Sorry for the double post but I have some questions that I've had over the years for other SP sufferers.

When you guys wake into SP do you feel really tired and a bit fuzzy or do you feel completely clear headed and conscious? Personally I feel tired and fuzzy which is why I think I find it hard to have rational thoughts when I'm in SP.

Do you have SP when you're going into a sleep, or when you're coming out? I have both but about 95% of the time it's when I'm coming out of a sleep. I only get it going into a sleep directly after I've just had an episode.

Do you dream a lot, like more than the average person? My husband has about 1 dream that he remembers a month, I know this because he always tells me about it in great detail (and usually they're really boring!) I have quite vivid dreams most nights.

Lastly, have you ever been told that you sleep with your eyes open? I often wondered if I got SP because I've been told that I sometimes sleep with my eyes open. Now I think maybe my eyes were only open because I was in SP.

I think that's all for now!

Fiz - I've been trying to put myself into SP all weekend (well not all weekend, only the bits where I was in bed!) but I couldn't make it happen. I'm quite surprised because I've had hardly any sleep and have been ill, usually it'll come quite often then. I did have it in the middle of the night last night when I wasn't expecting it and the fear came before I could control it. I felt like there were a number of presences in the room and got really scared. It's so irrational because when you wake up properly and calm down a bit you know they can't be real! Grr!

Alfie - To answer your question about another person being able to see if you're in SP I think they can, but it's quite subtle. My husband often hears my breathing going strange or hears me make strange muffled sounds. Usually he'll give me a shake to snap me out of it. He's never said anything about seeing me try to move though. Once I thought I was squeezing his arm but he said I wasn't.

Kerry/Fiz - I wouldn't be surprised if SP was linked to depression in some way. I don't suffer from depression myself but both SP and some types of depression can be connected to stress, tiredness, strange sleep patterns, lack of routine etc.

Edited by author 02-06-2009 16:45
(sorry for adding this on another post)

When I get SP now it’s the normal symptoms that everyone goes on about & I’m used to that however I remember my first 2 times

Has anyone felt like this before?

Woke up and SP started – I remember getting lifted up really high my whole body out of my bed, then getting smashed down – and actually fell out of my bed smashing my head against my bedside cabinet.

I slept the rest of the night on the floor I was only 15, to be honest I don’t think this as S.P just some nutty sleep happening

However I get S.P now nearly once a week or more and the normal symptoms occur – the chest tightening etc – but It only goes on for the normal 10 seconds or so then its over

I have suffered with this condition since i was about 15 if i can remember rightly

The funny thing is i know when its coming now and you do learn to deal with it. You try to move when you know its going to happen, but its no use.

I sleep on my own currently - and I would like to know if you see another person or myself foe example going through a spell can you actually see them trying to move slightly or speak - like i try to do?

Edited by author 01-06-2009 21:53
Kerry,

I think I too suffer from deep depression but I've never talked about it. Sometimes I just want to crawl away and be upset with myself, then some days I'll be really happy and wonder why I was so depressed. My parents often tell me how paranoid I can be sometimes and how I need to get back to being myself. I think my SP is deeply linked to depression but I'm not sure how I'd prove it.

Athulas,

I know what you're saying, I thought I was crazy until I came here. Its quite hard to get all the info you want all in one place, luckily you'll find most of the stuff you want here from others who experience it. Being aware of a presence and having the weight on your chest is perfectly normal (well normal for SP) but voices is rarer. I will admit I have maybe only had 1 or 2 where I can hear voices. Being in a new routine for sleeping such as being in a caravan can make things more difficult. Just try and relax as best you can. I know it may seem hard at first, but with practice you will master it.

Helen,

I induce it by relaxing my body. I relax each muscle, I take long deep breathes and keep telling myself I am sinking through the floor. I then think about nothing but my past experiences of SP as I drift off to sleep. Usually this works although it isn't 100%. Also I have noticed that when I dream, sometimes I think of SP and then it happens. It has helped me to control it, knowing that I can control when I want to have one.

Victoria,

Usually in an OBE I get too excited and wake up. The hardest part is to keep in that state of mind. Have you ever had a dream that was so brilliant and you were so happy you woke up and then wanted to be in that dream again? This is what that is like.

Its probably an AP (Astral Projection) that you could be scared about. I've had one and I think I'd love to try it again. Basically I went beyond an OBE. I pushed through it and saw all kind of strange explosions of light and I had intense emotions swimming around. People say its your conciousness talking to you, I think it was more like a fit but a pleasant one. It is incredibly hard to do and many don't succeed but after it, I felt very replenished.

All,

Think of SP as a gift and not something you should be frightened of. I mean how many other people can say they have SP regularly? How many people have you talked to can say they can control their dreams? When I first started to learn this stuff, I thought Flash was off his head. Just bare with me if my info seems a bit strange.

Above all else, as Flash put it, just relax.

Fiz (I won't be using Fionn now in case someone I know comes across this site)

thanks fionn/fiz you advice is really helpful and its nice to know i'm not the only sufferer the next time i have SP i'll take your advice on board and relax. I know it's gunna be hard to do, because when SP does happen panic sets in and i just freak out. i'm not worried anymore, i know i can't stop it from happening so i might as well control it :D
the worst time i panicked, was when the quilt was over my face and SP happened i couldnt move the quilt and thought i was going to suffocate it was truly terrifying.
OBE sounds really interesting, but is it really safe? i'm just worried i won't be able to return to my body :S has anyone got a fun experience of it?? x

Thanks for your advice Fiz. I'll certainly try to relax the next time before the fear grips me (though perhaps that's easier said than done). You said that you can induce SP now, how do you do that? I wonder if I would feel more in control and less terrified if I went into it willingly. It's worth a shot, I obviously can't get rid of it so if I can make it a more plesant experience I'm willing to try anything.

Althulas - I sometimes think I'm in my old bedroom at my parent's house, which just adds to the confusion when I wake up properly in my own bedroom.

I thought I was a bit nuts untill I came across this site and have found an answer I hope to my experinces.

 Since I've been 17 I have suffered from episodes of being partially awake but when I try to wake up I can not move and I get increasingly painfull pains in the head as if something is trying to be forced into my fore head. I'm also experience a weight on my chest and sometimes my legs as if someone is sitting on them. Occasionally I,m aware of another presence and sometimes I can hear voices which are not very plesant. The experiences can be very disconcerting to say the least.

Occasionally though I sure I'm in a different place ie back at my parents place or at my grand parents old caravan long gone though and does confuse me to time place when I'm able to get moving.

thanx fionne/fiz i hadnt it for a while i had it when i was fifteen and i really panicked. Then after havin my first child i got postnatel depression and panic attacks struggled sleeping ect so it came bak. I was then ok for a few years but after havin my 2nd child i started getting it again. He is now 6mths n still not sleeping through the night so i think it is a cobination of factors for me. The way i deal with it is 2 try and relax and then try 2 move one part of my body. I still panic sumtimes but at least i know other ppl av got it now and that has reasured me

Just relax..

Edited by author 30-05-2009 21:56
Victoria,

SP occurs most under stress, when you have done little or no exercise, when you aren't in a regular routine for going to sleep and when you are very tired.

Try having a regular routine for bed time and don't go to bed too late. When you sleep, try not to sleep on your back although I can have SP on my front or side too. Any exercise you do should be in the morning and not at night.

As I said to Helen, if you know you are in an SP, shut your eyes and relax. You should fall into a really deep sleep, have lucid dream (a dream you control) or you can have an OBE which I quite enjoy.

I hope this helps,

Fionn (Fiz) - I really should start to use my alias from now on.

Oh and don't worry about where you have SP, I have had it in all sorts of crazy places but I my body usually reacts just before I "feel the fear" and I drag myself out of it.

... and I felt so tired so i lay on the park bench and tried to go to sleep , and i did with one arm hanging off the bench. And suddenly i grew conscious again, so obviously i wanted to wake up, but yet again i had sleep paralysis and funnily enough when i woke i had one arm hanging off my bed. it was bizarre, i think it was because i was over tired but im not sure. what does everyone else think of this? x

I just thought that there was a chance it could be hereditary, because my brothers do suffer from it although not as often as me. Jessica thanks for the feedback it’s was helpful :D and Peter isn't there anybody in your family who suffers with sleep paralysis? If not that's extraordinary, because everybody I have met who suffers has some relatives who also experience it. And, also yes I mostly have sleep paralysis when I'm having a bad dream, it's like my mind is always concious, so it knows when I am having a bad dream and so logically it wants to wake up away from the dream but of course then I cannot move my body. And i think when people say they can move their little finger for example. I cannot, I can't move anything I can't even talk, I just have to anxiously wait there willing my body to wake.
I actually logged on-line to tell everybody about another episode i had last night and I didn't expect any feedback, but I am really grateful for it. thanks.
So, last night I was having a weird dream, i was in the park

Helen,

Your experiences are very normal. Under stress SP does become worse.

So you want to control SP and eventually learn how to play with it. Well Flash taught me to a certain extent but after that you're on your own and you have to find your own methods. Once I started to play with it, it brought my SP right under control. I have got the stage where I can even induce SP.

From what you are saying, sometimes you can recognise you are in SP? If you can recognise you are having one then that is the hardest part over (well it was for me anyway).

Once you know you are in an SP, as hard as this may seem, close your eyes. Now focus all your thoughts into the centre of your mind. Now push your thoughts out of your body, like you are leaving your physical body behind. Keep pushing until you think your nose is touching the ceiling. Now for me it is as if my eyes open (even though I must be dreaming this bit) and I can fly around the room. I can control my dreams from this point onwards. Sometimes I can even see my body sleeping below me.

If you leave your body it is called an OBE (Out of Body Experience). Once you have managed to do one of these then tell me and I'll see if I can teach you how to Astral Project.

Now the technique above can be manipulated, if you think that concentrating on the flying motion then do that instead. If you don't want to open your eyes, then keep them shut. Its the sensation of weightlessness that you should feel.

1) Recognise your SP

2) Shut your eyes

3) Fly away

This should really help bring SP under control, and should even reduce the fear you have.

Hope this helps x

Hello all,

I just stumbled upon this website after reading a rubbish gossip magazine that was going on about UFO encounters. I don't believe all that stuff but one of the reason's the Doctors gave for encounters was SP. After reading the article I decided to look SP out of interest as I always thought SP was linked to Narcolepsy. I dismissed SP as a cause for my strange 'sleep' experiences years ago as I've never suffered from Narcolepsy.

After reading this website I now realise that you can have SP without Narcolepsy, and after reading about all of your experiences I no longer feel like a freak!

I would like to ask how often you guys get SP? When I was at Uni I used to get it every other day, often more than once in the same sleep. Now I realise that could have been down to stress, working during the nights and napping in the afternoon. It got so bad at Uni that I used to ask my flatmates to shout my name if I wasn't up after a couple of hours, or I would set my alarm as that usually got me out of it.

I'm a person who likes to be in control of myself, so when I enter this state I tend to panic and find it hard to relax. I have quite bad asthma and often when I have SP I'll have trouble breathing which automatically sends me into a panic. When I am able to calm down I find I can kind of go into a dream and manipulate it (though not be entirly in control). One time I just lay not resisting it, staring at the ceiling listening to this music that wasn't there when I woke up properly.

The scariest experience I've had was when I was unemployed (therefore having a nap!). I was convinced that my husband's crazy ex tenant had walked into the room and threatened me, but I was just lying there paralysed, unable to move or scream out. It was so terrifying and real, I was convinced it had really happened for hours afterwards.

Ever since I got married and now have normal working hours I've had it less (a few times a month), though I have a feeling that's due to my husband waking me up with his snoring and because his alarm always wakes me at the ungodly hour of 5.30am every morning. Sometimes I get it in the middle of the night and it really freaks my husband out as he hears me breathing funny or making strange noises (usually me trying to wake him up to wake me up!)

I'd like to be able to control it or even have some fun with it like some of you have. I don't feel like I have a lot of control and I do that thing where I think I've woken up out of it, only to realise I’m sill lying there.

It's good to be able to tell folk all that stuff! I've not told my husband about it as he dismisses everything that's not been diagnosed by a Doctor, he just thinks i'm having bad dreams.

Nice to meet you all :)

Fionn,

I tell you Fionn when I first started coming to this site and the talk about OBE and astral plane scared the crap out of me. I've always been told that stuff is straight mumbo jumbo and the astral plane is a very dangerous place. So I think when i finally did start to float to the celing and the vibration state was at it's fiercest I called my family doctor. You see my daughter is epileptic so i didn't know if I was starting to develop into that. She sugested Sp and in turn refered me to a neurologist. There he said I had sleep apnea and SP would be a side effect. I was ok with this answer until the Sp episodes became super dark and scary. I was being snatched up by my feet in my sleep and when I cried out i'd felt like I was being thrown back to my body. After awhile I called bck to my doctors and then went to see a shrink and my pastor as I felt like something out a horror movie. Again they all agreed with the SP and you know almost like magic my SP episodes seem to have almost completely gone. But, in place I've been having lucid reams more regularly. Quite funny I don't even realise that they were LD until after I woke up. Only once i've had the vibrations and I decided agianst persuing them because I had to get the kids up for school.

I think this site has helped a bit but, for a time it was fueling my anxiety as well. But, the most i've taken away from this site is the support and open discussion about it all. My husband looks at me like i've lost my mind and grew a third foot.

Anyway this is rambling but I feel that no matter what road of support a person chooses to take it's important that you get support. For me it was RL one on one and for others it's here.

Maisy (wow, they need spell check on this site :)