Any experiences with sleep paralysis?

I have had it from time to time thought thankfully not for a while now. I never really had any instances of a dark presence or any presence for that matter - just rather feeling extremely helpless and vulnerable. It's a nasty business. Absurdly I have seen been in the peculiar predicament of eventually gaining use of one of my hands/arm and painstakingly slowly moving towards my head to shake myself awake - a paradox of sorts.

I had them a few times many years ago. I read that eating and physical exercise before going to sleep would stop them. That worked for me.

There are different stages of sleep. And everyone is paralyzed during the deepest stage. My belief is that stage(s) are being skipped or passed too quickly which doesn't allow muscle control to return.

I used to when I was younger. I seemed to have grown out of it in my thirties. It's been a while since I had an episode thankfully.

When I was a junior and a senior in high school I asked my parents to purchase some gym equipment (dumbbells, bench, would also run in place for cardio, push-ups, etc) which I had in my bedroom (I had a slightly larger than average bedroom so there was plenty of space).

Shortly before going to sleep I would workout almost every evening.

I would break a sweat... then I would take a shower and go to sleep.

This was many years ago, but I experienced very weird stuff.

Tightness of my entire body, not every evening, but maybe a handful of times during those last 2 years of high school... I can still swear to this day that I woke up in the middle of the night, unable to open my eyes and I felt like there was a short person sitting on top of my chest, holding both my arms in the middle of the night, imagine like being a mummy... wrapped... like in a straight jacket but with a weight on top of your chest and also unable to open your eyes.

It lasted maybe a couple of minutes (less than 3 minutes), when I was able to finally open my eyes struggling with my own eyelids... there was no one in my room but I was so scared I ran to my parents bedroom and I was like 16 or 17 years old.

I don't know if it was working out or if that house is/was haunted... I do know it had previous owner who were older people.

My parents still live there and can hear the house "settling" every once in a while.

This type of thing has never happened to me anywhere else I've lived (I don't workout like that anymore though and I'm in my 30s, I don't have that type of teenage energy in me either lol).

I am going to assume the logical thing is that the working out and my body growing... maybe also the drastic changes in temperatures and my muscles, blood flowing... since I used to workout, get warm, then take a shower and immediately go to sleep (I would usually have my room A/C unit on every night really cold when going to sleep).

I get them every now and then. They're pretty terrifying. I noticed that when they happen I experience a dream that is even more strange than they normally are.

I've not had it but it sounds terrifying.

i was watching this youtube video from electronics expert Big Clive , about a night lite , where he explains he has hypnogogia
https://youtu.be/bw8Rz_8Bfos?t=103

Lots of responses from fellow sufferers in the comment section

I've had sleep paralysis many times periodically throughout my life; however, they've stopped in my mid-twenties.

I'll just cut to it, and hope anything I write will be helpful. Usually when sleep paralysis happens, or when sleeping/dreaming or in deep meditation or even when watching tv, our minds may become VERY sensitive. And from experience, and talking to and reading about other people's experiences, is that FEAR seems to have a pronounced effect on one's self.

What you need to KNOW, to ACKNOWLEDGE, is that you deal with sleep paralysis. You really need to believe it so much so you KNOW when sleep paralysis is happening, and that there is NO NEED TO HAVE FEAR BUT JUST SLOWLY EXHALE while knowing everything is okay.

Once when I realized [and accepted] that I was having a sleep paralysis event (I remembered to have NO FEAR -- there's zero reason to), there was like a "pop", and a release in pressure. And then I was able to move and breathe comfortably. I haven't had those types of waking sleep paralysis since then. That was about 13 years ago or so.


1) Be able to acknowledge when you're having a sleep paralysis "occurrence"
2) Acknowledge there is no reason to fear anything. FEAR is POISON.
3) You TRULY need to believe 1 and 2 and remind yourself of it with positive emotion and energy during your waking hours; this helps to program your subconscious.

I had one a couple of months ago. I usually get it every once in a while.

It happens more frequently whenever I'm super stressed out.