Have you ever had a waking nightmare where you were sure you were awake, and you could see and interact with the room around you, but you were unable to move? Feel like telling me the story to help with an upcoming episode?

Matt-When I heard the episode I was driving to work meetings and thought crap why did i listened to this now I wont sleep tonight, there is a reason why I wont watch WD, too great of an imagination. But there was something else - your story sounded familiar, it took several days before i did remember, I don't remember the fright as much as I remember the after effects and the day it ended - I was around 5-7 years old its very fuzzy it came from the hallway it stopped at my door way, it was male even though there were no human features - I don't remember the fright itself but my little girl brain dealt with it by replaying the scenario every night with less intensity a shadow of the shadow and this time I had tools to fight it. I think for years its how I felt asleep I would fight the shadow then I was okay and could sleep the rest of the night, some night it was very intense fighting some it was just the motion so I could get to sleep - it was floating dark shadow sort of rectangular upper body no bottom very pointy triangular face , it drew it several time my mom and friends just shrug it off as little girl nightmare stuff. Every night when i fought it it would disappear or slide like a thin piece of paper. 1 day I don't know what i did that was different except I said something that was true(in purity) this time it blew apart and I knew it was gone for good felt it inside. The more seasoned 45 yrs old me wants to believed its a common brain thing like how many people dream of falling teeth when they have anxiety, its not something that ever happens in real life, yet its a very common dream, where does that come from? If the dark entity is NOT a figment of our imagination, what else is outhere that we don't know what rules are. Some dark entities exist solely to frighten little girls and boys & grown adult as far we know can't hurt them but frightens enough to leave a permanent scar -I'm glad you talked about it, even though it unbarried a finally forgotten memory and even though it leaves more questions than answers..

Matt Whitman I had the very same experience you had, that you describe in the podcast. But I was on my back and didn't become paralyzed until the shadow creature jumped onto me. And began to physically strangle me. Definitely the most terrifying experience I've ever had.

The closest that I have ever come to sleep paralysis was when I awoke and suddenly could not feel my right arm. It was upright on my right side as I lay flat and I freaked out because I couldn't feel it and it looked like someone else's arm. A few seconds later, I felt an entire tingling sensation slowly roll from my right shoulder all the way down my right arm. It's like my ability to be aware that I could control it slowly returned to my arm. Freaked me out.

Matthew J Palka

Sounds like the beginnings of a horror story!

Andrew Phillips

A bit similar to how you do something in a dream that you thought was real life: sometimes while napping in a car ride or something, I'll check my phone and then realize I'm actually asleep and have to wake up to check my phone. I can almost guarantee that this'll happen if I sleep in the car.

I have killed and been killed in dreams before. The one where I died, I just snapped awake after not be my able to breathe in my dream. I was pretty freaked out for a while as my family had also died in the dream but eventually I fell back asleep. The one where I killed a guy really messed me up. It was fairly recent so I remember most of it. I was being chased by some corrupt sheriff in a Wild West version of my hometown. When he caught up, I shot him. Although it was just a dream, it still felt real and terrifying that I had killed a dude.

I had one once where I woke up in my bed. All the usual settings of waking up in the middle of the night were present...except her. She was standing at the foot of my bed shrouded in darkness. Her long stringy hair covered her face and despite the darkness of her presence, I could sense she was wearing white. I could look around using only my eyes, but like her, it seemed my body was incapable of movement; a visual standoff contemplating each other's next move. I shut my eyes and waited for her to leave...or finish the reason for her visit, but eventually my waiting returned me to sleep until I awoke the next morning alone and in a room undisturbed by the presence of anyone or anything but the remnants of a night spent tossing and turning in my sheets.

I've never experienced a dream like that, but my mom has. When she was a little girl, she would sometimes wake up in the middle of the night and see a "shadow man" standing next to her bed. She was terrified and tried to pretend she was still asleep, hoping he would go away. When she woke up in the morning, there was no evidence he had been there. This happened periodically over a couple decades. The last time she saw him was about thirty years ago, soon after her first child (my oldest sister) was born. Real creepy stuff.

I was sleeping alone in my basement about 3-4 years ago. I woke up in the middle of the night to a dark female figure standing at my feet. I have no idea what caused me to perceive the thing as a female because there were no defining features. It stood silently there as I lay completely paralyzed. In hindsight I know it was a dream but at the time, I perceived it to be 100% real. However, this was not like a dream where it feels real and then you wake up and know it was a dream. This felt completely real, like I was in-the-flesh and had complete feeling and perception of my surroundings (unlike a dream where details are left out). I felt sheer terror like I've never felt before, since I saw this unknown figure but could not move no matter how hard I tried.

pat o.

I have these occasionally - seem to be tied to stress and falling asleep on my back. In the dream I am still in bed and awake, with something in the room that means to hurt me or my family. Sometimes it's a person, a dog, an intruder, a demon, or nothing concrete - just a presence. I'm aware that I'm dreaming, but always have the sense that the dream is some kind of signal that there is something in real life I need to wake up for. So in the dream I am screaming and thrashing in an attempt to wake myself up. My wife says in reality I make weird moaning noises and squirm around in bed - freaks her out a bit. Eventually I'll manage to wake myself up and I usually wake up in full adrenaline rush mode - ready to fight whatever "real" threat is in the room (there never is one.) They definitely aren't pleasant dreams. Recalled this post from Tony Woodlief as one of the more evocative descriptions of this kind of nightmare. I really like his writing as well. <a href="http://tonywoodlief.com/2007/08/28/the-nightmares/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://tonywoodlief.com/2007/08/28/the-nightmares/</a>

Jason Addink

If you guys don't mind a small distraction off topic, has anyone ever dreamed that they died? Or something similar?

Andy Jones

I'm not sure if this is what the question refers to, but my theory is that sometimes while napping (usually in the day or early evening, but not 3am), my eyes will be slightly open while sleeping. I'll realize I'm sleeping, try to wake up by yelling or slapping myself (this rarely works because I only dream to yell and slap myself). Sometimes I'll think others are there, a neighbor, someone breaking in, etc, and I'll be in a panic to wake up. I eventually wake myself up by moving, which is incredibly difficult. After waking, I'll notice a light or window that I saw while dreaming, so I assume my eyes were open. Similar to when music or sounds get incorporated into dreams, I think my eyes being cracked open is what triggers these dreams.

Andy Jones

Mine is a little weird in that I felt like I woke up, but somehow through "Dream Logic" I knew my veins or bones were filled with concrete... dream logic. So naturally I tried moving, but because of said concrete I couldn't move at all, I could only look around. I couldn't even actively breath, I'd try to breath but it just didn't work. I didn't feel like i wasn't breathing, but i just couldn't take a breath, my lungs wouldn't move. At this point I was struggling to move and just couldn't. The dream started with me being calm, but as I became more aware of my surroundings ( cant move, cant breath, nothing else is remotely out of place) I began to panic, thinking that I am fully awake, but literally nothing will move.

These are crazy weird! I commonly sort of wake up with tingling pain shooting rapidly (split-second) all over my body, but not on my skin, when I've had a terrible nightmare, and I can't move. It doesn't last long. I've also had a multiple-level dream-within-a-dream, so I thought I was waking up about four times before I really did. I've also dreamed a very specific scenario that occurred exactly as dreamt a few days later. And a bit off subject, but anyone else so influenced by childhood video games that it changed the "normal" of dreams? When I fly in my dreams, especially to get away from bad guys, it's always Super NES-style Mario...I run, angle my body just right, and I jump to fly, staying airborne in a rather bouncy sort of way.

One night I had a dream that was sort of scary nightmare. Where I was walking home late night with a friend, and in the darkness we noticed someone in the streetlight. Darkened by a shadow he was. We were frightened. Started walking quickly, and then turned into a sprint as the guy chased us down. This was a haze as i didn't feel like i do when I'm awake. All of the sudden the guy catches up to me. Grabs me, and thrushes a knife through my side. I somehow "teleported" back to my bed or so it felt that way. When i returned, i had no feeling everything was tingly, and I couldn't move a muscle. Shortly after a while i was able to, and started waking up. Confusing situation, and I'd love to know more about it how that happened. The no feeling part.