Do you not get the feeling of something being wrong? I've only just had this start happening in the last few months and twice now I've known there was someone just outside our door and in the house, and I need so badly to reach my wife to wake her up, but I can't move my hand.

In my experience it's horrible.

That's pretty much exactly my experience. "Waking up", feeling there's a stranger in the house (or an evil spirit/presence), and not being able to do anything about it, except panic with my eyes closed (can't open them), until somehow I fall back asleep. Then I always wonder whether it was a dream or not.

I get it every couple years and always have but I think it’s fun too. I even get the dark figure standing at the foot of my bed thing as well. It’s sort of like a being on a roller coaster. It’s a little scary at first but you can’t get off so might as well enjoy the ride.

For me, going to sleep can only be accomplished by holding my body as still as possible, for as long as possible. It happens over a period of an hour or more.

When I’m conscious of what is happening, I notice that I no longer have a physical sense of where my leg is. Or maybe it’s my arm. Or maybe just part of an extremity. It’s not tingling, but there is no conscious connection between that part of my body and my brain.

I can wiggle my fingers or toes or whatever, and then I will immediately be able to sense that it is still connected and where it is, but then I can stop wiggling my fingers or toes, and let that connection drop back away quickly.

I’m forcing the conditions where my body slowly paralyzes itself to sleep, and stops stimulating my brain, so that the brain can finally go to sleep.

Waking up from a deep sleep, I have to go through the reverse process. I cannot wake up quickly and easily. If it has to be quick (like I’m late for something), then it has to be pretty violent. If I want it to be easy, then it takes at least a half hour of slowly waking up different body parts until I can finally be awake enough to sit up in bed.

And if I have to wake up too quickly, it’s easier for me to lose my balance if I have to physically move quickly — like picking up a second cat that has managed to snuck into the bedroom, when I already have one cat in the other hand. The result is that I fall to the floor, and hopefully don’t squish either cat. Then I can lay there for a couple of minutes, get my bearings, figure out if I’m actually injured or just feeling minor pain from bruising, and then get back up and get on with the rest of the morning.

Our cats are really good at snucking into the bedroom when they’re not supposed to be there, but so far the falling part has only happened once.

So, where most fear sleep paralysis, I for one welcome it. It’s the only way I can regularly get to sleep at all.