Sleep paralysis

Than don't listen to your conscience, it'll probably get yourself
killed.

I didnt know i had a conscience

My mom had that one time. It's because your body doesn't let you move while dreaming, so you don't end up acting out dreams. I've never heard anything about similarities in the dreams they've had. Maybe because it scares you so bad you wake up before your body's unparalyzed. I dunno. Sleep is so weird.

I'm pretty sure that's what it is. Has something to do with (I think) the REM phase of your sleep cycle. Sleep IS weird. I love it though. Can't get enough.

Yes the REM is a part, the extreme fear part comes from the fear part of the brian. Forgot what its called, but its extremely active during those kind of dreams.

Theres a docu on the DISc channel about it right now here in the eastern time zone anyway.

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Rents [/i]
[B]I'm pretty sure that's what it is. Has something to do with (I think) the REM phase of your sleep cycle. Sleep IS weird. I love it though. Can't get enough. [/B][/QUOTE]

I dont have a sleep cycle. I will start dreaming immediately even if Im not completely alseep yet. 10 sec. with my eyes closed and ill have some sort of quick dream.

I had a dream last night/this morning actually, and it scared the shit out of me. I kept getting emails and phone calls and little notes on my truck from someone threatening me and whatnot. The wierd thing was I somehow knew it was an oriental person sending the messages, freaked me out cause I couldn't remember how I knew it was an oriental person. Then I woke up. I don't like dreaming, or sleeping too much. So I take gobs and gobs of speed to stay awake. Hooray!

In high school, I did my research paper on Night Terrors. In doing that research, I learned that, yes, when dreaming, your body will not move so as not to hurt yourself by acting out your dreams. While sleep paralysis has the dreamer waking up while still dreaming and not able to move their body, night terrors happen before sleep paralysis sets in. They are terrifying dreams that happen before REM. So they are sort of the oppiste. You are asleep, you are dreaming, but your body can move. Just like sleep paralysis many sufferers of night terrors do not believe them to be dreams. But yeah, the dreamer can get up out of bed and act of their dreams. Many have hurt themselves. Years after doing this research, I met a guy who suffered from night terrors, but he didnt know what they were. I told him of my research project and let him watch a video for a speech I gave in college (i used the same research over again for my college public speaking class) and he was like, "yeah, thats what I got." He use to move everything in his room around before bed because he would get up while sleeping, knock over all his cd racks and make a mess of the place. His brothers ofter heard him screeching at the top of his lungs and the would go to his room and he would be punching his bedroom door with all his might, while screaming in terror. I remember one time when I was drunk, I had to crash at his place and I was worried that he was gonna flip out 9in the middle of the night, but at the same time, having done a research paper on the subject, I kinda wanted it to happen. I wanted to see it first hand although I was nervous about what to do if your friend starts punching and screaming while asleep.

I almost forgot. I went off topic talking about night terrors, I forgot to say I had a friend that had an experience with sleep paralysis, he saw crazy shit like demons in his radiator, but he also saw his brother come home and go to bed, which he confirmed with his brother was happening inm actuality.

i've never had a night terror or experienced sleep paralysis, but i have felt the sensation of falling and then finally "hit" the bed, jolting awake. is that related?

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by insomnomaniac [/i]
[B]i've never had a night terror or experienced sleep paralysis, but i have felt the sensation of falling and then finally "hit" the bed, jolting awake. is that related? [/B][/QUOTE]

I've fallen asleep many times, started dreaming about things like being hit by a train and jolting awake on impact. Usually, these happen to me when I fall asleep during the daytime, not when I lay down in bed for a full night's sleep. The reason for this in my case, or so I've read, is because my body is going into sleep paralysis, but my brain says, "no, this is not the time you go into deep sleep." And that jolting awake is the body breaking the paralysis, fighting it off, since it is not the time for deep sleeping.

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by D._Prest [/i]
[B]In high school, I did my research paper on Night Terrors. In doing that research, I learned that, yes, when dreaming, your body will not move so as not to hurt yourself by acting out your dreams. While sleep paralysis has the dreamer waking up while still dreaming and not able to move their body, night terrors happen before sleep paralysis sets in. They are terrifying dreams that happen before REM. So they are sort of the oppiste. You are asleep, you are dreaming, but your body can move. Just like sleep paralysis many sufferers of night terrors do not believe them to be dreams. But yeah, the dreamer can get up out of bed and act of their dreams. Many have hurt themselves. Years after doing this research, I met a guy who suffered from night terrors, but he didnt know what they were. I told him of my research project and let him watch a video for a speech I gave in college (i used the same research over again for my college public speaking class) and he was like, "yeah, thats what I got." He use to move everything in his room around before bed because he would get up while sleeping, knock over all his cd racks and make a mess of the place. His brothers ofter heard him screeching at the top of his lungs and the would go to his room and he would be punching his bedroom door with all his might, while screaming in terror. I remember one time when I was drunk, I had to crash at his place and I was worried that he was gonna flip out 9in the middle of the night, but at the same time, having done a research paper on the subject, I kinda wanted it to happen. I wanted to see it first hand although I was nervous about what to do if your friend starts punching and screaming while asleep. [/B][/QUOTE]

I heard that when you fall alseep your spinal cord at your neck for some scientific reason stops sending signals to your muscles. Its closed off or something. Did you ever learn about this?

very interesting. i've actually only experienced this when laying down for a full nights' sleep---could have something to do with me being an insomniac though.

anyone know specifically how insomnia works? what brain chemicals/processes are involved, etc.? anyone know any good books on the subject?

I've had many dreams about my house being robbed, though some of them were utterly hilarious afterwards, especially one that included me throwing clothes hangers at one of them as he cowered under his car.

I've also has dreams where people I'm concerned with at the moment, or someone I'm thinking about that day, is just sitting there talking to me, normally.

And my most bizarre dream was one where I was in a plane that was high-jacked, with my close family I believe, that was about to be crashed into a sky-scraper (keep in mind this was before 9/11), and it was about to hit the building, and everything in my mind started to move slowly and I started to accept death, even want it to come, I was almost excited for the end. I woke up just before it hit, of course, and was dumbstruck when I woke up. This was one of those dreams you always remember.

There were also many times where, as I was slowly coming out of REM, I believe, what was really happening was actually merging with my current dream. For example, a long time ago, when my brother was a baby and slept in what was my room, I remember my dream ending off with my brother appearing, crying and as I slowly woke up, I realized that my brother was actually there, crying.

And sometimes, I stay in my state of dream for maybe 30 seconds or maybe a minute after I am [B]woken up[/B] (not woken naturally, by myself). For example, there was a time when I had to do something I can't remember, and I was angry, in the dream, and when I was woken up, I telled at the person angrily "We have to go do that whats your problem," or something to that matter (I can't really remember, but you know what I mean).

Dreaming is an amazing thing that I still can't understand what the point of it is. I mean, it has no use in the life of a human, really, other than entertainment of some sort.

Dreams are a good source of writing material and specifically art projects for me. I think they are very useful. I saw that documentary on Discoverychannel today about sleep paralysis. I had to change it once they started talking about aliens. It was kind of creepy because it sounds so uncontrollable.

D. prest...sounds like if your friend was sleeping and saw his brother come home than confirmed it, it was more like an out of body experience. I did a report on those my freshman year in college. I thought I'd get to the bottom of it, but results from different studies were extremely inconclusive. I did hear one thing that affects me to this day. I know it might be made up, but one lady said that your soul can't escape if your wearing jewelry or other similar object on your body, so I've made it a habit to wear at least a ring on my finger to bed. It's almost an obsession now. I'll jump out of bed and put something on if I realize I forgot to after getting out of the shower for example. Yeah, make fun of me now.

oh yeah, and I also did a report on spontaneous human combustion. That one was silly. Most cases ended up being some old lady fell asleep on her recliner while smoking and having just been drinking a pretty good anount of liquor.

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by leonardshelby [/i]
[B][i]There were also many times where, as I was slowly coming out of REM, I believe, what was really happening was actually merging with my current dream. For example, a long time ago, when my brother was a baby and slept in what was my room, I remember my dream ending off with my brother appearing, crying and as I slowly woke up, I realized that my brother was actually there, crying.
[/i][/B][/QUOTE]

The merging of dreams to the real life happens to me as well. Sometimes it is scary, but other times it is just kinda cool. It's like your predicting what's gonna happen next, and then when it happens, you wake up, and it's like your dream is going on in real life. You know what I mean?

This morning was scary for me. Everytime I dream a freaky scream, I start screaming, kinda. It's more like a restricted scream. It's like your saying "ugh" really really loud, trying to make it sound like a scream. And most of the time I do this, I wake myself up for a little a bit, then go back to the same dream.

But back to this morning. This morning, I had a dream within dream within a dream within a dream within a dream, [5 times I think], and each one ended with me gonna be killed except for the last one where I realized I was dreaming and just made the whole dream into a joke.

I too saw that Discovery channel special. It was freaky, yet informative, or something.

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by XChuck [/i]
[B]Ok. This is it. twosmokingbarre, you are an idiot. Completly. You say such stupid things. You have, on numorous visits to the forum, ruined the entire expeirence with your stupidity. Fucking close-minded shit. I'm sorry to everyone else, I just had to say this. [/B][/QUOTE]You seem to be confused.

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by baby gal [/i]
[B]D. prest...sounds like if your friend was sleeping and saw his brother come home than confirmed it, it was more like an out of body experience. I did a report on those my freshman year in college. I thought I'd get to the bottom of it, but results from different studies were extremely inconclusive[/B][/QUOTE]

Did you read "Leaving the Body"? I don't remember who wrote it, but that was a great book. I like it so much because it touched on many feels I had as a kid, but could never explain. When I was younger, I would be lying in bed to go to sleep and I would see images in my head, just shapes, sometimes a post sticking out of sand and for the life of me, I could not tell you how far away these images appeared to be. They seemed to be very close, yet at the same time distant. I would think of my feet as I lay in bed and I couldn't tell you how far away they were either. They would feel very far from my head, yet at the same time I would feel as though I were a midget. I would try to visualize my own body and actually feel my body shape and size, but I could not do it. The only way I could ever think to describe the experience was to say it felt like Nectors cube (which is that 3 dimensional cube that will look like one side is the front, but as you stare at it, it shifts, the front moving to the back, the back becoming the front). Then I read leaving the body and they explained the sensation one feels when they are close to an out of body experience. They said it is like the state between waking and sleeping, that one often has a distorted perception of their own body, an inability to determine where their body begins and ends. Then I turn the page and see a big illustration of a Nectors cube and the book says the feeling is much like staring at this cube. I couldn't believe it. For years I had tryied to explain this to people and here it was in this book.

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by twosmokingbarre [/i]
[B]I heard that when you fall alseep your spinal cord at your neck for some scientific reason stops sending signals to your muscles. Its closed off or something. Did you ever learn about this? [/B][/QUOTE]

I may have read it in my research since I remember reading scientific explainations for sleep paralysis, but high school was long ago for me, my friend, so I can't really remember any specifics.

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by leonardshelby [/i]
[B]

And my most bizarre dream was one where I was in a plane that was high-jacked, with my close family I believe, that was about to be crashed into a sky-scraper (keep in mind this was before 9/11), and it was about to hit the building, and everything in my mind started to move slowly and I started to accept death, even want it to come, I was almost excited for the end. I woke up just before it hit, of course, and was dumbstruck when I woke up. This was one of those dreams you always remember.

[/B][/QUOTE]

Sorry for leaving so many long posts all over this thread, but sleep, sleep disorders and dreams are one of my favorite topics (I chose it as the subject for research paper, speeches, short films, and on and on).

Shelby, very interesting dream. On 8/29/01 about a week and a half before 9/11, I had a dream about a plane crash as well. Mine did not crash into a skyscraper, it crashed into a King Kullen supermarket (stupid, I know), but my entire family and my girlfriend had gone shopping at king kullen and I was terrified that they didn't get out before the hit. I wanted to go there and find out, but there was no getting anywhere near the site. Everything was a mess and around that mess where all sorts of emergency workers doing there thing. So I had to sit there, looking at this rubble, hoping my loved ones were still alive inside. Now what really got to me 12 days later was thinking back on how I felt when I awoke from this dream. In the middle of the night, awakening from this nightmare, I wrote the following in my journal after a brief description of the dream:

I awake from this dream terrified. Although this is "real" such as losing a loved one, disaster, and so on, I still fear the dark and the room around me as if something may be lurking in the corner. I check for any limbs that may be exposed from beneath the covers. Old childhood fears. I know the nightmare is probably a result of my state of mind since tonight was one of those nights where I fear sleep. Lying in bed, feeling a sense of doom. Like if I fell asleep, I would not wake up.But this night felt different. It had a darkness to it. Not just a darkness in my mind, but in atmosphere. An atmosphere that put those dark thoughts in my mind. I feel a sense of greater truth. I think about work, about booking airline tickets (this was my job at the time) and it seems like an illusion. It seems so unreal, so distant from this apparant truth I was feeling. Greater things are at work in the universe. My job seems like a charade, an act, a stupid game. How can we do these things day in and day out with what is really going on. It is so utterly pointless. Billions of little theaters set upand full of actors, walk ons and extras. There is something bigger here, something more important going on that everyone has closed their eyes to. With the light on, smoking a cigarette, writing in a pad, with a pen, my initial feeling upon waking are fading fast. I'm beginning to feel I am back in the "real world." My recognizable surrounds pulling the wool over my eyes, brainwashing me, telling me this is what is real. And here I have trouble writing this, unable to recall my exact feelings. Remembering who I am supposed to be and what I am supposed to do. My moment of clarity quickly becoming a forgotten moment of irrational thought as I scratch this out as rapidly as I can, so I can get back to sleep. After all, I have work in the morning.

That was my post dream entry and this was exactly how I felt a week and a half later when I saw the towers go down and as life went on and we were all suppose to continue being the people we were. Sorry again for the multiple long post, but I've got so much to say about these subjects. Speaking of these subjects, I'm off to bed.

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by XChuck [/i]
[B]Ok. This is it. twosmokingbarre, you are an idiot. Completly. You say such stupid things. You have, on numorous visits to the forum, ruined the entire expeirence with your stupidity. Fucking close-minded shit. I'm sorry to everyone else, I just had to say this. [/B][/QUOTE]

Friend instead of saying useless things that will only start a fight, how about trying out the ignore button.

Calm down, XChuck.

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by twosmokingbarre [/i]
[B]I dont have a sleep cycle. I will start dreaming immediately even if Im not completely alseep yet. 10 sec. with my eyes closed and ill have some sort of quick dream. [/B][/QUOTE]

I do that too sometimes. For me I'm still half asleep so I'm dreaming about stuff that's really going on around me, but I add in weird dream things.

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by D._Prest [/i]
[B]Night Terrors. [/B][/QUOTE]

I haven't read too much on them, but I always thought that they weren't dreams, just extremely frightening brain responses during sleep. Distinguishing them from just really bad nightmares. I had one when I was little, my parents came in and i was sitting in bed screaming my head off. It's weird though because I don't think anyone (or if they do it's rare) remembering being that scared and what happened.

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by insomnomaniac [/i]
[B]anyone know specifically how insomnia works? what brain chemicals/processes are involved, etc.? anyone know any good books on the subject? [/B][/QUOTE]

I know there are different kinds. Either trouble falling asleep, staying asleep, or waking up too early.

That's all I know though

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by leonardshelby [/i]
[B]Dreaming is an amazing thing that I still can't understand what the point of it is. I mean, it has no use in the life of a human, really, other than entertainment of some sort. [/B][/QUOTE]

My favorite explanation is that dreaming is simply random firings in brain cells.

When a brain cell isn't used, it dies. So to keep them from dying, they are randomly "used" during sleep. Also, once a connection is made between neurons, it's more likely to occur again, and it's strengthened. That's why, I think you end up dreaming about familiar people, places, and everyday things.

It explains why they don't make sense. Why it can be raining in your kitchen, or you're at a store, and all of a sudden you're at school.

People don't really know though.

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by twosmokingbarre [/i]
[B]I heard that when you fall alseep your spinal cord at your neck for some scientific reason stops sending signals to your muscles. Its closed off or something. Did you ever learn about this? [/B][/QUOTE]

Only during REM sleep, unless there's a disorder. It's major muscles too, that's why you're eyes can still move, and you can still have those annoying little jerks.

The scariest dream I've had was when I was being chased by this guy who had a knife. I ran upstairs (he was outside) and I realized I left the door open. Nobody in the other room would listen to me that he was out there. I looked out the window and he was climbing one of those trellis thingies to my window.

I had to have my boyfriend come to bed when I woke up, I was still afraid.

Another one is when I was walking through the living room and a guy was peeking in the bottom corner of the window with a gun. ::shudders:: that one still scares me to think about it.

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by PsychoKeety [/i]
[B]My favorite explanation is that dreaming is simply random firings in brain cells.

When a brain cell isn't used, it dies. So to keep them from dying, they are randomly "used" during sleep. Also, once a connection is made between neurons, it's more likely to occur again, and it's strengthened. That's why, I think you end up dreaming about familiar people, places, and everyday things.

It explains why they don't make sense. Why it can be raining in your kitchen, or you're at a store, and all of a sudden you're at school.

People don't really know though. [/B][/QUOTE]

Thats an interesting explanation, but I feel that a dream is not a dream without the mystery surrounding it.

it wasn't sleep paralysis, but once i had a cold and took some cough medicine that was really perscribed for my mom.. all i took was a dime sized drop that didnt even fill the little spoon. it knocked me out, but right before i completely dozed off, i sort of sensed something behind me beside my bed and i spun around and stiff armed the air. the most i can remember about it was in my head that something was about to attack me and scared the effing gd heck out of me.
drugs are bad...mmK. i try not to cough or have colds anymore. nah, it was actually fun, but maybe that's cuz i never do drugs... being sick is when i get to get stoned. yay.

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by PsychoKeety [/i]
[B]I know there are different kinds. Either trouble falling asleep, staying asleep, or waking up too early.

That's all I know though [/B][/QUOTE]

psychokeety is kinda right, but each disorder is classified differently. insomnia would be the general term. for example, someone might have a "heart condition," but do they have coranary blockage or an irregular heart beat?

anyway, 9 times out of 10 people incorrectly label themselves an insomniac, when really they're just having trouble falling asleep. when i was a kid, my mother was concerned that i never slept. after ruling out all the stupid shit (did you have caffine too close to bed time? did you eat/not eat close to bed time? do you have sleep apnea? is your bed to hard/soft????) and about two years of very strange sleep deprivation tests, the doctors decided i just didn't need that much sleep to function. go figure.

anyway, here's a page that gives the low-down on insomnia-related sleep disorders [url]http://www.neuronic.com/insomniac.htm[/url]

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by XChuck [/i]
[B]Ok. This is it. twosmokingbarre, you are an idiot. Completly. You say such stupid things. You have, on numorous visits to the forum, ruined the entire expeirence with your stupidity. Fucking close-minded shit. I'm sorry to everyone else, I just had to say this. [/B][/QUOTE]

No worries.

When I was younger, I had my first (and only) experience with laughing gas (and it was at an oral). This experience not only gave me vivid hallucinations/trips, but also made me realize how sensitive I am to these kind of things [drugs]. Now, these trips were so damn cool, but from what I hear, laughing gas shouldn't do that to you. Whatever. Let me share these ultra-cool hallucinations/trips with you.

(Oh yeah, and let me point out that my mom told me afterwards that I didn't shut up the entire time, even while like knocked out. The doctor(s) had to put this......thing....in my mouth to keep it open so I wouldn't keep moving around my mouth. Yet even then I continued talking, as if the thing in my mouth wasn't even there.)

1. My first trip involved everything suddenly being blue, sorta like that whole white loading program in the matrix, only all blue. Then the doctors head showed up, real big, like a balloon, and his arms stuck from the bottom of his head, and he just floated there. And his female assistant appeared next to him, in the exact same way; balloon-like, floating, protuding arms...real big. Now, when the surgery started originally (before the "trip"), the doctor kept laughing, obviously amused at his insane, young patient, and he kept saying "You're doing great!." So now, this big head with the arms, he stood there, and rhymically, started saying "Hahaha, you're doing great!" just as techno music started to play in the background, his voice going with the music. Yes, I know, fucked up. Then suddenly, everything zoomed in, the people disappeared, still in blue la-la land, with the music and voice still going, though. And out of the blue (pun intended) appeared this sorta maze like thing. The rest is fuzzy, but I can remember suddenly jolting back to reality soon later, wondering to myself "what the fuck was that? did I fall asleep or something?"

2. My next trip happened soon after. The oral surgeon and his assistant were doing work on my mourth, and suddenly, everything froze. I mean, really, froze. Just like Windows ME, man, it just froze solid. And I was like "What. The. Fuck." (just like when my computer freezes yay!). And THEN, everthing started to spin, swirl, and the colors and images blended, yet everything bizarrely staying the same.

3. I did have a third trip but I always fucking forget it so I can't remember it ugh.

Anyway, I know these so-called "trips" or "dreams" were induced by a certain factor, but where the hell did these images come from? And anyone else ever have a similar experience?

Maybe this will give you new insight? I have always thought, that maybe sleep/dreaming is, in a way, preparing you for death. Everytime you go to bed it's practice, and every dream you have is part of the giant story when you die. Sleep. Dream. Sleep. Dream. Sleep. Dream. Sleep. Dream. Death. When you go to sleep it's just partly of how long death is. Hence the practicing/preparing. And when it comes to dreams, again, each are little parts of the story, so when you die, it's like one big giant, enormous, movie. Always playing, with no stop or pause.

seems like dreams always find ways to scare the shit out of you. it finds some pretty bizarre shit too.

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by TwoPennyKenny [/i]
[B]it wasn't sleep paralysis, but once i had a cold and took some cough medicine that was really perscribed for my mom.[/B][/QUOTE]

Same thing happened to me when I had this infection in my lung from bronchitis, I think it was called pleurisy or something like that. Anyway, every time I coughed or was bounced around it felt like someone was stabbing me in the back.

They prescribed me some codeine cough medicine, and I took a full dose the first time (stupid, stupid) I was too afraid to go to sleep, but I was really dizzy and icky feeling, I just sat on the couch with my face buried. Even though I didn't go completely asleep, I still had weird dreams and stuff. My dad turned into a dinosaur. Yep.

its very odd because i was having the same kind of dreams that d_preist was having i was in a plane and the captain came back to the cabin and said were going to crash and that was it
it was before 9/11 i had this dream everynight for 2 weeks

oh wait sorry it was leonard shelby that had those dreams

Yeah, looking back, its very bizarre thinking about it. And the feelings, the emotions I got in that dream were VERY drastic and....harsh. I mean....man, I fucking accepted death, was waiting for the white light, and all.