Sleep Paralysis - Seeing Ghosts and Unable to Move After Waking Up

[Cyclone792]

I posted this on another message board a few months ago and it generated quite a bit of response so I figured maybe some Redzoners would be interested And I swear, I'm not crazy!

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Sleep Paralysis, AKA the "old hag" syndrome. Has anybody else here experienced this?

Back in the summer of 2001 when I was 19-years-old, I experienced this for the first time, and it's far-and-away the most frightening thing that has ever happened to me. I woke up lying on my side with my eyes looking straight out toward my doorway in my room. However, I couldn't move and I couldn't talk at all. No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't even move a finger an inch or mutter a little whisper; all I could do is stare out the doorway of my room.

Then suddenly, an image appeared floating or hovering in my doorway. It was a faceless girl with long brown hair, clad in a 19th century white dress, and it seemed to be looking directly at me. For maybe 10 seconds, it just floated in my doorway, but then started to move toward me. By this time, I thought I was dead, and the only feeling in my entire body was my heart ready to explode out of my chest. I hadn't a clue what in the hell was going on, except that I couldn't move or scream and some ghost figure was about to attack me. Finally, just as the figure approached the side of my bed, my entire body jolted and I exploded out of my bed, violently swinging in the area where the figure was (I hit the dresser, which sucked!).

Since then, I've experienced this phenomena probably close to 50 times, though only that very first time was there an image of a being in my sight. The other times I've just been unable to move for a period of time, maybe 30 seconds or so, and then I'm able to get out of it. Since I've read up on it a bit and have realized I'm not as crazy as I thought I was the first time it happened, it doesn't bother me at all (waking up to an alarm prevents it from happening, rather than waking up on my own, at least in my experience). But I'm telling you what, that first time it happened with some being standing in my doorway was the most terrifying experience I've ever had.

For the people that still think I AM crazy, or have had similar cases but don't know what's going on, there's some good reading material which I've linked below. Trust me, if this has never happened to you, I still encourage you to read up on a bit, because if it ever does happen and you don't know what's going on you'll want to kill yourself on the spot.

http://paranormal.about.com/library...y/aa112000a.htm
http://watarts.uwaterloo.ca/~acheyne/S_P.html

And for those who have experienced sleep paralysis, what kind of experiences have you had?

[savafan]

This has happened to me as well. I can't recall any time recently, but I remember a few times from my childhood all the way through high school when this occurred to me.

[Neo]

Well, something weird happened but I am not sure I would classify it as sleep paralysis. Right before my junior year in high school began, I became real sick and was suffering from a high temperature around 105 degrees. But I remember one night when I was sick I had this weird dream that till this day I could swear it was real. It first began with me sleeping on the couch and I had just died in my sleep. You could say my soul had just left my body like an out of body experience, and I could see myself just laying there on the couch with my parents running in there to see what had happened. Then the next thing I knew I was riding in an ambulance to the emergency room while the paramedics worked on me even though they knew it was to late. Next thing I knew I was at my own funeral, it was an open casket and I remember seeing all my family and friends. But the interesting part of this dream would be the presence of this older couple I didn't recognize. They were both standing off to the side just waiting there, I could remember walking over to them trying to reach them, but I couldn't. Then I tried running but no matter what I couldn't get closer and when it finally seemed like I was getting somewhere everything started getting brighter and brighter and then.. nothing. I awoke right then lost and confused. Because of the fever I guess you could say I was suffering from amnesia. I had no recollection of anything, who I was, where I was or who my parents were. The only thing I did know or remember was that dream. When I explained it to my parents and got to the part about my funeral, I described to them the couple I didn't recognize standing there along the side. Right then my Dad went to go get something and he came back with a picture. In that picture was the couple from my dream. When I asked who they were he said they were his mother and father who had passed away before I was born. That was the first time I had ever seen a picture of them.

[The Baumer]

One time I woke up and I saw the #890 on the roof. I thought nothing of it. Then later on in the day I wanted to hear the news on the radio, so I said "hey paw, turn it on the news." so he turns it on the news. IT WAS CHANNEL 890AM. But wait. There's more. My dad died in Vietnam in 1965!!!! But wait. There's more. So I looked over to see who was actually driving the car and it was my rabbit Leaf. MY RABBIT LEAF CAN'T DRIVE A CAR. SCARIEST EXPERIENCE EVER.

[cumberlandreds]

A good place to read about this type of experience is www.theshadowlands.net/ghost. It has everything imaginable about paranormal happenings and experiences. Also a great place to go just to read good old fashioned ghost stories from actual experiences.

[Jaycint]

Not sure if it has anything to do with the paranormal but on a few occassions I have been asleep and had the feeling that I couldn't move my body at all even though I was trying to. This would last for what seemed like a minute or two before I was finally able to move my limbs and usually at this point I would wake up as well. Who knows, maybe I was in some state between a deep sleep and waking up. Very strange and kind of frightening experience.

[Ravenlord]

how about having a dream where you get slashed with an axe and you wake up with blood cached on your shirt and a cut where the axe head hit in the dream? does that count?

[registerthis]

I've never seen a ghost, but I have experienced sleep paralysis. It's a horrible, horrible feeling...perhaps the worst feeling I have ever experienced.

[zombie-a-go-go]

Last night I dreamt that a hamburger was eating me!

[Cyclone792]

Originally Posted by Neo

Well, something weird happened but I am not sure I would classify it as sleep paralysis. Right before my junior year in high school began, I became real sick and was suffering from a high temperature around 105 degrees. But I remember one night when I was sick I had this weird dream that till this day I could swear it was real. It first began with me sleeping on the couch and I had just died in my sleep. You could say my soul had just left my body like an out of body experience, and I could see myself just laying there on the couch with my parents running in there to see what had happened. Then the next thing I knew I was riding in an ambulance to the emergency room while the paramedics worked on me even though they knew it was to late. Next thing I knew I was at my own funeral, it was an open casket and I remember seeing all my family and friends. But the interesting part of this dream would be the presence of this older couple I didn't recognize. They were both standing off to the side just waiting there, I could remember walking over to them trying to reach them, but I couldn't. Then I tried running but no matter what I couldn't get closer and when it finally seemed like I was getting somewhere everything started getting brighter and brighter and then.. nothing. I awoke right then lost and confused. Because of the fever I guess you could say I was suffering from amnesia. I had no recollection of anything, who I was, where I was or who my parents were. The only thing I did know or remember was that dream. When I explained it to my parents and got to the part about my funeral, I described to them the couple I didn't recognize standing there along the side. Right then my Dad went to go get something and he came back with a picture. In that picture was the couple from my dream. When I asked who they were he said they were his mother and father who had passed away before I was born. That was the first time I had ever seen a picture of them.

That's a pretty amazing and intriguing dream right there. Some people are able to lucid dream and actually control those dreams, but the older couple in your dream that you'd never seen before is a rather interesting phenomenon.

[westofyou]

I told my wife about this thread, she experienced it quite often sans gjhost when she was younger.

I have a friend who had the experience, except the ghost was a robot.

This was back in 1980, when we were still afraid of robots.

[Rojo]

I've had sleep paralysis a few times. However, my experiences with exploding head syndrome are scarier.

[creek14]

I'm a sleep walker and talker. I use to wake up in the closet or in the corner or in the hallway. Once my dad found me out on my swingset - sound asleep. As for the talking, I try not to call out "Adam" while mr creek is around...

No paralysis, tho.

Off topic, but last night I dreamed SCredsfan tried out for the Reds and won a spot on the 25 man roster. Out of the pen.

[Az. Reds Fan]

I've experienced this quite a bit, but without the ghost aspect.

My wife actually reads Sylvia Brown quite a bit, and she offers an explanation of this...believe it if you wish...

She says that when we sleep, our souls tend to play by leaving our bodies, every now and then. If you awake before your soul re-enters your body, you end up in a "comatose" state until your soul returns, usually fairly quickly. She also mentions that when your soul re-enters your body, it tends to be "noisy" and somewhat violent, meaning you might hear what sounds like a train and you might shake, just before you're able to move again.

It sounds a bit out there, but what she says makes sense with regards to what I've experienced.

Usually if this happens to me, it happens when I try to go to sleep when I'm not overly tired.

One experience I had, my wife had gone to sleep before me and was snoring quite a bit, she does this from time to time, so I had trouble falling asleep. I contemplated waking her up, but decided I'd just try to go to sleep. Shortly after I did fall asleep, I actually had, what I think was an out of body experience. I suddenly felt myself rising above my body and floating near the ceiling looking down her, then I floated just above her and tried to shake her. I'm assuming I was trying to get her to stop snoring. Then before I knew it , I found myself in one of those comatose states where I felt like I was awake, but couldn't move. After about what felt like an hour (probably more like 30 seconds), I heard a loud rumbling noise, like a train whizzing by, and then woke up shaking.

That experience was a bit more in-depth than most, usually it tends to be more of a doze off to sleep, then wake up "paralyzed" for a few seconds, then wake up kind of freaked out.

[Falls City Beer]

I think I experienced something like you're describing as a youth--no ghosts, but I WAS incredibly scared of something when I awoke--dream hangover maybe? It only happened once, though. Then I started sleeping with hot chicks and the rest is history.

But one time when I was sleepwalking as a kid I mistook the foot-operated flip-top trash can in our kitchen for the toilet and took a wee-wee in it. It was like Linda Blair in the Exorcist. Except awesomer.