Sleep Paralysis

[WithAndWithOutWingz]

For over a decade I have had sleep paralysis occur at least once a month. It is the most frightening experience! I am wide awake but I can't move. I can see things around me and hear everything that is going on. I try to call out for help but I feel like I can't breath well while I'm trying to scream. Some people suggest this is an Out of body experience, I have no idea why this happens to me. It sucks. ANYBODY ELSE? I just got an Rx for Prazosin 1mg at bed time for nightmares/terrors and trouble falling asleep as I relive trauma once my head hits the pillow w/mega anxiety...tonight will be my first dose.

Bipolar 2, GAD/PD, PTSD, DID

Meds - Klonopin, Lithium, Prazosin*

 

[2narcissa]

Try this, say to yourself before going to bed "If I want to come back into my body tonight while I am dreaming, I'll take a quick deep long breath". I've been listing to hypnosis before bed it has helped me sleep.

 

[treble.maker]

WithandWithoutWings, that sounds truly terrifying! That has happened to me once before when I was pretty young, and it was easily one of the most terrifying experiences of my life. I am so sorry that you have to deal with this.

I think that sleep paralysis is on its own level, separate from out of body experiences, but I can see how they might seem similar. I'm pretty sure it's an actual sleep disorder, and I think maybe you should try talking to a professional about this? There are things they can try to do to help this, so that you won't have to deal with it quite as much.

Here is an article I found on WebMD (I know, not the best source, but I couldn't find anything very official-looking). Maybe this will sound similar?

http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/guide/sleep-paralysis

Best of wishes to you in figuring this out. (hugs)

 

[WithAndWithOutWingz]

THANKS! :woot: surprisingly I have yet to read this info! Nice find. I should try to find a specialist...I suffer with this...Thank you so much for your words...xoxo

 

[treble.maker]

No problem! I'm glad to help. Best of luck in your healing. (hugs) :-)

 

[Deleted member 1860]

Sleep paralysis sucks!

The worst for me was when I had it on a train...oh my! Usually it happens at home, but one summer I was commuting down to the city for an internship and so I slept a lot on the train. For me, my dream world collides with reality. I have elements of a dream combined with reality in which I cannot move. This time the train was crashing and I couldn't move. It was probably one of the worst episodes I've ever had.

 

[ScrewGrammar]

This thread caught my eye, because I've been having really vivid, terrifying, nightmares in which I wake up from being asleep (in the dream), and I am paralyzed in the dream.

Sometimes, I can't see, sometimes, my hearing in the dream is muffled and distorted, and I can't talk or move in my dream. Usually, I'm trying to scream or move in my dream, but I can't.

Sometimes, I wake up and I have partial sleep paralysis, if that is even possible. For example: I can't move my entire right arm and shoulder after waking up from one of these dreams.

Most of the time, though, I just continue dreaming and I don't wake up with sleep paralysis at all. It's just weird how I dream about it, but I've never actually had it, or at the least the dreams started before the "partial sleep paralysis" did.

I have been having these dreams for years.

 

[Draiocht]

I go through episodes of this. It's terrifying and I'm sorry for those of you who also experience it. I've freaked out boyfriends with this, when they wake up to my muffled yelling and they don't know what's going on!

It's worse when it's the first time it's happened in a while because the fear really does take over. But after one particularly extensive period of it I found a way of getting through it. It's like when I have panic attacks - accepting my situation and the sensations that go with it and mentally talking myself down. I find in that state I can more readily come out of it or if that doesn't work I can at least kind of "fall" inwardly back into a dream. It's not foolproof, but it's something.

Recently when I've managed to wake up from this I haven't been able to go back to sleep without re-entering it - falling asleep I can feel the paralysis coming back. I have to get up and do something to distract myself for a while.

 

[sandy]

I too have suffered sleep paralysis for many, many years. I wake to find I cannot move. I lay there terrified, heart pounding, barely breathing. I do somethimes eventually go back to sleep but most times, when I can move again, I'm up for the rest of the night. I have not found any solution or anything helpful yet. I take a sleep aide in order to get to sleep and stay asleep but it only lasts 3 to 4 hours. I suffer from terrible nightmares and when I wake it is as though I am still somehow caught up in the dream, unable to move and unable to distinguish reality from nightmare. It passes though and I'm left frightened and confused. Sorry I'm not much help, except in the fact that someone else understands what you're going through.

 

[Britt.f7]

I have an autonomic disorder that causes these. One summer, while my illness was in it's worse state, I had these every day, including with naps. For awhile they had thought I had narcolepsy because I was sleeping so much. Turns out it is the disorder. Stress makes it worse. Anyhow, at times I couldn't even lift my lids. My husband would come into the room and I'd want to say something or move so he would notice that I was trying to get up, but nothing would happen. It is very disconcerting to say the least. Then I would fall back to sleep.

Once my neurologist explained all of this to me, what it is, why it happens(my illness), I felt better mentally. Now, when it happens, I expect it. It is not frightening to me. Still hate that I can't communicate, but I'm trying. My husband is very understanding of this and over the years, he is usually the one who gets up with the children(they're teens now) or pets. He realizes I can't always jump up and respond.

I rarely have nightmares, though they happen it is rare. So my paralysis doesn't happen because of the ptsd, but I do understand how it feels. It is always good to find out if there is an underlying condition.

 

[CrazyHorse]

I have had sleep paralysis since I was a child. It is a sleep disorder where the brain 'wakes up' while the body is still in paralysis. This paralysis is natural and happens to everyone during REM sleep to prevent us from acting out our dreams. But the brain is not supposed to wake up in this state! I not only wake up paralysed, I also experience hallucinations. For me, It is either an old hag (hence why it is also called the old hag syndrome) or a 'shadow man' who strangles me, squeezes me or in other ways torments me. Though it is never sexual abuse. It is not related to my PTSD in that fasion. And I have had it long before I was raped. It is horrible beyond words....

 

[Deleted member 12723]

Fary I am sorry you have this problem. I cannot imagine how bad it is for you. I wish you the best.