[fallenangel86]

I have episodes of sleep paralysis from time to time. I had one two nights ago. It wasn't too bad. I've had them so much that i've actually been able to pull myself out of it. Sometimes I will have more than one episode in a night, and some are different than others. I've had ones where I've heard very creepy voices saying my name repeatedly or sinister laughter. Either way, I always here some sort of noise. Now I never sleep without the TV on or at least a light on, or else it's very likely that it will happen. Although I'm become fairly used to it, having it happen in the dark is terrifying!!
Has anyone else experienced sleep paralysis? If so, what was it like for you?

I have and it's usually horrible lol. Mostly coz it feels like someone is pushing really, really hard on my chest so that I can't breath. It's even more horrible when my dreams are mixed in with reality and I see "ghosts" in my actual room. One time I saw a guy with an axe walk past my bedroom door and I thought he was going to kill me and my family.

The last time I had sleep paralysis was yesterday and it wasn't so bad because I could see my actual cat and he was smooching my face lol. So he made me feel safe.

[fallenangel86]

Unfortunately my dog has never come in to save me lol. That would be sweet if she did. I've never really had visual hallucinations... maybe some shadows, but it's mostly auditory and it it feels so real as if there is someone laying down right next to me talking into my ear. Some people that i've talked about it with told me it was a "demon" talking over my body, but I definitely don't want to think of it that way lol.

I know what you mean. I can imagine that it would sound as real as my ghosts look! :P

I definitely don't think it's a demon. It's just a normal occurrence with sleep paralysis Nothing to worry about but it can be very scary!

[Sabrina]

I have suffered this along with night terrors. Doesn't happen much anymore but it is very frightening!

[Shoe]

I have had SP and never knew what it was for most of my life. Once I got on the internet and did some research on it a lot of my fear went away. Someone once said that knowledge is the antidote for fear. There are groups at yahoo and a couple of books on SP. Some people master their fear of SP and use it as a spring board to have lucid dreams and OBEs. Hope this has helped. ~ Shoe

[SammiSama]

I don't know if this will help you guys, but if I'm having a particularly bad one, I'll actually bite my tongue. Not hard, obviously , but it seems to snap me out of it eventually.

I'm really claustrophobic, so SP is extremely scary for me (sometimes I refuse to go back to sleep because I'm scared it'll happen again!), but the tongue thing seems to work.

Did anyone ever notice if stress makes it worse? I find if I go to bed with high anxiety, I seem to have a higher chance of it happening, and reoccurring (sometimes it happens three or four times in a row.)