Partial Seizure symptoms and seeing the same image in both eyes

Hi Kameron,

You've very accurately described many of the symptoms of sleep paralysis (SP). I'm a former neuro nur se and have had SP for 50 years now, so I know a thing about it from both ends!

First of all, this is not schizophrenia or any other kind of mental illness. It's a minor sleep disorder that happens to everyone once or twice in their lives, and to about 5% of the population on a regular basis. About half of these hallucinate during episodes. It may well be that yours was just a one-off attack.

We're all paralysed during the dream phases of our sleep. And everyone dreams - it's just that most people don't remember their dreams when they wake. The brain secretes a hormone that paralyses our voluntary muscles during these periods (about three times a night) to stop us jumping up and acting out our dreams. But only our voluntary muscles are paralysed. The muscles of the autonomous system, that do things like breathing, keeping our heart going etc., are not affected by the paralysis. Sometimes things get out of sync and the brain continues secreting this hormone for a minute or two after we wake or, less commonly, it kicks in before we're completely asleep.

Some people just have the paralysis. However, about half of those who get SP regularly have a whole range of hallucinations. Some of these occur during the period of waking paralysis, but some can happen before going to sleep or after waking fully, in a non-paralysed state. I'm in the latter category. I've probably experienced all possible combinations of SP hallucinations over the past 50 years.

It's quite unusual to hit the jackpot in one's first episode of SP, but you seem to have done just that! You experienced most of the possible hallucinations your first time out. No wonder you were feeling so scared.

I'll cover them in chronological order. First there was the hypnagogic hallucination. That's the one that occurs when you're still awake but settling to sleep. These are comparatively rare. I used to have them all the time when I was young - though less often these days. They usually consist of voices heard "in the mind's ear" as it were. I mainly hear what sounds like my own voice, but sometimes my mother's. They never say anything very significant, but usually enough to wake me fully, e.g.: "There's a spider in the bed", or "The house is on fire". That kind of thing. Sometimes, however, I hear beautiful music, which is much less worrying. I also sometimes see things in the mind's eye during this state - usually unpleasant. In my case these hypnagogic hallucinations are always a sign that I'm going to wake into SP at least once later in the night. However, they don't happen before all SP attacks.

Then came the actual SP attack. You would have been asleep long enough to get into the REM (rapid eye movement) phase of sleep by then. (This is the phase in which we dream.) SP often starts with loud buzzing sounds, or even the sound of an explosion in your head. There can also be a sensation of extreme vibration, affecting the whole body. This can be accompanied or followed by hallucinations affecting any one of the senses - including even smell, though this is rare. I never had an olfactory hallucination but some people get them all the time. My father did. And yes - this condition tends to be hereditary, though it has to start somewhere, of course. These are often referred to as hypnopompic hallucinations, though some use the term for another type of hallucination on waking (which you didn't have but which I'll cover later, just in case).

It's not uncommon to fall into a lucid (or waking) dream during SP. These can take many forms, but usually involve the room you're sleeping in. I was interested to hear that everything was reversed in your lucid dream. That's a known, but quite rare, feature of SP. Again, it's one I used to have all the time when I was young but I don't think I've had it happen for at least 20 years. Another common phenomenon is seeing your room the right way round but with something wrong with it, e.g. it's broad daylight when in fact you've woken in the night, or vice versa, or you can see snow out of the window in midsummer etc. Finally, there's the "false awakening" phenomenon, which is also a lucid dream. That's the rather annoying one where you really think you got out of bed, got washed, dressed, all kinds of stuff, then wake up to find yourself still in your bed. You were clearly having a lucid dream.

I wouldn't worry too much about your eye hurting. It's not uncommon to feel pain in the eyes, or in the forehead between the eyes, during SP. This is because most of us sleep with our eyes crossed - strange as that may seem! Sometimes during the struggle to break out of the paralysis of SP, they cross even further and this can cause pain. You won't do yourself any harm though. I don't know what the ear popping was, but I suspect you might have been sleeping with one ear turned into the pillow. Everyone's ears pop occasionally, especially when we move on first waking and break a vacuum that's formed between our ear and the pillow.

I'll finally touch on the other kind of hallucination associated with SP. You don't seem to have had it, but since you hit the jackpot this time there's a small chance you could have it on another occasion. The word "hypnopompic" is often used to describe this one too, but it's quite different to the hallucinations of paralysis, and much less scary. This one is purely visual, and happens when you wake from a perfectly normal sleep - not necessarily involving SP. I get these when I wake most mornings, and they started when I was a child, before actual SP. My father reported them too. They often take the form of complex geometric patterns superimposed on the whole room. Another common one is seeing miniaturised versions of everyday objects - often furniture or household articles. Very occasionally, these can take the form of human figures - which can be very alarming till you figure out they stay in the same visual field. (Misinterpretation of this type of hallucination is thought to account for a lot of so-called ghost sightings.) Yet another common one is a small, black swirly thing that to me always looks like a blow-up of a human thumb-print. This type of hallucination can persist for several minutes after waking, even after getting out of bed and going into the bathroom.

I hope this has reassured you. Statistically, this is most likely to be a one-off experience. However, if it does start happening regularly there's a lot you can do to reduce the frequency and severity of attacks. This mainly involves identifying your triggers. This is a very individual thing but I can spot what may have triggered your attack, as I'm sure you can - all this game streaming in the small hours! Cleaning up your sleep act will go a long way to preventing further attacks, as will trying not to get too anxious. The latter is easier said than done, I know. I still remember my first SP attack at age 23. However, bear in mind that this phenomenon will never harm you. I'm still perfectly healthy and have all my marbles (I think!) after 50 years.

If you want to ask any more questions, don't hesitate to post here again or send me a private message. Click on the envelope icon next to my name. PMs via this site don't cary viruses or expose the email address of either party.

PS: I just spotted the word "seizure" in your heading. This isn't a seizure either - full or partial. It's just a minor sleep disorder.