Sleep Paralysis, Lucid Dreaming & Hallucinations.

[Bjo2001]

I had always wondered what the phenomenon I experienced was and recently figured out it was sleep paralysis when I read an article about it on cnn.com.

For me, right as I am about to fall asleep - think of someone sitting and the head finally tilts down and their eyes close - right as that happens it's like I jar myslef and half wake back up, now unable to move. I can see around my room for the most part, for instance in college I could make out my roommate at his desk. This is always acompanied by sort of hallucinations where I am being attacked by shadows or dark figures that are rushing at me or flying at me. Ocassionally I will feel like I am floating or moving around. I think that I generally wake up pretty quickly, although I guess I can't be sure, but that's how it seems.

This started for me when I was 16, Im 24 now. It used to happen most nights but now it is pretty infrequent. It is definetely trigered by sleeping weird hours, being tired, and maybe drinking/partying. In general if it happens it will be on a Sunday, as I have been up late going out Friday and Saturday night and disrupted by regular work week sleep schedule.

It was rather terrifying at first but I actually got pretty used to it. As stupid as this sounds, I would find my self talking [censored] to the shadows, if you will, once I realized that they couldn't hurt me. I will say that it is amazing how sometimes I felt like I could actually experience a physical sensation from these things though. One time it was even somewhat pleasurable. But in general they just rush at me and I wake up.

I don't really have any advice for you. Just my experience. One thing the article did say was that if you sleep on your back it is 5 times as likely to happen. Link below:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/LIVING/perso...per/index.html

[chumofchance]

Wow, this is a freaky thread... I sleep with my eyes halfway open in general, although it doesn't seem to affect my dreams very much. People just tell me I look dead when I'm sleeping [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

One weird recurring theme in my dreams is that one of my legs is often debilitatingly shorter than the other, and I end up being more or less paralyzed. It's an incredibly unpleasant feeling and I wake up from these dreams feeling really anxious. In real life my right leg is like half an inch shorter than the left (not a big deal but I was a competitive soccer player in high school and it gave me some hip problems, etc.), so I guess I think about it more than I thought...

[traz]

do you guy experience sleep paralysis with your eyes open and aware of your surroundings?

I think I get it from time to time, but I'm never fully conscious. I'm aware that I'm lying in bed half asleep, I'm aware that I can't move my body, but I'm not really awake...if that makes sense.

[Bjo2001]

That's what it's like for me. I am half awake. I can make out things in my room, but it's not like it looks as clear as if I was standing there and my eyes are fully open.