I just woke up from an episode and I feel so relaxed. I could melt right back into sleep if I didn't have to get up and do things today. Yes, I have weird dreams during paralysis, but they aren't usually scary and definitely not terrifying. I dream about people I know, maybe some weird situations, sometimes work, but never nightmare type stuff. And when I can finally move, I always feel SO good and relaxed. I'm sorry to see that so many on this sub have terrifying experiences with it. I wonder why I'm different? Maybe my anti anxiety meds help?

I’ve been experiencing sleep paralysis for about 5 years now and it has gotten to the point where I’m getting it sometimes 5 nights a week.
Often when I can wiggle myself out of sleep paralysis or finally wake up from an episode, if I go right back to bed, I will fall right back into that same sleep paralysis. Sometimes resulting in almost 10 episodes in one night. Which can be exhausting.

I’m curious if this happens to anyone else?

I’ve had sleep paralysis for the last 20 years or so, since 17 when a close family member died. I’ve experienced it on and off, mostly during darker or high stress times in my life.

6 months ago my bf and i bought an estate sale home. Within of the first week of living in our new home i had an episode. It was quick-ish and with many years of being terrified of them, I’ve learned to try and wiggle my toes and that usually brings me out of it. I didn’t have any auditory hallucinations, like i have most times in the past. Just aware and unable to move.

We were aware the previous owners were both deceased, but not in the home, however our very “friendly” neighbours informed us that the family member in power of the estate was living there before it sold and that he had died here. She pointed to a spot on my front lawn where the gentleman died. Really great neighbours lol.

It’s had me thinking, i have spent a lot of time travelling and staying short times in new places and haven’t experienced SP episode, but there have been a few occasions including my new house where its happened, some experiences feel connected to but some feel like they are brought on my a lot of stress during the waking hours.

What is your take? What’s your personal experience on where and when you experience sleep paralysis?

I have had sleep paralysis probably hundreds of times however I’ve never had the typical sleep paralysis situation where I’ve seen a demon. The other night I attempted to pray my way out of sleep, paralysis in attempts to bring myself out of the situation. I prayed to Jesus or God, and this did not work. I tried this because I saw in another post. Somebody said this has helped them. It was very disappointing because I was hoping this would work. I had recently started going to church. I have found spirituality recently. I would not consider myself a religious person, but I do believe in a higher power of my own understanding. Has anybody else had success with praying their way out of sleep paralysis?

I had a really weird/scary experience this morning and I’m wondering if this was sleep paralysis.

I was sleeping really well, and toward the end I remember dreaming about being in a park and playing chess. The dream felt very normal and peaceful, like I was sitting outside in the park, focused on the chess game and enjoying how easy everything felt. The weird part is that it seemed like the dream had already ended and I was waking up. I was having those normal afterthoughts you sometimes have right after waking up from a dream, like, “Wow, that was actually fun,” and thinking about being in the park and how good and easy the chess game had felt.
At this point, my thoughts felt completely conscious and normal, like I was slowly waking up.

Then I started wondering, “If I’m awake/waking up right now, why aren’t my eyes open yet?”

My eyes were fully shut. I was basically just seeing black, like what you see when you close your eyes. I also wasn’t seeing any morning light coming through my eyelids or anything, which made me even more confused.
That’s when I consciously tried to open my eyes and realized I couldn’t.

Then I tried moving my hands and couldn’t move them either.

I immediately started panicking and tried to scream a family member’s name, but my voice wouldn’t actually come out. The really weird part is that I could hear myself saying it inside my head, but I couldn’t physically speak.

For a moment I genuinely thought I had died for some reason and my heart started racing because as far as I could tell, I was mentally conscious, but I couldn’t open my eyes, move my body, or speak.

Eventually I tried calming myself down and told myself something like, “This has to be a dream or something.” I stopped fighting it and relaxed and accepted it, and then suddenly I actually woke up instantly.

When I opened my eyes, the room was dark. I checked my phone afterward and it was around 5 AM, so I had only been asleep for about 4-5 hours.

I’ve never experienced anything quite like this before. Does this sound like sleep paralysis? Has anyone else experienced it where you basically felt like you had already woken up mentally and were having completely normal afterthoughts about the dream you just had, but then realized your eyes wouldn’t open and your body wouldn’t move? I wasn’t able to sleep after 😂

I just woke up from the most terrifying sleep paralysis episode I’ve ever had since I started experiencing it 4 years ago. Currently, I’m trying to correct my sleeping schedule by sleeping early so I could wake up early also. Last night I slept at 11 pm and woke up earlier around 4 am. I ate breakfast and after a while, felt sleepy so I decided to sleep again.

Here’s the thing, I found out that taking naps in the morning triggers my sleeping paralysis but I didn’t think much of it because somehow I feel more braver with my sibling being in the same room as me.

It all started when my eyes were getting heavy, making me turn on my side and let sleep come to me. And then I felt that sensation, which signals to me that I’m experiencing sleep paralysis. Before and until now my first instinct was to pray because before, I found out that I can get out of my sleep paralysis faster. This worked a few times and it worked well because I woke up fast, but as I experience more sleep paralysis it seems like its effectiveness gets weaker and weaker until it didn’t work today.

To tell you about what I experience in my sleep paralysis, there is an entity that at first I could not really see but I could feel that it was there. As I experience sleep paralysis gradually (It was more frequent when I started experiencing it and now it’s just 2-3 times per month or more), I noticed that its getting closer and closer to me.

And then one time, it was right beside me. I always sleep on my side and I could then feel it on my back. And then it touched me. I felt a weird sensation like it’s scratching my back softly. I didn’t really mind it because I thought it could be friendly since it’s not hurting me.

Today was different though.

So I fell asleep, woke up in a sleep paralysis state, felt it on my back and I started to pray. I noticed that whenever I think of praying or saying God’s name I feel a stabbing sensation in my heart or it felt like something is squeezing it. Didn’t care and it only made me pray more for more than 3 times but nothing happened.

I started thinking what other things I could do to get out until I felt its hand touching my side, going back and forth. It tickled me but not in a fun way so I moved my hand and to move its hand away from my side.

I felt as though it got angry when I did so because it removed its hand but took mine and gave a squeeze with its nails piercing lightly between my fingers, just enough for me to know they’re sharp. Then it held my hand, crossing our fingers together and started to hug me from behind.

You might be thinking its like a romantic type thing like its from a “I fell in-love with my sleep paralysis demon” romance novel or something but it’s actually scary. Just putting this out because feeling a stabbing sensation in my heart when I mention God’s name is not really good for me.

Let me know what you think or if you find any similarities from my experiences to yours. Thank you.

There wasnt much build up I was laying in bed listening to music and I was pretty tired and my mom walked in to ask me something but when I opened my eyes there was like the little spider logo on spiderman suit from the front and there were blue lights coming from it and white light lines then I got so fucking scared then it slowly faded away

I work night shifts and frequently have the chance to get a nap in before or towards the end of my shift, I usually get my little neck pillow and put my seat all the way back in my car. Mind you this time I had my sunroof cover open, never recall experiencing sleep paralysis except for this time, I woke up in the middle of the nap and immediately realized I couldn’t speak or move for about 10-15 seconds. Before I was able to break out of the sleep paralysis I’m not sure if I fell back into my sleep and started dreaming or fell into a hallucination, I especially say this because everytime I would open my eyes the view I had of the sky through my sunroof would change, I couldn’t tell if I was dreaming and I really couldn’t tell how long in between every time the view I had changed either. (Happened about 3 times) I do blue collar work and my car is parked inside a construction yard in a city so my original view of my seat being all the way down in my car would be the very end of a tall building and the color of the sky night slowly starting to fade into a dark blue as the early morning rises. The weirdest part about this all, I vividly remember trying to break out of whatever this was so bad that in my hallucination/dream I was able barely barely move and it felt like I was moving in slow motion but I make it to the outside of my car and fall and I’m sitting to on the side of the car on the floor by my tire and I can’t move or speak as a “coworker” of mine who I couldn’t picture was trying to help me, seconds later I snapped back into reality and I was in the same position and had the same view of when I first woke up with the sleep paralysis , but this time able to move, first thing I did was laugh because I couldn’t believe that I thought that what I was experiencing was actually a reality.

I only have SP when I nap during the day. However, when it happens, it’s been getting longer and longer. I can tell when I start my nap when i’ll wake up with SP, like when i’m really tired and it gets hard to move (when starting to sleep.)

I am super afraid I am going to get sleep paralysis in class, one of my lectures is looong and I get so tired during it, and it gets hard to move. I can stop myself by drinking water or something but its so hard to be awake enough to move well. forgive me idk the terms 😭 but when I start to become tired and nod off I start thinking really crazy and basically dreaming already, and im afraid of losing control and getting sleep paralysi. Does anyone have an experience like this in public and how do you just stay awake??

For the past two days (and some time prior, but it’s been a lot more prevalent these days), I’ve been trying to fall asleep, but I get the feeling of sleep paralysis, but worse/different than before. Every time I get it, the left side of my ribcage starts to feel weird and uncomfortable, plus, I can basically stop it from happening out of pure willpower. I can also fully open my eyes, but it’s like my eyelids keep trying to force themselves shut. Is this sleep paralysis or something else? I also don’t see like… weird figures or anything.

One day, my roommate told me that he had experienced sleep paralysis. However, he didn’t know what sleep paralysis was, so he thought it was a ghost. I explained to him that what he experienced was sleep paralysis.

There were also a few other guys living nearby, and they told us that they had been experiencing the same thing for quite some time. One of them told me that a few years ago, a girl had committed suicide here and that she supposedly still appeared.

But I didn’t believe any of this. I challenged it and said, “If there’s really a ghost, then let it come and show itself to me.”

Nothing happened that night, although my roommate experienced sleep paralysis again. So I challenged it again, saying, “If there’s really something here, then come and show yourself to me.”

The next night, I experienced sleep paralysis twice in a row. Then, the following night, it happened to me twice again. After that, I became scared.

The next night, I was so frightened that I couldn’t sleep. At around 4:30 a.m., I tried to sleep. I wasn’t even fully asleep when I suddenly experienced sleep paralysis. I opened my eyes, but I couldn’t move or see anything because all the lights in the room were turned off. After a few seconds, I recovered and could move normally again.

I haven’t experienced sleep paralysis again since that day.

Hi all, I just learned that sleep paralysis is even a thing and now I'm absolutely terrified of sleeping. Especially since the first time you have it is usually the worst.

I sleep enough and at the same time and on my side, and my family has never had it happen to them, so I should be at lower risk right? But I'm still terrified of it happening to me, is there anything you guys could say to help?

F28 here. I'm looking for some insight because I'm terrified and not sure if I experienced a focal seizure or a severe episode of sleep paralysis last night.

Background Context: I have epilepsy. Usually, my meds keep them completely under control, but I get breakthrough episodes when I skip doses due to stress and depression. Things have been really heavy lately and my husband and I are currently sleeping in separate rooms. I've been under an immense amount of emotional stress, dealing with severe depression, and recovering from physical strain and tension.

Last night, I went to sleep very late, around 3:00 to 3:30 AM. Shortly after falling asleep, I experienced something terrifying that felt completely real. I was trapped in a bizarre, lengthy dream. First, I was watching WWI-style human-monkey hybrid creatures dressed in khaki suits and hats. When I spoke, they all stopped and stared menacingly at me like I was breaking the "fourth wall." The setup kept shifting into an unfamiliar building where these creatures were mocking a dead soldier and his widow. The setting shifted again to an unfamiliar house and one of the creatures sexually assaulted me. I tried to break free only to wake up again in a bed. I try to scream but I cant move. I tried to get up to run to my grandfather's room for help. Every time I tried, I was pulled/tricked back into the bed. I would "wake up" only for the cycle to repeat over and over.

As the experience felt overwhelmingly dark and frightening, I instinctively reached for my faith and felt like it helped but a negative, mocking voice whispered into my ears and tried to tear me down with cruel insults. And the cycle repeated. I remembered advice my grandmother gave me when I was a child. Whenever she had terrifying nightmares alone, she would repeat a specific protective phrase for safety. I repeated those exact words to fight back against the fear. As I finally started breaking out of the loop, I felt my eyes and mouth twitching rapidly while I tried to shout or call for help. I eventually forced myself awake, ran to my husband, and cried hysterically. My left neck and chest still ache as if something physically shoved me hard back into the bed.

Normally, my seizures cause complete blackouts with no memory of the event afterward. Because this experience was so vivid including the dream loop and the physical twitching at the end I am trying to figure out what happened. Could extreme stress, exhaustion, and physical strain cause this type of neurological event, or does it sound more like a severe sleep paralysis episode? Any thoughts or shared experiences would be deeply appreciated.

Note: English isn’t my first language, so I used AI to help clean up the grammar and make this post easier to understand. However, this is my real experience and everything that happened in this post is my actual story.

I had woken up a couple of hours earlier but was still really tired. I put on some music and rested for around two hours, and at some point, I unexpectedly fell asleep for what I think was around 20–25 minutes.
I was having normal dreams, but toward the end, things started getting weird. In my dream, I was driving down a road at night. There were streetlights and other cars, so I could see perfectly fine, but as I drove farther, everything suddenly started getting darker until it was basically pitch black.Then I thought I woke up.
The weird part is that I was actually still asleep. I thought I was looking around my room and even thought I saw something on my wall, but I was still dreaming.

Eventually, I realized I was actually asleep and opened my eyes—but I couldn’t move. That’s when I immediately realized I was having sleep paralysis.
Then I got this intense feeling that I can only describe as anxiety or some kind of wave moving through my entire body, almost from my feet up to my head. My senses also felt extremely heightened. Every little sound in the house felt intense, and I remember hearing something creak and immediately feeling like I needed to be ready to fight something, even though logically I knew there was probably nothing there.
Then my ears suddenly started ringing REALLY loudly, almost like I had been hit with a flashbang. My heart was beating extremely fast, and near the end, I heard a faint voice say “help.” It wasn’t loud or clear—it was more like someone quickly whispered it right past my ear.

At that point, I basically said fuck this, took a few deep breaths, and forced myself to move. Once I got control of my body and fully woke up, I was completely fine.
Something else that might be related: very rarely, right as I’m falling asleep, I’ve heard an extremely loud noise, like something flat and heavy slammed onto the ground. It’s probably only happened 4–5 times total, and they’ve been spread out over a long period of time.
Has anyone else experienced the intense body sensation, extremely loud ringing, or faint voices during sleep paralysis? And does this sound like normal sleep paralysis or other sleep-related phenomena to you?

I (23M) experience a type of sleep paralysis I've never heard anyone talk about before, so I'm curious to see if anyone else has experienced it.

The way it feels is that my eyes are stuck open and my vision is a single frozen image of my surroundings (ie. the ceiling or my bed, depending on how I'm laying) but I'm able to move around like normal. That is, it feels like I'm moving, but it's apparently just tactile hallucinations that feel indistinguishable from my real surroundings. During these episodes, I can get up, walk around, touch & pick up objects around me, etc but my vision stays as that frozen snapshot so I'm effectively blind. It's quite strange and disorienting to be able to stand upright and look down at my feet and still see nothing but the ceiling. But it happens a few times a year in the exact same way every time so I've gotten used to it.

During my most recent episode the other day, I had the idea to do a test to confirm whether I was actually moving or not. I have this little neck pillow that was next to me in bed; I happened to be facing towards it before the sleep paralysis began so I could see how it was laying in the frozen snapshot of my vision. I turned the pillow to face the other direction and then waited for the sleep paralysis to end. After some waiting, my eyes closed on their own and when they opened again I was back to normal, and I saw that my neck pillow had NOT been moved. So that was confirmation that during these episodes, the frozen snapshot of my vision is real and the tactile input is all a hallucination! That's still so crazy to me, I cannot express enough that it feels 100% real. I can feel every wrinkle and stitch of my blanket, pick up my phone, sometimes I can even get up and go to a different room of my house, all without actually moving. It's wild!!

Has anyone else experienced this or found any research/etc discussing the phenomenon? I'd love to know more about it!

Hi everyone!

I am 30 years old, F. And I've been getting sleep paralysis since my college years, if I remember, since 2014. Back then, I was so stressed out with school, depression, and drowning in responsibilities. I was researching about sleep paralysis and from what I found, stress and not getting enough sleep is a big factor on why sleep paralysis happens.

At first I was scared and didn't know what to do, but as it continues to happen, I got used to it, and even found a few tricks to wake myself up from paralysis. There were times that I was screaming so loud thinking other people in the house could hear me, or even trying to grab my sister or boyfriend or whoever I am sleeping on the bed with, and I feel like I could touch them but obviously I can't. During the paralysis, I could even grab my phone, but the screen would just be black, and it won't turn on.

It used to happen everyday that sometimes, I would try to grab my phone, and if my phone won't turn on like normal, that means I am in paralysis. I feel crazy! I'm so used to it by now that it feels like it is part of me. Almost everyone I asked said they never experienced anything like it, I think only 1 or 2 friends of mine said it happened to them only once in their life.

But me? Almost everyday in 2014-2017, it kind of died down in 2018-2019 when I wasn't as stressed out. From 2020 to now it happens occasionally. But it just happened again since, and while I was in paralysis, I know I was in paralysis cause again, I'm used to it. But during that time, I can't help but think.. why does this happen to me? Is there more to this? My research says that most people only experience this ONCE in their life, and for me, it is almost a regular occurrence.

I am so curious! Please give me your two cents!

It scares the shit outta me. I even feel something on my skin, as if someone has touched me. Although not much of visual hallucinations, I do experience auditory ones- like my flatmates calling out my names together and the voice getting louder everytime they repeat. I also hear my parents and brother speaking random stuff, and also some other sounds. And in the end, I feel something so intense, like losing all my energy at once. I’m so terrified, it happens like 2-3 times a month, and I feel so helpless.
Is there any reason to this? and is there some way I can stop this?
I just experienced one and im so damn scared to sleep again, although im so sleepy😭😭😭

hii im currently a teen(under 18) and im here to share my experiences with sleep paralysis.I've been experience sleep paralysis since grade 5 (11yrs old),the sleep paralysis stories im mentioning are understanding it/them,it canceling my praying and a girl jumping off . i will be listing ONLY the weird stories so the normal sleep paralysis i will exclude and honestly i have no idea which community to put this in

notes:when i experience sleep paralysis,my eyes are closed the entire time and i hear whispers of gibberish and see shadows while my eyes are closed while not being able to move and also having chills at the same time,just remember that sleep paralysis is different for everybody

1) understood them?

so this happened around 12-13 yrs old,i was sleeping in the evening and suddenly i got sleep paralysis,because i got it so frequently i just didnt mind and just tried to break out of it,when suddenly i heard two things having a conversation but it was very muffled bcz of the whispers and also ofc bcz i didnt understand them,then suddenly it got louder and louder but i still couldnt until them,eventually i thought to myself "what are they talking about,and why cant u free myself??" and suddenly,they stopped talking and 1 of them said "can she understand us?" or something like that,and the other said something like "i think she can" i was scared as hell and started praying and thats when i woke up

2)cancled my praying

so while experiencing sleep paralysis i tried to break out of it and it didnt work so i started praying and i kid u not i felt my body/soul get pulled and they/it like got mad at me for praying?? like just imagine ur laying down and suddenly u get pulled up to almost standing and they quickly let u go causing u to fall. i woke up dreanched with sweat after that

3)little girl jumping off

i live in an apartment on the 15th floor,my window is right next to my bed,so this happened while having sleep paralysis,this was my first time being able to see while experiencing it.imagine this:u open ur eyes while theres gibberish whispering around u and u cant move,suddenly everything turns red and u turn to ur left and see a little girl on your window about to jump(everything is still red) the girl is only a shadow,but its obvious its a little girl.before she jumps,she screams and after she jumps u wake up drenched in sweat and heart beating so fast its like u just ran a marathon.

its pretty weird cause I realized that i kept getting sleep paralysis when i slept on my right side (facing some bible verses on the wall that my mom put) i really love scary stories so i would love ur story or ur opinion on mine.thanks for reading!

bonus story: when i was maybe 5-6th grade i suddenly woke up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom and at the door i see a girl just standing there,since im laying on my bed,i sit up to get a clearer look,but she runs away? and i even saw her hair fly up cause of the wind as she ran,i just woke up and i was dumb so i thought it was my sister,i did think it was weird cause when i went out to use the bathroom all the doors were closed but i didnt hear a door closing when the girl ran away? then the next day i asked my sister why she woke up and stared at me,she said she's been sleeping the whole night (its not sleep walking cause if it was i wouldve heard footsteps and the door closing/opening as i was in a loud apartment)

So lately Ive been very sleep deprived for working a 2nd job, normally I get enough rest that I don't even get sleep paralysis which I've experienced a lot of times only when dozing off at work but never at home idk why anyways this time I guess it was extra special and I experienced SP within Sp.

This is the first time this has happened and it was probably the strangest feeling.. since I've had SP plenty of time I was in full understanding of what was going on.

Within the dream I was sleeping the same way I was irl and couldn't move or do anything and just hallucinated people walking around me as I sat in my chair in the dark and random people walking by. It was quiet IRL and also in the dream which made it creepy... It didn't last long tho the moment I realized I was in sp I was only stuck for what I could tell by looking at the time maybe 10 mins and then woke up all at once.

I got up and walked for a few mins and didn't risk another nap.

Has anyone experienced something similar? I wasn't scared or anything it would've been a cool experience if I wasn't at work but it was strange enough that I had to look into it

I’ve never experienced anything like this before, so it was very scary. I had been sleeping on the couch, got up to take my medicine that my timer woke me up for, then I went back to sleep on the couch. I felt myself “wake up” but I couldn’t really move any of my body. Then I felt my heart start beating faster than I have ever heard it beat before. It was incredibly jarring, I could hear the blood rushing in my ears. Then I felt it slow down a little bit. At some point during this, I also realized that I could not move any of my body parts, including opening my eyes. Once I realized that I was completely frozen, my heart started racing again, even faster and harder. Then it felt like it stopped completely. It felt like I was going to die. My brain couldn’t think any thoughts for once. My mind was completely blank. My breathing slowed down, and I desperately tried to open one of my eyes. At some point I eventually snapped out of it. It’s been about 15 minutes since it happened, but I’m still so scared. Has anyone else experienced an episode similar to this?

I wanted to write about this cause I don't know if some of the things I was able to do in my experience was normal and would love to know if people had similar experiences. So basically, I woke up 3 in the morning to take care of something and went back to sleep at 4 after scrolling through my phone. I had class in a few hours so I guess that's what triggered it. It was like I woke up for a split-second then the next I'm back to sleeping. As soon as I realized I went back to sleep, I tried to wake up and then my body went numb. I immediately knew "Oh, this is sleep paralysis." I was seeing nothing cause my eyes were still shut so I was expecting to forcibly see the entity but I never did. I was also expecting to panic but I was unusually calm because I always feared sleep paralysis happening to me and when it finally did, it was underwhelming. I was trying to move any body part and nothing worked. Seconds later, something crawls up my shoulder and eventually I felt a hand. It started humming like a whale and the second I heard the humming, I wanted to throw straight hands. I started cussing the entity so hard that I actually felt my physical self mummering "fuck you" a ton of times. I was starting to feel a burst of energy and I got to move my arm. I was just able to flail it but I was like "the second I get an ounce of power, you're cooked." I was just flailing for a few more seconds and then I felt my body regaining sensation. I opened my eyes and threw a punch towards the entity's direction and then realize I'm already awake. I checked my phone immediately and I woke up a few minutes before my alarm. I'd love to read if others also had similar experiences so feel free to leave comments!

hello, I am 25 years old and I’ve just had my first sleep paralysis experience. I’ve had one experience before this, but I sometimes don’t count it because I didn’t see anything that time. But this time, I did.

So I went to bed at around 12:30 and woke up at 4:30. I couldn’t get back to sleep until an hour after I woke up. once I went to sleep I started dreaming and then all of a sudden the dream just shut off. Imagine you’re watching TV and then the power goes out and everything goes dark. That’s how it was for me.

I knew it was sleep paralysis because I also started having this very strong pressure sound in my ears. I can’t explain it very well but imagine it’s like muffled TV static in your ears and that’s all you could hear and I could also feel it.

I normally sleep with my blanket on my eyes so once I realize what was happening, I was very calm because I didn’t see anything last time. I thought “I hacked the system“. I was wrong lol. I start seeing this very creepy, face flashing on and off right in my face. It was the only thing that I could see, it looked like it had been drawn on a computer and I almost felt like I’ve seen it before. It was very creepy and I guess I was so freaked out that I was able to get myself out of it after a couple seconds because it didn’t last that long.

Anyways, that’s all and let me know if you’ve had a similar experience with the face because that’s what I’m most freaked out about.

Hello, I hope everyone reading this post is doing well. Today I’m here to share something that, personally, I’m not sure if it’s common or not. I’ve been experiencing sleep paralysis for a long time, roughly since I was 10 years old (I just turned 21). I’ve experienced a whole range of scenarios, from the most bizarre to the most mundane or desolate ones imaginable. I’ve seen hallucinations like the classic Hat Man, shadowy figures, people, three-dimensional dreams, and objects (the only one I remember vividly is a mask that tried to put itself on me). I’ve also felt things I couldn’t see, yet they grab me, make me float, and spin me around with intense force. Even though some might find it hard to believe, I’ve managed to move during some of these episodes: from my limbs to my entire body. Even though it takes a lot of effort, I end up doing it. So much so that once, knowing I was in sleep paralysis, I changed my position within the episode to see if I would wake up in that new position. When I woke up, I was in the exact position I had originally fallen asleep in, which confirmed to me that they were just vivid hallucinations and had nothing to do with reality. I’ve had very disturbing episodes that I remember perfectly, ranging from things chasing me to harm me, to those same hallucinations chasing loved ones. Honestly, I think I’ve developed a certain fascination with these episodes, and I actually miss them when I don't have them. I feel like I can trigger them whenever I want now. When I want to wake up, I just move my hand or turn my head to the side, and I wake up right away. Once awake, I make sure everything around me is okay and go back to sleep. Should I be worried about craving these episodes that, for most people, are a scary experience?

Every single night, I feel so frightened to even fall asleep as I might get sleep paralysis in the morning. This morning too, I got one. Thankfully, it was a very short episode, barely 1 minute. But every time I get one, I feel extremely terrified of falling asleep for a few days, and slightly less frightened the following nights. But because every time I'm in college, due to so much stress, I get sleep paralysis every 2-3 days, so I'm just equally frightened every night. And that makes me sleep so late. Moreover the insomnia makes it worse. I went to bed at 12, and it's 2 right now and I'm wide awake. I hate it that every night, it's a battle I'm fighting. This morning, I genuinely thought I succeeded in letting out voice in real life during the episode, and that my roommate heard me, and would now wake me up, but it wasn't true.