That has happened to me so many times that I am used to it now. It used to be scary to me, now I have learned to control it. I even usually know when it is going to happen. It happens to me about every two nights.

Once it happened and I woke up on the floor crawling to the door. That was the weirdest and scariest one I ever had happen to me. The dream was about a guy trying to kill me. In my dream he knocked me down and I was crawling to the door trying to get away.

it's not a normal condition... sleep is a time of rest, you should be able to sleep easy,wake up peacefully... the only battle should be the desire to remain in your blankets a little longer
You should not approach sleep with dread. That's not normal. Not in the slightest.
I've had these dreams where I feel like someone is holding me down, smothering me, trying to control me... trying to attack me and pull me back down. I can tell you for a fact that it's not a dream, it's a spiritual attack. When I call on Jesus in that 'dream state', I ask Him to help me, save me, something happens, it's as if the battle shifts in my favour and I'm able to break away.
This isn't stuff to take lightly or try to explain with physical circumstances... stuff happens when we sleep that affects us when we wake up. I've had people tell me when we're praying about thing I had dreamt about... once I saw myself cutting my hair... I didn't tell anyone... a week or so later, two people who were praying with me asked me what I'd done to my hair. "physically" it was untouched, but spiritually man it was the wreck I had thought it was.
Guys... let's stop playing in the realm of what our eyes see... it's time to wake up (no pun intended).
Take this up with your local pastor... as in for real. Please!!! Stuff could be happening to you that's destroying you. Please!!!

I am so happy that I found this site! The same thing happens to me too on a sporadic basis. I will have these lucid dreams maybe once a month and then three times a week and then not again for another 4 months... so weird!! The best way I could describe it to people is that I would go to sleep and wake up inside my dream. I know that I went to sleep and that I was dreaming and that I had just waken up from a dream. Nothing bad is usually happening in my "dream" causing me to wake up, they are usually never nightmares (only once I dreamt that I had seen a ghost). Turns out that I am waking up from a dream withing my dream- if that makes sense. At first everything will seem normal. I will be in my bedroom, in my bed, with my husband next to me, in the same clothes that I went to sleep in and him too. Then something will seem odd to me or I'll get this eerie feeling like when the hairs on your neck stand up. Then I realize that I am actually still dreaming. I scream and scream and sometimes manage to utter "help me" and all the while I'm thinking... why isn't my husband waking up... why can't he hear me! I get really panicky and just want to wake up!! The only thing that I have found that allows me to wake up is if I tense up my entire body, squeeze my eyes tight, and kinda wriggle my body around. Sometimes it won't work on the first try and I get even more nervous so then I take a deep breathe and try again and it usually works. After a few seconds (what seems like hours sometimes) I will finally wake up feeling extremely tense and terrified. I'll wake up my husband and ask him if he heard me yelling but it turns out I never uttered a word in real life. I force myself to get up out of bed afterwards and once I stayed up for like two days because it terrified me so much I felt like I was stuck in my dream and I didn't want to have to go through that again! I used to work the night shift and thought maybe it was b/c my sleep schedule was so off but have long since stopped working nights and they still occur. I was getting used to these lucid dreams except for last time the wriggling around didn't help me wake up and I actually had to hold my breath, and woke up terrified and out of breath! I don't know if I held it in real life too or what. But next time this happens... what am I gonna have to do to wake up? Jump up and down, hold my breath, stand on one foot, blink my eyes, spin around, and sing? My goodness!! Some people I've talked to like lucid dreaming but it terrifies me, I want it to stop!

I find dlvrd's post intriguing as I too "suffer" from lucid dreams. I am a Christian and have days better than others when I'm involved in my religion, am reading my Bible more, feel stronger in my relationship with God, etc. And I have questioned if these lucid dreams have some connection with spirituality because I find them to be more frequent when I feel a stronger connection or deeper relationship with God. But when looking at other posts and talking to ppl who also have lucid dreams nobody else had ever made such a connection so I dismissed the idea. I would love to know more about the possible spiritual attack that you talked about dlvrd- my best friend from high school actually recently offered this explanation but she herself doesn't experience lucid dreams so I thought it was a just a stab in the dark on her part. Any other religious insight would be appreciated. Thanks so much!

I will fall asleep, and will wake up, everything is exactly the same, im a bit groggy, i will get up, move to the kitchen or whereever i choose and ill notice one thing out of place, its then when i realise im dreaming and try to wake myself up and i do, same thiing happens again about 6 times untill i REALLY wake up in a panic state. Has anyone had it like this?

1 time i was sleep and had a dream about a ghost, and all i remember was a elderly white woman. And the next thing i know im trying to wake up, i cant open my eyes, i was trying to call my boyfriend name and grab his hand because he was lying next to me. I couldn't even sit up, like something is smuthering me,and trying to take full control of me! It only happens when i sleep on my back and i don't know why. It happened a few times. And in my sleep, i see a dark shadow looking down on me, and it also felt like someting was holding me down. I want to know what that is. It scares me and I cant even sleep on my back bacause that will happen.

dlvrd and sara777 I am a Christian also, although I don't attend church. I do pray though. I have had these dream paralysis experiences, off and on, all my adult life.
I am usually lying on one side - back to the edge of the bed and "feel" a presence behind me. The hairs on the back of my neck stand up. I'm awake but I cannot move no matter how hard I try! I've even heard myself making a sound because I am trying so hard to sit up. Other times I'm on my back and feel the presence - and I feel weight in specific spots holding down my legs. I panic and struggle to awaken. But I can't move! I have recently taken to saying the Lord's Prayer or help Jesus, and this instant warmth comes over me. I thought I was the ONLY person to experience this - it is such a relief to know I'm not alone. I am not an unstable person. Married, responsible, grown kids! Often times the end of the "dream" is accompanied by an extreme ringing in my ears as I feel myself descend back into sleep, while I fight it, as I am quite scared to "let go" and not be present. I have no after effects in the morning from it. It is very scary and I'd be happy to not have it happen ever again!

I dream the same thing only 10 times worse. I know that this is going to kill me. It's way to worse. I dream in a dream that is inside 4 other dreams and I can't wake up. it seam like it last for 2 hrs. then my girlfriend will wake me up and I find I have only been sleeping 30 seconds. Sometimes I have short dreams. I was bending over getting something out of the fridge and this figure came up behind me and wacked me in the back, instantly I woke up and my back hurt right where I was hit. I woke up the other nite and didn't know where I was I have never been more scared in my life "ever" I could here my girlfriend calling me and I screamed baby where are we. because I didn't know where the hell I was and I felt and evil I have never felt before. I was terrafied. Then I woke up, for real this time. My girlfriend said She never seen a look of fear on someones face as she seen on mine and she heard me saying baby where are we but she said I was wispering it, yet i thought I was screaming it. I can't take this anymore. I don't want to go to sleep. real or not you can't tell me the stress isn't real. I am a 37 year old man. I have been in the service for 11 years served over seas deployed to macedonia. I have never been this scared. Does anyone know how to get it to stop.

I have never thought there could be someone else out there who was having the same thing happen to them,,u described it exactly the way it happens to me..although in my case its always the same dream. Me dreaming of my self asleep trying to wake up becuz im have this fear burried inside so horrific, and threw the hole dream im trying to get out of my house..everytime i try to turn on a light switch none of the lights ever work,and so its always dark and im jus desperatly trying to get out of the house so in fear..of what? I dnt know?? But then i end up and the begining watching my self asleep screaming for someone to hear me and praying GOD to please wake me up!!! This has been happening to me almost every night...Its the same dream the same fear..I jus cant take it anymore..Im sooo afraid to fal asleep!! If you have any answers or even advice please find me on myspace..and send me a message please...my name is olivia vela,...thanks!!

i have the same dream with the dark figuir holding u down and its a dream with-in a dream, u cant move, except with mine, he holds me down im screaming and then he puts a sharp dagger in that little grove on the bottom of ur neck, and pushed down on it! then i really awoke sweating and terrofied.

that was the last bad dream i had, i did some info on this.
if u leave ur tv on while u sleep, and lets say a commercial where u can ear water comes on. that noise in ur brain with turn into something, and so on.

and if u go to bed freaked out about what ur going to dream im 100% ur going to dream that.

if u go to bed happy, mind relaxed, telling ur self ur not going to dream, then ur not.

ever since i was a yound boy i would feel like something is trying to get into me while i am sleeping and i would wake up and cannot move so i would scream and try to wake myself by trying to screaming i would scream and streatch out my arms until i am awoke it feels like something is trying to get into my body and i would be resisting until i am awake i come from a place where i have seen people possesed by demons and they cannot control them self and when they awake from the posession they have no memory of what they did or what happen i know that jesus preached on demon posession and spiritual warfare so my experience tells me to resist for fear of being posessed i have seen voodo first hand and know it exsist any know any thing about this.

Ok,I would say that what I experience is terrifying. I will have a horrible nightmare and I think I've opened my eyes, but I can't move or talk... I would say this started when I was about 17 and has continued off and on thoughout my adulthood. I am now 40 and experienced one of these "nightmares" this past weekend. I feel as though something is on my chest and my arms and legs are paralyzed. I will try to call out to my husband and no matter how hard I try to wake up, I can't speak.I can't put my finger on it, but I feel as though there is a presence in my dream that won't let me wake up. Can anyone explain this?

TO make a long story short because i already wrote this but it got erased ): IM 16 this has been happening to me for 2 years(14)wow no lie.But this happens because there are evil spirits out there that arent at rest so when you sleep thats one of the ways the
(d)evil spirits can try to take over or(posses)your body.I can sometimes feel a presence when im about to go to sleep and thats how i know when it is going to happen.For instance the spirits only come when they are for certain they cant be botherd by anyone you stay with.I could be sleep while my brother is on the other couch watching tv the spirit will not bother me while he is up and in contact,but if he is to fall asleep or leave out the room the spirit will take this as an advantage becuz even if he is next to me the spirit will not allow him to wake up while im being possesed.But when this happens we just about all do the same thing we first look around to figure out why we cant move and we feel the pressure on top of us or inside of us thats the spirit trying to take control then we see someone(brother)right next to us so we try to call for help but cant for some reason our lips move but nothing comes out.This is our brain trying to stop the spirit from taking complete control that is why we cant talk or move because it takes about 10 secondz for our brain to realize what is happening.so we break out of it and wake up.But i can sometimes see the spirits thats trying to take control of me scary huh lol.but this pretty much explains some of your questions but im tired of writing so i will end it here!

Hey, can anyone help me in this?
I am dying in my dreams, everytime in a different scenario, the problem is.. i try to wake up from my dream and i can't, i feel like people sitting over my body or even holding my hands and closing my mouth for couple of minutes.. and then i wake up.
Thank you

Hey, im 17 and sleep talk sometimes,
hen i wake up and have an interaction with someone just after i wake up i still beleive sub conscionsly that im in the dream. Its so confusing as im talking normally to someone then suddenly i say something that i wud say in my dream.... its really weird to explain, its actually very scary as the people that i talk to when this happen say they have no idea what im on about when this happens...that im just sleep talking...on the phone? lIke anyhelp or information about this would be severely helpful and i would be so grateful.
Thank you

I just woke up from one, I was tired and I fell asleep with my pants on in my bed. I was in my room, and my friends came over. I couldn't move or open my eyes. I could hardly breath, and I felt like I was held down on my bed from my arms. I could lift my chest but thats about it. My friends didn't do a thing. They were just looking at me about 2 feet away. It was an outer body experience. I took my pants off and I held them out and stood them up, like it was magic. Then I woke up, but I was still in the dream. I put my pants back on and went downstairs to tell my grandparents, of how I had this dream where I could hardly breath, move, or open my eyes, and when I was in it I somehow stood my pants up. I tried to show them and ended up putting myself back into the the paralyzed state. But I could wake up faster this time, I think because I tought they were gonathink I was crazy. I didn't stand my pants up though lol, but they seemed like they have seen it before. Then I woke up for real this time. I fell back asleep again and I can't remember it but it wasn't a good dream. Now Im up for a while. That was scary, even though it's funny about the pants.

I know that I do wake up and take my pants off because it gets uncomfortable in my dreams. But this time do you thing I had this dream because my body was telling me to take off my pants but my mind wasn't ready to wake up?

ok WOW!!! All this time I never knew that there were so many people out there with similar and even exact sleeping problems as myself. I go to bed like normal and then something happens and I wake up but when I try to get out of bed I realize that i'm paralyzed and it feels as though something is sitting on my chest holding me down, I try to call for help or scream and no matter how hard I try nothing comes out but my eyes are open and I can see the room clearly and anyone who might be there with me. I finally end up being able to move and I get up terrified.

this has happened to me just a few minutes ago, i got out of hospital yesterday due to a heart condition and was doped up on morphine and fentanyl, slept okay last night and decided to have a sleep at around 12.05, I was dreaming that I was talking to my partner then got up to go to the room, as I was walking I started to fall down onto the ground then found I couldnt get up, I was calling out to my partner and nothing was coming from mouth except a slight moan, then next thing I know Im awake, and think phew it was just a dream, then I nod off again only to have one eye open my arms under the pillow and a huge weight on top of me, while this was happening I started to get this hot rush going through out my body and started to panic, screaming but no one was there, this was not a dream! i had my hands together then started to rise up, this freaked me out even more as my body was moving but it was actually staying where it was!! this has freaked me out and I have called for my Mom to come home so I can actually have a decent sleep!

well chaps, I've had/getting these again..

as described, which is surprisingly uncanny, however, I wake up, but cant move, and you feel like your trying to move, but not moving. When I wake up I feel asif I've just got my limbs back and I panic trying to keep this feling before It dissapears again and I become a cripple again lol...But through searching for the phrase "halfway between sleeping and being awake, anything can happen" to remember a TV programme, I found this and I now know i was infact dreaming...cheers guys

I have been suffering from these dreams for a long time now I just turned 25 and I have been an insomniac for almost two years now. I do get a full nights sleep on good nights but on others I usually only get 2or3 and then if im lucky maybe 4. I have always had dreams where I wake up and get ready for work but then i wake up again in the dream and i realize i was just dreaming and do the same routine over and over again till finally i wake up for real. Anyways, I have noticed that lately its been happening more and more and for even longer. Instead of waking up after the 6th or 7th time I will do it for what seems like forever. I can open my eyes and i can see the room but i know that i am still sleeping because i can only see half the room like my eyes were only half opened. I try to like move my arms and they dont move like i have been buried in quick sand. Its tough to go through I usually have a head ache afterwards. I get migraines too so i dont know if it related. But the ones that scare me the most are the ones where i stop breathing. I know im dreaming and i know that i need take a breath but i cant and i keep trying and trying and im scared that i wont wake up. This is not the reason for me being an insomniac i have been sleepless for awhile but these dreams are getting worse due to my lack of sleep.... i need to know what its called... I have a sleep study on the 15th of september so hopefully they will be able to tell me something i'll let you guys know when the time comes.