Extreme Lucid Dreaming Or Something Else?

Hello everyone!

I hope this is in the right forum. I think it is. If not, please let me know because I am new and want to follow the rules! Anyway...

I have been working on lucid dreaming for years and have finally over the past 6 months or so been able to get some sort of benefit out of it. I was recently put on Ambien to help with my insomnia. It helped, so I took it for two weeks every night with no side effects. So the third week, which was last week, (I am now into the fourth week) I took the sleeping pill maybe Sunday and Monday, and Tuesday. I have not taken the Ambien since Tuesday night of last week.

Here is where things get weird. During the night, I woke up (this I am sure of) and attempted to get up. I felt like there was a ton weight attached to every one of my limbs and could not move. Now, I have experienced "sleep paralysis" before, where I am awake or beginning to awaken and feel as though I cannot move my body. That is what this felt like. I also felt like I couldn't breathe and that I was going to stop breathing. I heard a woman talking in the next room (I live alone), so I got very frightened. Especially since they were talking, clear as day, about "waiting until I died to leave." I tried to move with all I had in me and then, as suddenly as it happened, I came out of it. Now it took me about 20 minutes to shake this off, but I went back to sleep with no more incidents that night. It has happened three times after that, and every time after that I had taken no Ambien. I am almost convinced it is some sort of dream, because one time I saw faint images in the distance, while another I had a very clear "dreamlike image" whether my eyes were open or closed. The last time it happened I was able to control the "dream", so I am pretty sure that it is some sort of lucid dreaming.

Has anyone else ever experienced something like this? I think the sleeping medication definitely had something to do with it. I don't necessarily mind this happening, but it can be very frightening. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

Not being able to move your body sounds like sleep paralysis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_paralysis , the woman talking could of been just a dream or an astral being , a ghost . Posts on sleep paralysis , and astral beings are covered hear http://www.astralpulse.com/forums/ http://www.astraldynamics.com.au/forum.php and many other forums desert rat

 

I've had a similar experience. I was in sleep paralysis, couldn't move a bone, and I thought I was witnessing the world ending. Lights all died and I could hear loud overwhelming foot steps walking in my direction, I remember thinking "don't open the door"...some sort of bad presences. I just shut my eyes and when I opened them, the lights were still on, sun was shining outside. I could have swore, I was awake while all of this was happening.


I also have taken ambien for sometime and if you ever stay up on them, you will experience your mind in a state of logic and dreaming...drifting, I would call it. I witnessed my shoe laces dancing and thought it was a ghost.
Anyways, It could of very well been the ambien, but I don't recommend that you stop taking it because of one moment of sleep paralysis. It takes about a month for our mental brain to get use to medication to start-actually making an impact on, insomnia, what ever problem. Maybe you should talk to your doctor about another type of sleep medication but from experience, I would stick with Ambien. I love it

 

That is EXACTLY what happened to me! I couldn't find the right words to say in my post but when you said the world was ending and there were "bad presences"...that is what happened to me. I felt an almost "evil" and I still SWEAR I WAS AWAKE. I will keep it handy, but I may try to go back to a barbiturate.

And thank you desert-rat... I will check out those links.

 

I get sleep paralysis while falling asleep! hard to explain but feels like I'm being pushed into my bed and down into the Earth, it's rather scary cause it feels like you have died and are on your way to hell. :devil: