[ModernMech]

> I started getting very regular sleep paralysis.

I do not blame you. I've experienced sleep paralysis more than once, and it is not pleasant at all. I remember trying to scream at the top of my lungs in my head for... I don't know how long but my perception of it was that it was for hours on end. Then all of a sudden something broke through, and I woke my wife up with the loudest scream she's ever heard out of anyone.

Took a while for me to sleep again after that.

[knicholes]

Coming from a religious background, I believed that I was being possessed to explain the lack of control over my body. I even hallucinated an "evil" "form" coming towards me before my body locked up and I felt tingles. So ~weird~ terrifying being able to scream without your body doing anything.

[scrollaway]

Sleep paralysis is mortifying if you don't know what you're dealing with. I can completely understand how that's been the source of many people believing in possessions over the centuries.

Most of my paralysis episodes didn't involve the "evil presence" people often talk about. That is, until a recent one less than a year ago, where I woke up with a giant "invisible" spider on my chest

It's terrifying to be in this state of mind where you know what's happening, but you also really, really feel that presence. I wonder if this is similar to what schizophrenic patients feel.

[ryall]

Yeah I just had one of these a couple of weeks ago. Lying on my side and could feel an evil presence behind me, but couldn't move my body at all, even though I was (or at least believed I was) fully awake. Not fun.

[noir_lord]

When I had massive dental problems a few years ago I was taking codeine 60mg and an over the counter sleep aid (which it turns out is a potentiator for codeine).

I had the worst sleep paralysis I've ever had, I was laid facing the wall with the light and I would have sworn there was absolute evil behind me, it was frankly terrifying.

It broke suddenly and I kept out of bed and shot out the room, took me about 15 minutes for heart rate to come down.

I don't scare easily and I'm a life long atheist but I can see how if you where raised religious you'd assume it was whatever evil presence your religion has.

[zormino]

Seeing figures and humanoid shapes when experiencing sleep paralysis isn't uncommon. I've never seen them myself, I just get a progressively louder ringing noise in my head until it feels like my head is going to blow up. I was always able to break out eventually, but it's terrifying. You can't move and are in pain. The only way I could get out was to find one finger or toe I could wiggle a tiny bit, then keep doing that until my body started to slowly come back to life. It takes some time but eventually you hit a threshold and you come back online pretty fast. It doesn't happen often, but when it does it takes me 2-3 tried to fall alseep as it happens consecutively.

[AznHisoka]

" find one finger or toe I could wiggle a tiny bit"

Do you know for sure that it actually wiggles? Because that's what I tried doing once, and my wife told me that my entire body was still and I just woke up all of a sudden.

[ptrincr]

I've had sleep paralysis but never had the feeling of the presence. I just know I'm stuck. As if some kind of force has frozen my whole body. The first few occasions it is extremely scary, I think after that you know what is happening but it is still very disconcerting.

[crehn]

It's not a fun experience.

A year or so ago, I woke up during the night and felt tingling in my feet. The tingling kept increasing in intensity and seemed to slowly rise along my limbs. A few seconds later, I suddenly heard someone shout with an aggressive but soft voice next to my ear, and felt eerily realistic hands grab my arms and vigorously scratch my right palm. In absolute terror, I remember trying to scream and shake it off, but I couldn't move. And it felt so real. A few seconds later I managed to snap off the paralysis, and rocketed out of my bed. I didn't sleep that night.

[danharaj]

I've woken up others the same way. At some point I learned to recognize sleep paralysis and just wait it out. It's still unpleasant though, I get sensations like needles pricking my skin all over.

[jrockway]

This happens to me every so often. The worst is the feeling of not being able to breathe, but it's happened to me enough that I figure my body will take care of oxygenating itself if necessary.

Once you come to terms with the fact that sleep paralysis is a thing, I think it's just another interesting mental experience. The lack of control is also kind of fun. Who knows what's going to happen next? But you probably won't die. Not the worst thing in the world.