Asperger's and sleep paralysis ?

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This is interesting as I just suggested another poster might be experiencing sleep paralysis but I can't remember the thread we were on.

wow, this mega bump made me realise that the AS wikipedia article has been severely modified ever since I linked to it in the first post.

Its got just about the biggest churn of any wikipedia article.

Pertaining to sleep paralysis: I have experienced it hundreds of times.

I have experienced it. A weird state you can find yourself in. I researched what it was called after the first time, informed myself about it and so the strange phenomenon doesn't scare me.

I've had it happen a few times.

The first time was probably as a result of some experimentation with lucid dreaming. I "woke up" to find myself in my bed, unable to move, and sensing a malevolent presence hovering above the ceiling. I tried to move but couldn't, but I still had partial control over the dream, so I tried firing a barrage of lightning bolts at it Emperor Palpatine-style. This was totally ineffective, and I could hear the entity laughing at my attempts to ward it off, and even though I knew that this was a dream of sorts, I had this urgent feeling that I had to wake up properly right now, or else this being would find me. It really felt like it was not a figment of my imagination, but some other being intruding into my dream, who was thoroughly amused that I thought my dream-control techniques could have any effect on it. Anyway, I managed to force myself to wake up after a few seconds, and it took me about a minute to convince myself that it wasn't really some crazy spectral entity telepathically invading my subconscious. I'm certainly glad I'm not superstitious, or I'd probably have been living in terror as a result of that experience ever since.

I've only had a few other experiences since. Recently I've been attacked by various gods (probably because I've been reading a lot of mythology lately). I had one dream in which I was pretty much in control of everything; I was completely aware I was dreaming and had god-like power over my dreamscape. Anyway, I woke up to find this dark-skinned god sitting at the end of my bed, and I could tell that he was annoyed at the lucid dreaming I'd just been doing. I couldn't move, and I asked him who he was, but he laughed at me and flew towards me, at which point the bed started shaking ala The Exorcist. I told him I was sorry for the lucid dreaming stuff I'd done, and he flew back away and revealed himself as Thanatos, before disappearing. At some point around then I awoke proper, but the scary thing was I was unable to pinpoint exactly when I had woken up - the last I saw of Thanatos, the flash of his white skull as he disappeared, remained seared into my retinas even after which point I definitely knew I was awake. That was pretty scary for about a minute or so, until I realised that if I had really been attacked by a god (and this wasn't just any god, but Death!), then I'd hardly be alive afterwards, now would I? Again, it was pretty easy for me to accept that this was nothing more than an (incredibly convincing) figment of my imagination. The fact that under nearly identical circumstances I had witnessed hundreds of cyclists taking part in the Tour de France (who for some reason didn't seem to realise that Adelaide isn't in France) cycling past my bedroom window in a much more mundane sleep-paralysis incident also helped to reassure me that it probably wasn't real.

Anyway, with me, it's rare enough that it's kind of exciting when it does happen (well, at least just after it's happened), because it is something of an interesting experience. I probably wouldn't like it if it happened all the time, but I wouldn't mind if it happened a little more often.

If you mean awareness during sleep paralysis, I've had it something around three or four times. One of them I had an out-of-body with it.

I had it once while I was attempting to have a lucid dream so I actually felt my body go into it and stuff. Felt weird, but in a nice way.

I had a period of time - a stretch of a few months - when it seemed I would go into sleep paralysis every time I fell asleep. It was very scary. Had no idea what was happening. This was while I was in college carrying a full load of units and had a couple of part-time jobs. I think it was made worse by stress and sleep deprivation. (Between classes, work, studying, and commuting I had about zero time just to relax.) The problem disappeared when the stress level went down. (Or maybe it was a chemical imbalance that got corrected, or I just grew out of it?)

Hey Vexcalibur, I also had bouts of sleep paralysis when I was 20/21. In the same period I was also having a lot of really vicious nightmares. I'd wake up in my bed to find a load of identical faces staring at me and talking (maybe whispering) in some language I didn't understand. I was living in halls at uni at the time so it was probably about that.

This happens frequently. I don't mind it, except when I am forced to lay motionless for several minutes with my alarm going off.

It is actually somewhat ammusing to those around me, as my mouth/tongue/facial muscles are usually the last that I regain control of, leading me to be unable to speak intellegibly for a few minutes after I am physically able to stand.

It's only happened to me once that I can remember. I was awake but stuck, and there was a cacophany of noise/voices. It was pretty scary: I could still think clearly as though I'd woken up and could see the ceiling, and I was running through reasons for what was going on, wondering if I'd hurt my spine the day before or if I was having a stroke. Then it was like a worn out alternator finally clunking into gear and I was back all the way.

Apparently, most people have a sleep paralysis episode at least once in their lives.

I experienced this a couple of times when I was a teen. I haven't since then, but it was quite frightening. I think the thing to remember is that it's temporary and will wear off in a few moments. You have to try not to panic. I think I heard that it only makes you lock up that much more. Not sure on that tho.

Yeah, though I've only had it those few times, I figured it out pretty quick...they say praying helps, but it didn't really work for me...you just have to focus on one tiny little extremity, like a finger or a toe, and just try to wiggle that one little thing, and as soon as you get it, the rest will follow.

It's weird because it feels like your eyes are opened, and you can lift your head up, but that's just the out-of-body experience...which is weird, because you finally get your eyes opened and everything looks exactly the same

I've had bouts of Sleep Paralysis many, many times, sometimes accompanied by hallucinations of voices, but until today I never bothered looking to see if anybody else had experienced similar pheneomena. I'm glad to see I'm not the only one because it's definitely a frightening experience, and at least now knowing what it is should make things a little easier.

I have it from time to time. It's a bit terrifying.

I've had sleep paralysis a few times. I actually experienced something like it this morning, but my room looked very different it may have been a vivid dream about being paralyzed in bed. The first time I had it was the worst, I was woke up from a bad dream and realized I could not move and saw a demonic looking head floating above my chest. I was afraid to go back for sleep for days after that