I’ve had this. No you don’t. It isn’t fun. Experiencing full body paralysis for a minute was a deeply unsettling and terrifying experience. I hated every second. Unless you’re prepared in some way, having the presence of mind to try to sleep again seems difficult.
I didn’t have a hallucination with that one though. I have that with a different parasomnia. I’ve had a hypnopompic (upon walking up) hallucination one time. That was freaky but only lasted a few seconds.
Interesting, for me it doesn’t sound scary.
I can imagin it’s scary if you do not know what it is. But if you know, isn’t it mostly annoying, like you want to move but can’t? Sorry if this is uncomfortable to you. To me it sounds relaxing, I often want to sleep, but my body still constantly wants to move and only when I notice my body got really heavy, almost unmovable, I know I’ll fall asleep any second now.
Waking up could be a bit more annoying, like if it takes longer than a few minutes. But I usually need 15 minutes or more before I move out of the bed anyways. I can however only imagin it.
Edit: sorry if my language offended people, English is my second language and I didn’t intended to sound condescending.
I’ve had it before and it was actually more annoying than scary. I even had a hallucination with it, I saw a shadowy figure standing in the doorway to my room. rather than being scared I was just annoyed and frustrated that they weren’t closing the door and I couldnt get up to do it myself. It was like reality and dream logic were weirdly combined for a while.
It’s not a feeling that you can rationalize by looking at It from the outside.
It’s a primal and visceral feeling, a fight or flight situation. Sometimes you even think “hey this is a sleep paralysis, I can just ignore and go back to sleep”, but you usually can’t, and your body screams “danger, danger, danger, run away, fight back”, but you can’t move, or scream, or “wake up”. It bites of our instincts, and It’s hard to describe afterwards, but you wake up scared and bit relieved that you’re alive.
It gets worse If you hallucinate, all sorts of distorted figures and creatures appear, all fabrication of your brain of course, but since you’re half awake, they are half real as well, you can feel their presence like a sixth sense, when you look at a dark corner or a dark hallway and you know something is lurking there, sometimes you can even “touch” them if they come near enough.
I had and episode one time that I had to keep pushing a floating demonic mask away from me, I could only move my right wrist, and yes I could somewhat touch the thing, and I had this primal fear that If that thing approached my head, I would die.
It’s a really hard concept to describe, but once you experience It, you never forget the feeling.
But if you know, isn’t it mostly annoying, like you want to move but can’t?
Not really. Not being able to move while you feel threatened is a very primal kind of fear, so it’s hard to rationalize your way out of it even after you realize what’s going on.
But knowing what the cause of it is does help a little bit. It doesn’t get rid of the intense fear, but there is a relief you feel knowing that there’s a way out (assuming you know your body well enough to know how to reliably wake yourself up).
I knew what it was, but I was panicked and unable to calm down before it passed. I was deeply affected by not being able to move anything. I imagine other personality/neuro types would handle it differently, but I did not care for it.
That said, I get being curious about experiencing something benign but possibly scary.
I’ve had this. No you don’t. It isn’t fun. Experiencing full body paralysis for a minute was a deeply unsettling and terrifying experience. I hated every second. Unless you’re prepared in some way, having the presence of mind to try to sleep again seems difficult.
I didn’t have a hallucination with that one though. I have that with a different parasomnia. I’ve had a hypnopompic (upon walking up) hallucination one time. That was freaky but only lasted a few seconds.
Interesting, for me it doesn’t sound scary. I can imagin it’s scary if you do not know what it is. But if you know, isn’t it mostly annoying, like you want to move but can’t? Sorry if this is uncomfortable to you. To me it sounds relaxing, I often want to sleep, but my body still constantly wants to move and only when I notice my body got really heavy, almost unmovable, I know I’ll fall asleep any second now.
Waking up could be a bit more annoying, like if it takes longer than a few minutes. But I usually need 15 minutes or more before I move out of the bed anyways. I can however only imagin it.
Edit: sorry if my language offended people, English is my second language and I didn’t intended to sound condescending.
I’ve had it before and it was actually more annoying than scary. I even had a hallucination with it, I saw a shadowy figure standing in the doorway to my room. rather than being scared I was just annoyed and frustrated that they weren’t closing the door and I couldnt get up to do it myself. It was like reality and dream logic were weirdly combined for a while.
My brain always interprets the crushing as being smothered by friendly dogs and stuff like that.
It’s not a feeling that you can rationalize by looking at It from the outside.
It’s a primal and visceral feeling, a fight or flight situation. Sometimes you even think “hey this is a sleep paralysis, I can just ignore and go back to sleep”, but you usually can’t, and your body screams “danger, danger, danger, run away, fight back”, but you can’t move, or scream, or “wake up”. It bites of our instincts, and It’s hard to describe afterwards, but you wake up scared and bit relieved that you’re alive.
It gets worse If you hallucinate, all sorts of distorted figures and creatures appear, all fabrication of your brain of course, but since you’re half awake, they are half real as well, you can feel their presence like a sixth sense, when you look at a dark corner or a dark hallway and you know something is lurking there, sometimes you can even “touch” them if they come near enough.
I had and episode one time that I had to keep pushing a floating demonic mask away from me, I could only move my right wrist, and yes I could somewhat touch the thing, and I had this primal fear that If that thing approached my head, I would die.
It’s a really hard concept to describe, but once you experience It, you never forget the feeling.
Woah, thanks for sharing. Doesn’t sound pleasing at all.
Not really. Not being able to move while you feel threatened is a very primal kind of fear, so it’s hard to rationalize your way out of it even after you realize what’s going on.
But knowing what the cause of it is does help a little bit. It doesn’t get rid of the intense fear, but there is a relief you feel knowing that there’s a way out (assuming you know your body well enough to know how to reliably wake yourself up).
I knew what it was, but I was panicked and unable to calm down before it passed. I was deeply affected by not being able to move anything. I imagine other personality/neuro types would handle it differently, but I did not care for it.
That said, I get being curious about experiencing something benign but possibly scary.