This was super freaky before one could read about it on the internet, I remember it happening to me in the 1970-1980s and thinking it was something really wrong with me or supernatural in nature at the time, which as another commenter notes was what people in medieval times thought. It was such a relief to read that other people had similar experiences by 1990s.
I remember that when I was around 8 or so, it happened several times in the morning while waking up, that I saw someone entering the bedroom while I was not able to speak or move. It was terrifying. It must have been imagination, since nobody appeared to have noticed anything unusual.
There are (creepy) reports from the middle ages of figures sitting on sleepers' chests, legs, moving towards them etc.
It's clearly a biological phenomenon of some description. I've never really looked into it, despite experiencing it often. Related my general take on it below.
Sleep paralysis is consciousness when you are supposed to be knocked out, AFAIK unrelated to oxygen levels. There is possibly a correlation to sleep apnea but I think that is more likely due to hEDS being a common cause for both. hEDS not rare, it is pretty common, far more than doctors think. People with hEDS have very weird drug interactions, many often have a genetic resistance to local and general anesthesia. I think a reasonable explanation is they are also resistant to whatever the chemical the brain uses that causes sleep induced loss of consciousness to the point they are more prone to sleep paralysis.
The N of 1 with changing positions is interesting though.
> I think a reasonable explanation is they are also resistant to whatever the chemical the brain uses that causes sleep induced loss of consciousness to the point they are more prone to sleep paralysis.
I cant rule out your explanation, but I personally in favor of another one. It is not a supression of consciousness doesn't work, it is the clearing blood from whatever the chemical that stops propagating signals to muscles. When everything works good you are relieved of paralisys at the same time your consciousness wakes up. I never experienced sleep paralisys, but when I wake up suddenly and try to move instantly I can sometime feel a fleeting sensation of it. I never gave it a second thought before I learned about sleep paralysis.
I can consistently give myself sleep paralysis in that position 90% of the time. I am tall, but I don't have any symptoms of hEDS. They'll figure it out someday. I thought more people got sleep paralysis, and just never clued it to it being a certain position (which I believe pinches the neck in a certain angle).
It may be linked to a sleeping position, but I'd bet not on poor oxigenation, but on obstructed blood stream that makes it hard to spread that chemical that turns sleep paralysis off.
I do not remember details of phisiology of sleep paralysis, what is the paralysing chemical, and which one is stopping it, and where from they come, but it seems plausible that sometimes a sleeping position can make it hard for chemicals to reach muscles and free them from paralysis.
I have had similar experiences a few times. One time it was extremely scary. I could not move, and I experienced someone whispering something unintelligible in my ear.
This has happened often enough to me that I am sometimes now aware of it when it's happening, occasionally, and can ride it out. I've literally "invited" more terror to try to end it quicker before. As in, "yeah yeah , get it over with, bring it on". I haven't questioned the normality of this until now, amusingly.
It normally happens when I sleep on my back. I have been known to make an attempt at a scream during the event. I'm normally being attacked at speed, by people or things that don't really have boundaries. And of course I can't fight back, hence the paralysis.
For the scream, I think I have heard it, but because of the paralysis it ends up like a loud exhale with some high notes in it. I couldn't describe it as a roar. More of a pitiful gurgle.
It is sometimes made worse by my sleeping partner trying to wake me clumsily, which momentarily heightens the terror, especially if my face is being nudged or jabs to the ribs.
So not particularly fun, literally facing my demons, but also probably some of the best VR you're likely to experience.
For background, I'm a generally positive and optimistic person, rational with zero belief in the supernatural, despite being raised with it. Oh god I'm cursed... I kid, but who knows from where these intrusive dreams originate. I do practice martial arts, but this predates that. I have had an interest in light combat since childhood, despite pacifism and fear being more of a reflection of my personality. It was probably more of an 80s thing, expecting violence and quicksand at any moment.
That's about it really, totally normal to me at this point. It's probably nothing.
EDIT: For the record, it feels like the paralysis triggers the dream, not the dream triggering the paralysis. Something to do with approaching a waking state in the brain but not the body. Cue the terror and internal screams for help.
Wow, on wikipedia I read that 5 percent of people experience it regularly. Hopefully you get better at 'fighting your demons' while getting to know them better.
I could see but I couldn’t move any muscles. It felt like five minutes but was probably less. It happened in an afternoon nap which is something I never did.
I was screaming internally for my girlfriend to notice me. I thought I was suddenly a quadriplegic or something and was panicking. Eventually my girlfriend noticed (she later said she noticed my deep, heavy breathing) and shook me and being shaken pulled me immediately out of it.
This is almost exactly how it is for me as well. I've experienced this 50+ times, the feeling of complete or almost complete paralysis. I make a great effort to move and can feel my heart racing and heat in my face from panic and exertion. I can see my immediate surroundings; if the sun is up I can tell it's daytime. Although my eyes are open and aware, I'm not quite fully alert. Sometimes there are hints of hallucinations like the feeling that a shadowy figure is approaching my bed, and it's scary, but most often I'm just aware that I'm paralyzed. As a child I learned that if I can force a limb to move slowly, I will usually jerk myself fully awake. About 25% of the time I can calm myself down and fall back to sleep.
REM atonia, which is the paralysis that sleep paralysis comes from/uses, paralyzes the majority of your body. However, one organ it doesn’t paralyze is your eyes, hence people experiencing it generally open their eyes as they try to escape it.
However, even with your eyes open, you can experience dream-like hallucinations overlayed ontop your view of reality, hence people thinking they see other entities in their bedrooms, etc.
It’s possible that it was a dream, but it’s completely possible it wasn’t, so if a person claims they were awake, then in all likelyhood they were.
When it happened the Monorail episode of the Simpsons was on. And it continued to be on when I was shaken out of it because my girlfriend suggested we just watch the rest to get my mind off it.
It was also just a very vivid experience. I felt completely awake. Just unable to do a thing.
Some people feel some kind of person/presence close to them, that's how it happened to me. This [1] weirdly makes sense.
It felt kind of like those dreams where you can't move. Except you've woken up, I could see the correct room and position I was in. It tends to come with fear and doesn't last long.
Never happened when I slept on my side or front. I almost never sleep on my back now. Also, chronic stress could have been a trigger.
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