2026-07-30 22:27 UTC
Replies (6)
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@Axolotl1@gaygeek.social 2026-07-31 03:51
@pacific06@mastodon.social Sleep paralysis is just when you wake up but your brain forgets to turn off sleep mode. You're normally unable to move while you're asleep, and your breathing slows. So you can't move and it feels like you can't breathe right, and due to technically being asleep, you can also hallucinate, and those are based off your emotions, so this is a truly nightmarish combination of things. Thankfully it's not fatal. That's my knowledge on it.
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@MCDuncanLab@mstdn.social 2026-07-31 02:10
@pacific06@mastodon.social I’ve experienced this since I was a kid. It’s usually after a nightmare so I’m still scared by the nightmare and now I can’t move. If I can make a noise it usually loosens the flood gates, I’m trying to shout or something and just squeak but that’s enough to wake me up all the way. That being said if you are suddenly experiencing this a lot, it wouldn’t hurt to chat with your doctor.
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@springdiesel@spore.social 2026-07-30 22:44
@pacific06@mastodon.social I don't know the answer to your other questions, but it has definitely happened to me and I hate it. Sometimes I begin dreaming during it, so I see characters in the environment that I see with my open eyes. But I feel completely awake and paralyzed. Horrible with or without dreams.
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@rancholibertad@climatejustice.social 2026-07-30 23:20
@pacific06@mastodon.social It cannot kill you that I know of, but it is quite scary. There are ways to make it less scary, if anxiety reduction (as another commentor recommended) does not make it stop, though. I'm not sure why it happens!
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@cassolotl@toot.wales 2026-07-31 00:00
@pacific06@mastodon.social It's okay, it's just that your body stays in sleep mode after you wake up. So it feels like it's hard to breathe because while you're asleep your body slows down breathing - but you're awake so you want to breathe more, which sucks! But yeah, it's unpleasant for many people, but if you wait a few minutes it does just go away on its own. I know someone who gets it a lot and they shake it off by humming loudly, because their voice still works.
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@trachelipus@masto.ai 2026-07-31 00:43
@pacific06@mastodon.social It might help to think of sleep paralysis as being a safety feature. It stops you from acting out bad ideas that come to you while you are asleep. It prevents accidents like hitting your sleeping partner because you are dreaming about throwing water balloons. Sometimes your waking brain's boot sequence just takes a bit longer to finish than normal, so it takes longer than normal for daytime brain to come back online.