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Being Held Down (Terrifying)

by James Mcleary
(Edinburgh, Scotland)

I have had too many episodes of s/p to remember them all, however my most recent episode was two nights ago as i was drifting off to sleep, suddenly i felt what seemed like an invisible force engulfing my whole body.

I was lying face down and it felt like someone or something was sitting between my shoulder blades and pulling my arms back as far as they could go, i felt like i was suffocating too and at one point thought i was going to die.

I could not yell out, much as i tried to, i could not move a muscle and the more i tried to move, the tighter a hold it had on me.

I also felt like something eerie was in the room with me because i heard some very low pitched "groaning" throughout the episode.

I have become accustomed to these episodes and can usually get out of the "grip" by sticking out my tongue or giving my body a good jerk but this episode was different and lasted for what seemed like hours.

Does anyone have any tricks to get out of the phenomenon?

thanks for reading this......james mcleary s/p sufferer :-)

Kevin: Thanks for sharing this James. SP is always incredible to read about--from the invisible force, to the pressure, to the eerie feelings, to the unique feelings that each person experiences differently. I don't have any tricks from personal experience, but a guy named Ryan Hurd wrote a book recently that's full of them. You can check it out here if you're interested.

From coordinating signals with bed partners to riding episodes into lucid dreams, it's all there. A great read.

Anyone else have their own tips for exercising some control over sleep paralysis episodes?

Warmly,
Kevin




Comments for
Being Held Down (Terrifying)

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May 01, 2011
 Greetings
by: K.L.

It is truly terrifying to be held down, then to re-account the episode the next day. You don't know if you are losing your mind, or just plan nuts. The sounds are real in your head. You know what you felt. You know what you saw. You know it wasn't just in your head. And, I have found when these attacks happen, it's best to say in your mind or aloud if you can, "If you are not here for my greater good, leave." If it's in your head or real doesn't really matter in that moment when you feel you are being attacked. And, the truth is who's to say which way. But, that sentence has always helped me.
May 26, 2011
 Being held down hearing a humming groaning noise
by: Anonymous

The last couple of weeks I have had 4 times that I have been held down and it is totally terrifying and every time there is this sound its like a humming groaning noise.I try to scream or yell my hardest and nothing comes out.The noise comes from behind me and I try to turn to see and I cannot move a muscle no matter how hard I try.I am awoken by something and I am awake when this is happening to me and can see my room clearly not dreaming it is so terrifying when this is happening.It has happen throughout my life I am 44yo now and don't scare easily and this is a terrifying thing.Last night it happened again 5/25/11 I was awaken thought I was falling out of bed and in my head I said "Oh damn Im falling out of bed" and was ready to hit the floor and it took like 10sec before I stopped feeling like I was falling I was face down on the floor then I felt like I was being held down could not move or yell no matter how hard I tried I could hear that sound again and realized its happening again I could see the light shining from under me bedroom door I was awake the sound was in front of me I tried to look to see what was there and saw part of a black shadow it had movement with that humming groaning noise and for some reason I was let go I was freaked out and turned my light on in room I was like a frightened little kid or something I felt like.I don't want to tell people I know cause don't want them to think I'm crazy or something which I know I am not.
Jun 14, 2011
 Held down in bed
by: LB

The other night something wispered in my ear "I am going to rape you", repeated twice. Then for what felt like 30 seconds I was held down on my stomach and could not move. When I was finally let go my heart was racing and I could feel a tingling/burning feeling in my arms and legs. What is this???
Jul 04, 2011
 Emotional again 20110705
by: Frank - Bruxelles expat

I'm wide awake now after having another episode of being held down or something.
My first experience was many years ago when I stay with a friend at the time at his place in London where his mom has passed away. I was held down and something was covering my mouth so I couldn't breathe either.. It was the first most harrowing experience I have ever had. I was so terrified I managed to get downstairs to his sofa where I stayed awake with a lamp on holding my knees close to my chest.

Last night I went to bed as usual either on my side or on my stomach (around 0030 CET) and just woke up at 1445 unable to move with something hold me back. This time I was able to get some speach/crys for help - more whimperng, but more understanding I think if you could hear it that I was calling for my sister Jane. Whatever this sleep disorder is or if truly something does attack you in your sleep realised I was awake and finally left.
Usually I wake up a little cold and then my body temperature is hot until it settles again. Usually at this point I'm very tearful (as I am now).
Jul 10, 2011
 idk what to think
by: javier

it was friday 07/8/11 about 2 30 am an for some reason i was awoke by sumthing and when i look at the end of my bed i saw a white shadow figure of a person and could not make out if it was a man or woman or wat it was so then i laid back down and put the covers over my head and then like 5 mins later i felt something come between my legs and then all of a sudden somthing was holding my legs and my arms down so hard that i could not move and i could not speak or say anything i tryed to get my girlfriends attenion i tryed calling her name and screaming but nothing would come out of my mouthno matter how muc i tryed and then i felt like i am fixing to die so in my head i started praying and then as fast as is started it or whatever it was let go..And now it is 07/10/11 and at somtime around 4am i woke up and looked at the side of my bed and looked up and seen myself standing there and then it was gone.so i went back to sleep and then for some odd reson i felt like i was standing at the side of my bed lokking down at my self sleep it felt like i was standing there like 10 mins watching my slef sleep idk what to think anymore it is all new to me i was want it all to stop i cant hardly sleep anymor i toss and turn all nite along i just want it to be over with...so if anyone has any answers or have had the same problems plz plz post a comment
Jul 13, 2011
 something gripping my wrists
by: Anonymous

Ive been having these experiences since i was 14yrs old, im 27 now, and everytime it happens its just as scary as the last. im always lying face down, just drifting off to sleep when this numbing sensation comes over me. i cant move or speak. i feel like the more i fight against it the worse it becomes. I always feel like someone is tightly gripping my wrists and pinning me down, i can sometimes hear someone breathing heavy in my ear. Other times it feels like my whole body is being dragged out of bed.
I find the best way to get out of it is just lie there till it passes, the more you try scream out or move the worse it gets.
Jul 13, 2011
 something gripping my wrists
by: Anonymous

Ive been having these experiences since i was 14yrs old, im 27 now, and everytime it happens its just as scary as the last. im always lying face down, just drifting off to sleep when this numbing sensation comes over me. i cant move or speak. i feel like the more i fight against it the worse it becomes. I always feel like someone is tightly gripping my wrists and pinning me down, i can sometimes hear someone breathing heavy in my ear. Other times it feels like my whole body is being dragged out of bed.
I find the best way to get out of it is just lie there till it passes, the more you try scream out or move the worse it gets.
Jul 22, 2011
 people in the room
by: shane

I have experienced something similar myself. I am in the british military and am currently away on operations but am stayin in a hotel. I had worked through the night and came back to sleep at the hotel. I felt myself drifting to sleep but then heard talking which seemed russian or polish a little to close for comfort. I looked and there was two white males as clear as day one holding me down and speaking this foreign language as if interrogating. It felt so real as the room was exactly as it is and the force on my chest was so real, I couldnt kick out. I feel it is down to lack of sleep as I have experienced something similar at my girlfriends house where I felt dogs runnin around my head (which I have two of) and also on another occasion just like something evil was in the room. I think it has got to depend on what surrounding your in as to what happens and your fears at the time not neccasarily ghosts or demons.
Sep 23, 2011
 understand
by: Anonymous

When this happens to me I call on the name Jesus and it goes away... I have no idea why we experience this type of powerless phenom and I realize its scary but if this happens again don't panic remain calm and ask it questions to understand the purpose of the act. Seek to understand it rather then be fearful of it.
Sep 25, 2011
 demonic attacks
by: Anonymous

I also call in the name of Jesus & rebuke it in his name! This happened to me again a couple of nights ago. I woke up to something climbing on my bed and as my bed sunk in I tried to look but I was paralyzed as if I was being pressed down by my neck & shoulders into the bed. I could not speak but I began to pray & finally mumbled for it to go away my house was filled with the holy sport and it should flee because nothing he wanted mattered to me I was a child off God. It took several minutes to rebuke it but as I called on Jesus it.literally blasted off of me. For you skeptics...examine your lives & see if their is room for the devils work and then remember that you can't believe in good and not evil.
Oct 14, 2011
 Being Held Down
by: cricket

I've read about sleep paralysis, and what I'm reading here does NOT sound like that at all. As a matter of fact, I've had the same experiences several times. It's scary as hell and it's real! I have a history of epilepsy, so I'm fully aware of what a sleep paralysis (aka seizure) feels like...I've had those, too...they are in NO way similar to what I feel when this happens.

Here is my story: The first time I experienced this, my best friend and I had moved into a trailer we were renting. I was about 23 at the time. One night, I was awakened by this tremendous force penning me down in my bed. I tried to scream, but couldn't. I tried to move and couldn't. After about 30 seconds, it stopped. It never happened again until 3 years after I got married and we bougtht our first home. The former owners passed away. My husband was right beside me in bed, when all of a sudden, I was on my stomach and I could literally feel something grabbing me by the ankle and pulling me from bed. I tried to scream, but couldn't. After the third incident happened, I remember yelling out - "LEAVE ME THE HELL ALONE! I'M TRYING TO SLEEP!" It suddenly stopped, and at that point I had already been pulled half way out of the bed.

My dog would NEVER enter that room from the time we moved in. I no longer sleep in that room. As a matter of fact, I've been sleeping on the sofa with the TV and all lights turned on. Over the months, I've become more terrified of the entity and have not slept for periods of 2 weeks at a time...which landed me in the hospital due to exhaustion. I'm now staying off and on with my parents, helping take care of them. I pray I never have to experience anything like this again, but who knows? My brother has the "third eye" (psychic ability). I, too have it, however ours is different in some ways. He literally SEES beings and entities. I feel them, smell them and hear them. Some call it a gift...we feel like it's more of a curse. We inherited it from our dad....his is VERY strong, but rarely speaks of it.
Oct 28, 2011
 The Shadow People and the Ball of Light
by: Anonymous

With my experiences there are always 3 Shadow People and 1 Ball of light(the ball of light isn't always in plain site, sometimes he is in the back round) but the Shadow People are always there.
they seem to always touch and pull on me in someway, sometimes they are playful other times they are malevolent, the voices are that of women and men. once it felt like they were playing tricks on me by moving my unconscious body from my physical body. almost every time i feel the sudden feeling of free falling or being pulled very fast to somewhere very far. what i don't like is when they don't seem to speak English, when it sounds like they are speaking gibberish. and the physical sensation of them touching me and grabbing or pulling me makes me feel very uncomfortable, in a strange way i feel violated by it. the most frightening and violent experience was when i opened my eyes and saw them, then felt as if my eyes were being covered and was be strangled. i felt as if i was swinging my arms around but they kept being held down. my legs felt like they were being held down as well. i tried to yell but my throat had so much pressure nothing would come out. i could only see little bits of blurry figures without being able to open my eyes fully again. it went on for what felt like several minutes until i heard what sounded like a door slam and was able to move again and look around at the dark loft around me. in all honesty these experiences have scared the hell out of me for the most part. only when the strangers are playful do i not become overwhelmed by the situation.
Oct 28, 2011
 Pined
by: Mike

Seems a lot of people are having the same experiences or at least very close to what I have had. The feeling of something climbing on your bed, feeling your bed being pressed down by some kind of weight, then the weight of something holding you down, not being able to scream or move at all, feeling like you are awake and aware of your surroundings maybe even sometime seeing a figure at the foot of the bed or in the corner of the room, also sometimes hearing groaning noises or maybe an evil voice. It’s very scary and it makes you to where you are afraid to go to sleep of it happing again. I think in most cases after reading about sleep paralysis that this could be what it is, not to say that in some cases it very well could be a paranormal experience. I am caught between what I think is going on with me, maybe it’s a combination of both and this sprit or sprit’s know exactly when to attack a person. No matter if it’s a sprit or sleep paralysis or both it’s scary as hell. My next move is to set up a camera and see if my bed is really being pressed down! But then again I might not want that answer of fear that it just might be.
Dec 07, 2011
 Held down NEW
by: Anonymous

Only happened to me in a house I onced live in. I felt like someone was trying to kill me. I will never forget how terrified I felt. It happened over 10 years ago, and it only happended in that house. I felt like I was being held down and going to be killed. This has haunted me since.
Dec 14, 2011
 Being held down NEW
by: Anonymous

Lastnight in my sleep I felt like I was bein held down. Now I've never ever had a dream like this before.. An it's scary as hell. I heard a deep voice, say my name.. An I couldn't move at all. I tried to scream for my dad but the words were barley coming out of my mouth. I was so scared to go back to sleep because as I was falling back to sleep, it felt as if it was going to happen again. I don't know what this is, but I hope it's the last time it happens.
Jan 07, 2012
 same property NEW
by: Ian

some years ago, when i was about 40, a friend of mine sold me his house in birkenhead n/w england, it belonged to his mother who passed away some years earlier, he lived with his wife by this time, and the house he sold me was empty, anyway, i had never in my life had any problems at all of this nature, then i had an episode similar to those here, i felt i was being held down in my bed, and was helpless, i couldnt move ot make a sound, it felt as if somebody was forcing me down into the bed, as i lived alone i found it very scarey, and strange, i could never figure out if i was dreaming or did it actually happen, i lived in this house 3 years, it happned about 4 or 5 times over those 3 yrs, i moved away, and nothing of this type happened since, the strange part of the whole episode came some time later, my friend who sold me the house had moved to turkey with his wife, i went to visit them after being made redundent, all this some 3 years after i sold the house, i was talking one night to my friend about this episode, when he just sat and looked amazed, he told me that his wife had similar things happen to her in the same room, after his mother died, they stayed in the house for a few weeks, and when she went to bed alone, this sometimes happened to her, when i saw her later that night, we exchanged stories and were both completely amazed that exactly the same thing had happened to both of us, at different times, in the same room, and both of us had never had this experiance before, or since, what a strange thing, as sleep paralysis is meant to be linked to the individual, but as i can testify, this is clearly not the case in this instance. this has completely changed my whole view of the world, and what is going on, i have no idea at all what happened to the both of us, but i know it never happened to my friend who sold me the house, just his wife, myself, and who knows who since, i would love to talk to anybody who lived in that house since, just to see what they felt there. scarey and strange. Ian
Jan 12, 2012
 It only happens when I'm doing good in my faith. NEW
by: Anonymous

I've had more then one experience of being inbetween sleep and being fully awake and having a demonic presence be on top of me.
You can't scream, you can't move.
All you can do is scream out to Jesus in your mind, until you force yourself to wake up.
I've read a lot of these posts and most all of them have a common spiritual reason.
I have too, thought I'm going crazy.
However I've never dabbled in witchcraft or have had anyone die in the house where it's happened.
I just happen to be a big fan of Jesus, and it's funny that my experiences ONLY happen when I'm doing well in my faith.
When I'm trying to live my life for God I get attacked.
That's all these are, silly scare tatics by the devil.
I'm almost flattered when it happens because I know it means I'm a threat to them.
Silly demons, trying to scare us.
But it is super scary... Just rebuke it in Jesus' name with your spirit and you all will be fine.
Scaring you whilst it's happening is only half of what they're trying to do....the other part of it is making you think you're crazy, or a psychic or something. Which you're not. :] Jesus is sweet, don't forget it :p
Mar 25, 2012
 Last night NEW
by: Nick

this happened to me last night, but what i dont understand is that my dog who was in the bed next to me wasnt the least bit concerned. i thought they are supposed to be able to see stuff like that?

also has anyone else seen a string/cord of blue/white sparkling light? also i couldnt turn my lamp on or find my torch? the lamp worked in the morning and the torch was where i left it (not missing)
Apr 09, 2012
 YOU NEED TO SAY THIS PRAYER NEW
by: Anonymous

Too all who wrote in about these "dreams"....you need to get a Holy Bible and say this prayer over, and over.....and you need to believe in the Holy Spirit. He is the only one who will help you...the Devil wants you and that is why when you say a prayer he attacks harder but if your faith is strong in Jesus, your God...it will go way....Psalm 59
1Deliver me from mine enemies, O my God: defend me from them that rise up against me.

2Deliver me from the workers of iniquity, and save me from bloody men.

3For, lo, they lie in wait for my soul: the mighty are gathered against me; not for my transgression, nor for my sin, O LORD.

4They run and prepare themselves without my fault: awake to help me, and behold.

5Thou therefore, O LORD God of hosts, the God of Israel, awake to visit all the heathen: be not merciful to any wicked transgressors. Selah.

6They return at evening: they make a noise like a dog, and go round about the city.

7Behold, they belch out with their mouth: swords are in their lips: for who, say they, doth hear?

8But thou, O LORD, shalt laugh at them; thou shalt have all the heathen in derision.

9Because of his strength will I wait upon thee: for God is my defence.

10The God of my mercy shall prevent me: God shall let me see my desire upon mine enemies.

11Slay them not, lest my people forget: scatter them by thy power; and bring them down, O Lord our shield.

12For the sin of their mouth and the words of their lips let them even be taken in their pride: and for cursing and lying which they speak.

13Consume them in wrath, consume them, that they may not be: and let them know that God ruleth in Jacob unto the ends of the earth. Selah.

14And at evening let them return; and let them make a noise like a dog, and go round about the city.

15Let them wander up and down for meat, and grudge if they be not satisfied.

16But I will sing of thy power; yea, I will sing aloud of thy mercy in the morning: for thou hast been my defence and refuge in the day of my trouble.

17Unto thee, O my strength, will I sing: for God is my defence, and the God of my mercy.

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