A couple times, when it was literally freezing cold outside, I’d get completely under the blanket, head and all, and end up falling asleep.

Then later on, I’d just barely wake up, unable to move though, basically because of lack of oxygen under the blanket. I’d have to lay there and muster up every last bit of energy I had just to toss the blanket off of me to get a breath of fresh air.

So yeah, sleep paralysis with a bonus risk of suffocating to death is extra scary.

Never had very bad experiences.

Once, asleep, I opened my eyes as I heard footsteps going around the room, come next to my bed, stop for a while, then walk out again. I could see nobody in the room. After the steps in the hall stopped, I could wake up and get up. It was early but I didn’t really feel like trying to sleep any more.

Well in my experience nothing really happens. It’s all looming terror, the sensation of being entirely vulnerable to something unknown, and it takes quite a bit of willpower to snap out of it. I haven’t had one for… years, I think. But I recognize it now, and I know how to break free, so it’s not as terrifying as it used to be.

I never get sleep paralysis in bed at night. It only ever happens if I doze off during the day, usually somewhere unusual like at work.

I had a boring job for many years where I just had to be in the store, and sometimes it was very slow. I would doze off in my chair, knowing it was a slow day and we had a door buzzer to alert us anyway if someone came in.

When I would fall asleep like that, my subconscious worry of someone coming in and catching me asleep would kick in and I would dream that I heard the door buzzer. In the dream I would try to get up and be ready, but completely unable to move. Sometimes I would dream a customer coming, or hearing the phone ring. And every time I would fight to open my eyes.

While having this struggle I would realize that not only could I not open my eyes, but I couldn’t even move my body or breathe. So then I would start trying really hard to do one of those, sometimes fighting to lift my arm, or turn my head, or just struggling to breathe.

It always seemed like an eternity of struggling to snap out of it. And eventually I would wake up, sometimes hyperventilating because I was trying so hard to breathe but was actually doing it just fine without knowing. It also seemed as though I could see my surroundings, but I’m not sure if my eyes were open or that was part of the dream.

But every time I woke up like that, there was no customer in the store, no missed calls on the phone or anything. I had dreamed the part that woke me up, but with no other recollection of any other dream besides being there in the store.

Sometimes, when I heard the door buzzer, I would wake up just fine and deal with whoever came in. Eventually I realized that the actual door buzzer would wake me instantly with no problem, but the one I dreamed never did.

I don’t really have these episodes anymore since leaving that job and no longer having the opportunity to doze off during the day. But every now and then it happens if I take a nap on the couch or someplace else during the day. I think it’s my subconscious trying to stay alert to things around me when napping at odd times with the potential to be interrupted.

I’ve had the weird thing where I suddenly lose sight in my dream. Like sticking your head in water and trying to see underwater. The dream went on.

This was a semi regular occurrence that added to the dread of the situation.

Only later my girlfriend told me that sometimes I would open my eyes when asleep, which freaked her out. Only a while later I managed to connect the dots. I was trying to see in my sleep and opened my eyes irl, causing me to lose vision in my dreams and seeing a weird blurry unrelated thing instead.

nothing happens during but i remember once when i could move again running like hell out of the house into the street, terrified.

Raped by a demon for about 20-30 seconds until I woke up. Pretty scary.

Ugh, my poor wife; I’ve had a number of bad experiences because I’m so fundamentally stubborn. In the dream, I won’t be able to do something, and I’ll work and work at it, and sometimes succeed in real life. It’s been as simple and benign as not being able to see in a dream and struggling to open my eyes until I finally do, and I wake up. But I’ve managed to yell with a mouth that didn’t completely work, so my wife woke up to what sounds like a yelling, mournful ghost. I’ve managed to fight and punched my wife. I’ve managed to run, and kicked her. In all these cases, in the dream, I’ve had to really struggle to do the thing before I succeed and wake myself up.

Sleep paralysis turns out to be a good thing.

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