Has anyone ever used the method of not breathing to come out of paralysis?

I have had severe sleep paralysis at times in my life, all the good hallucinations, all the hits.

Eventually I become self aware during the episode, and in my mind I always say, "if I cant move, maybe I cant breathe either" and a sensation of panicked breathing begins.

I have found that by simply saying that I will just not breathe, and essentially slip into a type of drowning, and accepting whatever happens, I wake up.

Its equally horrifying and effective, has anyone else tried or experienced this? 🤣

Ive been really scared to share my experience and hear what your responses might be. I have really bad anxiety which includes health anxiety. I just want to know what happened to me and if anyone has a similar experience.

About a month ago I was laying in bed, trying to sleep. I was very sleep deprived for a couple of days at this point ( autistic child, sleeping issues.) I was laying for hours without being able to sleep. I was staring at my fan and suddenly it was like my body shut down. My hearing dimmed, vision dimmed, I completely lost all my strength, I could barely see my fan, and I could barely think. I remember thinking I need an ambulance but had absolutely not an ounce of strength. All sensations faded except my heartbeat which became so amplified. It wasnt faster or pounding intensely or anything. The sensation of it was just amplified like 20x. This only lasted seconds until I wiggled my finger and got up like nothing.

Ive been absolutely traumatized to fall sleep since.

I did go to the doctor and tested and scanned, did imaging, ct scans etc,. Nothing abnormal has been found. Only sleep paralysis has been given as a possible explanation. Ive had episodes of SP for over 10 years but this did not feel like the others at all.

Every time SP happened before, my mild tinnitus grew into an ear-piercing torturous whine over a short period and stayes like this for about a minute. Imagine the loudest sound you can, and then imagine something even louder. Naturally, I want to avoid SP as much as I can if instead of fabled succubuses I get execution by audio.

And this night it was about to happen again, my usual ear ringing began gradually rising in volume. Having noticed it in time, I tried to move as vigorously as I could. What came out were "jagged" movements, a hand would jerk, pause, jerk again, pause, etc... Thankfully, this must've been "enough": the ringing fluctuated at louder than usual but didn't rise further, movements never truly froze, and after about half a minute it began to subside.

So, YAY, audio torture avoided! [Maybe I misremember something as this happened deep in the night before falling asleep again]

when it happens, if I can't move and im really tired, I will just go back to sleep or find it interesting and trying to break out of it.

ive had sleep paralysis all my life and ive never had those terrifying experiences everyone has had.

ive also been in war so maybe the high pressure makes sleep paralysis easy.

I don’t really have any scary figures but rather caterpillar like figure which is translucent or a translucent floater like thing.
I feel like its watching me and runs out of the window or below the bed when I wakeup.
It runs away as soon as I wake up.
Anyone else experiences this and what helped you.

i went to sleep 4 times last night. when i woke up the third time, my eyes were slightly open and it felt like a wave of heat was keeping my body from moving. what i saw was a billboard-esque sign approaching me, almost like i was driving. around 30 seconds in i could move my left index and middle finger. then almost immediately i woke up. it was surprisingly underwhelming and calming almost. though i find it weird that when i woke up my mind immediately thought i was experiencing hypnagogic hallucinations.

So i experienced it twice , in the first one i found myself lying flat on the ground surrounded by buildings and no one was there i couldn't do anything instead of moving my eye does it is considered a sleep paralysis then why was i not in my room but i was somewhere else in the second one is the most terrifying one i had i was lying with my father and sudden sleep paralysis occured i cant do anything instead of moving my eyes but there were some black figures in the bedroom i am saying it demons because as i saw the figures i don't know why i suddenly shouted "in the name of Jesus Christ leave my house" and then there would be so much vibration , trembling everything vibrated i thought the figures were terrified and frightened in the name of Jesus but again after that i said "in the name of Allah leave my house" again and then there was so much vibration , i didn't even thought why i said these sentences and i was saying these like shouting screaming to my father to wake him up and tell him that there was something in our bedroom but then my voice went i couldn't even say a single word and i felt it was a dream when i said these thing without thinking , but also i thought it is also considerable that i couldn't move instead of moving my eyes

is this 2 sleep paralysis or what ???

I’m wondering if what I experience is actually sleep paralysis or just a vivid dream.

I’ve noticed that I can sometimes predict when it’s about to happen. The moment I close my eyes, wait a few seconds, and open them again, I suddenly can’t move anymore. Before this happens, I feel a tingling, almost numb sensation in my ear and head when I’m still fully awake (it gives me the signal that I’m about to have sleep paralysis). My entire body feels extremely heavy, like I’m physically unable to move even when I try. I can sometimes move very minimally, but it takes so much effort. Other times, I can’t move at all.

I also try speaking during these episodes, but nothing comes out, no matter how hard I try. Once I become unable to move, the tingling continues throughout the experience.
I don’t see any monsters or scary figures, but sometimes I hear sounds that feel very real. When I finally wake up, I sometimes find myself sleeping in a completely different position from the one I thought I was in, which makes me wonder if I was actually dreaming rather than experiencing sleep paralysis.
Has anyone experienced something similar?

In my teens and young’s twenties, I would get sleep paralysis at least three times a week. I would be aware of my surroundings, able to see my husband and dogs, but unable to move or make any sound. I would hallucinate a shadow person in the corner of the rooms and after so many, I became aware of what they were and squeeze my eyes shut to avoid seeing anything scary.

I started smoking weed and have for the past 5 years and they stopped, I figured it was me growing out of them. Well it became illegal again in Texas so I am now off of it and have had sleep paralysis dreams for the past 4 nights in a row and one of them really shook me.

I was laying on my stomach when I realized I had that familiar heaviness to my body and I was unable to move or speak. It was strange because it didn’t feel like I fell asleep, I could still feel, hear, and see my husband breathing next to me and I tried hard to move my hand closer to him or speak to get his attention with no luck.

I then saw the familiar shadow person start to form and crawl down from my ceiling and quickly shut my eyes to block it out. Them something new happened, I had a falling sensation and felt like I was on hard ground all of the sudden, the texture under my hands sandy and I opened my eyes to find myself still stomach down in my backyard.

I could feel the breeze, hear the crickets and the cars pass on the nearby highway, but I still couldn’t move or speak. I desperately tried to move towards my bedroom window or make a noise to maybe trigger my dogs in the bedroom to bark but couldn’t. I then heard the door to our wood shop behind me open and I closed my eyes again and tried hard to scream.

When I opened them, I was truly awake and back in my bedroom. It was so real feeling and terrifying that I stayed awake since 3:30am. It is now 12:34am the following day and I still can’t convince myself to go to sleep in fear of it.

Has anybody else struggled with recurring sleep paralysis?

Growing up i would have sleep paralysis about three times a week. I was a kid/teen so i was used to it and never scared me anymore. I accepted it and went back to sleep. Just my body unable to move and a high pitched tinnitus for maybe 5 seconds, nothing more. No insane weird stuff or ghost thankfully. Come to find out after starting anxiety meds in my 20s, they stopped completely. Never knew my anxiety was the cause.

Well due to new diagnoses and me stopping anxiety meds, they came back. I had maybe the worst sleep paralysis ever three times in a row. I felt SO heavy and I THINK i was able to move my head. So i started hallucinating a weird knocking noise everytime my head would attempt to move. Then i would wake up.

Anyways the point of this post, is maybe to check your anxiety out and see if that’s the cause. Cause i can’t wait to get back on the meds lmao.

I've been having sleep paralysis for the last year, and lately it has been intensifying. Right now I'm up at 4 AM after a recurring cycle of sleep paralysis lasting between 1-2 hours. This happens while I'm trying to go to sleep, not waking up from a dream. What happened now is that my body fell asleep but my brain knows I'm not. When I wake up again after circa 30 seconds I'm way to tired to move or keep my eyes open, so I just fall back into paralysis over and over again.

While I'm in the state of paralysis I can hear music and full blown conversations. I could also for example see and hear my friends sitting next to me and acting completely normal while talking to me, only to wake up and realise nothing was real. Sometimes i still see shit while forcing my eyes shut. To counteract this I can sometimes "move". I feel and even see myself moving my body, standing up and rolling away, but when I eventually wake up again I haven't moved an inch. Once I even fell from my bed, heard my friends laugh at me only to find out I'm still in bed when I "hit the floor" and woke up.

This is seriously starting to creep me out and haltering my quality of sleep, so I just want to know if this happens to anyone else.

I am 19 and as of 2 days ago have been having nightly sleep paralysis. I have never in my life had it before until now and have no idea what is causing it. The first night, i was having trouble going to sleep and was paranoid as well as i was staying in an unfamiliar location with my girlfriend that was pretty creepy to say the least. i close my eyes, and open them again to discover that my body will not move. my first thought was not sleep paralysis, it was actually me thinking i was having a medical emergency. i had an intense vibrating/tingling and heavy sensation all throughout my body and could open my eyes and blink and look around but not move. i started freaking out and trying to call for my girlfriend because she was right next to me but only a whimper would come out (i was trying to scream at the top of my lungs). the entire ordeal lasted about 30 seconds and i was freaked out to say the least and ended up figuring out it was sleep paralysis. The whole next day i was still confused as to what happened but not too worried about it until i was going to bed last night. i had my buddy sleeping on a couch in my room at my house and was attempting to go to bed and this episode was MUCH weirder. i fell asleep after a minute, and began dreaming. i dreamt i was at a pool/resort type place and literally not a second after the dream started i felt this insane sensation of being ripped upwards and i started flying into the sky. i’ve never felt a dream this real in my life, i could feel and hear the wind pushing all around me and felt the G force of being catapulted upwards. after about 10 seconds of me flying upwards it goes black, and then in creeps that same vibrating/tingling sensation in my body. i immediately begin panicking again and trying to call for my buddy to come wake me up. he hears me, runs over and starts shaking me ( i told him to if he heard me having an episode) and i came to shortly after and was able to move again. could this be stress related? i just recently began living alone in my own house and have a few other factors that cold be causing stress.

I was thinking about something the other day. And now i've found myself curious enough about those thoughts that i decided come on here to see what the outcome would be. It will be interesting to say the least, if enough people will engage.

How many of you that suffer from sleep paralysis have migraines as well? If so, do you ever have sleep paralysis during a migraine episode, or are they typically seperated from one another?

I am asking for answers from anyone that gets sleep paralysis, if you dont suffer from migraines, than just answer stating so as well.

Do you tend to see auras with your migraines, are they severe that you absolutely have to lay down in the dark until they're gone, are you on any treatment from a Dr?

If it comes to be that there is a connection, would then those 2 connections also be connected to use of perscribed migraine medicine. Or will i find that paralysis still happens to most people who get migraines reguardless of whether they take medication or not.

I thank anyone that takes time to answer. This is what happens when i start thinking about things. They snowball into many other questions.

Why do I often get sleep paralysis where it's all sensual and stuff and I'm being licked by an invisible thing or sometimes it's not invisible and has a voice, or for today I had one where it was actually a human woman and she hugged me and talked to me in a sensual sexual tone of voice. It was just licking and nothing else. (I'm a girl btw)

Hello everyone! As someone who has been experiencing sleep paralysis for over 12 years, I’ve decided a year ago to devote myself to the mission of building a structured digital product solely focused on helping people who experience this frustrating condition.

I will be in San Francisco Tech Crunch Disrupt event from 13th to the 15th this month raising awareness about sleep paralysis. If any of you happen to be there and want have a chat feel free to DM.

If you want to know more what I am building along with a team of great engineers and clinicians > https://unfreezeapp.com

Stay safe!

I’m 16 went down the rabbit hole of it and I have never even had it despite pulling a lot of all nighters in my life. I’m so scared now I just pulled a all nighter to fix my sleep schedule but now I’m scared ima get it I usally sleep on my right and keep the lights on so idk

No matter if I wait 15 mins, 1 hour, 5 hours, if I had one sleep paralysis I will get it again the next time I try to fall asleep unless I just wait for the next day? How does this shit always remember to do this? Usually it's always 2 until I can sleep again unless I wait too little in-between which leads to infinite sp.

So,there was this time when I was like 8 or something and I found out a way to escape sleep paralysis and it worked over and over.

Whatcha wanna do: close your eyes tight,try to send little singles (aka try to move) to your fingers and that should start to wake up your finger than your hand then your entire body then you awake.

BOOM! Your free! (Unsure if this could work for u 🫵)

I would frequently have episodes of SP where everything was pitch black and I could sense someone was in the same room as me. What followed was a figure getting on top of me and then waking up from an overwhelming sense of dread and weight over my entire body.

Because it was just me (a young woman) and my mum living together, I would sleep with a knife under my pillow to feel some sense of security while I slept.

The episode happened again and this time I remembered I had a knife under my pillow. It took what felt like every muscle in my body just to grab it, and I stabbed this figure in slow mo. The figure said to me 'I just wanted a friend' and then I woke up (empty handed, thank god).

I still experience sleep paralysis, but I haven't had this type of episode since.

Ive had sleep paralysis ever since i was a little kid (I’m 33 now)

Id say I’ve had many experiences, i don’t remember most of them but the ones i do remember are

demonic whispering in my ear

getting pulled under my bed then straight back into my bed

black figure sitting on my chest and I couldn’t breath

heard radio static and a weird voice coming through every so often

spiders all over the walls

Black figure peeking around the corner of my room

and all these happens during different sleep paralysis experiences, majority of them where similar experiences it first started with the demonic whispers when I was a little kid. Never knew why, I’ll probably never know why. I don’t get them anymore and I don’t know why I don’t either so it’s all just one big mystery

Oh and lastly a sexual encounter with a horny demon which I had no control over, no really..

I don't experience it often, maybe ~5 times in my whole life. However, I don't recall ever experiencing it until just a few years ago, making me curious if it's health related or something.

The first time was horrifying. I remember feeling as though a large figure was standing over me, slowly pulling me out of bed. I vividly remember waking up/becoming very lucid, trying to scream for help but nothing would come out. I couldn't move out open my eyes even though I was awake. When it was finally over, I came to work my feet hanging off of the bed and feeling absolutely terrified someone was in my room.

I'm completely aware that none of it was real, but at the time I had hardly even heard of sleep paralysis and had never experienced it before. It was equally fascinating and terrifying.

So I just had my first sleep paralysis ever. However, instead of the usual stories I hear from friends about sleep paralysis, mine was a little different.

I was trying to sleep in the middle of the night when suddenly, I felt my the weight of 3 supermassive black holes and couldn't move any part of my body. At first I thought it was just soreness so I didn't mind it. But as I try to shift my body to a more comfortable position, I couldn't. That's where it hit me, I was experiencing my first sleep paralysis. I was scared but weirdly enough, I was also excited. I was waiting for the figures and hallucinations to visit me but nothing happened, for a while, it stayed like that. I tried moving my arm, didn't work. Until I felt shivers on my back, I heard whispers, cold and low whispers on my right side. I was scared sh!tless because it was nothing that I've heard about. And what surprised me even more was my right arm was moving on it's own, I felt it rising above me. I turned to look at it and there it was, a figure, hanging on my ceiling. I couldn't make what it was because it was so dark in my room. But anyways, I tried moving again, with the whispers getting louder, my motivation to move grew intensely, if anything, I was curious to see what was making those sounds. After a bit of struggle, I was able to break out of it. I turned to look, there was nothing but my bed. I lit up my room with the torch in my phone, nothing changed.

I wasn't able to sleep the entire night. For my first sleep paralysis, it was kinda underwhelming, and honestly, I wanted to meet those figures more.

It all started with a weird dream I was having that he was a serial killer that had propped up tens of bodies outside in various disturbing poses. I then wanted to run away but I woke up in bed. (Btw, our room has a staircase coming from the right side but in that dream he came up from the LEFT.) By then he knew that I knew about his true identity.

And here comes the sleep paralysis part: I physically felt drugged, unable to move. Because I obviously felt scared and anxious and wanted to get the hell out. In another moment I saw him come up from the RIGHT side and he was staring at me because it looked like I was mumbling smth, all the while my eyes were flickering open and closed one at a time.
In my perspective: I was trying to say “fuck you” over and over again but I physically couldn’t mount the words well.
He then kissed me and I woke up all confused but relieved.

All in all, this is like the first time in two years maybe (?) that I experienced this again. And luckily one of the lesser scary and death threatening ones than I have had before.

So, I just woke up and am still very tired writing this. I had fallen asleep for probably 10 minutes then had happened. I was laying in bed and some strange women with colorful hair was having sexual relations with me, for some reason I felt like it was a bad energy.

I began trying to force myself out of it by slowly moving my head up. The more I pushed myself out of it, this feeling of pressure on my chest got stronger and I couldnt breathe. Then I woke up, I fell asleep almost immediately after. It happened again, but this time I saw through the women and she disappeared, and I began seeing a demon form infront of my tv that sits infront of my bed. He was saying “I’m here” multiple times in a deep voice, but I forced myself up before his face could even fully form.

whatever sleep disorder i have causes sleep paralysis once or twice a week, and i know damn well it isnt real and don't feel scared or anything. my hallucinations are still trying to be scary for some reason, i thought the reason they were scary was because you're already scared and your brain builds off that. hell, im writing this after an episode that i didn't even know was an episode until i realized i could open my eyes. i thought it was just a part of the dream until i realized the dream didnt sound like that and tried to open my eyes, so why would it try to be scary when i didn't even know it was supposed to be??