I have this

I have this as well. The sense of a sinister presence in the room is very
prominent in my sleep episodes. This disorder is very scary and bizarre.
I understand your reluctance to see this film, if you think it might bring on
a sleep paralysis episode..

I used to have this :( i am so sorry you are having it now. My episodes were severe, happening 3 to 4 times every night. I was sleep deprived and strung out for about 3 years. Not only were they severe in occurrence but try to think of the worst horror movie you have ever seen and then imagine that it's happening in your brain and you are the guest of honour and you have no control at all over what happens to you. Then imagine that when you wake up, you see the bad things in your bedroom and you're still paralysed. That was me 3 to 4 times a night, every night for years. I refused to watch scary movies or horror of any kind (and still refuse) because I did not want to add fuel to my nightmares. I've actually heard that for a lot of people they find it hard to be scared, and for others who do get scared, they go looking for experiences that will scare them.

Honestly, I cannot imagine a more frightening experience than my relentless version of sleep paralysis nightmares. I can't seem to impress upon people that getting scared like that is not a fun experience at all. About as far from fun as it is possible to get. Because it is your brain, the nightmares involve all your phobias and they change and adapt to new and terrible scenarios. These nightmares know all of your weaknesses and you can't escape, can't control anything and can't move. A recurring one for me was where I was trapped in a house with hundreds of people vomiting around me. Another recurring one was trapped in a maze of rooms and halls with a serial killer. All the halls were brightly lit but all the rooms were dark, with only the light filtering in from the hallways. Whenever the killer got close to me in the maze, an alarm would go off and we would both start running. Every room held a horrible, gory thing and the room I ended up in when awoke was his kill room which was heaped with body parts and sopping with blood. When I woke, the killer was in my room with me and I tried to move and tried cry out but I couldn't even manage a moan. Gaaahhhh!!!!

I hope I never ever get them again.

The scarier it becomes for you -- or the wilder your imagination -- the more sleep paralysis will have the potential to be frightening, because it really is just like dreaming when you're semi-awake. People gotta remember that when they actually see or hear things, they're having hypnagogic hallucinations (which is a pretty well-documented aspect of sleep paralysis).

Don't let people with over-active imaginations put stuff in your head about "shadow people," monsters or even aliens. It's all BS; those people might really be seeing and hearing things they can't explain during an episode of sleep paralysis, but it's just hypnagogic sensations that are manifesting because of the transitional state people are in.

I haven't watched this movie yet so I don't know how responsibly they address the issues, but I just wanted to throw that out there because fear will just feed into itself with conditions like these (sleep paralysis, panic attacks, etc.)... There's no reason someone should be subjected to unnecessary turmoil because of people who are sensationalizing the idea of SP...

i.m also very sorry for you.
my boyfriend has the very same sleep disorder.
he now manages to mumbles, sometimes even clearly say: "wake me up, wake me up" in his sleep.
he found out (the hard way...) that his vitamin b6 intake was too high.
also, every time he ate too much too close to sleeping, he was haunted by this.

I had it regularly since I was around 16. I found I could wake myself up by controlling my breathing, it is pretty much the only thing you can control! I used to hyperventilate myself awake. Over the years I just went with it, found I'd drop off to sleep again if I just relaxed, and as I got better at doing that it stopped happening. Now, in my 40's I get it maybe once a year and quite like it. I don't get all the crap about shadow men, killing rooms and wank sheets, they sound more like dreams to me. I would often 'feel' a presence, but that was pretty much it.

I also suffer from this maybe once or twice a year. But I really believe that it is just your mind playing tricks on you ... for me, it seems like my eyes open while I am still asleep, so the things I am seeing are not being processed properly, if that makes any sense. Like one time I imagined I was seeing a monster with a grey, rectangular face and little sharp silver teeth ... as my brain started to wake up, I realized that I was looking at my stereo speaker, which was on a shelf on the wall ... it was grey/silver in color, and the sharp little teeth I was seeing was the RCA on the bottom of it. So it was like my eyes were open but my brain was still asleep and also I couldn't move my body. I normally sleep on my side, but I find that when I have SP it usually happens when I am sleeping on my back ... I have a theory that sleeping on my back causes me to stop breathing properly or something like that. Also, I heard somewhere that SP can be caused by lack of REM sleep ... so, for example, someone who is an alcoholic or goes on a bender for like 5 days or something, is almost guaranteed to have SP, because alcohol impairs your ability to get quality REM sleep. It is a frightening experience, but I don't think it is anything supernatural ... I hope not anyway. One time I woke up to a dark shadow figure standing over my bed (this only happened once), and I could feel menace just emanating from it ... it was like communicating with me inside my brain, and I got angry and challenged it, and then I felt something like a jolt of electricity shoot through my body and then I woke up for real. Another time I dreamed that I sat up in bed and looked at the time on the clock ... it was like 3ish in the morning ... then I felt like I was being thrown against the wall in my bedroom and then I sat up in bed for real ... looked at my alarm clock and it was the exact same time as in my dream ... and I had a wicked headache ... it was a freaky experience.

I used to encounter this on and off for a span of at least a decade. My symptoms were simply paralysis and the feeling of slow suffocation. One thing I learned that doesn't help is panicking. Remaining calm, controlling your breathing and attempting to reach a trigger that will wake you up are pretty much all you can do while it is happening. I doubt my triggers will do the same for others (you may have to discover your own) but here are two that I have used successfully in the past.

1. Finish the dream. - I found that if this occurred while I was dreaming that completing the dream sequence brought me of it.

2. Move to an imaginary physical position. - While most of the time (sometimes I actually did move) I didn't move; if I convinced myself that I had turned over to my side that would break me out of the paralysis.

I do not have these anymore though. I changed my eating habits and begun exercising regularly. But probably the most important thing I did was ensure that I NEVER slept on my back or my stomach.