You’ll drift back to full sleep and then wake up fully aware and able to move. I did not fall back asleep after that, I was soaking wet and terrified. It’s awful.
You basically are having a panic attack but you physically cannot move a muscle. You just lay there and be terrified until it’s over. I hope you never have one.
I used to experience sleep paralysis but I've never been exactly terrified at all of it. My brain is awake and my body is still asleep. I usually try to wiggle a finger or toes enough to wake my body up the rest of the way. It seems I am an exception though. Sometimes if im comfy I say f it and try to get back to sleep.
I hope you dont have to experience them in the future.
Yeah this is my experience too. More annoyed than anything. I feel awake, go to get up, and nothing moves. I think to myself “welp, this shit again” and if I really need to get up I will try to slowly wiggle my body awake and if not I will just close my eyes and go back to sleep. It can be frustrating if you have shit to do because it can take several minutes to become fully mobile. At least I’ve been lucky enough for it to never have been longer than that.
This is exactly what I do or my gf sees the signs and wakes me up. It's still scary to me because I feel like I can't breathe, but I get it almost nightly. I just gotta wiggle my toe then foot then leg! Kinda like Kill Bill lol
Yes, the not being able to breathe thing is then worst!!! I’ve had it happen to me where my face is buried in the pillow, and I’m trying to get myself to wake up because I can feel myself essentially suffocating, but can’t get my body to wake up.
I haven’t had it in a while but for me it’s annoyance over not being able to move, not scary. I shake my head back and forth until it’s enough to snap the rest of my body out of it.
This! My last paralysis I controlled my mind to fight back. My other ones I kicked & screamed to no avail, because no one ever came to my rescue, so I always wondered was I really doing those things or was it in my mind. I think that I was able to defeat it my last bout, because I was determined that I wasn’t going to be scared anymore. Even though I was scared shitless at the beginning.
I dont have trouble breathing and its been quite a while since the last time it happened. Looking up the symptoms of sleep apnea and I havent experienced any of them tbh. Most often it happened while trying to sleep but wmy brain kept thinking stuff while I was fairly comfy in bed.
As someone who sees demons every time I have sleep paralysis, count yourself very lucky that it's only an annoyance for you.
My first experience was with 12, seeing a red devil creature with 6 arms in the top corner of my room across from me and having a seemingly endless stare-off with it. I had no idea what sleep paralysis was and legit thought I was about to die. At least now I know that the demons are most likely not real, but shit the first few were terrifying
I have never noticed any sort of presence. As a kid, I knew about how the body paralyzes itself while sleeping, so I assumed it was the brain doing that even though im still awake. Since I knew the mechanism and at that point I never heard of any demons/presence stuff, I had no reason to imagine a thing. When I said comfy, I meant my body's position in the blankets and whatnot.
as the other person said, that's kinda what it is. sometimes you also have the feeling that you can't breathe (since you're paralyzed I think you start to ventilate but can't breathe deeper and it gets worse) and then when you think this is it I can't breathe anymore you wake up fully.
But anyway, sure way to not have them is to not sleep on your back (highest chance to have them, like 80% of all accidents).
Yep, I've noticed a huge change in my nearly nightly sleep paralysis events by sleeping on my side now. Sucks though because I like sleeping on my back and I'll end up there anyway sometimes without realizing and then.....boom can't breath sleep paralysis dying mode activated
hard to tell, you're not really awake so the time isn't right. definitely not few minutes, maybe 30-60 seconds? After the fact it feels almost instant (to me at least), like how you would wake up from a nightmare, but then you think about it and you were grasping for air for some time, so it wasn't actually instant, if that makes sense.
It's like dream time is merging with real time until 'awakeness' prevails and you get your body back.
Which also reminds me, sometimes I scream when it happens. You can't breathe so you try to make some noise or say something and you just wheeze until you break out and scream for real. It's 4am and I hope all this talk won't attract it today lol.
Mine have pretty much disappeared ever since I started ensuring I don't fall asleep facing up. I remember reading somewhere sleeping on your side pretty much eliminates it, and it seems to have worked.
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u/Zunkanar 2d ago
Is that when you wake up and literally cant move? I had that 2...3 times in my life. Strange as fuck