People Describe Insanely Scary Sleep Paralysis Experiences
Sleep paralysis is a fairly common occurrence that afflicts many people. It is most commonly explained as a feeling of being paralyzed while lying in bed, during which time auditory and visual hallucinations might also occur. Some people see human-like figures or even creatures and hear voices or other strange, unsettling sounds. Far more intense than your average nightmare, sleep paralysis experiences can deeply terrify and disturb sufferers, as you will see in these 26 accounts of sleep paralysis, compiled from a Reddit thread.
- 11,890 VOTES
The Masked Man
From Redditor /u/Hoobshanker:
"I've had quite a few, from just feelings of a presence to a full blown figure. Sometimes there are voices, sometimes it is dead silent. But the masked man was in another league of bone chilling.
It started with me wake up to a deep throated chuckling. Having been one of my later expierences of sleep paralysis, I knew immediately that it was that. I resigned myself to another sleepless creepy night, when the door opened. A man stepped through, in a mask as red as blood. The mask itself was demonic in nature, with big under fangs, like a boar's, with unnatural, outlandish twist and turns in the cheeks, and a deep set wrinkled brow. But the worse part were they eyes. His violet serpentine eyes bulged out of the mask, they looked like they were about to pop. He was wearing a rich colored brown robe, with a hood pulled up covering the rest of his head, drawing all attention to the mask, and those dreadful eyes. He pulled a squirming burlap sack behind him, and he stopped when he got to the foot of my bed. He stared at me for a long moment, and then reached in the bag.
One by one, he pulled everyone I had ever loved, cared about, or considered a friend. Each time he pulled them out he positioned them so I was looking directly into their eyes. And he took his hand, a gnarled bony thing, with skin drawn so tight it looked as if he had none at all, and drew his long sharp nail across their throats spilling torrents of blood at my feet. I had to watch the life drain out of the eyes of everyone I had ever truly known, and deep in those eyes I could terror mixing with pity in each and everyone of them. And only after his bag was empty did he let it drop and he began walking around my bed. He stopped as he towered over me. Leaning down he reached to me and gently stroked my fave with his blood stained nail. With his other hand he reached and pulled off his mask. I cannot honestly put it into words what I saw beneath that mask, it was an ever changing face of horror, it twisted and squirmed and never remained still for long, and each facial reconstruction was more terrifying than the last.
As I looked into his violet serpentine eyes he spoke to me. I still remember the words well enough to quote them verbadim, but as they were profoundly disturbing and personal in nature I do not care to repeat them to anyone. But the last thing he said was, 'Enjoy the time you have left, because soon your life will be mine, and your soul as well' And he said this his face finally settled onto a single form. It was my own face."
- 21,301 VOTES
Mother-Like Monster
From Redditor /u/godWEENsatan:
"This happened when i was 6, 20 years ago, and I still remember it vividly because I haven't gone more that a couple months without replaying it back in my head. I remember waking up from a creepy dream, and lying in bed for a minute. Then my mom opened the door and I could see her silhouette. Was she there to comfort me possibly? She didn't say anything. She then eerily waddled (hobbled?) into my room, and started looking a little more creepy. She looked a little like a creature from Where the Wild Things Are. I could only see the dark outline of her body and head, but her hair appeared messy and her head looked larger than normal. I was on the top bunk (my baby sister was asleep below).
My mom stood at my bed - her head was about level with my own. She stood there for a minute at the side of my bunkbed, and I could begin to sense that things were weird. She then reached out and started tickling me a little. I wasn't freaked out quite yet. Then I began to feel uncomfortable, but the tickling intensified. She began grunting quietly, almost as if she was murmuring something. Finally i was trying to tell her to stop, but of course, words were impossible to form. The tickling intensified until she was scratching and jabbing and digging at my torso. By then the grunting had eventually grown into a deep growling and howling. I couldn't move or make any noise. WHY WOULDN'T MY LITTLE SISTER WAKE UP AND HELP ME?! Scariest f*cking thing that's ever happened to me."
- 3527 VOTES
Getting Pulled From The Bed
From Redditor /u/Jellybeanskittle:
"I suffered a terrible accident involving being kicked in the face by a horse, which resulted in my jaw being broken. Two plates and a wired jaw later. I was pretty hangry and exhausted.
I'd suffered from sleep paralysis before but nothing to the extent after this accident. It occurred every night, sometimes multiple times, for months on end. We have a mirrored wardrobe next to our bed, my side of course, and I keep the bedroom door open. Quite often I would be just falling off to sleep when I would feel the dread wash over me followed by the feeling of someone being in the room. I would then feel like something was pulling me off of the bed by arm, towards the mirror - then the nightmares progressed to being dragged off the bed by my back. All whilst feeling choked, unable to scream or move, unable to get my husbands attention, who lay next to me. Extremely unnerving and upsetting, to the point I would fear sleep. My husband told me that I'd been sleep walking and I had no recollection of this. He'd found me in the hallway a few times ... really upsetting.
After a post on Reddit, it was suggested that we cover the mirror. It did help curb the amount of experiences for a while until I returned to work, etc. where the nightmares lessened.
Recently, the sleep paralysis has returned but interestingly, so have my daily headaches and migraines. I am able to sometimes let out a sound (whilst trying to scream!) which my husband then is able to wake me out of it.
My most recent experience has been of a black figure (think person covered head to toe in skin tight, black lycra) who is trying to drag me from the bed by face ... incredibly frightening. In this state, it feels like it is almost in slow motion and I am trying to crawl my fingers across the bed to my husband to wake him but it is impossible.
I find it interesting that most of us who experience this, tell of the same figure, etc."
- 4485 VOTES
The Woman In Black
From Redditor /u/AmNotCrab:
"I have only had one experience and it was terrifying. I woke up in the middle of the night and had the usual symptoms. However I was sleeping facing the door which was open. An old lady in full black appeared and stared at me for what felt like a hour. Finally before I regained motion the woman screamed and lunged at me and I woke up."
- 51,062 VOTES
Hand And Footprints
From a former Redditor:
"I almost only have them when I sleep on my back during the night, so the most terrifying time was when I slept on my chest during the daylight hours on my couch in the living room. I thought that it was a coward that only came in the dark of the night, but it came back to prove me wrong. Every single incident was at night except this one. My wife and I were arguing on the way home from church, and she took the kids to her mothers for the day so we could both calm down. I chose to take a nap laying on my chest with my head turned to the left away from the sunlight from my living room windows. I awoke around 2 pm unable to move, only this time I felt that my right leg was slightly elevated. Each of my experiences beforehand were different in that I was being held down and choked by a dark silhouette, I would try to yell, but nothing would come out. I would panic, and begin to pray, and then it would let me go and leave. This time though, it dragged me off the couch and was yanking me violently with my face down in broad daylight where I could not see it. I truly thought this thing was finally going to kill me. I'm a 33-year-old man in good health who isn't scared easily, but in that moment I thought I would never see my children again. I prayed that God would protect me, and He did. A veil of darkness lifted from the room, from where I was on the floor I could see the sunlight from the window shift forward several inches. There was a hand print on my ankle from where it grabbed me and dragged me, it had five fingers like the hands of a man. I had a large terrier mix at the time and he was clawing at the back door and growling like I had never heard him do before. I let him in the house and he was snarling and baring his teeth running from room to room chasing something that I could not see, but had heavy footprints on my wooden floor. I watched my dog chase after this thing to the corner of my yard and it wasn't until he came back that I realized my dog almost clawed halfway through a 2" thick wooden door trying to get in to protect me. I blessed my home with oil that same day and I haven't had trouble since. That was in 2012. My dog passed ... a year later of old age, but I got my girls a Rhodesian Ridgeback named Jax and he sleeps in their room every night. I'd rather he be there with them if this thing ever returns."
- 6495 VOTES
Horrific Seduction
From Redditor /u/okuro9:
"Similarly during one of the darkest times in my life - I awoke in my room to a feeling of great pressure and a sense of evil, it sounds cliche'd and difficult to describe but a real thick, heavy energy in the air which instinctively told me there was some kind of malevolent presence in close proximity to me. It was the middle of the afternoon so there was enough light to really get a good look. I was in the state described above - mind awake, eyes open, but body asleep/paralyzed. After staring in anticipation and horror for what seemed like a few minutes at the entrance to my room it came.
I see a figure slowly struggling to walk through the doorway - a very old woman, sunken eyes, long grey hair, skinny to the point that the skin looked barely attached to bone, and naked - her ribs were sunken in. A sense of complete dread overwhelmed me as I saw this woman make her way awkwardly towards me - there was definitely a sexual component to it. It took every ounce of strength and willpower to shake myself 'awake' as this thing made its way half on top of me- very much like the way the dementors were depicted sucking out the life of people in harry potter years later. it was like I had to push a yell to come out of my mouth, it began as a struggled wimper and with great effort I managed to let out a roar.
The 'waking up' consisted of me being given back control of my body and the woman vanished, but it was a seamless transition - everything else remained the same. The feeling of dread remained for a short while before withdrawing. I was unnerved at the time, wondering if i'd simply lost the eyes to see this thing in my 'awake' state and had a cold shower in an attempt to get rid of the putrid feeling that i was left with.
I've since done a lot of research into this and the out of body experience and am convinced that in our dark moments there are entities that are attracted to this state. I was shocked when i discovered the 'night hag' or 'night mare' was a not-so-uncommon experience. Whether they 'exist' or not is another question where multiple answers could be given. My advice if these things are plaguing you is to not underestimate the power of ritual."
- 7619 VOTES
Watching And Screaming
From Redditor /u/black_feather:
"My first experience was in junior high and has continued to sporadically occur throughout my life (I’m 25 now). The worst experience I’ve ever had happened after I graduated high school and moved into my grandfather’s old house after he passed .... I had a couple of roommates who were out and I decided to take an afternoon nap. I knew as soon as I shut my eyes what was going to happen but I never could have imagined how intense it would be. The music I had playing in the background began to morph until it was nothing but the sound of unknown voices screaming and crying in pain.
I had fallen asleep on my side, facing a pair of doors leading into my walk-in closet which slowly began to creak open and give me a glimpse of complete darkness surrounding a pair of ruby eyes staring gleefully at me. As the doors continued to open inch by inch, the piercing cries intensified and I was able to pick out the word ‘Hell’ being repeatedly screamed. I managed to jerk myself out of it just before the doors opened halfway and I wasted no time bolting out of bed to the safety of my front yard. Feeling the sun on my skin and seeing the neighbor’s kids playing in the street had never felt so good."
- 8982 VOTES
Shared Nightmare
From a former Redditor:
"It happened once in my sister's room. I was lying on my back and noticed a dark figure jumping from wall to wall. Alone, it wasn't the most terrifying experience. I have sleep paralysis often so I didn't even bother telling anyone else. The next week I was sitting at the table with my sister and she told me she had a weird dream (her first time with sleep paralysis) and she described the exact figure in detail."
- 9281 VOTES
Horrific Images And Sensations
From Redditor /u/reszastance:
"I shared this experience before, it happened two months ago. I've had sleep paralysis since I was roughly 11 or 12 (5th grade, 22 now).
I have never had a 'dream.' I remember my first nightmare, and can't remember a night I haven't had one. That being said, I'm used to them, so only sleep paralysis can still ruin my night.
In the dream I had before waking up and experiencing the paralysis, I'm seeing myself in third person waking up on a floor and investigating an abandoned and trashed, stark-white painted room as big as an apartment. There are some unnecessary details, and then I grew fatigued and fell back down on the floor. In third person, my dream self was ravenously hungry, deciding I needed to break apart and eat gritty old battery acid out of a battery off the floor. Dream self poured it into my mouth while laying there, and then the dream changed to first person. I tasted it, I felt the texture, I felt it burn through flesh and could feel bone.
I woke up to the paralysis, and the feeling, burning, gritty sensation of choking on battery acid, choked out my dog's name but she didn[']t budge, and then gave up trying to fight off the sleep paralysis. I more easily went back to sleep and woke up out of the dream. When awake, I looked at the clock and realized all of that happened in 45 minutes.
I've had ranging experiences. Continuations of feelings from dreams such as what's stated above, hands gripping my limbs, one time a sad hug/embrace, being pulled out of bed (upon being able to move, seeing half of my body off the bed with my blanket folded, uncovering me), pressure pushing me into my bed, voices, screams, I've seen a woman sitting in my room turn around and scream at me, various lights and shadows. The works.
I still won't get used to how exhausting the nightmares and sleep paralysis are, or how disgustingly vivid and different things are every time. But, it is normal for me. I'm otherwise used to it all now."
- 10221 VOTES
Hot Breath On The Face
From Redditor /u/Bunnych0w:
"I used to get them quite a bit. I guess school was stressing me out. Graduated [highschool] now. But most of mine were auditory/sensory. I've never seen anything thankfully. I think the worst one that I experienced was when I was in bed laying on my side facing the wall with my back to the rest of the room. I have a queen bed so there was quite a bit of room left. This was towards the end of my sleep so like I 'wake up,' and I felt this terror wash over me and and indention next to me like something get onto the bed.
I had a squeaky a** bed too so I heard that. I was absolutely terrified at this point just clenching my eyes shut and this thing is like hovering its face right by mine and I can feel it breathing on me. It only lasted a few minutes but felt like forever at the time. One of the worst things I've ever experienced. The brain is amazing. Every thing else is creepy garbled voices and the feeling of something on you. I got to the point where if I felt it I would just wiggle my toes and fingers to get out of it."
- 11224 VOTES
Recurring Paralysis Man
From Redditor /u/NovaStarLord:
"I got sleep paralysis too and it's different most of the time but there is one recurring experience that happens to me though and it usually starts when I feel like my father or someone from my family is in the room with me and when I realize they're not suppose to be there and that something is wrong it's the moment I see this man with white skin and watery red eyes yell and jump on me and attack me and he goes away when I start regaining moment and try to fight back.
There are times I feel a body in bed with me and think it's my dad or my mom and then I just think how weird [or] absurbd that is and then realize, 'Why would they be there? Oh sh*t it's not them' that thing attacks me.
Last week I was sleeping soundly and I thought my dad was there until I realized, 'Wait that makes no sense for him to be there, sh*t I am having sleep paralysis' and then that man appears and starts hissing at me and shaking my arms, and honestly at this point I am more angry and annoyed than scared so I angrily try to fight back but I can't really move and when I feel like I start regaining moment he lunges back into the floor and cries 'Leave me alone'
It's funny but I met this guy while having those weird out of mind body experiences and not sleep paralysis.
That said my other experiences with sleep paralysis are usually me not being able to move with no hallucinations, but when I do and the pale man is not in them sometimes I see shadow people, or I feel things walking on my bed and on top of me (this one time it was an invisible sog growling at me) or the whole room moving with my bed tilting back and forth, it's weird.
The weirdest thing that happens to me sometimes and I dunno if it's sleep paralysis but I feel like I get up from bed and I am going on my normal every day life but then I realize I am still on my bed and I am having a hard time trying to get up for real because that experience keeps repeating itself and this usually lasts for an hour, it's like sleeping awake."
- 12138 VOTES
A Very Deep Voice
From Redditor /u/snaps_pro:
"When I met my SO he had mentioned to me that he would often wake up and see black shadows standing next to his bed or walking in his room. At this point I had never experienced sleep paralysis and I didn't know much about it, but ever since he told me I have had roughly 20-30 occurrences. Ranging from simply waking up and not being able to move/ breathe, waking up on my left side facing the wall and feeling someone pull on my right shoulder, having the feeling someone is pulling me out of bed by my ankles or wrists, feelings of people in my room but beyond the range of what I can see (because I can't turn my head), and the scariest one to date - I was sleeping with my SO at my friends house, we usually sleep on the floor but this time we got a bed.
I wake up and I cant move, I'm on my back, it's morning out so it's not dark, but I can hear this very deep voice talking very loudly and in what I can imagine to be Latin, I do not know any Latin but I have looked it up and it seems like that is the language that was being spoken/yelled. The voice continues to get louder and louder until I pass out/ fall asleep. The worst part about this is that this same exact thing has happened twice. Same voice same room. I can sleep anywhere in the house but in that room. I'm also very nervous to tell my friend, the home owner, and his wife, for fear of freaking them out. I have started using an app called Sleep Cycle which is supposed to wake you up when you're out of REM, I think it has helped. I also believe that sleep paralysis happens to me when I am really tired and I wake up and go back to sleep to quickly."
- 13281 VOTES
Claws
From Redditor /u/vashtistraeth:
"Two years ago I would have sleep paralysis so often that I was terrified to even try to sleep. If you're not familiar with what sleep paralysis is it is a phenomenon in which a person either during falling asleep or awakening, temporarily experiences an inability to move, speak, or react, accompanied by a feeling of pressure on one's chest and difficulty breathing. It is also accompanied by unusually powerful and terrifying hallucinations to which one is unable to react due to paralysis.
The first hallucination I remember having while undergoing sleep paralysis was it felt like something was dragging it's (sic) claws down my left arm. I had fallen asleep on my back on the couch in the living room and I remember opening my eyes a few hours later but I couldn't move a muscle and it felt as if I was suffocating. I could feel these claws dragging down my arm but I couldn't scream. No sound would come out. I felt terrified and felt as if something was watching me. I had a dreadful feeling that I would die and no one would help me. After I had control of my body again I sat straight up and began to cry and had to call one of my friends to talk to her to maybe keep my mind off of the horrible situation."
- 14163 VOTES
A Sensation Of Dying
From Redditor /u/zerojjc:
"I've been getting them off and on since highschool. It used to scare the crap out of me until I looked it up and learned about it. Now when it happens I try to stay calm, which is easy if I'm aware that I'm having it and not still partially in a dream. Then I still try to move my hand/arm and keep trying off and on until it eventually breaks free.
One night I woke up in it and didn't feel like fighting so tried to go back to sleep. However I had a horrible feeling, I can't explain it other than it felt like as I started to fall back into sleep that I was slipping away or possibly dying. So I quickly began fighting it again. Since then I've just always fought it until I snap out, then I'll sit up, have a sip of water, roll over and go back to sleep."
- 15245 VOTES
A Strange Buzzing
From Redditor /u/lovestheonlyway:
"I've had it multiple times! I mainly find it happening after a night of partying, or maybe the first full sleep after. I always know it's going to start by this strange buzzing sound and pressure on my head. I've heard voices, felt presences and been convinced there were aliens standing around me. But on of the most realistic ones was a hallucination of me falling off my bed and having a seizure. Half crawling and screaming for help but no noise would come out. Eventually I was able to shake my self out of it. But sometimes if I don't give myself time between shaking myself out and trying to sleep again I'll fall right back into it."
- 1695 VOTES
Cloaked Figure
From Redditor /u/sellbsmcphelps:
"I used to get these a lot and for some reason they still happen when I sleep at my parents house but luckily I haven't had one in my own house in my own bed (I even used to get them at my ex-boyfriend[']s house) I ALWAYS feel an evil presence either floating over me or standing next to me. Always black and cloaked, the feeling they give me is the worst feeling I have ever felt. Like impending doom. Even if it happens when I am on my stomach it's like I can feel the shadow above my back and I know exactly what it looks like. I honestly thought for a long time I was just messed up and I had evil following me around and I wasn't sure why ... that was the scariest part. Luckily surfing through Vice I saw that they had written and article about it and I realized I wasn't alone.
It's always the worst when I feel in the clear and then as soon as I can get back to sleep I am right back in that place with the evil."
- 17160 VOTES
Alien Abduction
From Redditor /u/SteTheImpaler:
"During my teenage years and up until about 21-22 years old I would get sleep paralysis often. I am 25 now and I almost never get it anymore. I only had one time I had a hallucination and till this day it's the scariest thing that's happened to me. At my old house I had a big room with one side of the wall being a sliding glass door that led to an outside patio. There would be times when at night you could hear animals and strange sounds from the woods and stream by our house.
Anyway, one night I remember I was tired from playing my GameCube and I laid down and got ready for bed. I remember not being able to move although I was completely awake. I remember white bluish light coming from around my bed and lighting up the room. When I was able to move my eyeballs I for a moment saw four white alien figures at the corners of my bed. I felt as though the room was moving and I was being abducted. As the aliens started coming closer to my paralyzed body I fought through the paralysis and immediately got up. My body was in cold sweats and I turned on all the lights in my room. For awhile I was trying to fight off the notion that what I actually happened to me was real."
- 18110 VOTES
Mother's Basement
From Redditor /u/Scarysleepy:
"My sister passed ... in February and my ex pushed me too far so we broke up, I ended up staying with my Mom for a month until she found a place and left. It's been so hard to get a good sleep since we lost my sister, so I was extremely exhausted by this point.
My Mom's basement room was a little creepy and I was thinking a lot about schizophrenia at the time for some reason, kind of wondering what it was like to visualize terrifying monsters. I would imagine kind of like the old creepy woman from insidius almost.
As I started falling asleep I saw a different woman come at me swinging briefly before she was gone and I just felt the pressure. When I realised I couldn't move I thought something was wrong, I could barely breathe and I thought I was having a stroke. Calling out to my Mom and my step dad obviously didn't work. It felt like I blacked out then just snapped out of it.
It really scared the sh*t out of me but I tried to get back to sleep after realizing it was a weird half dream thing. It happened again in a lesser form with no hallucination, except I fell right asleep after.
The next night it happened again. Except this time it was a little demon thing that jumped on to my bed and crawled over my leg and moved its way up to my chest and just held me down. It was definitely one of the strangest things I've experienced."
- 1991 VOTES
Sleeping Partner
From Redditor /u/TinyGigan:
"I have sleep paralysis fairly regularly, especially if I'm sleeping alone and/or in a different place than usual. Happily, if there's real movement in the room, like the cat milling about or my wife making noise, it'll bring me right out of it.
I've had it enough over the years that it doesn't bother me too much except when I'm also having a nightmare 'over' it at the same time. The worst one ever happened while staying at the guest room at my in-laws. They have a slightly creepy house to begin with - it's been added onto over the years and has weird indoor windows, settles constantly, etc. My wife and I weren't married yet at the time so I had to sleep alone (Catholic in-laws). Long and short is that I found myself having a bout of sleep paralysis in a room I'm rarely in (for some reason that makes it worse) and I slowly become aware of an arm draped across my chest - not seeing it so much as just feeling that it's there. 'Oh,' I think to myself, 'that's just Shelly.' Then I remember that she doesn't sleep with me at her parents house. My mind immediately switched gears to 'Well, it must be a dead, drowned woman because gruesome nightmares are the absolute best.' That particular experience set the bar for bad SP events for me."
- 20113 VOTES
Night Terrors And Vivid Paralysis
From Redditor /u/kreabs:
"Night terrors around 4-6 years old, walking round the house screaming in my sleep, dad tried to wake me up and I wouldn't, he knelt in front of me at eye level shaking me for a good five [minutes] apparently before I finally woke, told him to get off me and give me some space for a minute while I collected myself, always needed a wee for some reason.
About 18-24 at least once a week had sleep paralysis with the hallucinations, first one I recall was a gypsy looking old wrinkly woman, green silky see through head scarf with little coins? Attached sat on the edge of my bed staring at me, nothing more, just staring, that one happend a few times, another was a little blonde haired lad sat in my computer chair also just staring. Dark figures walking towards me down the hall way, someone cloaked in shadow peering round my door, a man sat on my bed stroking my dog smiling, probably the last one was someone with a mask walking away from me down the hall getting to the top of the stairs looking up at me and waving then going down stairs, I say probably last because it 'felt' like he was waving good bye and I've had next to none since then. I got so used to it that it didn't bother me anymore. Still wake up hallucinating now and then but not paralysed, startles my gf when I'm grabbing the imaginary spiders off her and throwing them across the room."
- 21101 VOTES
Robed Figures
From a former Redditor:
"One time I was laying (sic) on my back at night and when I woke up I couldn't move and there were about 12 short figures in brown robes standing around me. I've seen them in a dream before and when I looked them up it seemed that they're a phenomenon all over the world to be seen. I've never seen them in person before (movie etc.). They were just standing there staring at me though."
- 22103 VOTES
Paralysis Spurred By Bloody Mary?
From Redditor /u/tkida1007:
"I used to get them a lot as a kid. I remember it starting around [junior] high and eventually stopping in high school. The first time it happened I had no idea what was going on with my body. Funny enough, just before they started I was at a summer day camp and played 'Bloody Mary' in a supposedly haunted restroom at the park with a few friends. The sleep paralysis started after that, so I was convinced whatever was haunting that bathroom followed me home. I don't remember hallucinating anything but I do remember that feeling of not being able to breathe or move, immense pressure in my chest, and not being able to call out for help.
I think I would eventually just pass out and wake up later feeling really scared about what happened. I never told anyone but a few friends who just laughed it off. Eventually I realized if I didn't sleep on my back I would be ok. I still try not to sleep on my back. Now every once in a while I have dreams where like if I have to be active (fight someone off, etc.) I physically feel like I'm moving through water or jelly. Not sure if it's related, but it's a similar feeling without the trouble breathing and chest pressure."
- 2388 VOTES
Blinding Light And Deafening Sounds
From Redditor /u/RadioactiveCoffee:
"Suffered from sleep paralysis a lot in the past. Always knew what they were and knew people were prone to hallucination when on them.
Then I had another one and suddenly thought: Oh no what if I hallucinate something terrifying. And instantly I started hallucinating that there was a massive source of light outside the windows coming in, even though it was night, accompanied by a deafening deafening sound.
Weird sh*t man, weird sh*t..."
- 2475 VOTES
Horrible Hallucinations
From Redditor /u/Inmate_95123:
"I have two to three of these episodes a month on average. Thank god I don't have the hallucinations. I've only had hallucinations twice and once it sounded like my entire room was shaking as if it was full of plastic trash bags. Next I felt a pressing on my feet that quickly ran up my legs to my chest. As soon as it happened I suddenly set straight up in bed and gasped just as you would imagine someone would do in a horror movie. It was the only time in my life I've ever made a gasping noise. Most of the time I'm just froze, can't move, or speak. I feel overwhelmed with claustrophobia and fight to move or break free with no avail at times.
Growing up in the Bible Belt I thought it was some sort of demonic experience for years and kept it to myself until I talked to a friend I knew from church who was also a psychologist. She quickly said 'I think you may be having some sort of seizure or similar sleep disturbance.['] I can't believe I never even thought of considering that. After that I got online and quickly found an explanation for all my random night time and sleep oriented experiences.
Guess I'll hold off buying that bottle of holy water."
- 2579 VOTES
Squeezing And Standing
From a former Redditor:
"Luckily haven't had them in a long time but when I was younger I got them virtually every time I took a nap during the day. Sometimes it felt like i was being squeezed and people were standing over me. Scary. I'm assuming this is why some people think they're abducted by aliens and stuff like that."
- 2680 VOTES
A Supernatural Theory
From a former Redditor:
"This used to happen to me A LOT when I was younger. Especially when I was in middle school. I just randomly wake up from my naps and found myself in that state. I was able to wiggle my toes and move my eyes around but the rest of my body was unable to move and I couldn't talk no matter how hard I tried. I just calmed down, waited a few seconds then everything went back to normal.
I told two of my friends about it one of them (who was spiritual) said that ghosts was pinning down my body while my other friend said your mind was still operating but your body wasn't or body wasn't in sync with my mind or something."
