I jace been experiencing sleep paralysis a lot lately and its scaring me to death.

Oh sorry I'm facing same problem , don't even remember when i slept last . I've tried so many medication for sleep .What im trying to do now is to calm down my mind as i worried so much . Maybe you too needs to calm down your mind as the brain really needs that .

All the best

Hi Holly,

No need to be scared, it won't harm you. However, I know just how terrifying it can be when it first starts if you don't really understand what's going on.

I'm a former neuro nurse as well as having had SP for the last 50 years, so I'm quite well-placed to answer your questions I suppose.

First the mechanics of it. If you've already done your research you can skip the next para!

Our sleep is broken up into cycles of about one-and-a-half hours. Each cycle consists partly of REM (dreaming) sleep and partly of non-dreaming sleep. REM stands for the rapid eye movements that are observed when someone is dreaming. We all dream (unless we're on medications that suppress REM sleep) but not everyone remembers their dreams. During REM sleep the brain secretes a chemical that paralyses all our voluntary muscles, to stop us jumping up and acting out our dreams. It doesn't, however, suppress the muscles of our autonomic nervous system, that control things like breathing, heartbeat, digestion, the muscles in the walls of our arteries that maintain our blood pressure. And so on and so forth. Every now and then, the brain continues to secrete the chemical for a few minutes after we wake up or - more rarely - starts secreting it before we're asleep. This happens to everyone once or twice in a lifetime, but something like 5% of us get it on a regular basis. So you see, it's not a rare condition, and we all survive quite happily with it.

The bad news is that once you've started having regular episodes, it's likely that you'll have it for life. There's been surprisingly little scientific research on the condition, but the general thinking is that it's genetic. It definitely runs in families, though all these gene mutations have to start somewhere of course. In my family, my father, at least one of his siblings and their mother all had it.

The only way you can stop it is by taking antidepressants, especially the older tricyclic group like amitriptyline, nortriptyline etc. This isn't because SP has anything to do with depression, or any other mental illness. It's because one of the side-effects of these medications is suppression of REM sleep, from which SP arises. However, antidepressants don't cure the condition, they only suppress it while you're taking them. Once you stop, the SP returns. In addition, antidepressants carry a lot of other, less desirable, side-effects, and withdrawing from them can actually cause serious depression, even if the person wasn't depressed in the first place.

The good news is that SP can be managed, and the frequency of episodes reduced. It often starts getting better once you understand what's going on and your anxiety is reduced. However, the best way to reduce your attacks is to identify what triggers them. There can be a whole range of triggers. My two main ones are getting too warm when I'm sleeping, and sleeping too much. Most of my SP episodes happen either when I'm having a lie-in in the morning or when napping in the afternoon. Others find that it's not sleeping enough that triggers attacks. Many people find that eating or drinking certain things too late in the evening is a trigger. Smoking weed or taking other recreational drugs, including excessive alcohol, can be another trigger. And since the brain functions via electrical impulses, electro-magnetic interference can trigger attacks too. This can be sleeping too close to any kind of electronic equipment (including your phone!) or to an electrical junction box. These are only a few examples of possible triggers. You need to keep a journal of what you were doing, how you were feeling etc. on the evening before an episode. Once you've identified your triggers, you should be able to reduce exposure to them. And of course, stress or anxiety of any kind - especially anxiety about having another SP attack - is a sure trigger.

Nothing will happen to you, either physically or mentally, as a result of SP. And another piece of good news is that the frequency and severity of episodes tends to decline with age. Mine started when I was 23, and I still have them now, 50 years on, but not nearly as often.

If you have any more questions, please don't hesitate to contact me, either by posting here or by sending me a private message. To do this, click on the little envelope icon under my avatar. PMs via this site don't contain viruses and don't expose the email address of either party.

Hi,

Your experience of sleep paralysis may be very different to mine. I do not know.

I have narcolepsy and my sp used to be horrid. I would be totally conscious, then an element of rem would creep in.

A conscious fear that someone was in the house would shift into REM experiences of their presence.

I was so annoyed at being scared one night that I confronted the Rem person.

I still have sp but it has been anxiety free since.

Find your own message in this. I just want to say: however bad it seems it isn't necessarily a torment without end.

Anxiety breeds anxiety. I tried to change my state to a relaxed one, but never managed it. Changing anxiety into anger seemed easier.

That may seem negative concept but it helped me.

Best wishes

Andrew