself thinking I was dreaming. I don't think I was. I'm sure I was awake. I thought I was going to die at the time. Is this sleep paralysis? I tried looking at the guide but my symptoms don't seem to match.

I didn't feel any pain when I felt my heart stopped beating. No pains whatsoever. It just felt like that.

Hi all. I have gotten SP on and off throughout my life. It isn’t usually frequent at all. Well last night I got THE WORST yet. I just got on a new medication for bipolar disorder/depression but was not told this would be a side effect.

In the SP this time, I felt more scared than ever and the physical sensations were extremely intense. It started as a dream with me in bed wearing headphones talking to my boyfriend on the phone. I could hear his voice normal for a moment and actually it felt extremely pleasurable/sexual at first, like numb tingling all over. Then slowly his voice changed into a demon-like tone and there was intense deafening buzzing in my ears coming in loud through the headphones until it was so loud I couldn’t bear it anymore. The dreams then turned into something or someone trying to get me, banging on my apartment windows.

Eventually I felt somebody grab my ankles and that’s when I started thrashing in my dream and starting to scream as loud as I could to wake up. I woke up a few times briefly only to fall back into the nightmares and paralysis. That was the worst part. When I finally screamed myself into waking up the last time, I was breathing very heavy and absolutely disoriented. I felt… violated? I guess.

Wondering if the new medication is to blame for this event or if anybody has had similar experiences. I am afraid to go to sleep again tonight. :(

So for the most part I don’t really have any dreams or nightmares but recently I have had some kind of sleep paralysis like things happen and I was wondering if it might be sleep paralysis related.

So a few nights ago I went to sleep and i had this dream where I couldn’t move and there was a scary figure like dancing around me in a way of like teasing me and not I’m kinda terrified to go to sleep just in case it happens again but I was just wondering if it could be sleep paralysis.

Whenever I’m staying in a hotel on my own I get the dreaded SP. This time I felt the depressions on my bed and someone crawl up towards me. I knew it was going to happen and got really pissed off. I had to be up early for a flight and knew that a good night’s sleep was going to be out of the question.

I tried to relax to end it quickly but I was still scared and swore at it. At this point it started giggling. I could see the back of it and saw it’s shoulders sort of scrunching up as it laughed. It then bit my hand and I could actually feel pain. I kicked out and as I shoved it away I saw that it was a woman. My SP then turned into a lucid dream and she was stood before me smiling. She looked like a woman from the 1940s with bright red lipstick and the victory roll hairstyle. I then woke up.

How on earth does my mind conjure this up?

I was having a bad dream but was aware that I was in a dream and it was definitely a deep sleep (REM sleep) then during the dream I felt like someone was pressing down on me screaming in my ear and I couldn't move, was to scarred to move but also I just felt so drained and heavy like it was to hard to move up, they screamed in my ear twice but I couldn't actually hear it, and it just felt deafening. After they screamed twice I was like nope get me out of this dream and prepared myself to look at who was screaming and attack them, I started of by touching their hair and the pushed myself to look at them but then as I look up, I wake up and I'm in my room but I am able to move around immediately and turn on my TV to calm me down and get some sound around me, so I'm confused as to if this was a nightmare or sleep paralysis. Somethings match with sleep paralysis but then I've seen everywhere that you can't wake yourself up and that if you do, you'll be paralysised for a little while.

Ever since I got pregnant with my second child (im only 9 weeks) ive woken up now 3 times with sleep paralysis. I had sleep paralysis while pregnant with my firstborn and it wasnt all the time but when i did i would wake up and see spiders hanging from my ceiling. I mean multiple spiders. Like 10-20. Well this pregnancy its different. About 2 weeks ago i woke up an hour into my sleep unable to move but i seen this black figure growing tall out of my floor. And i screamed “NOOOOOO” and immediately my boyfriend ran in from the other room and woke me up all the way and i told him what happened. It scared the shit out of me. Weirdly enough i didnt have any issues going back to sleep and then i was fine. 2 nights ago now, i had another moment an hour into my sleep where this clear aura figure started walking towards me in my sleep and i once again screamed “NOOOOO MOM!!!” (My mom passed away 7 months after my firstborn was born) and my boyfriend was in the living room playing video games and he came running in again and i was shaking. I told him what happened again and he was scared thinking something attached to me??? But idk. And now last night once again I woke up out of my sleep an hour into my sleep and this time my boyfriend was asleep in the room with us and I screamed “BABE SOMETHING IS WRONG WITH GOUDIE (sons nickname) HES FLOATING UP” because i swore he started floating upward. And i picked him up and put him on his dad. My boyfriend said my sons eyes opened and he wasn’t reacting but thats most likely because he was woken out of his sleep and was sleepy still cuz he just went right back to sleep. Were now up and fine but now im terrified to go to sleep. This wasnt happening pre pregnancy. My son seems unphased by whats going on. Hes only 2. Im a very spiritual person and I dont believe its spirits. But im scared. Because by the slightest chance it is, what could it mean? I need answers. Im unsure on what to do. Because i have insomnia and im waking up all hours of the night and if this keeps happening im gonna be deprived.

Here I want to share my experiences about SP and seeking suggestion how can I handle the situations. My exeperience is as follows

1. I have been suffering from Sp for 12 years since 2012. At the beginning I faced 2-3 times in Year but since 2021 I have been facing a lot. 4-5 times in a month.

2. Mostly I face SP during day time sleep. If I wake up at morning and take a break for a while like 20-30 minutes and again go for sleep, there is chance to face SP. If I also take nap during afternoon It can also happen.

3. My SP is like as follows. During sleep, I see normal dream. During dream uddenly I understand I am in trapped of SP. Then I try to wake up by shaking my body and brain. Actually the shaking begins automatically. I Can feel everything like where I am, and Who is surrounding me but I cannot call anyone. By shaking my braing many times at the last moment I can Wake up. This wake up leads to rapid heartbeats and day long headache.

4. I was a PhD student from 2019-2023. So at that time there was a lack of sleep, extreme stresses and anxiety for future career. I think these affects my SP to occur frequently.

I am seeking suggestion from the persons who have already experienced such kinds of SP. How can I handle the SP situation and how can I keep calm from shaking of my body and brain. Is these shaking harmfull? Thanls to all.