Sleep Paralysis
Not sure if anyone has suffered from this, but it's awful. Basically it's been explained as a biological 'glitch', when your body is completely asleep and your mind is fully aware, somewhere between dreams and reality. You can't feel your limbs, you feel heavy and at the same time weightless and often you have hallucinations both visual and audible.

Some of the worst experiences include hearing voices like on a radio coming from the wall, tall shadowy figures looming at me in the darkness, strange rushing feelings like i'm underwater and electrical sensations in my limbs and head, and worst of all is a crackling sound like a plastic carrier bag rustling in my brain.

Apparently this experience has been documented for hundreds of years, known as the night hag to some. Some used to attribute it to demons, curses or possession, but in actual fact it it's something to do with chemicals or hormones released into your body when you sleep and can occur with stress or broken sleep cycles.

But it's creepy. Very creepy. The scariest was the time i was sleeping on my mates couch in a living room that had a front door exit (i.e no porch, just a door to the street). Anyway I had a sleep paralysis episode and i swear it felt like someone was trying the door handle and tapping on the door..
(mr-lizard Hell's teeth man!, Fri 8 Apr 2011, 21:56, 8 replies)

I suffer badly from this, and have for many years.
All of the things you mention ring true. I get screaming noises in my head that build up until I manage to wake my body up, which is fucking difficult.

The most creepy and hallucinogenic episode I had was realising I was basically awake, but I appeared to be in a very scary version of my bedroom - a skanky dungeon type affair, filling me with a sense of foreboding. Scared shitless, but understanding what was happening, I ran to the wall and clawed a hole, through which I could see my real bedroom, and therefore my real consciousness. I forrced my way through theo hole and I was sat on my floor, cold and shaking.
( mookay immune to icons since, Fri 8 Apr 2011, 22:07, closed)

Had this once
Days after my father died. It was horrific, worst night I've ever had
(TheCrownPrinceOfZanzibar, Fri 8 Apr 2011, 22:14, closed)

I rather inappropriately clicked I like this, but I meant to click reply....
Was going to say - apparently it can be triggered by stress or buggered sleeping patterns, so I can see why you were affected by it at that time.

For me it's actually getting worse as I get older, but there's no obvious cause. It's good for feeding my imagination though, although maybe its my imagination that causes it in the first place.
( mookay immune to icons since, Sat 9 Apr 2011, 13:44, closed)

Saw
a documentary on this once about a guy who would always dream that a weird demon like woman was sitting on his chest strangling him.
Scary stuff.
(FootOfTim, Fri 8 Apr 2011, 22:53, closed)

I too
suffer from this, but being a Narcoleptic, it's part of everyday life for me. It's sometimes like lying under a fine silk sheet, which covers my eyes, a shroud, all that's between me and the "real" world. Or maybe just being under the surface of a lake, the film of the water preventing me from being back to normal, instead keeping me feeling, hearing, and seeing the distortions of that other place. If only I could move, break through that flimsy barrier, I'd be back to normal, but obviously, I can't.
The only way through is to relax, not to fight, and it passes more quickly.
(Rsoles, Fri 8 Apr 2011, 23:18, closed)

I have this occasionally.
and whenever I do - it's always the same dream - I'm paralysed and spiders are crawling all over me and there's someone with red eyes just watching and laughing.
(Poppet some assembly required., Fri 8 Apr 2011, 23:51, closed)

I had it once
lying in a student hotel bunkbed in Amsterdam ( no weed smoked or ingested ). I felt awake, except that all my skin and flesh was melting off my skeleton and I couldn't move. Only lasted a few seconds, but they were horrible seconds.
( uncle bastard is twanging a dan moi, Sun 10 Apr 2011, 7:25, closed)

after weeks of trying to master astral projection,
by staring at a candle flame at the foot of my bed. I had a few nights of it, learnt to recognise it and relax back into sleep.
(spleenspleenspleen coffeeflavouredsugarcoatednicotine, Sun 10 Apr 2011, 11:29, closed)