Sleep paralysis is a state of awareness that a person enters before falling asleep or before waking. Shortly before entering the sleeping state your mind paralyzes the body from 3 seconds to a few minutes. Also, during REM sleep, our body is paralyzed entirely so that we don't act out our dreams and "fall off trees". There are 2 different entering points for sleep paralysis.

Hypnagogic or Predormital Sleep Paralysis

Hypnagogic sleep paralysis occurs when a person tries to fall asleep. After relaxing all muscles and about to enter the "sleep state" that person becomes aware that he or she is paralyzed.

Hypnopompic or Postdormital Sleep Paralysis

Hypnopompic sleep paralysis occurs after a person's REMs. Often occurring after lucid dreaming, a person becomes aware that he or she is paralyzed before leaving the REM state. This can cause numerous things from hearing & seeing strange things to a "chocking sensation".

There are numerous symptoms pointing to sleep paralysis. This page will confirm whether or not you have or might have sleep paralysis.

The first and most obvious symptom of sleep paralysis is having the sensation of being paralyzed without being able to wake yourself up. Often times people wake up and discard it as being some crazy dream without realizing that they in fact were paralyzed. A sleep paralysis episode may last anywhere from 5 seconds to 3 minutes, maybe even longer if you fail to exit properly. During the longer episodes you gain consciousness of what's going on yet your senses aren't 100% clear; your eyes can be blurred a little, your hearing is altered, and it still feels to some degree like a "dream".

The 3 most common symptoms of sleep paralysis are 1) consciousness of what's going on, 2) realization of the paralyzed state, 3) extreme horror.

It's difficult to control sleep paralysis because of the intensity of the horror that sleep paralysis sufferers experience is unbearable. In fact, when undergoing sleep paralysis, the person does in fact think that he or she is going to die. Of course, only after you know about sleep paralysis and the causes of sleep paralysis that you can actually try to treat sleep paralysis.

Here's a list of other reported sleep paralysis symptoms:

• Buzzing noise in your ears

• Seeing the old hag, cartoon characters, and dream objects come to life in their room

• Shifting gravity

• Sensation of something pressuring you

• Levitation

• Inability to speak/call out for help

• Choking sensation

Sleep paralysis contributed to many of the night stories ancient cultures spread ranging from the old hag to demons, the devil, and other "evil" religious figures like witches. We have our own share of alien abduction stories many of which begin with "suddenly I couldn't move". Now you know that aliens aren't probing you - during a sleep paralysis episode superstitious religious people will see demons, alien believers will see aliens, and others will see cartoon characters, people, strange animals, and pretty much anything that your mind can come up with. Get more sleep paralysis symptoms information.