OK-here goes, I have been suffering from SP since I was 18, not as aften these days but particulary when I'm stressed. Does anyone else here experience the same thing?
I've had it a few times, when under stress, in connection with various hypnogogic hallucinations. It really scared me, as it really felt that someone was in the room with me, when of course there was no one.
When I'm very stressed I get this almost every night. When I'm more relaxed it's more like a couple of times a week. This has been a big part of my life since I was around fifteen, maybe younger. At first I thought I was being haunted or possessed by demons, lol. Now I'm more used to it, but it's still unpleasant.
I get it as I'm drifting off to sleep often, though this is usually less scary than when I'm just waking up. I get this sense that I'm spinning rapidly around the room above my body and looking down on myself from above. At other times I feel like I'm moving back and forth the room like I'm on a swing-boat and looking down at myself as I move around the room. I can't move my body at all, just watch it. Sometimes I get the feeling that I'm trapped and that hands are trying to grab me as I sleep, which is horrible, or that my duvet is trapping me.
I get it as I'm waking up too, which is much more horrible. I'm imobile but I can see figures standing around my bed trying to grab me. I feel like I'm chocking and the bed sheets are tangling around me. Sometimes I get an out of body experience then too, but not so often. It's more like I'm bound by the bed sheets, surrounding by these figures who are waiting for me.
When it first started I had no idea what was going on and I thought I was being haunted. I was afraid to sleep in my room and would go out in to the corridor and sit against the radiator and eventually fall asleep on the floor... of course it would often happen when I was there too which didn't make it any better. I read some articles eventually and worked out that it was probably sleep paralysis.
Weirdly I get some incidents of similar feelings during the day time as well, like that I'm spinning and stepping out of my body and floating in the room, or sometimes I feel unable to move and can see dark presences surrounding me. I don't know why I get that, but I've had some problems with psychosis in the past so it may be related.
I liked the article, but my experiences seem to be a lot more intense than the ones described. It's nice to hear I'm not alone though!
YES. I get this really often and it scares me so much. I also have hypnogogic hallucinations when it happens.
You should tell your doctor about it, they may prescribe you with an anti-anxiety med or something to help relax you when you sleep. I've been on Xanax and Trazodone as PRNs to help with it.
I wanna stay inside all day
I want the world to go away
I had a teacher who suffered from this, she said it was terrifying. What helped her was to make sure she went to bed before she got too tired. If, by the time she got to bed she was exhausted she'd always get SP.
I read something about SP on a science blog somewhere and apparently it's more common when people sleep on their backs, as are night terrors etc. It's suggested that you sow something into the back of your pyjamas like a cork or a cotton reel so you stop sleeping on your back and if you roll over, it'll make you roll back again.
I have no idea if it works or not but i guess there's no harm in trying??
~x~
Last edited by Coffeemate : 27-09-2010 at 05:19 PM.
Reason: spelling
Thanks guys, theres somethings about knowing that 'it's not just you' that makes the whole thing feel slightly better. SP always happens to me as I'm waking and I lay there trying to move my body but I cant. I dont really see anything, I just know that I want to move and I can't, eventually I try to sream and it feels like I cant breath, not great! There have been times when I hve eventually woken and asked by partner why he didn't help me? He always says that Ive been sound a sleep and not moved an inch! I hope I grow out of it!!!!! xx
I do, I have a sleep disorder so my cycle is all a complete mess. If I wake up in the middle of one of the phases I get SP. It was scary till I knew what it was
You will find that having is not so pleasing a thing as wanting. It is not logical, but is often true-Spock
I'd rather have a goddam horse. A horse is at least human, for God's sake. ~J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye
I have this and I HATE it. It actually hasn't happened in a long time, but when I was in high school, I didn't get enough sleep and it happened all the time. I get it when I am falling asleep usually. I will start hallucinating, but I can't move. In high school, I thought demons were attacking me. It sucks.
