Anybody ever woken up and not been able to move?

[Happyman88]

lol.

[Dorza]

I used to get this quite regularly when I was a teenager. I was always aware I was awake and never hallucinated, I could just never move lol. It is disconcerting not being able to move and mine would last more than 30 seconds; your totally helpless.

They believe this and hallucinating leads certain people to believe they have been abducted by aliens. Pretty much everyone has this paralysis happen to them when they fall asleep. As nick said before it stops your muscles acting out your dreams. It's just some peoples brains wakeup before their brain tells their body to wake up.

On the flip side of this some people don't get paralyzed when they sleep and have acted out their dreams. There was a documentary on it last year I think... It's amazing what people have done when their sleeping; driving, eating, acting like their awake and some people have murdered and not remembered anything when they wake up.

[moogle]

Nope. But sometimes when I'm just about to drift off.. like semi awake semi asleep.. say if I'm dreaming/thinking of falling over sometimes my leg will like jump and i'll wake up.

Same here, if I fall in a full dream its not affected, if I'm about to die in a dream then its a big shudder and I'm awake. I woke up the other day and I couldn't move my arm. Thats only because I was sleeping on it

[chicken]

With the falling thing, if you're really tired, try closing your eyes and rolling them upwards back into your head. If you're tired enough you'll feel the falling sensation. Your eyes roll up when you fall asleep, it's only later that they start jittering about in REM.

I think it's just the crossover point between being awake and being asleep. If you're conscious enough to observe it then you'll feel like you're falling, panic and wake up again. Learning not to panic might be a handy way into lucid dreaming?

[klarrix]

[0iD]

I used to get the paralysis thing a lot when i was yonger, stopped happening in my 20's prettymuch.

[Blackmage]

i get it from time to time. it feels like a double dream

[[GSV]Trig]

I fell asleep face down on my own arms once, when I woke up I couldnt move my arms for a few minutes, thats about as close as I got lol...

[pollaxe]

I heard another theory on the falling thing: that it was a reaction to a change in heart rhythm. I've no idea if that's true, could be an urban myth of course.

I remember seeing a video of a cat which they'd injected with something to counteract the muscle paralysis the brain induces during sleep and the cat was obviously dreaming about fighting because it was lashing out and hissing whilst it was still sound asleep. Quite freaky.

A mate of mine had the sleep paralysis thing once but he said at the time he was convinced it was some otherwordly presence because it moved up from his feet to his chest and he said it felt just like someone was lying on top of him.

On the point of sleep I used to get vivid images/hallucinations too (when I was much younger) and it used to wake me up a fair bit. Now I'm old and knackered, I don't get that, thankfully.

[Dareos]

My ex used to complain of waking up and being unable to move with nothing apparently holding her down, she was even able to make moaning noises, although she was incapable of full speech at these times.


After a little experimentation though, i finally got the dose right and she couldnt make any noise.

[Moonshade]

No haven't really experienced that, although I've woken up in the middle of a dream and felt paralysed, but just for a short while. Sounds scary..

-- Moonshade

[kalniel]

Not had this one. I do have sudden muscle contraction occasionally, probably caused by a minor heart disrythmia.

Most annoying one is always being poked awake by the gf, after she's been convinced I've stopped breathing.

[Spud1]

I've had this one, the waking up paralysed thing..I always assumed it was because I was half dreaming and half awake..but definitely terrifying the first few times it happened.

I get it less often now though, and when I do I tend to realise whats happening very quickly, so I can just relax myself and wake up.

[redsky009]

After a little experimentation though, i finally got the dose right and she couldnt make any noise.

You owe me a new keyboard, I spat my tea all over it when I read this... you naughty so and so...

[DerbyJon]

I used to get this regularly when in my mid-teens. Would normally happen when my mum came into the room and flung the curtains open because I wasn't up on time. I could see the brightness increase when she opened the curtains and hear her talking to me. However I couldn't move a muscle to either answer her or get up. Would agree with the 20-30 second duration.

[iranu]

I've only ever had sleep paralysis once. I knew what it was so it didn't scare me. It certainly is weird.

This happens to people all over the world and different cultures interpret it in different ways. In Britain it was attributed to a hag sitting on you. In the USA it is now aliens because people often percieve a figure standing over them.