Sleep Paralysis???

[hester_prynne]

Lastnight was a terrifying and at the same time most interesting night.
I had just gone to sleep, (I think), and I woke up (sorta) and could not move! I felt stranger than i've ever felt before even on drugs, and I was totally not on any drugs, not even weed.
Anyway, I started to panic a bit, started to think that maybe I was having a stroke or something. I couldn't move at all even though I tried really hard to. I could see..sort of, everything looked distorted though, I mean I could see my "windows" in my room but they were all pushed together into one window, and it seemed like I was seeing this one window, which was rimmed in light, through only one eye yet I was using both eyes.
I kept thinking I needed to get up, get to the phone, but I couldn't move, it was like something was holding me down, like someone was in my room, an intruder that was more weird than scary so it scared me good.
I kept trying to get up, I felt like I was clawing to get up, and go in the kitchen and get a drink of water. I can't remember if I did that or not. It seems like I did, I mean it was like I saw myself doing that while I was unable to move. I was so terrified that I remember just giving it up and becoming totally calm thinking okay well whatever!
When I woke up this morning, everything seemed normal, I was quite comfy although really disturbed by this.
I looked up stroke this morning and that didnt' seem to fit although I'm not sure. Then I looked up lucid dreaming and found sleep paralysis. I think this is what I had.
Some of the stories I've read online today about this are pretty freaky.
More medically oriented sites all say it's normal and happens to everyone????
Something about a hormone that kicks in when we go to sleep that keeps our bodies from playing out our dreams??? That sometimes we wake up before it has completely diminished? Anybody else experienced this? Was it absolutely terrifying? I'm afraid to go to bed tonight. It was that scary. Weird. Lotta fearful crying today.
If you've experienced this could you let me know? It would comfort me to hear other folks experiences. I'm still debating on whether or not I should go see a doctor...what the hell do they know anyway???? I suspect they would tell me I was depressed or something and prescribe a pill and I don't want to take any pills. (unless they are marijuana pills.)
Other stories say that it's paranormal.
Has really kinda wigged me out.....
H

[SadLuckDame]

Yes, has happened to me a lot too. A very scary loss of control, I mean I have the want to, but it forces me to be trapped to a 'dead body', which is frightening. Spooks ya good. When we wake it sticks in the head. Don't worry though, get your sleep and chalk it up to dream/wake experience, the two twine. I've never experienced it in continuation, lots of time in between. Sleep well and hugs.

[hester_prynne]

OMG!
Thank you so much SLD. I've never ever had this happen before...afraid to go to bed, but feel better now w/ your note.
I'm really tired....
Thank you for responding, more thank you than words express....
H

[stilltrucking]

It scared f me too. I thought I had a stroke.

I think it is called a

hypnagogic state
http://www.stanford.edu/~dement/paralysis.html

Have you ever woke up and not remembered who you are. Your name your age or anything about yourself?

I think that is also a hypnagogic state. I started to worry for a second, I tried to remember but then I liked the feeling and just let it go. I knew it would all come back to me in a little while. But for a few moments I felt good, a relief, a new person with no past.

[constantine]

i have experienced that phenomenon many times and your description is right on.

[firsty]

it's some scary shit.

here's an article/essay i wrote about it recently: http://firsty.newsvine.com/_news/2007/0 ... -waking-up

our brains paralyze our bodies when we dream so we dont act out our dreams — babies tend to twitch and kick more often because their chemistry isnt up to speed yet.

i dont know what actually happens, but it seems like it's a sort of in between stage — we DO dream prior to REM, but it's only in REM that our brains turn off our bodies' responses — the sleep paralysis dreams seem to be as "real-feeling" as REM dreams, but without the turn-off.

the sense that someone else is in the room, holding us down, is a common feature. some cool art on that article i linked, too.

[hester_prynne]

Thank you for the Link!
It was extremely reassuring.
A relief.

H

[Arcadia]

yeah..., only a -remembered- few times. One time -nearly october, last year- was really scary and disconcerting and it involved a very cinematografic kind of dream (what I wored in it was some kind of botinetas acordonadas -this was the part of my body where my vision and sensation seemed be focused- and I had painly difficulty with walking, I knew it was something related with fire, I had to walk to some part of a little town in a kind of s XIX way, people -that I was sure I also knew in the me-me life- was expecting my help...-) the problem was when it seemed I couldn´t left at all the me-in-the-dream and finally woke up.. the gap seemed eternal and it was a sort of scary and funny mix plenty of logic-proof dialogues between the two-me in a very vivid form that I still remember.... and I still had some physical sensations of the me-in-the-dream in the me-me during some minutes after being awake...

gracias hester for thread and s-t for the links!