Dreams and Sleep

[Nepsotic]

So this morning I experienced sleep paralysis for the first time, it, and I'm not exaggerating here, was the worst experience of my life. I'm not even sure it was real. It might have just been a dream, either way, it was horrible. It was probably because I was up all night it happened, I've hardly any sleep for the past two weeks. Some people say they love it when it happens and it takes them into a really relaxed state, I don't know how they can think that. I think there's been a thread about this before, but anyway, I'm curious. Have any of you ever experienced it or had any weird dreams- pretty much anything to with sleep.

[OddjobAbe]

I get sleep paralysis at least once a month. God, it's shit. And what's worse is when I free up from it, then fall back into it because I couldn't be bothered to get up.

[Nepsotic]

Just the thought of not being in control of your own body is horrible, not being able to speak... I also had a weird sensation, like someone was there in the room. I've done my research and apparently hallucinations are common too.

[T-nex]

I only experienced sleep paralysis once... I was also hallucinating a pig ghost singing some weird song. It was weird.
I had remembered that I read how to counter sleep paralysis just a few weeks ago... So I started by wiggling my toes then other body parts and eventually I just snapped out.

[Gwan-Thwei]

all kidding aside, i sometimes get what me and my father call "Deja Vu", which is when something we dream about happens in real life. Scary as hell. We'll be walking along, chatting and the like, and something will happen and I'll go "Holy crap, Deja Vu!" and he'll just nod his head knowingly.

[Nepsotic]

That's something completely different. It's not something you've dreamed about that happens. It's when something is happening and you think its happened before, however it's purely in your imagination. I'm not sure what causes it, though. I think what you described is also a thing, coincidence, it's called.

Back on the topic of sleep paralysis, I've done some more googling, and it's also common to see or sense a ghostly figure in the room with you, and hearing footsteps around the house. I'm dreading going to sleep now in fear of having a worse episode. Main causes of it are lack of sleep, anxiety and stress. That explains a lot.

[OddjobAbe]

I have never hallucinated, because I'm not fucking nuts.

[Nepsotic]

I haven't either, and I am nuts. It's very common apparently, though no one knows what the main cause is.

[OddjobAbe]

It's being fucking nuts.

[Spooce-aholic]

What's sleep paralysis?

[Strike Witch]

What's sleep paralysis?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_paralysis

[Varrok]

http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_paralysis

[STM]

I've had sleep paralysis once, it looked like a man with no face with sitting on my legs and then he leant over with a huge grin, so I guess he grew a face. I just close my eyes, after what felt like hours I sat bolt upright in bed and screamed so loudly I guess I must have broken free fro the paralysis.

[Strike Witch]

I don't dream very often.

When I do it's mostly dreams about physical exertion where I'm running across town trying to catch a bus or trying to climb over a wall or other things that require lots of effort and stress.

I end up waking up feeling exhausted.

[Sekto Springs]

It takes me something like two hours to completely fall asleep, even when I'm dead tired. It's an annoying habit that my body can't seem to break, so I have to plan my sleep schedule with that discrepancy in mind.

As for dreams...

[Nepsotic]

Holy crap, other people too?!! About all the things you said.

[Mac Sirloin]

My best buuuud Jordan the Schizophrenic is uh...schizophrenic. He gets fucking BAD nightmares and sleep paralysis from time to time, but I think it's lessened considerably lately. I've only had sleep paralysis once but it wasn't very frightening, I think I just fell back asleep.

[Nepsotic]

I think it was because I was panicing like mad, which made it worse. I had a session on the punchbag afterwards to relieve my stress.

[scrabface]

is it possible, that your 'hallucinations' were actually tiny seconds of dreaming while dozing? this actually happens when you try to stay awake for a couple of days; you start dreaming while half-asleep.
anyway, sleep paralysis never happened to me, but I am curious. however I was always curious about how a panic attack would feel like, until two days ago. first time and it was horrifying. my heart was racing, my extremities were full of adrenaline and I couldn't breathe. might have been the weed though.
you don't need to get bitten by a dog, only to know how a bite does feel like.

[JayDee]

I've never had sleep paralysis but I often have lucid dreams, which after having so many are quite fun to mess around in. It's like using your own subconscious as a bouncy castle.

I should go to sleep...

[DarkHoodness]

Lucid dreaming 'cause you're half-asleep from sleep deprivation is pretty damned weird... Especially when you're doing tasks in the real world and you dream about them as you're doing them, so you can't tell the difference between what you've actually done and what you dreamed that you did...

It's somewhat un-nerving, but I've never let it get as bad as having outright hallucinations like some people I know have had. For example my late auntie once told me she hadn't slept for over 4 days during her Uni years and she started seeing wallpaper and carpet patterns swirl and move. That's one way of experiencing some sort of trip without doing any drugs, I guess. :P

As I said earlier last time this was discussed, I'm glad I've never experienced sleep paralysis. It sounds like it sucks. A lot. :S

[Jordan]

I used to have this every so often, it was awful and scared me to shit.

[skychase2rebirth]

I usually fall asleep so fast when doing nothing that sometimes I'm sitting on a couch talking with friends and I start dreaming suddenly... then I'm confused and don't know what's real anymore.

[Gwan-Thwei]

That's something completely different. It's not something you've dreamed about that happens. It's when something is happening and you think its happened before, however it's purely in your imagination. I'm not sure what causes it, though. I think what you described is also a thing, coincidence, it's called.

No, no, it's definitively something i dream about. I remember dreaming about going to lagoon and asking that if my father won one of the games if i could get an octopus (it was some sort of fishing game) and many months later we were at lagoon trying out a fishing game and i looked at the octopus and asked for it. Then i freaked out. And the lady at the game looked at me funny.

On the topic of sleep paralysis, the hallucinations are thought to be a misfiring in the brain, or the moving of the eyes like in REM sleep. For this reason, many people see aliens or ghosts because the mind is still half asleep.
Or something.

[Alf Shall Rise]

I've never had sleep paralysis before, but I used to have some crazy dreams and nightmares when I was a little kid. Right now I can't really think of any dreams, but I used to always have nightmares where I was being chased by something that I thought was really scary. Nowadays I barely dream, and on the rare occasion that I do, it's usually something related to school or other boring things.

[moxco]

Most of my dreams tend to involve me being naked, or falling great distances. Or being naked while falling great distances. These falling dreams tend to trigger a leg spasm.

Oh, and at least once a month I will be awakened by an excruciatingly painful cramp in my calf muscle. I can only get it to go away by walking it off.

[Nepsotic]

Sometimes when I'm.half asleep I dream about my day continuing onwards, and I think it's real. So it sucks when.I wake up and find I have to do it all over again. Another common one is qhere I dream.I have an item that I have wanted or really like. When you wake up and find its not really there it's the second most dissapointing feeling related to dreams, the first is waking up from a really good dream about you-know-what. And yes, I too have had the naked school dream. Another common thing is just before you drift off, you get the feeling you're falling and you're body spazzes out. This datesback to prehestoric man when we slept in trees, it's like a reflex that never went away.

[STM]

I once had a dream I was choosing something from my fridge, then I went to the settee and watched four minutes of adverts. I woke up before my programme started.

[OddjobAbe]

Metaphorically, I always wake up before my programme starts.
That's not meant as a sexual pun, by the way.

[Mac Sirloin]

Whenever I've been consistently underslept for awhile I have waking dreams, usually manifested by auditory hallucinations and whatnot. I very rarely 'see things' but when I do usually they're just colour splotches.

However, when I was bussing home from London on Thursday I kept falling asleep in my chair and seeing this weird looking face. I actually just now realized it looked like the handfaces from Labrynth. I just dozed off and BAM creepy face.

Has anyone tried manipulating their dreams with food? It works, and you get some CRAZY dreams from eating before sleep. Usually I have intensely painful nightmares, but sometimes it's just flying around or something.

I can't find it, but at some point in the past I posted something I've labelled the McDonalds dream. I hadn't eaten all day, me and Jordan spent a 45 minute bike ride freezing our nips off and the only place that was open was a McDonalds. I don't remember EXACTLY what I ate, but it wasn't drizzled in extra special sauce or anything.
So we ride our bikes back, are exhausted and promptly fall asleep. So began the creepiest dream ever. I believe I was 15 or 16.

It started with a big, black, burnt house. The street was filled with sand and the house was half buried in a hill of the stuff. I ventured inwards and came across some children. Fat girls with goutish faces and skeletal boys with missing eyes and lice ridden hair. All of them more hideous than the last, and because this was a dream, it had a recursive effect. They mutated in front of me, and a video camera appeared. All of these horrible wretched kid-things start fucking one another, and the dream ends with some kid licking shit off of a dick.

Anyway sorry for bringing that up again.