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Sleep paralysis, lucid dreaming, and hypnopompic imagery

by Patrick
(Hephzibah, Ga., United States)

I am 34 years old, and I have been experiencing sleep paralysis / lucid dreaming / hypnopompic imagery episodes for over 20 years. Years ago I was diagnosed with a disorder involving repressed memories. Basically I have extremely violent and terrifying nightmares that are repressed violent childhood memories resurfacing.

What is more terrifying is the sleep paralysis episodes that will often occur along with these dreams. I wake from a nightmare to find myself unable to move. I can see and hear everything going on in my bedroom and my breathing seems very shallow or even strained, but I cannot move. I try to call for my wife or even reach out and touch her but I am unable to.

During these episodes I can “sense” and even sometimes see a “dark presence” in my bedroom. It is never a very clear image. Usually only a silhouette or shadow, but that makes it all the more terrifying.

When I finally come fully awake and I can finally move I usually will experience a mild to extreme panic attack, and an extreme sense of paranoia. I had an episode similar to this early this morning. The temperatures here have become very pleasant at night so I usually have my bedroom window open, and a fan running. Upon coming fully awake I was so terrified that someone was going to come in through the window that I closed it, and closed the curtains.

There have been other episodes where when I fully awaken I have come up out of the bed screaming at the top of my lungs and swinging my fists for all I am worth to fight off a dreamed up attacker. This is also a terrifying experience for my wife. She has learned to recognize when I am having a nightmare, and she will get up out of the bed, move across the room, and call out gently to me to help me wake up.


I have studied and researched sleep paralysis and lucid dreaming on and off for many years, and I am well aware of what is causing these episodes. I am also well aware that they are more or less harmless. However, that does not make them any less terrifying. This is a serious long term problem for me that has resulted in what I would consider to be a serious case of long term unhealthy sleep hygiene. As I am sure anyone reading this is aware, sleep is when your body repairs itself, and because of a long term lack of healthy sleep I have developed several health problems including some mental health problems. Depression, anxiety, panic attacks, irritability, etc.

I have yet to find a viable solution to this problem. Reading about the association between sleep apnea and sleep paralysis has given me a direction to look to though. It is my intention in the near future to seek the assistance of a sleep disorder specialist. Hopefully I can find a solution through this avenue.

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Sleep paralysis, lucid dreaming, and hypnopompic imagery

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Oct 31, 2010
 Correction
by: Patrick(Original poster)

I need to post a correction. I have been trying to train myself in lucid dreaming but I have yet to have what I would consider a successful lucid dreaming experience.
Jun 23, 2011
 scared myself
by: bill

Hi I read your story and it made a lot of since to what has been happening to me I keep waking up not able to move and I didn't know what it was I usually just am not able to move anymore but the first one I had I woke up not able to move and was tryin as hard as I could to I eventually looked at the ceiling in my struggle and saw ripples and sortly after a bald head and arms came out of it staying the same color as the wall which is white it choked me and screamed at my for a minute until I was able to move and it was gone I thought it was a ghost because I often heard footsteps and odd noises in my house and this was no help to my theory but ever since than I've never seen anything in it but still can't move
Jun 23, 2011
 SP
by: Helen

Hi,
I have been experiencing sleep paralysis for a lot of years now, on and off. It usually happens when I am very tired and wake earlier than I need to. I feel paralysed and my breathing is very shallow - I am aware of what seems to be going on around me; for example I have heard my son moving around in his bedroom, but cannot come out from it. I have also thought that I was trying to move from the bed and sitting on the edge of the bed, but obviously wasn't!!
I now know that I have to relax and let it pass - this means, relax my breathing and my movement will come back - easy to say, but I find it very scary, even terrifying! I sometimes worry that I may never wake from it at all!! Having read a lot about it, I know that it is a recognised condition, but it is still very scary to deal with.
Aug 23, 2011
 meditation helps me :)
by: jonny

i've been having episodes like this since i was a kid, ranging from mildly irritating to full on terror. nearly bit my own tongue off once when i woke up in sleep paralysis on a bumpy bus with my tongue wedged between my teeth. i could feel all the pain but could do nothing to stop my teeth sawing away with every bump. over the years the only thing i've found that stops it from happening is regular exercise and meditation. qigong or yoga are great for preventing sleep paralysis. nevertheless if i dont do meditation for a month or so then get caught in a nasty episode i say a Buddhist prayer (in my head) 3 times and it snaps me out of it straight away. i used to use the old wiggle ur finger till the rest of ur body catches on trick but now this prayer works every time. if you want to try it it goes like this:

Namo Guan Shi Yin Boddisatva
Namo Guan Shi Yin Boddisatva
Namo Guan Shi Yin Boddisatva

all the best :)
Aug 23, 2011
 meditation helps me :)
by: Anonymous

i've been having episodes like this since i was a kid, ranging from mildly irritating to full on terror. nearly bit my own tongue off once when i woke up in sleep paralysis on a bumpy bus with my tongue wedged between my teeth. i could feel all the pain but could do nothing to stop my teeth sawing away with every bump. over the years the only thing i've found that stops it from happening is regular exercise and meditation. qigong or yoga are great for preventing sleep paralysis. nevertheless if i dont do meditation for a month or so then get caught in a nasty episode i say a Buddhist prayer (in my head) 3 times and it snaps me out of it straight away. i used to use the old wiggle ur finger till the rest of ur body catches on trick but now this prayer works every time. if you want to try it it goes like this:

Namo Guan Shi Yin Boddisatva
Namo Guan Shi Yin Boddisatva
Namo Guan Shi Yin Boddisatva

all the best :)
Sep 26, 2011
 i FIND IT COMES IN A SUCCSECION OF..
by: KELI

had one the other night,mine are about ghost's! If I have one it feels like what I have heard of as the symptoms of a seizure,an electracle feeling through out ur body and u cant move.I often wake up hazy from these episodes.I heard a mans voice behind me say " you took advantage of me" then I was In my dream again when the buzzing in my brain and body stopped. My grandma had a sleep apnea thing..maybe I inheireted it from her...
Oct 06, 2011
 My experience
by: Anonymous

I had these for about 3 months after I came back from Iraq. I would suddenly "pop" awake and immediately feel an extreme sense of paranoia. I would also see or feel like a dark figure was hovering just out of my peripheral vision with a knife just waiting for the knife to come down on my chest. I was completely paralyzed, unable to move my body, my eyes, or even breath. I would sit there and yell at myself inside my head to "MOVE MOVE NOW MOVE!!!!" to no avail. All of the fears of combat didn't hold a candle to the fear that I felt in those seconds (which felt like minutes).
Oct 25, 2011
 Relax.. You only fear the things you can't understand
by: Dznutz

You can snap out of sleep paralysis by changing your breathing. Breathe slower or faster & it will send a signal to your brain that you are not sleeping therefore your mind will act on this signal and you will awake. What you are seeing isn't real, you have to remember that. You aren't seeing your room exactly but what your mind remembers your room to look like. Lucid dreaming is purely a gift for enjoyment. You can do things and analyze concepts that aren't possibly in your waking state because of the restrictions of physics. Example: gravity, time & space that are governed by physics don't apply when you're sleeping & if you can learn to become lucid not only can you have the most fun in your life but you can fix these issues your having about your childhood for good. I haven't had a nightmare or trouble falling asleep for years now, ever since I learned what is going on as your trying to fall asleep. Basically your mind & body are a team that work so seamless with each other that you don't notice everything they do. That's why you can't hear your hair growing or feel cells replicating but you know it's happening. It's the same when falling asleep your body is shut down through sleep paralysis so you don't act out your dreams and hurt yourself but if your mind is still awake as its happening it's can be scary bc your not aware of entering the dream. If you notice you can't speak or move AND you panic then you cause that state of fear and dark image you see bc your transitioning into the dream state with those emotions. Sleep paralysis happens naturally so by changing your breathing your brain realizes your not asleep & it stops the process and reverses the hold it has on your body not being able to move. You send the signal that interferes with that same seamless team work mentioned earlier. Once you've learned how to swim you can never be afraid of drowning.
Dec 13, 2011
 ... NEW
by: tim

i have the same issue. but my episodes are never nightmares. i use to get scared when i wake up and i cant move but i guess i just got use to it. i usually have lucid dreams and wake up to them being paralyzed and there always usually within the first hour and a half of me sleeping. i think my problem is worsening im now starting have episodes 5-6 times with in that hour and a half.
Dec 26, 2011
 ... NEW
by: Anonymous

I'm having a similar problem, i have had night terrors for years but recently they are taking another really frightening form where I am actually beating my husband in my sleep, or sleep walking but even more recently my dreams have started to unlock dormant memories. I'm in therapy at the moment, and awaiting a referral for psychotherapy. I just pray for someone to help me have a normal sleep where I don't feel exhausted for it.
Feb 12, 2012
 My story :-) NEW
by: Fellow dreamer

Hi there, these experiences started for me as a teenager. They were terrifying. Sometimes If I had a friend sleeping in the room with me I would often think they were sitting on my chest and trying to strangle me. If I was alone I would feel a malevolent presence looming over me. Then I would fight my body to resume it's ability to move and let me speak: to me it feels as though I have left my body and am trying to get back in to work it again. I would also have the paranoia and panic feelings described by others following an episode: creeping downstairs and assuring myself there were no evil presences lurking in the house. I cannot say if I was awake or asleep as sometimes it felt as though I had awoken too early and my body wasn't ready but other times the experience would begin whilst I was asleep and I would say to myself "you are dreaming, you are dreaming, you can take the control" and then I would use all my energy to force myself awake and bring back some bodily functions....in these instances I would fight with evil forces strangling me whilst I couldn't move, and once I saw a whole parade of "others" beating drums and pushing at me with an evil energy whilst I was paralysed and trying desperately to scream.
I agree with the information I've read on sleep paralysis that these experiences definately happened more often when I slept on my back, and rarely, when I was on my side.
I have not had an episode like this for a long time now. I have however, done many years of self awareness work now and I was carrying around a lot of emotional trauma when I had these experiences regularly. I also took many amphetamine drugs which altered my sleeping patterns, and increased the frequency of these experiences.....
thanks for sharing your stories.... when I was younger I had no idea that others had this experience too.... it's great to get some understanding. It would have helped a lot with the fear to have know this when I was younger... as often I was afraid to fall back asleep as the experience would repeat as I was dropping into sleep again......
Mar 28, 2012
 Stopping sleep paralysis NEW
by: Anonymous

Many people will mock this solution because they don't believe but calling on the name of Jesus stops these attacks and "entities". I've seen many videos on youtube, read many different accounts from various people. Even my brother in law suffered from this, and it wasn't until he became a christian did this stop all together. This does work, there really is power in the name of Jesus. Some people call out to God in their head, some people have prayed, some have sung hymns. It's spiritual warfare. Most of these attacks are brought on through occultic practices. People dabbling in witchcraft, UFO / alien phenomenon, ouija boards, new age teachings, astrology, yoga, etc. These are spiritual gateways that open you up to attack. "UFO abductions" sound frighteningly similar to sleep paralysis experiences. So it's not surprising to find out that these "UFOs" don't like the name of Jesus, and flee at the mention of his name. Therefore UFOs = Demons. Do the research. So next time you have this kind of attack, call upon the authority and the name of Jesus. God Bless.
Apr 08, 2012
 I Cant even imagine NEW
by: Malcolm Blanke

This story sounds very scary, every night i can only hope i wont have an episode, im only 13 and am not really stressed about anything (other than sleep paralysis) so it probably wont happen, but who knows. I Hope you dont have any more episodes because they sound incredibly scary, at least if i have an episode i can post it to let others know what its like...
Apr 17, 2012
 Researching into these subjects NEW
by: Anonymous

I am 13 years old and I have been researching into sleep paralysis and lucid dreaming and I have been training myself to lucid dream and then I do more research into it and I think I have found out that lucid dreaming can lead to sleep paralysis but now I'm aware of the consequences I know how I could handle it so I'm trying these experiences because they have been intriguing me. And it seems people say that reading out prayers calling for God etc helps, and what I think on that is well I don't really believe in God but having something to believe in anything believing that someone is going to help you, from what I have gathered (these are all my guesses) can kind of trick and convince your own mind, your brain to scare of these minions you are telling your brain look these are the demons and minions of the devil if I can convince them that God is with me, here to fight by my side they will be scared of just what I think. If you have anything to message me inbox me on facebook. http://www.facebook.com/bossmanghandi

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