Weird and a bit scary (Sleep Paralysis)

[KaidaPyralis]

While I was napping the other morning I had a really weird thing happen to me. I woke up, but I couldn't move anything at all. It was like my mind was awake but my body wasn't. I couldn't even control my breathing. It lasted half a second and I woke up, so I ignored it and went back to sleep, only to wake up again like that and lie there for a good few seconds unable to even wiggle my toe. It was really scary because I couldn't even make a noise or move anything, and I have no idea what it was. That was Tuesday and it hasn't happened since, but it really scared me.

My Mum reckons it could be a symtom of over-tiredness, maybe literally the brain waking up in the wrong order and the body not waking up with it.

Kaida

[reikihealer83]

That is frequently called sleep paralysis. I think everyone experiences it at some point in time. Sometimes it means you might have astral projected during your nap and you snapped back into your body really quickly but it sounds more like sleep/wake paralysis to me. Do not worry, nothing is wrong with your body!

[Lily Cantodea]

Sleep paralysis isn't really all that uncommon, and that's what it sounds like to me. I've had a couple episodes myself, and as scary as it is, it doesn't mean anything's wrong with you.

What happens when you sleep, especially when you dream, is that your body's paralyzed to keep you from acting out your dreams. However, your brain is always active. You dream every night, even if you don't remember it the next morning.

Sometimes, however, you wake up, but your body doesn't. The reasons for this are unknown (some proposed theories include sleep deprivation and sleeping position). So you're awake, but you're still paralyzed because your body missed the memo about waking up. Usually during an episode of sleep paralysis, you have various hallucinations, including visual and auditory. People sometimes feel a heavy weight on their chest, they see figures in the room, they hear voices. Obviously, it's frightening for someone who doesn't know what's going on, and it's still a little scary when you do know what's going on.


While I believe in astral projection, I don't think that sleep paralysis is a result of returning too quickly to your body after an OBE. I think it's just a miscommunication between the mind and body. It all depends on who you talk to, of course - some say that it is a result of returning to your body too quickly.

[reikihealer83]

Lily,

You make some great points and hit the nail on the head. I can see both sides of the situation. There have been times where the OBE thing is definately not the case. It is important to realize that even though we as pagans and witches work with these things (OBEs, magic, etc) it is important to remember that we do live in a world that does not always see these things. Lily, you really captured both sides!

[Starwitch Stone]

Hey, you two are great! Thanks for answering that question. Normally, no one understands sleep paralysis besides me, so if I'm not around to tell members about it, they just get a lot of confusing answers from people who think there's a spirit bothering the person.

I've had sleep paralysis for a long time. Luckily, I don't have it a lot anymore. It's pretty frightening. I think it's hereditary because my mom gets it too. She wakes herself up by screaming. Nice, right? I wake myself up by trying to wiggle my little finger or toe. Trying to move a specific part of your body usually snaps your body back awake and gets you out of paralysis. But there have also been times when I've had to really fight for a while to get woken up. One time, I thought I had died and was trapped in my body and would be there forever. I had seven false awakenings that time (where I dreamed that I woke up and was okay) but each time I would "wake up" again and find myself in the same spot. It was scary.

If you are in sleep paralysis, you can try to use it as a jumping off point for an out-of-body experience. I don't really know whether the OBE is real or just in your mind, but the feeling of it is awesome either way. If you wake up paralyzed, and you want to try it, just keep yourself calm and think positive thoughts of God and love (or whatever you like). What happens with me is that I'll start floating up out of my body. I can feel myself rising up. It's pretty neat. You can read books about OBEs to learn more techniques. There are so many things you can do when your mind is awake and your body is asleep. Robert Monroe calls that state "Focus 10 - Mind Awake, Body Asleep" and he teaches you how to go from that state to being out-of-body. It's definitely worth looking into if you already suffer from sleep paralysis. It takes most of the fear out of it because you have something to look forward to. There are many OBE practitioners who would LOVE to be in sleep paralysis. That's what they are trying for when they meditate.

Wow, this is really frightening
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I didn't know people had it that severely, where they couldn't wake up even when someone moved their arms and legs. How horrible for her!

There are some good websites on sleep paralysis and night terrors. Here is one that I like:
http://www.nightterrors.org/


Here is a more positive video about sleep paralysis:

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Bright Blessings,

[Lily Cantodea]

Sleep paralysis in itself is a real physiological as well as psychological phenomenon. It's physical because your body's paralyzed. It's psychological because of the fact that you usually have some sort of hallucination. Once again, I don't believe that sleep paralysis has anything to do with projecting or OBEs, or even lucid dreaming. I believe it's just a normal phenomenon that happens to all of us at least once in our lives. It's a mystery, just like sleep is; there's still so much we don't know about sleep and dreams.

[reikihealer83]

Lily,

You are right, there is a lot we do not know. That is the fun part. I think there will always be different schools of thought with regards to the OBE but again, that's the fun part!

[Lily Cantodea]

Maybe there are some mysteries we're not meant to figure out. Maybe sleep is one of them. I think dreams (outside of the scientific definition) are a realm all their own, a sacred one where the Divine chooses to reveal itself to us in ways that only It can understand. Maybe the Divine chooses dreams to reveal Itself because that's the only time we're actually listening. Any other time of the day, we're too busy with school, work, family, etc. to take just a few minutes and listen to what the Divine has to say.

[Xal]

I think it is easier for us to perceive the divine in dreams because higher dimension where divine beings and energies come from seem to be much lighter, more fluid, more dream like in their nature, rather than the dense physical life we are accustom to.

[Peregrine]

I had sleep paralysis problems for years. I had the occasional visual hallucinations of a solid white figure standing in the room with long hair. It ain't fun.

Only a few years ago did I learn my mother had the same problem, only it was with a solid black figure, looked like a shadow walking around the room. One time it jumped up over the bed, like it wanted to do a bellyflop onto the bed. My father had to wake her up because at that point she was screaming.

My older sister had one of those as a kid, where she thought two zombie kids had come out of the closet and walked to each side of the bed. Years later, that movie "The Ring" came out and she told me that was a lot how the kids looked.