Sleep Paralysis and REM sleep

[IJesusChrist]

Here's a link containing some information about sleep paralysis.

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/ ... paralysis/

[quote:15st5bup]People who experience it find themselves awake in the dream world for anywhere from a few seconds to 10 minutes, often experiencing hallucinations with dark undertones. Cultures from everywhere from Newfoundland to the Caribbean to Japan have come up with spiritual explanations for the phenomenon. Now, a new article in The Psychologist suggests sleep researchers are finally figuring out the neurological basis of the condition.

“This research strongly suggests that sleep paralysis is related to REM sleep, and in particular REM sleep that occurs at sleep onset,

 

[Caduceus Mercurius]

When I was residing in an ashram in Sweden (in what I later found out was a former old age pension), I fell asleep after a rich meal and had a clear vision of an old man with white hair, grabbing me from behind and then holding me. When I later told my colleague, he simply remarked: "Oh, the old guy? Many of us have seen him."

 

[IJesusChrist]

I remember you saying something about how you dream alot after very hardy meals, fatty and oily.

Maybe thats why I don't dream often, I'm as thin as a stick, and my bed time snack is a granola bar.

As far as I know, I've had some of these sleep paralysis when I was younger, not text book, more like terror just trying to sleep, but there were a few dreams I have remembered since I was 5 that were quite jaw-droppingly intense in fear.

My mom also told me once about a dream where she woke up, turned over, and there was a small levitating object, with a spinning vortex in it's "mouth" she sensed it was extreme evil, turned on the light and it was still there, she shut her eyes and she could sense it, she opened them again and it was gone.

 

[Caduceus Mercurius]

Yeah, the incident mentioned above happened right after a Sunday Love Feast, with lots of halava, gulab jamuns, pieces of laddu, a couple of cups of sweet rice, sabji with lots of ghi, as well as a bunch of puris, pakoras and chapatis. I forgot whether that day lassi, khir and fried chickpeas were served as well. Any one of these is by itself heavier than a granola bar...

 

[st.bot.32]

I wonder why most people find the experience dark. I've pretty much always found the experience more on the fascinating/mystical side, to the point I was seeking out the experience. The only time I've ever really found it frightening was when I had a high fever and woke up paralysed with the feeling I couldn't breathe. Or maybe once when I was a very religious/superstitious kid I thought I saw a demon or something.

@IJesusChrist That's interesting your mom saw a hovering vortex, I know of other people who've seen similar phenomenon during sleep paralysis. Myself, when it was happening to me, I usually just saw people in my room doing random stuff, like one morning when I was maybe 9-10 years old I woke up and saw my mom in a raincoat going through my clothing drawers. When I sat up to say something she vanished

 

[buffachino]

I have experienced this.

In my experience I was for a period conscious, yet void of concepts and associations including the idea of a body; dreaming about wakefulness. It was as if I was watching a mind scream at its desperate inability to grasp some semblance of an anthropomorphic self.

I have also experienced multiple false awakenings, where I would get out of bed, only to wake up again in bed. Also episodes of glossolalia during hypnologic states; this was on one occasion experienced by two people, one after the other, emanating from the other while one was between waking and sleep. This happened for both people; in which order it is impossible to tell.

Sleep holds the key to implicate questions about the nature of the universe.

 

[IJesusChrist]

@buffa, I think it holds the key to reality, not so much the universe. I believe they are somewhat seperate.

I remember a dream, I must have been 5 or 6 since I was able to walk. I got out of my bed, went down stairs to go to the bathroom, and there was a small ghost sitting under the table.

The dream is SO odd. Because I remember remembering it, about a year after it happened. I don't remember if I was awake, if it was a dream, or if maybe I was in paralysis. I don't remember anything about going down stairs or going up stairs, just seeing the being.

It's been locked in my mind as maybe one of my first memories...

 

[st.bot.32]

My very earliest memories are a mix between dreams and waking life, and I'm not sure where the boundaries are between the two.

 

[IJesusChrist]

My very earliest memories are a mix between dreams and waking life, and I'm not sure where the boundaries are between the two.

thats really interesting. It seems the dreams when you are young are more important than most other memories. Very interesting indeed!!

 

[st.bot.32]

Yeah, also I've always been genuinely interested in dreams and dreamlike things. One of my early memories is watching 2001 on tv one afternoon.. and being just totally glued to the screen.. i also used to take a lot of my dreams and turn them into stories

 

[mysticwarrior]

Hmmmm, seems that many psychonauts do experience sleep paralysis. Could there be a relation between psychedelics and sleep paralysis?

 

[BrainEater]

everybody experiences it, but maybe many people aren't aware of it though.

there is definately a connection of the psyche with sleep and obviously also a connection of psychedelics with the psyche.... so.... maybe there's a connection and maybe also a altering of the experiencing of sleep paralysis or so, by having taken or taking psychedelics. who knows...


probably there's also a connection from the dreamworlds to the real world thru the psyche obviously, which also influences the "real world" ...

sometimes it seemd to me you can get stuck or so between the two worlds for some time and during this be experiencing sleep paralysis in your body and dreaming in your mind.. i'm not sure though.

i am sure though, that the mind can create everything and apparently as well such an odd scenario as you were quoting jesus... it can be really freaky..

 

[buffachino]

Hmmmm, seems that many psychonauts do experience sleep paralysis. Could there be a relation between psychedelics and sleep paralysis?

My experience of ‘typical’ sleep–paralysis, that is as it is most often described in the literature, occurred before my use of psychedelics.

I believe they are somewhat seperate.

How so?

a mix between dreams and waking life, and I'm not sure where the boundaries are between the two.

Are there any?

a connection from the dreamworlds to the real world thru the psyche, which also influences the "real world"

The question of influence is unnecessary if consciousness is but a continua.

 

[IJesusChrist]

Reality: Psychological.
Universe: Predictable.

 

[buffachino]

Prediction is a function of the psyche.

 

[Cortexelus]

I get it all the time. I'm aware the whole way through.
Dark pretty much describes it.

They're usually amorphous. There's music playing (anywhere from circus music to industrial to classical), and voices (saying some of the weirdest shit), and visually some sort of dark ocean. I'm aware of my body sleeping, and I have this feeling of electricity going up my spine and around my brain.

Some of them have form. I'll be in some sort of grey wasteland complex. Like an abandoned church or hospital or something.

They're super interesting and mystical, but it usually gets to the point where I freak out and wake myself up. Usually from the overwhelming electric feeling. But I've been becoming more in tune with the balance of the experience.

Sometimes if I drifted off with the lights on, and my eyes are open a little bit, I'll hallucinate people in my room.

I'm always able to control the level of paralysis. Sometimes it takes 10-15 seconds, but I can always will myself out of it.

Once I metadreamt I was having sleep paralysis. I lol'd

 

[sidefx]

ive had sleep paralysis twice, last night latest, both times were unsettling actually spooky.
so i was dreaming i was walking thru a massive mansion an old one, being lead then he said something like weve had that since the 80's a tv and then opened a room door and turned back to me and he was possessed.
So i woe laying on my side as i sleep and my body felt like a million tonnes, or like it was being magnetically held in place and it took a minute or to to finally move my head followed by my body.

the other time i had been reading a book on alien abductions, then went to sleep.
i awoke laying on my back, and this was the first time i had ever experienced this so was shit scared.
it seemed like what an abduction or a demon attack starts like. but ended with me slowly, forcedly gaining motion in my body.

It wasnt the feeling of weight holding me down, More a feeling of magnetism holding me in place. paralysis.