ive heard its due to excessive stress. ive experienced it only once. scared the piss out of me.

 

Well I'm pretty stress-free and it happens to me enough that when it DOES happen, I realize it and just try to go back to sleep.

When it first happened many years ago, I had been watching on of those UFO documentaries on TLC or Discovery channel and I swear I thought I was being abducted by aliens! LOL!

Then a few times, I would wake up trying to scream out for my GF but it was soooo hard getting it out. She said it was scaring the crap out of her.

Sometimes I can feel it starting to happen too. Feels like I'm getting the chills over my entire body really bad and if I catch it soon enough, I start moving around and can "stop" it. Oh yeah, and if my GF hears me trying to call her, when she shakes me, I snap out of it too.

Do a google on sleep paralysis. The more you understand, the less frightening it is. It is STILL a little weird though.

 

I didn't know this was due to stress. I remember they often use this in horror stories. People tell story like at night they wake up, they see things in the room but can't move at all. It never happened but if it happens to me, that's kinda scary...

 

Yeah, it happened to me once. I could see everything in the room, but totally couldn't move. It was like I was made of concrete. I can only remember it happening once, and when I woke up I just wrote it off as a weird dream. It's interesting to know that it's pretty common.

 

used to happen to me as a Child... it would freak me out... I was told that it was because there was a spirit holding you down not allowing you to move, and that is exactly how it felt. I remember one time I woke up and my eyes were open, but I could not move at all, and all of a sudden, my left leg started to lift as if something was trying to drag me.. then i snapped out of it and jumped out of bed.. mind you, this probably happened as I was 5 or 6 years old.

 

I remember reading/hearing somewhere that this happens because your body "shuts down" when you're sleeping, so that you don't act out your dreams.

It's supposed to turn back on as soon as you wake up, but I guess it's sometimes a little out of sync.

 

See a sleep disorder specialist. Easy to really diagnore (nose)...

More than likely it is an expanded dream state.

 

i sometimes awake startled as hell and rather than experience paralysis, I uncontrollably shake for an instant. THAT scares the crap out of whoever you are next to.

 

wow... possessed....

 

yep, happens to me on occasion. nothing to worry about, i think everyone gets it sometime or another. your body puts you in a state of paralysis, and sometimes you'll "wake up" but your body will still be in paralysis. then eventually you can move again...no big deal. definitely can be freaky, though.