I am a 21 years old college student. This incident happened to me when I was 19 and was living in the college dorm(girls dorm) . I was paired up with a roommate who was the same year but different department and life was normal. The room was spacious but you know how a dorm room is. It was a single room with two beds. So when you opened the door to our room, you could see my bed there straight.Our room was on the top floor of the building with only water tanks above us on the roof, so when it got windy, the speed of the wind could literally topple you over. So one fateful day I forgot to put a stopper to my door when I was putting out my washed sheets to dry in the winda. The door slammed due to the wind and broke our doorlatch. We were worried and filed a complaint in the reception but since it was a Sunday all the workers were on holiday. You see, the security in our building is pretty good.Its a women only dorm and males are strictly prohibited;even the maintenance workers are escorted by three or four women security if we ever need any. So we were worried about the door not having latch overnight because of privacy reason and not because of security reasons.That night we put one of our study chair against the door to close it and it worked pretty well(the chair was purely made of metal so it was quite heavy). We were early birds so we usually slept around 10.Around 1-2 that night, I opened my eyes and knew what was coming... Sleep paralysis. I know everyone who are well acquitted to sleep paralysis know the feeling before you know it's about to start. So yeah I got the feeling. (You see I am having SP since I was 9 and I have a SP demon but it never approached met. It only stood there smiling or counting numbers in the corner). But this time was different. I saw a shadow figure (which I knew had a physique of a man somehow) open the door. It had no features, only a shadow;I thought it would stand there like always and prayed for it to get over. But then it started walking towards me.. Now this was out of the norm so I started screaming(obviously no sound came) roommate's name who was just few meters away from me, only seperated by a woolen rug we kept between the two beds. The shadow had now reached me and was standing looking down on me desperately trying to move. At this point I found out that my left hand was hanging out of the bed. Then the worst thing happened.. the figure sat down on the floor and started fiddling with my fingers.Then he interlockee our hands and I swear I felt it.... the crippling sensation on my finger.. . It felt dirty and scaly.. I begged myself to move but my body rejected my brain. Then something worst happened... I felt that creature digging his long nailed fingers on my palm. I felt his nails tearing my skin from my palm and it was painful. I wanted to scream and run but nothing. Then I did something I never thought was possible. My body was not moving but I felt I could move the fingers of the hand that demon was holding. So my flight or fight kicked in and I am quite the fighter. I used all my energy into digging back at his palm. I know if he was real I would draw blood from those scaly palm. It was so exhilarating having a semblance of control. I was digging so hard and thinking I am gonna kill that demon today. And then my body muscle started relaxing and I could move again. I looked at my hand and saw the marks caused by my own fingers on my palm.I was so proud of myself that I finally fought that creep of a demon. I woke from my bed ,went over to the sink to wash my face and when I turned to go back to my bed... I saw it... The door to our room was slightly ajar. I felt my stomach drop and goosebumps crawling all over my body but you know I am the type of a person who is not scared at the moment something happens but get all flustered like a day Or two after the fact. So yes folks I just went right back to my bed and slept till 5 in the morning.(you know how hard it gets for a college student so sleep when you can:)) So yeah now I can lucid dream and I love it even though I never tried to get into the science of it. I fight all my SP dreams now and for some reason they always try to harm me, like sometimes they seat on my chest ,sometimes they choke me and stuff..but I always fight back. Is it really a sleep paralysis if I can move a part of my body? (PS my roommate slept through all that... She is a heavy sleeper so) .. Sorry for the length of the post.. I am new to reddit so...

Its 3AM and I just had sleep paralysis where I couldn't open my eyes or move or speak. I was conscious of my body. I hallucinated the sounds of someone typing on the keypad and coming through the door, but when I was able to open my eyes, the alarm system was still active.

I worked a long shift so maybe it was because of exhaustion? I also have a theory that I have narcolepsy but apparently my sleep study at the hospital was clean.

Just experienced this for the first time I think. Scary 😱 Strange thing is I experienced so much. Closed doors were opened. My daughter was asleep in her bed but hugging me. I also was aware the whole time. So I fought to wake up and fell back into it many times. Please help 🙏

I am now just searching Reddit about SP so I’m fairly new to this thread, but tonight experience was little different.

I’ve experienced SP and very Lucid Dreams since I was a child from what I can remember. Tonight episode was the first time that I encountered this sequence.

I’ve experienced falling asleep and being sucked into a tunnel or a dark space ( with long streaks of lights) follow by loud wind noises. It goes on for 5-10 seconds. First few times, it was scary but now I just learn to breathe slow, and I’m flying through space. I usually wake up and be like, ok that was neat.

This time though, I THOUGHT I woke up! I entered a loop 6x. First time I woke up and walk out my bedroom and it felt like slow motion. Then woke up again but this time walking into the other living room and immediately flash back into my bedroom. Third time, I’m like ok what’s going on…& grabbed my phone and I can see it’s today date and was confused. Then bam woke up to my ceiling again, but shouting for my wife this time to wake me up. All I’m able to do was stay put this time and of course no sound came out as I’m falling into SP moment.

Woke up again to slowly raising my arm up but look fainted. And feeling a tingly sensation. In the past I’m usually calm but this time i didn’t feel like I was dreaming but felt wide awake and real. Trying to stop, collect my thoughts and figure out how to get out of this.

Then woke up again…big difference with this last part was when I screamed for my wife, I actually see a shadow glowly image of her walking up to me screaming. “ …he is not breathing” and then see her jump on top of me checking my pulse and opening my mouth. Assuming she is checking if I’m chocking on something.

At this moment, I can remember my inner voice saying “ oh man, better stay calm and relax your breathing. I think I’m fighting for my life so I better not stop fighting”

Then a woman whispered in my ear a few words very softly that I can’t recall what it was. And at this point I can’t remember if it was my wife or someone else since I already closed my eyes to relaxed.

And then I finally woke up staring at my ceiling again and took me 5seconds to gradually fade into reality. It was a trip.

For me i can hear see and feel which is so scary

hey guys i expperiance sleep paralysis alot and now i know do deal with them i hyperventilate to wake myself up. however in the process of trying to wake myself up i feel so much pressure in my head and chest untill i wake up . anyone has similar experience

Hi guys, I always had sleeping paralysis since my 20, I'm 33 now and before I could feel my body getting into it like just a vibration... recently I started to have sleep paralysis at least 2 a week and for me it always happens now after I wake up in the middle of night and sleep right after... The problem is, my sleep is really broken so it happens all the time....

But now the sensation I have is... I start to feel really really sleepy and heavy, like completely not normal... And then a weird vibration and noise on my face... Like as my body is getting super heavy..

I was able to quit from this stage twice, has anyone experienced that ? This stage of feeling your body getting into that ? It just happened to me now I'm in bed waiting a bit until go back to sleep... I feel like I need to wait a bit or I will get in sleep paralysis again

I have an episode usually every 2/3 months randomly but last night it was so weird.. heard this extremely loud buzzing noise first like.. a phone vibrating extremely loud and my eyes could move but body couldn't.

I could see my cat laying on couch looking at me clearly awake . But obviously I was paralyzed.

Finally fought enough for fingers to move and I woke up. Tried to make myself stay awake for a few minutes so I didn't fall back into it but I did unfortunately.

This time I hear this extremely loud ringtone going off that sounded like high pitched chimes off a phone and a narrator voice (like the AI voice you'd hear on a YouTube ask reddit scary story video) narrating how I would K!LL myself WTF!

Then the loudest ringing and I fought my fingers to move SOOO hard til I woke up and I was finally awake.

Went to bathroom and unfortunately barely got sleep for heading to work that morning at 5 am.

Was soooo ridiculous.

Usually I hear voices in another language or shadow faces/bodies but this was horrifying

This was second time I heard English voices.

Last time couple months ago was first time I heard English speaking and heard a low pitched down voice say "Give me him"

Insanity.

I said these are horrifying but I've had them so often the initial horror only lasts minutes unfortunately cus I'm so used to them I've just expected them. I don't dwell on them anymore but last night was so weird.

Anyone use melatonin as a way to alleviate SP? I know there are studies that suggest melatonin makes it worse but I’ve had the opposite experience. I have frequent SP and would estimate that cbd melatonin gives me 75 percent reduction of incidents. I’m curious if anyone else has had this outcome with Melatonin.

I've had sleep apnea for over a decade. Always been on a sleep machine, though it has never seemingly made things better. My unmatched insomnia just makes it impossible to get a sleep study inside a lab setting instead of at home study. Circadian rhythm has been screwed for a decade. Rarely sleep. Body feels like it only wants sleep every 48hr instead of daily. If I do sleep, it's a miserable 4-8am after a cocktail of sleep meds.

I've had a million instances w/ my severe apnea of waking up, gasping for air, heartrate going 180+bpm. But today was hell on a whole new level.

I almost never have dreams. Maybe due to Ambien keeping me in light sleep or other meds keeping me in light sleep cycle instead of REM. I can literally wake up to a feather dropping on the ground. All my meds make for a very "artificial", non-fulfilling, light stage sleep w/o cycles where I never feel refreshed. Feels equivalent to calling anesthesia sleep.

Today though I did somehow dream. Pleasant. Uneventful. No nightmare. But during this dream, I actually had a severe apnea episode, to the suffocating point that my body thought I was truly dying, and woke me up mid-REM dream cycle. I heard during this REM that everyone's body is naturally paralyzed to not actively act out in your dream state. But at same time, my brain forced me waking up as it could tell I was suffocating to death.

I was completely paralyzed. Heart going ape shit. Unable to breathe. Couldn't move an inch. Couldn't grab my phone to call 911. Tried screaming for my roommate but couldn't speak. Truly felt paralyzed having a heart attack.

By the time I was able to finally move & used a finger oximeter minutes later, heartrate was around 180 with o2 at 92%. I'm sure it was far, far worse during the sleep paralysis event.

Just wondering if anyone else has gone thru this. Any tips :( I am truly traumatized by what happened. Spent all day shaking & crying over what transpired. Now I have this severe PTSD over trying to sleep ever again. I wish there was an emergency hospital setting I could be at to be supervised for my next sleep attempt, this doesn't feel like something that can wait for an appt weeks or months from now....scared for my life honestly. Is there a such thing as emergency sleep study? Or could a hospital actually keep me overnight to watch over my next sleep attempt?

I've heard it's benign/not dangerous supposedly for the normal person. But mixed with sleep apnea of actual, real, suffocation on top of it, I don't see how this wouldn't be insanely deadly :(

My Nan and dad have sleep paralysis and my Nan warned me about it when I was younger and gave me advice for if I ever get it. I’ve had it a few times but about 30 mins ago I had fallen asleep watching asmr which had relaxing music in the background. It had only been a few mins and then I was woken up by scary/distorted music and I opened my eyes and I was still on the same video I went to sleep on. And then I go to reach for my phone and I can’t move. Then I hear 10 huge bangs asif someone is running towards me but the bangs were so so loud. And then it stopped and I heard a presence in my room. But I learned a trick where I try to shake my head to wake up and it works. So I got myself out of it before anything else could happen but I think I’m going to see a doctor because it keeps happening a lot recently and I get too scared and anxious to fall asleep😒

Basically ever since the start of this year Ive been having the weirdest, half-awake-half-asleep experiences ever. But they're never usually super scary, and I can usually move my body when I want to, so I can't tell whether I'm actually experiencing sleep paralysis.

It always starts with me trying to go to sleep, and I get this weird tingling vibration throughout my whole body. It doesnt matter what position I'm in. I literally feel like I'm getting pulled into this state, like its a wave. And my whole body feels like its vibrating, I can feel my breath way too much, and my heart beat.

The first time it happened I literally felt myself being pulled out of my body. I saw myself laying down in bed. Then I was basically flying around the world, while hearing this guy saying my name in my ear, and music all at the same time. Then I was thrown back into my body and woke up.

Last night, the same thing happened. But this time I felt like someone was in my room with a camera. I wasn't scared, I was just annoyed. And I literally spoke in real life (i think), and I was like, "what are you doing? get out." lol. And then this person was gone. And I once again heard someone in my ear saying my name and speaking to me. I kept on waking myself up and going back to sleep, but it just kept happening. Is this normal sleep paralysis?

Hi i’m a M25 and i’ve been having sleep paralysis pretty consistently never longer than 2 weeks without since i was about 9 years old. AMA

First post here. I haven’t had a sleep paralysis ‘episode’ in a while, I think my recent stress may have triggered it last night. My sleep paralysis often pairs with hallucinations, or “sleep demons” or whatever they’re called. I’m in my early 20’s and started getting sleep paralysis around 11. The first thing I always notice is that I can’t move, but I can always open my eyes and then I try to focus on getting movement back in my fingertips. I don’t think that ever really helps much. Almost every-time I try screaming for help, but can’t ever actually make any noise. Onto the hallucination bit, most often I’ve gotten this shadowy figure, usually very tall. It doesn’t move or have any defining features, and doesn’t get affected by the environment around me. Just stands there. I’ve also see the ‘hag’ before, among some other experiences. It was similar enough last night, with a few changes. The first is that it was much closer than it would normally be, just a couple feet away. (I’ve had closer but this happens less often) It was still tall and mostly a silhouette. Instead of it being a smooth human resembling shadow it had all these sharp edges and box-y features. Writing it, it doesn’t sound so scary but I was still terrified at the time. And I noticed this time that it was affected by the lighting. There’s this window to the left of the ‘thing’ where street light comes in and I saw the light reflecting onto its side. Onto all the sharp box-y parts of the silhouette. I got so scared I’m not sure I remember it right but there was a bit of movement and I’m pretty sure that it waved to me. I often get overly worried that I didn’t lock the door and an intruder might have gotten in. So seeing this in my house and actually being affected by the environment, almost like it was really there freaked me out. I’d rather have just had the regular shadow figure. Unfortunately once this starts up it usually sticks around for a while. So how do you guys deal with these “flare ups”? How do you get movement back? When you get those hallucinations, do you just close your eyes until it’s over? I’m a bit scared to go back to sleep.

Background:
About 5 years ago, I used to suffer from chronic sleep paralysis like 4-5 times a day. It didn’t matter if I slept during the day or night, it was constant. Along with the paralysis, I had intense visual and audio hallucinations in that state. It was terrifying.

I saw doctors, got an MRI and EEG , everything came back normal. No diagnosis. One doctor prescribed a low dose of Clonazepam, which helped a little but didn’t really stop the sleep paralysis entirely.

Eventually, it started happening less often, and I got so used to it that it didn’t scare me anymore. I even reached a point where I could tell it was happening and just ride it out without panicking. It just... faded away over time.

But now — it’s coming back.
Not exactly like before, but weird stuff is happening again. Just as I’m about to fall asleep, I’ll suddenly snap back awake. Then my eyes start twitching; feels like it could be REM kicking in too early or something?

And here’s the really weird part: when I close my eyes, I start seeing those "worm-like" lines that we all kind of see in the dark sometimes. But now, my brain automatically turns those lines into shapes or full-on images. Like an instant visual hallucination. It’s creepy and jarring enough that I open my eyes, pause for a bit, then try sleeping again, but it keeps happening. It’s such a weird feeling, I literally think my head might shake from it.

What the hell is this? Anyone experience something like this before?

Was a kid probably around 8years old or so sitting on my bunkbed and as odd as it sounds my dad had a foam toy of Kyle from southpark and had weirdest experience of it jumping on me and like attacking me woke up in a sweat found it and ripped it in half. Never had any sleep paralysis since but was fully real most lucid dream I've ever had. Anyone had sleep paralysis like this instead of a weird shadow which I've heard is the more common? Freaked the shit out of me for couple months now I just find it funny lmao.

I had the first experience in months. Earlier i had totally forgot tht i saw a few posts from this sub. Then as I was falling asleep i felt something that told me it was gonna happen. This episode was kinda long and it felt like I could hear everything around me and move. Now ik the "movement" i experienced was all imagined but it was kinda clever. Ive never really tried to fight it in a way different than normal (for me) so this time I tried to move my extremities and ig my brain tried to create a reason why it was successful and I was no longer in it im my head so while i could "move," any imagined interaction wasnt and it kept reminding me that i wasnt awake. I tried to look at my phone various times and it's like my eyes was blocked. It was not at all in my vision field even though i pu it right in front of my eyes. I kept trying to unplug my alexa playing music bcs i couldn't speak but it wasnt working. And every failed attempt i went back to my initial position of not being able to move. My brain and body gets in so much pain after i recover.

One time, at around 12 am, I randomly got up and started walking around. I was still sleeping, but I couldn't move my body. Or my body wasn't under my command. I was moving, but I wasn't making myself move. But I was fully aware. At one point, I walked toward my older brother who was still awake, and I talked to him. But I was just rambling nonsense. He said that I said something about "I can't go to bed because my socks are still up." And I remember saying this to him.

He was understandably confused, because apparently I was trying to explain something to him, but he wouldn't understand. I do remember that my body, not me, because I wasn't in control, was frustrated at him because he wouldn't understand.

So after failing to explain socks, I just walked back to bed, and my night was normal.

So to sum up, I walked around while not in control but fully aware, it actually happened because my brother confirmed it. I'm not quite sure what it is.

I've only had sleep paralysis 2x in my life. Once when I was young but I can't recall anything about it, and the 2nd was while I was in the military in yuma AZ l. It was short (about 15 to 20s) but really intense. I preyed and soon after it stopped but I haven't had another since so I don't know if it was the prayer or not. I was wondering if someone who gets them frequently would be able to test it out for me and lmk am really curious.

Also if there are other ways you have been able to stop it.

It was really odd. I felt the feeling of pressure on my feet which I’ve never felt before, usually I’m getting pushed or pulled around. However, I started having difficulty breathing and felt pressure around my neck. I’m not sure if maybe my throat was closing up and my brain was playing tricks with me making it feel like i was getting choked. I started to panic and the only thing I could do was breathe rapidly which woke my gf up and she shook me out of it. Very odd

I had a very different version of sleep paralysis this morning. I felt my spirit roaming around my room and above my body, but my dogs eyes would follow wherever I went as if she sensed it? Anyone have similar experiences? I have had it before but stayed in my body and never had my dog intervene. Do y’all think I manifested that in my mind or that my dog truly saw my me roaming around my room? I’m losing it

I dont know how to explain it but, I was super tired and when I slowly started falling asleep, I could feel that I still have consciousness. I couldn't move my limbs and my eyes were shutting on me, but I fought it. I also started seeing things, a dream possibly, in that small moment. I tried looking it up, but I don't really understand what it means.

Am i the only one? who experiences my body is like getting swallowed when experiencing a sleep paralysis and like i can hear every sound in my body? Also i feel like im getting possessed in my sleep paralysis my body just feels weird is there anything that i can do?

I'm 18 and randomly every couple of months I'll have what I think is sleep paralysis but I'm not sure because I'm fully awake when it's happening. I've been watching videos on my phone while laying and my whole body seized up and I couldn't move and it feels like I'm about to die. Another time I felt a pain in my chest and my arms got stuck in place in front of me and it always goes away after like 5 seconds. Is this sleep paralysis?

So when I try to take a nap during day time I experience sleep paralysis. I feel awake but can't move my body, one time I managed to open my eyes but my vision was blurred. It makes me feel scared to fall asleep. Is there anyway to combat this?