My Experience With Sleep Paralysis

Hello people :)

first of all it's nice to be here. Please excuse my bad english since i'm from greece.

I know there's already one topic about sp, but i'd like to offer my experience with it, cause as far as i've seen (and please correct me if i'm wrong), rarely two cases of sp are alike, and most of the times the symptoms are different.

I'm 22 years old, and it all started way back. First time I remember myserf paralyzed and unsuccessfully trying to scream is when I was around 7-8 years old. It happened a couple of times back then, and it was possibly the scariest experience I had...Until eight years ago.

When I was in 10th grade, it started happening again, this time more often, sometimes occuring once per week, and other days even five or six times per night! At that time, my sleep was problematic (still is) and I usually slept early in the morning and woke up in the afternoon. After eight years I still experience it, but i'm used to it now and I don't give it much credit. My reaction usually is "oh damn, here we go again".

I will give examples of the symptoms, and also comments of people who were right beside me when sp occured.

My usual sp experience: many times I can -feel- it coming, sometime minutes before... It's like feeling dizzy or "dizzyness in small but strong amounts". Other times I can also "provoke" it by closing my eyes hard and doing something with my ears which makes me "hear" a similar low-ringing sound to what you hear in sp... There are no exact words to describe it.

Then, the party begins. Total paralysis, always accompanied by the strange ringing sound in my ears, and a mild or moderate tremble (shaking) of my body. The ringing itself (someone actually mentioned hz) either starts low and gradually increases, or starts high and strong. Same thing happens with the trembling.

It has happened to me in any way I sleep, on my back, on my side, or on my chest, but around 90% of the times it occured when I was lying on my back. It usually happens before I fall asleep, though sometimes i've experience it when waking up. I can partially open my eyes and look around, however my vision is blurred. Sometimes I can even make sounds, small murmurs which can be heard. I haven't experienced any hallucinations yet, no chest pain or lack of breath, and it usually ends withing 5-20 seconds. Since i'm almost awake when it happens, I suppose it has to do with the first stages of sleep.

Now, it has also happened some times when I sleep with my girlfriend. The first time it happened when we were together, around two months ago, she told me she felt my body shaking. That time I did not try to notify her of my condition, so no more observations could be made.

Last week I went to stay with her for a while. I explained to her what she should do if she felt me trembling or heard me murmuring noises. I asked her to observe the symptoms and my behavior during the sp, and also to wake me up by 1) shaking me and 2) just shout at me (to find out whether I am in fact sleeping during the episode). When it happened, I immediately tried to make a sound, but the only thing heard was a mild "hmmm". I kept on hmmm-ing until she heard me and shaked me. It stopped. Minutes after the first time, it happened again, but it came stronger, and it took me a while before I managed to call for her help. Although I told her to not shake me the second time, but to just shout at me to wake me, she panicked (can't really blame her) and shook me. Again, it stopped and everything went back to normal. The strange thing is, though I experienced body trembling the second time, she did not feel it.

I'm no doctor and you shouldn't take what I write for granted, those are just what I personally make of sleep paralysis:

sp in general (my experience):
- allegedly has similar symptoms to the first stage of astral projection
(if there's such a thing)
- most of the times, no two experiences are alike
- can occur any time from before falling asleep to shortly after waking up
- can occur in any way you sleep

symptoms (my experience):
- total or partial (can open eyes, mouth) body paralysis
- high-pitched ringing sound in ears
- mild or moderate body tremble
- dizzyness or strong feeling of anticipation before the episode

observations by others (my experience):
- body trembling may be felt by others
- sounds you manage to make will be heard
- having someone shake you (and possibly shout at you) stops the episode

i'd like to hear your commens and additional observations :)