I’m having a form of OBE or sleep paralysis

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tonight i woke up having a strange feeling of a heavy body but i know i wasn't completely awake or dreaming , Ive been looking at cases of sleep paralysis and out of body experience and both kind of match what i had but both did not match up with what i had felt .

it started with me waking up , my arms and legs heavy and i sat up trying to turn my lamp on , even though this physically wasn't happening the whole time . i managed to get out of bed but the room i was in wasn't my own so i stumbled out to the hall way to see my mum who isn't in the house because shes at the hospice but i was trying to talk to her and i couldn't physically do it and it was so strange to just let my body wake up properly on its own

has someone experienced similar or know what this could be , thanks

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  • Posted

    Hi Holly,

    You're quite right - this is a form of sleep paralysis. I've had sleep paralysis with all its related phenomena for more than 50 years now, so know quite a lot about it.

    What you experienced is a false awakening (google it) which is part of the whole sleep paralysis scenario. I get them too. That feeling of heaviness in your limbs is absolutely typical. When I get a false awakening I mostly see my own apartment, though it's sometimes a mirror image. However, I sometimes have the same experience as you, when the room I get up in seems completely unfamiliar.

    It wasn't an out-of-body experience, though it can seem that way sometimes. Personally I don't believe in OOBEs. You can find a lot of accounts of them on line, but virtually all involve events occurring around sleep or after smoking weed, which suggests an altered state of mind rather than any objectively real experience.

    Everyone will have an isolated incident of sleep paralysis or a related symptom once or twice in their lives. It's completely normal. It's estimated that 2-5% of the population (like me) have these experiences on a regular basis, but it's still only a variant of the normal, and nothing to worry about.

    The best thing to do is simply put this one down to experience and not worry about it. Statistically it's unlikely to happen to you again. If it does - or if you start getting other forms of sleep paralysis - don't hesitate to contact me either by posting here or by private message via this site, and we can talk about ways of managing it. (Click on the envelope icon next to my name at the top of this post to send a PM.)

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