i used to have to go through this pretty often (like at least twice a month). i haven't had an episode in a few months, but it has come back before in times of extreme stress. it's absolutely HORRIFIC.

i've never felt like the presence was touching me. it's always been like they are standing above me, or are staring at me from the doorway or near my bed. it's always a shadow i can see out of the corner of my eye, but i can't turn my head to look at it, and can't scream or move.

i'm always so jolted and disoriented when it happens that i can't make any logical sense of what's going on. it is like a horror movie where the only thing you can think is someone broke into your house and they are going to kill you.

That perfectly described my "nightmares", lol. When that happens, I don't remember what I've been dreaming about, but I'm fully awake and it can last as long as half an hour.

Same thing used to happen to me. It freaked me out until I discussed it with my psychology teacher who explained it in full. After that I wasn't afraid and was able to go right back to sleep.

The one thing I would like explained however is how people seem to see the same things. A featureless shadowy figure, the "old hag", and the "man with the top hat"







I've only seen the featureless form.

Happened to me once when I was a kid and my father told me I was making it up. Of course this was the same father that told me I was being a wimp because I couldn't handle a little dust in the air at the cabinet making company he worked at only to find out 10 years later that I had been having an anaphylactic reaction from a severe allergy. (Found out later when I was tested)

Ahh..parents....now I'm one of them. I wonder what I'll screw up with MY daughter!

This has happened to me twice. It really is pretty terrifying.

Very interesting. I recently had a dream where I thought some "thing" was in my room. I got scared but then knew I was dreaming and was thinking "I just need to wake up". I got into my bed in my dream and looked over and suddenly the face of an old hag pops up and scares the crap out of me and I woke up.

I figured she was just trying to help me wake up since that is what I wanted and needed a shock to be able to do that.

I never realized that was something that others had seen before. I'm glad I saw it in my dream rather than actually in my room!

My brother used to get night terrors when he was a kid. He was definitely not paralyzed though. He would come screaming down the hall shaking that something was after him. His eyes were wide open but he was asleep. Happened a lot. Poor kid.

This happens to me maybe twice a month sometimes once every other. When it does happen on those occasions it happens 3 times within a couple hours. I find it horrifying to go back to sleep. Will I wake up next time?(rhetoric) The only way I can get out of it is to do my best to make a sudden impulsive move. Since the breathing part is true, I really feel like I can't breathe, so I'll use the only air in my lungs to make that sudden move. It seems very hard, sometimes i can't make that impulsive jolting move, instead my body lays there motionless. Sometimes I try my best to scream for someone to come get me, but can't. I try again very hard to make that jolting move. Stupidly, I'll drift back into sleep and wake up a little later and it happens again.
As for hallucinating, I've never had during those moments.

I have had them only recently in the past two yrs. I think mine are more night terrors as I can move and react.

It seems to happen to me when I lack sleep or work a double or do a quick turn around.

I always see a demonic looking creature staring intently at me, sometimes over me.

I wake up screaming, it disappears and I go back to sleep ok.

Very disturbing. I am happy to say I haven't had them in a while.

I've had this a few times, but not for a lot of years now.
I never saw a figure though, just the paralysis.

I've had these as well. I can't remember having one in quite some time, though. My mom thought she had one the other night, but it was just DEP sneaking in for a "quickie"

Yes, that's the way it is for me as well. My eyes are wide open but I cannot move. I find that if I can jerk my head it breaks me right out of it. it happens to me when I get overheated--alot. My doctor says it is related to restless leg syndrome, and it is true that when I took the medicine for the syndrome I no longer had the paralysis. Now, though, I cannot afford the meds, so I am once again having the problem. I sure hate it.

Odd thing, though, I never get it at night. Just in the morning or afternoons if I lay down for a nap.

I suppose it is hard for you to sit down then, eh?