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Napping On The Couch

by CJ
(IL USA)

When I was in my early 20's (before children) and I had some free time in the afternoons, I liked to take naps on the couch. On several occasions, I would wake up because I felt like I couldn't breathe. Upon waking I would realize that I couldn't move a muscle, I could see my living room, the blanket that was covering me, my furniture etc. My eyes were open, but I just couldn't move at all.


I remember feeling panic, and telling myself I was still dreaming and that I need to wake up. Within a few minutes I would just snap out of it, or sometimes I would fall asleep again and later wake up just fine. Fortunately I never had any hallucinations, I'm thankful for that because just waking up and not being able to move...was scary enough for me!

I haven't had this happen in many years, not sure why, but i'm glad. Until recently I had no idea what those episodes were. I was describing it to a friend who mentioned "something called sleep paralysis" so I decided to read up on it, and sure enough...I believe this is what happened to me. Very scary stuff.

Comments for Napping On The Couch

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Apr 08, 2016
 interesting.. NEW
by: Anonymous

I came to this entry by accident. Want to shop for perfect napping couches and this is where I end up lol.

I find it even more funny because I've experienced countless of sleep paralysis episodes with hallucinations. Not once have I experienced sleep paralysis without a hallucination of some sort (Whether it be visual or audible).

During my first experience of sleep paralysis, I woke up to a man walking through my very slightly eopened bedroom door (it was only open about 2 inches, he literally walked through the door). After he walked through the door, he stood at the foot of my bed and was staring at me. The light was off so I couldn't make out any facial features, but I felt him staring at me. And, as sleep paralysis is what it is, I couldn't move and started breathing heavily. The man seemed to sense my panic and began to slowly walk around my bed, toward the left of my head (about a foot away at this point). I was able to move my eyes, and open and close them, but nothing else.

Here's where I nearly shit the bed (out of fear).

My bed was located in a corner, with my right side parallel to one wall, and the top of my head a couple inches away from the other.

The man proceeded to walk into the wall nearest my head, as if it wasn't there. He stood directly above me, I started sweating profusely. He then takes a hold of my pillow (one hand on each side of it), and tries to take it out from under my head, shaking it and pulling very hard.

This is where I started to really wake up. Something inside me really didn't want him to take the pillow, so I was able to start moving my muscles. I pressed my head down into the pillow using my neck muscles, and when his pulling became too intense for that to hold down my pillow, my hands shot up beside my head and grabbed a hold of the pillow near his hands. Then I yelled. I can't remember what I yelled, but I yelled and he was suddenly gone and I was able to move. Got up, took a pee, had a drink of water, fell back to sleep after the sweats went away.

Since then I've had about 5 episodes with visual hallucinations (people, a giant stuck in my room, random laser-like lights with a variety of colors) and many more episodes with strictly audible hallucinations(hard to explain, but they usually include a high pitch ringing that continually gets louder until it causes a sharp pain in my head, like a headache behind the eye but waaay worse and only for a few seconds) I don't do any recreational drugs lol, this is sleep paralysis.

I don't know what you were expecting in terms of responses to this, but I hope you're pleased with mine. Cheers.
Apr 08, 2016
 interesting.. NEW
by: Anonymous

I came to this entry by accident. Want to shop for perfect napping couches and this is where I end up lol.

I find it even more funny because I've experienced countless of sleep paralysis episodes with hallucinations. Not once have I experienced sleep paralysis without a hallucination of some sort (Whether it be visual or audible).

During my first experience of sleep paralysis, I woke up to a man walking through my very slightly eopened bedroom door (it was only open about 2 inches, he literally walked through the door). After he walked through the door, he stood at the foot of my bed and was staring at me. The light was off so I couldn't make out any facial features, but I felt him staring at me. And, as sleep paralysis is what it is, I couldn't move and started breathing heavily. The man seemed to sense my panic and began to slowly walk around my bed, toward the left of my head (about a foot away at this point). I was able to move my eyes, and open and close them, but nothing else.

Here's where I nearly shit the bed (out of fear).

My bed was located in a corner, with my right side parallel to one wall, and the top of my head a couple inches away from the other.

The man proceeded to walk into the wall nearest my head, as if it wasn't there. He stood directly above me, I started sweating profusely. He then takes a hold of my pillow (one hand on each side of it), and tries to take it out from under my head, shaking it and pulling very hard.

This is where I started to really wake up. Something inside me really didn't want him to take the pillow, so I was able to start moving my muscles. I pressed my head down into the pillow using my neck muscles, and when his pulling became too intense for that to hold down my pillow, my hands shot up beside my head and grabbed a hold of the pillow near his hands. Then I yelled. I can't remember what I yelled, but I yelled and he was suddenly gone and I was able to move. Got up, took a pee, had a drink of water, fell back to sleep after the sweats went away.

Since then I've had about 5 episodes with visual hallucinations (people, a giant stuck in my room, random laser-like lights with a variety of colors) and many more episodes with strictly audible hallucinations(hard to explain, but they usually include a high pitch ringing that continually gets louder until it causes a sharp pain in my head, like a headache behind the eye but waaay worse and only for a few seconds) I don't do any recreational drugs lol, this is sleep paralysis.

I don't know what you were expecting in terms of responses to this, but I hope you're pleased with mine. Cheers.
Dec 20, 2018
 Ditto NEW
by: Effy

I have the exact same type of sleep paralysis but it only happens to me when I sleep on a couch. So strange!

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