Edited by author 09-06-2009 13:26
Hi Lisa

Ahh fantastic, you are almost in control of it without realising it. I'll explain a few things about your case first, then I'll give you some exercises to try out.

You are not alone =) everyone here has varying degrees of SP and it can start from childhood or start later on in life. I tend to find people are more in control of it if they have had it since they were a child. When you go to sleep your body releases a hormone that paralyses the body so we don't lash out or move in our sleep. SP occurs when our "mind" awakens but our body doesn't.

Lisa, you display another gift as well as SP, it is called an OBE (Out Of Body Experience). An OBE feels like you are flying, some people say they can even see themselves and fly to see other people. SP and OBE go hand in hand and people with one of the two can often develop the other. I suffered for a long time with SP and learnt to control it through learning how to OBE, which to me, sounds like you are well on your way to total control too.

Now I have tried putting music on in the background and it just didn't work for me. It may work for you but it must seem like a nuisance so I want to lift your dependency off it. There are many exercises you can do and it is different for everyone. You have OBEs and you say that you can feel the different parts of your body falling asleep so I'm going to try you on some relaxation and some OBE exercises. Maybe try these exercises with the radio turned quieter every night until you can turn it off.

I want you from now on to have a regular bed time. This will help. Also any physical exercise (but not just before you go to bed) will help.

Relaxation Exercise

You may have heard of this one before and it is usually the easiest. Start from the bottom of your body (toes) and work your way up to the top (face). I find it easiest doing this while lying on my back.

1) Take a long deep breath and hold it in for 5 seconds. While you breathe in, tense your toes.

2) Breathe out slowly and release the tension in your toes. Keep thinking about your body sinking into the bed. How heavy your arms are and how far into the bed you are sinking.

Repeat this 3 times on the body part you are on and work up, tensing your legs, hands, arms, tummy, neck/shoulders and finally your face.

3) While doing these exercises and feeling heavy, at some point where you are very relaxed, imagine the most relaxing place you have ever been. For me it is usually a beach. Think about all the details, from the clarity of the water to the softness of the sand. Really believe you are there.

You should drift off into a good sleep away from SP if done correctly.

OBE Exercise

This one is much harder, but if you can master the skill, it will be more enjoyable. Now the only problem with it is trying to become concious enough to follow these instructions while in SP, so I used to induce an SP and try it out. I'll explain more about inducing if this doesn't work or if you are curious, I just found facing my fear head on helped.

1) When you are in an SP close your eyes (if they are open, which sometimes they aren't).

2) Focus your mind into the centre of your head.

3) Imagine you are pushing out of your mind and you are leaving your body.

The SP should disappear and you will be free to roam where you like. Since you have had an OBE before, you should find it easier than others.

Now if you want to, could you answer these questions? Only answer the ones you feel comfortable with.

Do you feel the "fear" while having an SP?

Do you dream a lot, more than the average person and are these dreams usually very adventurous?

Do you have lucid dreams (dreams you can control)?

When you have an OBE, can you see some kind of chord linking your flying body to your real body?

Have you ever suffered from depression?

I just have a theory that depression can be linked heavily to SP. You said that you have it more under stress which is normal but I have a hunch that depression is linked to it.

Give me any feedback, no matter have strange you think you sound.

Sleep well,

Fiz

I have suffered from sleep paralysis since child hood. I get it when I am stressed or tired. I am 36 and it happens more when I am tying to go to sleep then waking up. I have told my husband to wake me up when I start making loud moanings.
When I am going into sleep, I may have a few episodes of S/P. So what I do, is put the radio on and have it on low. I feel that it tricks my brain or what ever it is. With the radio on I can acually feel my body going to sleep first, and then my brain, and this will always work. If I ever wake up from S/P, it does scare me. I know this sounds strange, but I imagine I can fly and I seem to fly around all the bedrooms and check my children. This carms me down and I seem to wake up.
I really just wanted to tell someone, as for years I never new what it was and thought I was going mad.
I would like others to know what method I use to help me. As I did fill I was mad. I used to tell people "it is like my body going to sleep and my brain awake" "Do you ever have that?". Peple would look at me and think I was a bit mad. When I met my husband, he told me that he has suffered from it when he was a child. I did fill a lot better knowing that.

You usually get big drugs companies investing, but in this you don't. What want to know is why there isn't more information so easily available? Why aren't there leaflets etc? My GP didn't know what it was and had never heard of it. The child psychologist I was sent to had no idea too. This place has been the largest source of info I have found.

Already seen the link Helen =P Yeah just ignore the ending, I think since it is a BBC article, it was more for entertainment too.

I have mentioned this before, but one day I would love to make a website of my own using people from here to help. There is so much info out there that needs to be compacted into one simple easy website !

Fiz

Fiz,

I've been reading up on the science of it, they do seem to know what causes it, what they can't seem to explain is why certain individuals get it more often than others. I understand why I got it when I was younger, because I never got any sleep, took random naps, worked strange hours, stress etc. What it doesn't explain why I still get it even though I live a perfectly normal, mostly stress free life and get regular sleep.

I found an interesting webpage that goes into quite a bit of detail and seems to talk about most of the things we've spoken about here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A6092471

It's worth a read.

You said below that scientists haven't looked into it much because there's no physical threat or imminent danger. I think you're right and I think that scientists do need to understand it because even though it doesn't hurt us physically, it doesn't mean that some SP sufferes can't be mentally damaged by it. As most of you are aware it can be quite a traumatic experience, especially the first few times. It's quite possible that someone could think they're totally nuts and go into a downward spiral, or start thinking they're being possessed by Demons every night. I remember once I was lying there and my husband was next to me when I was having SP. I could kinda see him out of the corner of my eye, and then a hallucination kicked in. I could tell he had a manic grin on his face and he wanted to strangle me, I could literally feel the malevolence seeping from him towards me. Once I woke up properly I couldn't face him for a few hours because it felt so real, even though I could see that he was just sleeping peacefully.

That article above did scare me a little towards the end when it was talking about extreme muscle atonia and Sudden Unexplained Nocturnal Death Syndrome. I think that's probably very rare though and we shouldn't worry about it.

Anyway I've just had a total rant, I just came on to post that link, lol!

Alfie that is fantastic. Now are you able to close your eyes or not? If you can, take deep breathes try to relax. Tell yourself you or on a calm ocean (or any other place you find relaxing).

The more you can make yourself relax, the easier you will find it. Eventually after many practises, you should be able to come out of it at will.

Edited by author 04-06-2009 10:05
Fiz i tried what you said last night - took loads of quick breathes and to be fair it went quicker!!

Pretty,

It is me Fionn =P I just use "Fiz" as an alias now. Maybe counselling, like you said, would help you. I know talking about SP with others helps me a great deal. Narcolepsy seems a plausible explanation, people who have it can hallucinate while awake.

Helen,

Scientists still don't fully understand SP and I hope in my life time they do find out what causes it. When you go to sleep, your body releases a hormone to stop the body from moving while you are asleep. Some people actually have a lack of this hormone and act out their dreams which usually means they have to sleep in a padded room in case they hurt themselves. SP is the opposite, when we become concious the hormone stays in our blood stream and we can't move. Since SP can't harm people, not a great deal of research has gone into it.

Well have you heard of Lucid dreaming? You are concious, but also in a dream state. You know you are sleeping and you can control your dreams. Now I can have this from time to time but I think I had it crossed with SP once. This to me, seems similar to Alfie where he seems to have an SP fused with an OBE.

I haven't tried Hemi Sync waves, although I have heard of them. I might try downloading some now and let you all now how it goes.

There are quite a few sleeping conditions linked in with SP. Yet we focus on SP because it scares us.

Nicky Aust,

You have the normal conditions for SP. You talk about breathing exercises? Can you elaborate a bit more on it?

What help would you like from us?

well were to start i get sp at least 3 times a month i have been trying to work with it and not to panic but its hard i always feel there is a presents with me its very unsettling... sometimes i am fully awaken from sp start to go back to sleep and find myself getting pulled back into the relms of being awake and being in sp this is a hard one i have just started breath work were you lay on your back and breath in and out your mouth.. i am feeling the same things as sp when i am trying to come back to a waking state so has any one tryed this if so let me know

everyone should check out 'Hemi Sync' brain waves... great for inducing lucid dreaming..(Mp3 that are listen too through head phones while you sleep a night) Yall be happy you gots SP.. its state of consciousness is a perfect gateway for lucid dreaming and OOBE's !!

Evening all.

Pretty - I've been looking over some of your old posts to catch up with what you've been experiencing. I can't find the first posts though so I don't know exactly what you're going through. I did notice that you mentioned seeing certain things, such as orbs and other strange things when you were walking about. I assume you really were walking about and not lying in bed having a vivid dream? Have you ever been to a Doctor about this? If it is related to SP then you may also have Narcolepsy, the two often go hand in hand. It may explain why you see things other than when you're in bed as this condition can put you into a similar state as SP when active. I understand that this is your reality but I'm not sure if SP can explain everything here, it may take someone more professional, though I know Doctors can be pretty useless sometimes. I'm not particularly religious myself but have you spoken to a spiritual adviser at all?

Fiz - I've not read up on theories behind SP, I'm a pretty scientific person but when I feel presences as strong and evil feeling as that it does make me wonder. Why are the presences always a threat? Why are they never a calming influence?

I don't quite understand your question about having SP whilst dreaming. Surely if you're dreaming, you're asleep and not semi-conscious? You might need to elaborate further on this for me to understand. My SP usually involves me staring at my ceiling feeling freaked out.

I don't know how often the average person remembers a dream, i tend to remember a couple a night. I have similar dreams to what you described, usually world saving adventures or just random and quite imaginative scenarios. I read quite a lot so maybe my mind gets carried away! I too can wake up, go to the loo and then go back into the same dream. If i go into SP after a dream i can sometimes manipulate it a bit and then go back into it (usually only if i'm enjoying the dream, otherwise I try to get up and then the terror begins!)

This is evolving into some interesting and surreal discussions!

Hello Fiz,
Thank you for the warm welcome,
This stuff is so deep, it tires me out thinking about it. However i know what is real to me. I don't even want to think about it, because my romantic notion of life went out of the window ages ago. I use to cry my eyes out at one stage, because i thought i was going mad! I did that for years. At one time i had sp so often my brains felt as though they had been mashine washed and tumble dryed just for good measure. I was like a zombie and all i wanted to do was sleep and it would happen again.

Alfie,

Out Of Body Experience. I've never had a natural one, I've always induced it sadly so I can't tell you what its like on its own. It can be very pleasant usually.

Would you like to induce one? Tell me when you can relax in an SP and then you are almost there.

It is true you grow used to SP, I kind of miss having it every night (sorry to those who hate having it nightly, but you might miss it if you only have it once every few months) and I used to love experimenting too.

Pretty,

Welcome back =) Long time no see.

No you don't freak us out, you have an interesting perspective on the unexplainable. Sorry, but I still believe you display one of the symptoms of SP where people think they are being visited by UFOs, I can't remember the name exactly. Although who is to say that all this isn't something messing with our minds? If I did go down that route though, I think I would scare myself so I would prefer to think otherwise. Some people also believe that SP is the dead trying to talk to us, an OBE is us reaching out to heaven and an AP is heaven itself. I love that ideology. Although I don't believe in it sadly =P

I welcome any more ideas on what SP is, it is all quite interesting.

Fiz

Hi Everyone,

Sorry if i've offended anyone with what i beleive is my Sp, regarding aliens and UFO's. I can't help that. I know when i am awake or not and as i have said before 9/10 my head has hardly hit the pillow when boof!! the magic wand touches the back of my head, get the buzzing and static...then the bright white light.
I do not beleive that having woken up in sp, and being physically dragged on my tummy, nightee rolled up as i went along was a halucination!-
My senses were on red alert that night. No way was that a dream or halucination! I am not a UFO nut or anything like that. Suffice to say i have seen a few! I just want to be ordinary and i want a normal life, not all this shit! Infact i think councelling wouldn't be a bad idea, but no one will help me. This site has been a fantastic release for me, however i cannot seem to grasp this OOB idea that seems to work for some of you.
I have had it twice, but it was so random..i never induced it, it did it on it's own to me. The recent one was when i refused to open my eyes!
The first one was th enight after i saw an alien by the bed.
Anyway aside from all that i have another little theory of my own i just recently thought of. Some say the causes of sp stem from depression, tiredness, etc. What if sp gets to you when you are at your most vunerable? Which is when one or the other apply. You may not be physically vunerable, but mentally you could be. In walks the entity, messing with your head. Well it can do what it likes, can't it? The Alien told me they would never hurt me and will always be with me. Also apologised for frightening me. Fuck knows what it could do if it didn't have such an aulturistic nature! It doe's not bare thinking about. So i have no choice to think the way that i do. The little man has certainly tinklered around inside my head. Fixed my teeth, allsorts! Suffice to say there have been times where i have been in shock for weeks, sometimes months or my head feels fuggy and i've felt like the wind has been taken out of my sails and i've felt deflated and in need of a mental rest. Like my brain needs to settle down again as it can take sometime to reajust from whatever has been done to me. Truth to tell, i only saw the alien once, but i'm sure it's him.
I hope everyones ok. Sorry if i'm a bore to some of you, but this is the truth as i know it. It is my reality. xxx

OBE?? Never heard of this one before - i had read it up now though.

All i remember was getting lifted to the ceiling - once i was out of bed i crawled about the floor and to the toilet & back

However i never have had OBE again apart from that "one" time (I did watch a scary film though that night plus i was really tired as i came back from South of france on a long coach trip! - i must admit SP dont really bother me now i have got used to it

But OBE scared the life out of me!

Edited by author 03-06-2009 15:20
Alfie,

Yes you have all the normal conditions for SP. If you are having them once a week, then you can almost predict when they will occur? If you want to, you could try closing your eyes, and tell yourself over and over again to relax while you are having an SP. Not only will this get you out of SP but you also fall into a deep sleep and you won't have to let it disrupt your night.

Tell me if this works, if it doesn't then we can try other methods if you'd like.

Now the being thrown about the room sounds to me like you had an OBE crossed with SP. Have you ever been on the point of sleep and felt like you were falling backwards and then woken up? Was this what the feeling was like? Sometimes if I have an OBE, and then I wake up, it feels like I'm falling down to my bed from a great height, almost like being in free fall. Hmm strange, never been thrown around the room but I am sure it is all part of SP.

I've heard plenty of people say that their partner can see them in an SP but I don't have a partner to watch me so I can't say that I show anything. If you look on youtube, you can watch people having it and they do heavily breathe and twitch.

Helen,

OK I had the same problem at first. Say this out loud maybe every hour or so, "I will have a Sleep Paralysis tonight." Repeat this to yourself and just quietly whisper it while you are at work or something so people don't think you are strange. When you go to bed, keep saying it to yourself as a kind of chant while thinking of the feelings that are experienced in SP. It will happen one day. I find that an induced SP is a lot more controlled and can help you achieve an OBE or, if you want, it is easier to wake up from.

Question time.

When you guys wake into SP do you feel really tired and a bit fuzzy or do you feel completely clear headed and conscious?

Yes I feel drowsy and blurry and my eyes usually like to look upwards as if they are trying to roll back into my head. My controlled induced SPs can sometimes let me be more concious and that's how I play around with it, however this has only started recently. Before I induced, blurry and fuzzy were all I had.

Do you have SP when you're going into a sleep, or when you're coming out?

I have them when going to sleep, while mid sleep, in dreams and in the morning when I should be getting out of bed.

Do you dream a lot, like more than the average person?

I dream a hell of a lot. This thought has crossed my mind loads, people usually talk about the one dream they had last night whereas I can sometimes think of up to five I had in one night. Strangely when I dream, then wake up (for the toilet or something), and then go back to bed again I sometimes carry on that dream. Strangely my dreams usually are like stories. They can have complex plots and include amazing adventures. I really should write some of them down, publish a book and make millions =D I dream very lucidly some nights too. How many dreams are we meant to remember or have a night?

Lastly, have you ever been told that you sleep with your eyes open?

I have been told by my friends that I sometimes sleep with my eyes open, however again my eyes seem to flicker and look upwards which is where I think SP is connected there.

Now a question for you !

Do you have SP while dreaming?

Very rarely I have a really nasty violent dream where I witness a killing, then the murderer may come over to me, at which point I collapse and feel the fear. The person who was violent is usually the person who becomes the "presence" that I know is there. Strangely I can be stuck concious in the dream, or I open my eyes and the SP becomes just another normal episode.

Fiz

Helen,

i get it going into a sleep.