Problem going back to sleep, maybe sleep paralysis?
Posted , 2 users are following.
I have trouble going back to sleep. I often wake up too early (3am-4am) and I'm not able to go back to sleep. When I try to I feel this tight feeling in my head followed by a low rumbling sound (sometimes I also hear something that sounds like birds singing) and then I feel like I faint/lose consciousness for around 5-6 seconds. And it gets worse and worse throughout the night (morning technically). I think it may be sleep paralysis but I can never tell when I'm experiencing it. All I know for sure is that I cannot open my eyes when it happens. It's giving me anxiety when trying to go back to sleep because I'm not sure if this is dangerous for my body. And in result I'm not getting much sleep. Any feedback will be very appreciated. Thank you.
0 likes, 5 replies
lily65668 pascal08948
Posted
No, it's not dangerous at all.
We're all paralysed in the REM (rapid eye movement) phase of each sleep cycle. This is when dreams take place - and we all dream, regardless of whether we recall our dreams or not. During this phase, the brain secretes a hormone that paralyses our voluntary muscles, to stop us jumping up and acting out our dreams. (But it doesn't affect the functions of the autonomic system, like breathing etc.)
It's normal to spend longer periods in REM sleep - therefore paralysed - towards the end of the night. It's just that most of us are totally unaware of it. The term "sleep paralysis" is a bit of a misnomer really. It tends to be used only for people who regularly become fully conscious during the paralysed phase, whereas in reality it's a normal part of sleep.
I suspect that what's happened to you is that by chance you noticed you were paralysed one morning when you were in a light REM sleep, and now this has captured your attention, making you anxious.
I'm wondering whether perhaps you're getting too much sleep. This can be one cause of being aware of the paralysis, as any sleep surplus to requirements tends to be predominantly REM sleep. However, these experiences could also just be down to your anxiety about the experiences feeding back into itself.
I hope this reassures you. I'm a former neuro nurse btw, as well as having had full-on sleep paralysis - I mean being conscious of the paralysis for long periods on a regular basis - for more than 50 years. It's completely harmless.
pascal08948 lily65668
Posted
lily65668 pascal08948
Posted
No, that's not necessarily true about REM sleep. It normally takes a while to occur in the earlier cycles, but in later cycles it starts earlier and earlier and takes up more time. Also, stress and anxiety can cause you to go straight into REM sleep, even at the start of the night.
I noticed this myself about 20 years ago, when I was going through a period of severe stress. Sometimes I didn't sleep very well, even at the start of the night, and I'd keep looking at the clock. I'd often fall into a nightmare immediately, from which I'd wake into a bad attack of sleep paralysis (I hallucinate during mine) and when I looked at the clock again I'd find that only 10 or 15 minutes had passed since the last time I'd checked.
I think you're going to have to overhaul your whole sleep pattern. Check out sleep hygiene, which you can find all over the net these days. And I know it sounds banal, but too much screen time just before bed really can play havoc with your sleep. Even if you got away with it before, it may be that the mix of too much screen time with anxiety is causing problems now.
Also try having an honest look at whatever it is in your life that might be causing underlying anxiety at the moment. You don't have to be in a constant state of panic to be suffering from anxiety. It's often the silent, underlying anxiety that causes more problems than the obvious kind.
pascal08948 lily65668
Posted
Oh ok. I'm going to try to cut out screen time before I go to sleep, I think it may be that. Thanks a lot!
lily65668 pascal08948
Posted
Well worth trying, but it may not have any immediate effect. The trouble with a lot of these sleep glitches is that once you focus attention on them, they keep happening.
Cut down on the late-night screen use anyway - it can cause a lot of different sleep problems - and give it time without obsessing over it if it still happens sometimes. I'm sure all this will settle down, given a few months.