[Livia]

It sounds bloody terrifying.

[Withano]

Omg. I thought I literally escaped death the first time I had it. Hate it so much. Havent had it in years but it used to happen fairly regularly at one point (head injury).

[montblanc]

i have it a few times a month sometimes i even have it multiple times a week/night

[Withano]

Its when your brain wakes up before your body. So youre able to think, you just cant move... it just feels like someones attacked/restrained you.

[EspeonBB]

Luckily I've never had it but it does sound awful

[Glenn.]

I get night terrors. Don’t think I’ve ever had sleep paralysis.

Mine will be like alien spider creature things crawling around my room and me thinking theres something in my room. The last one I had was a giraffes body was in my room and it’s head was in the ceiling and I was lookin at it contemplating how I was going to free it.

[Jake.]

Yep. It’s horrifying. Can’t move/talk/do anything until it wears off, even sleep.

[user104658]

I've had it once or twice. Basically your body always paralyses itself in deep sleep for rest / safety but it wears off in lighter sleep cycles before you wake or, if woken from deep sleep, there's supposed to be a signal that snaps you out of it. If that signal doesnt go hough properly then your brain wakes up before your body = sleep paralysis. Happens mostly to people who have odd sleep patterns. Not so much lack of sleep as lack of routine - e.g. It's very common for people who work a combination of day shifts and nights shifts so are constantly shifting their sleeping hours.


Weirdest sleep thing that has happened to me personally though... Wasn't paralysis. I was just drifting off to sleep one night when there was this sudden, insanely loud, "BZZZZZZTTTTTTT" noise like electricity that shot from one ear to the other as though it had shot across the room. I jumped straight up in bed with my heart absolutely pounding. It was some sort of ****ed up auditory hallucination .

[Calderyon]

Yes and it´s horrible.

You try to wake up/open your eyes, but you cannot.

[Sticks]

Similar to what Toy Soldier says.

When you enter REM sleep, where you dream, your body is paralysed so you don't act out your dreams. (Apart from those rare cases where people sleep walk, but that is another issue) When you start waking, something goes wrong and the paralysis continues, and hallucinations occur.

What the hallucinations are depends on the culture. In the medieval period SP gave rise to reports of attacks by Succubus or Succub demons

Post 1950's and sci fi films, the hallucination is of being visited by aliens and having experiments performed by them.

The OP describing something terrifying pressing down on them is a classic SP hallucination, whereby as stated people in earlier times thought they were being attacked by a Succubus (or maybe witches)

[Sticks]

Another sleep problem that can occur is when you are about to drop off, you feel like you have stumbled, possibly due to a stray electrical impulse going up the spine as you were about to go to sleep.

Possibly caused by stress.

[Jack_]

I've never had the hallucinations but get sleep paralysis a few times a year. The first five or so times it happened when I was younger were genuinely terrifying.

The best and quickest way to snap yourself out of it is to concentrate on wiggling your toes and fingers as much as possible. You'll wake yourself up and feel relieved. I believe it's triggered by a lack of sleep, stress and maybe even dehydration?

[Marsh.]

I've had that where when I'm drifting off I suddenly jump out of my skin as though I'm dreaming I'm falling off a cliff or something.

That tends to be when I'm really exhausted to the point where I'm drifting off as soon as I lie down.