Night terrors? Waking up and still seeing your nightmare? I used to have those all the time, they freaking suck.

Im not a doctor, but I don't think those are good or common. Maybe it's just me but I've never gotten it, thankfully. I think Op and anyone else that gets them should go see a doctor ...

Sleep paralysis is actually reasonably common (around 15% have experienced it at some point) in the general population and it's presence has been well documented in history (see "the hag" for an artist's conception). While yes, it can be overwhelming and close to terrifying at times, there is not a whole lot to be done except either deal with it, or use it as an easy way to enter lucid dreaming.

I love lucid dreaming. (not sleep paralysis however). But if it happens just right you can control a very real sandbox world or your imagination.

I had the same thing. I woke up and couldnt move. I could see a dark figure right next to me. Haunts me to this day.

I have a 'form' of sleep paralysis. I know I'm awake, but I can't move, can't open my eyes. And these terrible images of scary things come up(with the background of my room), I try to scream or make noise to get someone's attention, but I've been told they don't hear me. It's actually really terrifying. And afterwards I get dragged back into sleep, the next two hours I spend fighting to wake up. I've tried to tell doctors, they won't listen or don't believe me :(.

And feeling the 'old hag' on top of oneself, ugh. Still cannot sleep on my back after that night.

This happened to me a couple of times. Mostly when I'm trying to nap in the middle of the day. I can walk around and everything though. Once I was trying to call someone to help me while in the dream cause I was so freaked out. When I went to see if someone was downstairs there was just this big dark figure standing there staring at me.

Some people try to induce sleep paralysis, it is an easy way gateway for lucid dreaming or phenomenon known as OBEs (not discussing OBEs). If you know it's sleep paralysis, don't be afraid of it and simply relax. Best experiences ever.

I got sleep paralysis for the first time when I was 13, I was so scared, and I felt like I was underwater... Weird.

I get it where I can't move and feel like my chest is being sat on so I suffocate! Sucks :(

Some one please explain this (old hag) thing for me and others. Sounds interesting

#60 as you can see, back then people didn't have the technology to explain why things happened as they did (thats why gods came about). In ancient times they had a saying, a very old women would come and see you at night. You would not be able to move or scream for any help. The saying goes that the old women would come to you in your sleep and "Sit" on your chest. (that explained the heavy feeling In your chest). This phenomenon stemmed off to many different things. "The Succubus/Incubus", Alien abductions(The modern term for it), and "The Old Hag". The most interesting one for me is the story of "The Rake". If you wanna know more it's best to search it up. It's really interesting, and scary. If you believe in that kinda stuff.

How does that happen, someone explain?

One time I was having me first lucid dream and I couldn't see anything, but I heard several scary voices around me whispering that they were going to kill me. While trying to fight to wake up the voices get louder and closer until I finally woke up ;_;

Alright, before everyone calls me stupid... I'm sorry. But I've never heard of this before. Is it similar to when you have a sensation of falling or completely different?

YOU TOO?!?!?!? Stuff like that ALWAYS happens to me!!!! Just the backgrounds not always my room, but usually is!!!!

My version is kind of weird. I would wake up after a nightmare, and not be able to move. Since the nightmare is still fresh in my mind, I get scared. Being paralyzed made it so I couldn't move, but could open and use my eyes. I tried to scream, but couldn't make any sound. It lasted for about 15 hellish minutes. I'm actually not sure if it's common or not? Just wanted to know if it is.

7 it's called oboe (out of body experience)

66- Where do people come up with stuff like The Rake or Slenderman?

I've woken during the REM stage of my sleep to find the reaper in the corner of my room. I know I was just hallucinating, but it was so scary when it hovered over me and I couldn't move. I can't sleep without facing my door now. Sleep paralysis is horrible! ):

93 the same happened to me once, scariest experience ever. I don't know if it's common.

I've heard of jet-lag, but damn.

It isn't a medical problem, as far as I'm aware, it just means his mind was concious but his body wasn't.

That was meant to be a comment, not a reply. Sorry 'bout that!

Would have been a better fml if he had a massive boner also.

Don't think that would be possible...

Sleep paralysis is perfectly normal.

That happens to me once every couple of months and I have to go back to sleep and wake up again and hope I can move. It sucks because I can't speak then all I can do is blink. It worries me that this will happen when I wake up in the morning before school. It takes a good 10-30 minutes to be able to move again

I've gone to the doctor about this and I knew more on the subject than they did :T

Jut a question, how does this happen? Does anybody know? I would be terrified because I have not heard of it until now, I'm so sorry OP.

Go read 1's thread, it should enlighten you. I've had it in first period during school and was having a meltdown in my mind because I could hear the teacher giving instructions and walking around but I couldn't move or wake up. I was terrified she would think I was unconcious or in a coma or something. Not a fun time.

I had SP in class once, too... It was horrible.

Meh, just ask DocBastard

It's not medically treatable. I get sleep paralysis the night before I get a migraine. It usually takes about 20 minutes for my body to catch up.

58- You're right, it's not treatable directly, but they've seen some degree of success with certain sleep medications, epilepsy medications, and some anti-psychotics and anti-depressants. It's kind of a touch and go thing, to see if anything works.

80, if it's not treatable, I don't see why I should pursue medication that "might" off-set more things to happen to me.

It's not directly treatable, but the symptoms and frequency of it can be relieved. I also only said that you should seek help if it happens often. There are some people that get stuck like that for a long time, more than just thirty minutes, and it happens to them every day. It becomes crippling, and so for some people attempting to treat it is necessary. For those people there is usually an underlying condition, and if you treat that, you treat the problem. Psychiatric medication is experimental. The brain is complicated, and the medications that fix problems for one person won't always fix them for another person. Personally, a combination of Lithium, Lamictal, Trazodone, and Ativan relieves my underlying condition, as well as stopping the night terrors and sleep paralysis. 92, if it isn't hurting your quality of life, then by all means, don't seek treatment. I never told you directly to go get help- you can do whatever the hell you want with your life. I'm not saying everyone it happens to needs to go to the doctor. When the sleep paralysis begins to become life altering, when it's frequent and long-lasting, then help is needed.

Theres no medication for it

If its a path, I want to get off of it. It's damned terrifying to not be able to make noise to get help, to not be able to move... And then your body is groggy for the rest of the day. But my paralysis is accompanied by images that frighten me. So no, bad path.

30 - probably because you panic, panic during sleep paraylsis will make everything 20000x worse. Try to remind yourself that this is temporary and those hullucinations (whatever you call it) cannot hurt you.

Sleep paralysis is perfectly normal and healthy. It is simply when your mind is awake while your body is asleep. Opening your eyes during sleep paralysis can often lead to hallucinations, but if you don't focus on scary things then you might not get them. Closing your eyes during sleep paralysis causes you to lucid dream, which can be a great experience, free of any hallucinations.

56&67- Good advice but it really is easier said than done! I find it difficult to think logically in the middle of sleep paralysis. It's so difficult not to panic. I found therapy helped me coach my mind into being able to cope with hallucinations, it's all about training your mind to recognise what's happening.

#67- You can also learn to lucid dream while you're sleeping normally. I've had sleep paralysis once, and it was terrifying. I woke up and heard my sister say my name (I was alone in the house), and then I heard something shuffling at the end of my bed (coming closer) and it "felt" evil (can't explain it better than that). Thankfully I snapped out of it before I saw the thing by my bed. I didn't really focus on anything evil...it's just what happened. I hope it doesn't happen again.

When I was younger I had pretty consistent sleep paralysis and it was really scary. I didn't want to go to bed because of it.

That really sucks. This doesn't sound fun at all.

Once you are able to control it, then it won't be as scary. You can easily slip into lucidity.

44 I agree. I've been trying to self induce sleep paralysis for a while now, because sleep paralysis is the first step to lucid dreaming. If I ever master lucid dreaming, then I plan to take it a step further and have an out of body experience (OBE).

Lucid dreaming and "out of body experiences" are the same thing. The whole idea of OBEs is just a superstitious explanation for lucid dreaming, from before modern science explained it.

68, I have been trying to for about a month now, I can tell I have come close many times because I have started to recognize odd things in the dream realm, but I have not become completely lucid yet. I have been reading a book to help me.

Lucid dreaming is cool and easy for me, but I tried sleep paralysis once because a friend told me to and I never want to walk down that path again.