[orbsycli]

Sometime last year i was dreaming i was on ecstacy(MDMA). i have never taken e, and i never will, this was only a dream. the world inside my mind was trailing, lights were brilliant, and seemed to last forever.
but my eyes opened, and i was starring at my ceiling. i tried to move my arms, then my legs, and began to panic inside my mind. i think my breathing might have stopped as well. i snapped out of it after a few seconds, but those few seconds were seriously terrifying. i had no idea what sleep paralysis was at the time.

my question is:
is it possible that i led my mind to believe i was actually in a severely altered state of mind and that was the cause of the sleep paralysis?
because that was the first, and last time that's ever happened to me.

[Fishteacher73]

I am neither a psychologist nor a sleep/dream expert, but it stands to reason that if some people can come out of nightmares and still feel the physical effects of terror that other physical aspects in dreams may linger for a moment or two after awakening at specific points in REM.

[Fluffy]

When you go into REM sleep your body does become paralyzed and in some cases those effects last for a little while after you've awaken. Your body prevents itself from actually acting out your dreams through this paralysis (sleepwalking is basically what happens when you body does not become paralyzed during REM sleep).

[mollymo]

I have suffered on and off with it for two years. It only ever happens when i nap in the day, never at night. It's the most horrible scarey feeling in the world. At the moment i am off work due to pulled muscles and am not sleeping at night, and i am shattered because i am to scared to drop of in the day.