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The following is a visitor-submitted question or story. For more, you can submit your own sleep story here, or browse the collection of experiences and questions other visitors have shared here.
3 Years of Sleep Paralysis
by Frankie
(MA)
It all started out with me waking up every other night in my bed, but not being able to move. I new I was dreaming because my eyes were always closed, but I saw my whole room as if I was really awake. After a couple months I started to hear voices. The voices were whispering something I could never understand. The voices also always came from a direction of my room I could not see. After a couple more months I began to have something grab my wrists and ankles. Throughout a course of a year and a half I had a shadow figure walk across my room and grab my wrists. i had even tried ignoring the figure walking across my room by closing my eyes, but then it would grab me and scare me more. I felt afraid to fall asleep because it seemed so real and I could not move off my bed. It took a lot of strength to lift my head up off the pillow to finally wake up.
When I went to college and stayed in the dorm I had them there as well. They were not as scary. My girlfriend would sleep next to me and she would see me with my eyes closed trying to lift up off the bed. She tells me every time she sees me do that I lift off the pillow a few inches. I can hear her trying to wake me up and I can see her pulling on my arm to help me wake up. When she looks at me all she sees in my eyes closed and my head pulling upward. She likes to describe it as a seizer.
Within the last year I have learned about sleep paralysis and I have become less afraid. I do not really have anyone grab my wrists or see shadows. I barely see my room anymore. I still have times when I want to wake up and I am trapped. It is usually when I come out of a dream and want to wake up, I always end back in my bed trying to get up. I eventually do and go right back to sleep.
When I wake up from this dream/sleep paralysis, I still feel it in my head. I know when I go back to sleep that it could easily come back. The best way to help prevent sleep paralysis is turning a light on for a minute and grabbing a sip of water.
Above is a brief summary of my story with sleep paralysis over the past few years. I have grown to enjoy it and hope it never fully goes away.
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Interviews With Sleep Specialists: Insights Into the Worlds of Sleep Medicine & Sleep Business
America's Most Dangerous Disorder: What Is Sleep Apnea Doing To Your Sleep?
Sleep Debt: How Much More Will You Achieve When You Reduce Yours?
The Stages Of Sleep: The Journey Through The Night
Delayed Sleep Phase: You Want To Sleep But You're Not Tired Yet
Paralyzed at Night: Is Sleep Paralysis Normal?
Sleep In Words: Smart, Strange, and Funny Quotes About Sleep
Sleep Disorders In Children: What's Keeping Your Child From A Full Night's Rest?
Attacks of Pavor Nocturnus (a.k.a. Sleep Terrors, Night Terrors, or Incubus Attacks)
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More Sleep Resources
The Zeo
A revolution in personal sleep tracking, the Zeo is a wireless headband that transmits your brainwaves in realtime to a dock (pictured here) or your smartphone. The result? You can wake up and see exactly what stages of sleep you were in during the night! Unprecedented personalized sleep knowledge.
Sleep Paralysis: A Dreamer's Guide
Ever woken up paralyzed? A surprising number of us have, believe it or not. But few know the actual causes of this phenomenon, and fewer still how to exert control over it. Dream researcher and sleep paralysis expert Ryan Hurd shares breakthrough insights into how to do just that.
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