Frustrating and involuntary WILD (or SP)?

I splitted your topic cause I suppose it was not really SP. Moreover, I think this subject must have its own topic.

I just posted for my first time a few threads up about what I now I suppose know is SP or old hag. I have had it reoccuring for the past 23, now 24 nights in a row. After really thinking about it, I remember having it as a child but it was never scary it was always dream like and sort of peacefull. I am now 19, and it is causing me to lose sleep and taking a toll on my daily life.

I have never and do not currently sleep on my back, I always fall asleep on my stomach and when I wake during this thing I am always curled up in a ball on my side with my covers surrounding my face so that I can not see anything around me. I do not experience any noise, or old woman sitting on my chest.

I grew up with hippies and my mother used to smudge me before I would go to school, and I have always lit incense before bed time often smuding my room and meditating before laying down to sleep. But I do not see the connection of these things with my experiences because they have just started happening.

I wake up, on my side in a ball my eyes open and I look around but can not see anything other than possibly my wall. I have this eerie sensation that I know I am not alone something is at the foot of my bed and a few of the times I even felt something make indentations on the other side of my bed, where my back was turned towards. I hear no sounds. The only experience I can compare it to is this old fair ride I remember going on as a child, the gravitron. It would spin so fast and the bottom drops out of the bottom you are forced up this wall and can’t move to save your life this insane pressure is keeping you down. It feels exactly like that. I try to scream, my mind races, I try to move.

Since it has been happening so much latly I have finally learned to close my eyes and once I close them, I am awake fully. This is quiet literally ruining my life. I can’t go back to sleep after this happens, I am scared to go to sleep at night for fear of it happening. The first time it happened I was late for work because I was on the phone with my parents hysterical. I live more than 2,000 miles away from them and my mother is so upset over it that she is threatning to fly up here.

Wow that sounds horrible. Maybe you should go see a doctor, I am sure there are medicines that can help you with this. Or maybe you can use the SP state to enter a lucid dream, I’ve heard it’s really easy to do this.

Perhaps something keeps waking you up.

BTW, you said you grew up with hippies. That’s so awesome .

I called my doctor about a week and a half into this, and his nurse stopped short of laughing hysterically at me. She insisted that I was dreaming and that it is nothing more. It’s not happening at any certain time, such as today it happened around 3 this morning yesterday I woke up around 12:30. I have tried everything and now my parents are so worried that they have decided they are going to call me at random odd hours of the night to try and keep me from entering a deep sleep. But, that isnt working, im just getting no sleep and after they call me I fall fast asleep only to wake up a few hours later in the middle of this…thing.

Lucid dreaming has never appealed to me, im not sure why. I remember my dreams very vividly. I have two or three a night, I sort of like them being something I just let happen. Sleep is the one part of my day I can just let flow, until now.

My parents are freakisly hippy. I was born during the summer solstic, I don’t think any has ever made them happier than that. I really stood out because my mother would stand by me at the bus stop every mother with her sage bundle in hand and as she saw the bus coming over the hill she would light it and smudge me before I left for school. I never thought of it as odd until I got older. When I would tell my mother that things were going wrong or having whatever typical social adolsecent problems she would immediatly blame it on my root chakra. Im really going to have to ask her about this lucid dreaming stuff, I vaguly remember her talking to me about it a long time ago.

I wish I could talk to my parents openly about LDing. they thing I’m practising dark magic, so we don’t really talk about much… feh.

I think I read somewhere that the Old Hag is genetic isn’t it? Something like that at least. the point I’m trying to make is that not everybody gets it.

That’s just my way of rubbing it in the faces of people who do. Nya nya!!!

Damn, your doctor thinks it’s just a dream. I hate how some people consider dreams “just dreams”. There is more then just “dreams” going on in there… a lot more. You had old hag and you have to get to the bottom of this because it is not a dream and you are losing your sleep.

It’s really strange that you are getting it every night, might indicate… something… maybe you should see a doctor that specializes in this kind of thing.

I am so frustrated with this, I just want it to end, I have no desire in lucid dreaming. I need my sleep. Tonight will be the 25th day in a row that it will happen. Its completly unavoidable. I attend Radcliffe college which is an annex of harvard, I know that they have a sleep study program. Im going to call around to some of my friends that I know are in pre-med and see if they can get me in to see someone. I am going to try and take a nap later on this afternoon,it doesnt seem to occur during naps.

Megg I truly feel bad for you.

But based on what you are saying in your other posts as well, however disinterested in lucid dreaming you are, maybe it will solve your problems. It sounds like you may be prone to wake-initiation LDing.

Next time this happens, just close your eyes and remain calm, don’t try to look at or pay attention to the old hag. Just think calm thoughts and focus on the blackness in your eye lids. Then soon you will see a dream appear. Make the dream the way you like it.

If you try this, at least you will be sleeping and not devpriving yourself.

Actually, I spoke to my mother last night and she insisted that I draw her a little picture of how my room is set up. Shes crazy into feng shui and Ive always thought it and her were insane. I draw a little picture on paint and send it her way. Around 11:30 last night she gave me a call and was in this frantic fit, she kept asking about this big tall wardrobe dressing mirror I have that is directly across from my bed. She wanted to know all of these crazy things like can I see my door fully from my bed. Well supposidly a mirror that you can see your self in from your bed is a bad idea. My mother said something about an astral body? and that my astral body when it seperates from my body the first thing it sees is a reflection of its self and it gets scared. She suggested that I cover it, I did reluctantly. I took a long beach towel I had and covered it, laughing to my self as I did.

I slept from 12:00 to 8:00 this morning, no interuptions. I almost feel bad for calling my mother a crazy hippie all that time. I don’t know if its gone for good, but Im just so happy about sleeping.

Hi Megg,

If I understand well what you describe, it seems what you experienced is not the sleep paralysis trouble. It looks more like an involuntary WILD. So the nurse was not really wrong when she said it was a dream, and your mother too when she compared this to an astral projection.

WILD (wake initiated lucid dream) is the process of entering consciously a dream. The spinning feelings you describe may correspond to some “hypnagogic hallucinations” that can be experienced during this process. Some people think they are OBE’s (out of body experiences) or astral projections, some people think it’s a particular kind of lucid dreams. As for me, I think it’s lucid dreaming.

So, in my point of view, I believe you have natural WILD’s (lucid dreams). I don’t know why you experienced this so suddenly. Did you change drastically you way or life or your sleep schedule? Did you feel particularly stressed these last times? I don’t think there are any medicines which can help you, cause it’s very rare and not very well known.

The only advice I can give you is not to fear this state. There is no danger at all. Moreover, the more you’ll fear it, the more stressed you will feel and the worse you sleep will be. I think it will stop by itself, just like it has happened.

You say you have no desire in lucid dreaming, but it seems you are actually lucid dreaming. So, if it happens again, you should try to enter a visual lucid dream. Just try to move “mentally” (that is don’t try to move your physical body, but your dream body). Once you’ll move, you will enter a visual dream and all these disturbing spinning effects will stop immediatly. You’ll be likely to lose consciousness after a few minutes, go back into a normal dream and your sleep won’t be disturbed.

bzteam’s advice is another good solution. I completely agree with him when he says that “at least you will be sleeping and not depriving yourself”, cause I think that what is ruining your sleep is the fear of this happening.

Anyway, as it seems to go better, I hope it won’t happen again.

Wow thats sounds awful! I just had my first SP this morning and it wasnt that bad for me I just had gone through WILD and I had that little period after HI, but right before a real dream starts but I opened my eyes ( I dont know why but I thought I was dreaming already) and I could not move and it felt like someone was jumping on my chest “Riding” me if you will! LOL. But luckily the light from the other room was on because my mom was already up. But it was an “interesting” experience. So I can understand why you would be traumatized by it. ( I actually tried to use it to trigger an LD but I was awakened soon after I closed my eyes and felt like I was entering the dream.

How can this possibly be WILD? To me it sounds like normal Sleep Paralysis or old hag, not WILD. WILD basically means Wake Induced Lucid Dream, or at least the state when trying to reach this. Basically, you induce this while awake, but these happen to her during sleep. I don’t think this is WILD.

If it is… cool I would consider myself lucky because I could have LD’s every single night.

About the mirror thing:

My only, EVER SP/Old Hag Experience, was when I was sleeping right by a wardrobe mirror, at my grandma. It was horrible.

I have recently, just this month gone through this insane series of events. I came out to my parents and family, big surprise I work at HRC. I am working on this crazy grant proposal for school. I just moved to Boston. New house, the traffic if nothing else is making me go crazy. I know that these crazy sudden events triggered it.

The amazing thing is tonight was my second night of full and complete sleep. I just cover this mirror with a large beach towel. I don’t know if its as simple as tricking my mind into think its working or what, but I couldnt care less what it is, its working. I have my crazy hippy mother to thank. Maybe I just want to believe that there was something weird with that mirror it had been passed down through about 3 generations in my family. It this huge floor to ceiling old thing. My mother insits shes flying up this week to feng shui my house. If its going to make me sleep more, Im not going to complain.

Thank you all for your help and support. I have to think that as much as I have researced this WILD thing over the past few days that, it is not what I am experiencing. It is most certainly SP. Ive had no old hag, visits though. Ive had this overwhelming pressure but its over the entirity of my body not just on my chest and I dont really get the sense of an old woman sitting upon my chest.

If you think it’s sleep paralysis, you’ll find a lot of useful information about it on this great website at Waterloo University, Canada:
https://watarts.uwaterloo.ca/~acheyne/S_P.html
It’s from far the best site about this sleep trouble.

I’m happy to hear that you mom’s trick worked!

Congratulations on your sleep!

Seems the most crazy things often turn out to be the right ones.

Just one thing, what do you mean when you say your mother “smudge” you?

Your mother sounds pretty cool to me, my parents were hippies too.

Smudging is when you take a bundle of sage and wipe it over your body. It is supposed to push evil away from your body. You can also smudge a house, and ask anything not there for good to leave. Then you use sweetgrass to promote good things being with in your house and body.

total hippy thing.

Yeah my moms pretty cool but shes um, shes really out there sometimes.

sorry but i dont think i can help much
but i must say i would of loved to be brought up as a hippie

anyway did this ride scare you at all? maybe something to do with that? i dont really know how hippies live other than movies i saw but when you where younger how did you live? and do you live like that now?

also i know you arnt interested in lucid dreaming however if you do learn to lucid dream and i think you could get it really quickly because you have a much more open mind than i proberly have i try to look at things how they are and think of things logicly however i doubt you do that i assume you just enjoy things and just accept the nature of the way something is in this i envy anyway back to the topic if you succed in a lucid dream you could talk to this “old hag” or anyone and ask them why they are doing it or TELL them to stop

My mom is a pagan, and very open minded, but not as “hippyish” as your mom . I myself am atheist. I guess her praying, burning incense, and all the other stuff didn’t rub off on me(Well… I did go through a brief period where I thought I was pagan). She was never did things like try to “smudge” me though. In fact until I was like 8, I didn’t even know she wasn’t christian. Before that point I never questioned stuff like that, but I didn’t exactly accept it either, I just didn’t think about it. I could be a hippy though… I have really long hair for a guy. Longer than a lot of girls