TollHouse

My hallucinations are pretty infrequent (I experience them roughly 20% of the time I'm paralyzed) but here are some of the more disturbing ones I've had:

- a devil was in the room
- my brother was sitting on my chest poking my eyes out with a stick
- my wife was getting stabbed to death right before me by some intruder (this is by far the worst hallucination I've had - it seemed so real)

emphryio

The words of some lady:

"Incidentally, once I went to a neurologist(for other
reasons) and he told me s/p was a state of extreme creativity in the brain. He said that Albert Einstein learned to control it
and did some of his most creative work in this state."

Wonder if that's true?

emphryio

<a href="http://bisleep.medsch.ucla.edu/discussions/basic/messages/msgs00714.html" target="_blank">http://bisleep.medsch.ucla.edu/discussions/basic/messages/msgs00714.html</a>

There's about a hundred accounts of SP experiences in the follow-ups to this message.
You gotta love some of those religions people.

ohwilleke

The connections to hallucinations makes since because the paralysis function is designed to prevent your body from reacting to false input during REM sleep. When you dream, your higher order brain disconnects from the body, so that your brain doesn't tell your body to do something stupid.

Now, why we dream in the first place, that is another story. Some people think it is memory, but lack of sleep tends to sap habitual function and a sense of hope, before it shuts down higher order function, so I'm not convinced that it is that simple.

theyeti

Ack! That's terrible. I used to suffer occasionally from sleep paralysis, well before I had any idea of what it was. Scarred the shit out of me the first time, but there wasn't anything so bad as a devil (though an unpleasent "presence" is not uncommon). But it did get to the point where I thought that had I left the room and traveled to exotic places like the back yard. I also remember sceaming for help once but of course no sound was coming out. Fortunately I'm a rationalist, or I would have certainly thought I was being possessed or having some sort of an out-of-body experience. I thought there was something terribly wrong with my brain, and I thought about going to the doctor. I was very relieved when I found out what it was, and that it's a common problem. For some reason, it doesn't happen anymore.

theyeti

MrDarwin

I went through a period of frequent sleep paralysis episodes shortly after graduating from college. In virtually every instance, it happened when I woke up in the morning, and instead of getting up went back to sleep. I would have both visual and auditory hallucinations (like footsteps approaching my bedroom door, surely an intruder who somehow slipped into the house!). Even knowing what they are, when they are happening they are very disturbing.

One of the more amusing hallucinations was when I thought somebody--some kind of monster, with spiky hair--was looking in my bedroom window at me. Not until much later did I realize that a cactus in a flower pot, sitting on the windowsill next to the bed, looked like a person's head in silhoutte, with the spines becoming spiky hair.

I very rarely have them anymore; having a regular sleep schedule seems to help.

TollHouse

I certainly agree with that sentiment. I only seem to get them now when I've exhasted myself.

emphryio

I agree about it happening when exhausted. It seems that usually you fall asleep when you are not aware that you are falling asleep.(If you realize you're falling asleep you wake back up.)

I would fall into SP when I was so tired, I was aware I was falling asleep but still continued to actually fall into sleep.

Viti

I know a bit about this as ::shamefully hangs head::when I was into New Age I was friends with Albert Taylor who wrote "Soul Traveler" (best seller and he has done numerous radio shows and seminars). He believes he travels the astral plane and all that shit...and recommends splitting your sleep into two partsto induce OBE's. I personally think it is a weird half-dream state. Not only Alien Abductions, but also the reported "Shadow People" can be attributed IMO.

I personally only experience this when I take hydrocodone (Lortab, Vicodin, Tylenol-3). In fact last night it happened. I strained my neck yesterday and took 1/2 a Lortab...I "woke up" and thought my husband was yelling in his sleep and kept trying to shush him...then I looked out the window and saw stars A) My blinds were closed B) You can't see stars in Las Vegas. I tried to go back to sleep and heard a roaring in my head (like waves or a wind tunnel) "woke up" again, and saw red and blue flashing lights in the room...thought there were cops outside, tried to get up to look...frozen to the spot!

Interestingly, if I have my doc prescribe Valium at the same time and take it with the Lortab...this doesn't happen. If not, it happens every time...at times nightmarish with monsters coming through the window. The docs are terrified of Valium for some reason (though they give me the Lortabs like candy) and I have the hardest time explaining I am not a Valium junkie, I just don't want nightmares!

HallaK9

Hello emphryio!

Glad you mentioned SP (also goes by the names ASP for Awareness during Sleep Paralysis or RISP for Recurrent Isolated Sleep Paralysis). Personally it was a big relief when I found out a couple of years ago that I wasn't the only one with these bizarre experiences...

In case you haven't done it yet, I'd recommend that you'd participate in <a href="http://watarts.uwaterloo.ca/~acheyne/spquest01.html" target="_blank">this survey</a> when you have the time. It's done by University of Waterloo. They also have a good site on the subject <a href="http://watarts.uwaterloo.ca/~acheyne/spquest01.html" target="_blank">here.</a>

Have fun with those aliens and whatnot, that's what I do

Antti

[edited for missing genetives ]

[ February 19, 2002: Message edited by: HallaK9 ]</p>