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Sleep Paralysis?

Posted , 4 users are following.

James3030
James3030

Hi guys,

I made a post about having sleeping issues some months ago. Since then, this has gone away and come back a number of times (the last time it came back, the doctor gave me a few days worth of sleeping pills to get my pattern back on track) and I've been sleeping okay since (apart from fairly frequent wakeups, but its significantly better than before).

Now I'd like to talk about something which I'm currently very confused about. The first time this happened I really wasn't sure what it was, and I wrote it off as a dream, but now I'm really not sure.

I “wake up” completely paralysed. I'm unable to speak and move. The first time this happened, it felt as if I was dragged out of bed onto the floor. It felt incredibly real, but when I awoke I was still on my bed. I was terrified, I had to spent a few minutes looking all around my house to reassure me that everything was okay.

This has happened a number of times since, and I really don't understand what's going on. This morning, I woke up a number of times completely paralysed. I would imagine that this would be sleep paralysis, but whilst I'm lying in my bed, I can see things that normally aren't in my room, and at one point, it felt as if I was being dragged out of my bed onto the floor. What makes this so terrifying is that it feels so real, I really don't understand what is going on. Are these just a series of bad dreams, or is this sleep paralysis? I was also in this state when my alarm went off and I awoke from a dream, so it felt as if I was stuck in this state as my alarm was going off. Not sure how long it took for me to snap out of this and switch off my alarm. I'm currently taking 30mg of mirtazapine a night.

Does anyone have any ideas what this could be? Could it be sleep paralysis, even though I'm seeing things whilst paralysed?

Thanks,

- James.

0 likes, 4 replies

4 Replies

  • blad4
    blad4 James3030

    Posted

    Have a little search entitled'sleep paralysis induced hallucinations'. These, in my opinion, are much more common than we give them credit for. I am personally generalising it and classifying it as our brain yearning for creativity, in a sleep deprivated, unconciously anxious state.
  • lily65668
    lily65668 James3030

    Posted

    Yes James, It's sleep paralysis. I have it too - in fact I've had it for the past 50 years. It's quite normal to hallucinate while in this state and the hallucinations can affect any of your senses. Seeing things is the most common, though I never get that. I sometimes hear things - running footsteps, doors banging, taps running - but I most often feel things. Like you, I've had the feeling of being thrown on the floor and even dragged around the room. Mostly though, my hallucinations tend to be very painful. My father had it too, and he used to see disgusting things in the bed with him and smell them too.

    There's absolutely nothing to worry about. Most people have a couple of SP episodes in their life and something like 5% of us get it on a regular basis. It tends to run in families too - my father and several of his siblings had it.

    Fortunately SP, unlike some other sleep disorders, is very trigger-sensitive. If you can identify and avoid your triggers, you'll be able to reduce the frequency of attacks. Triggers vary from person to person so you'll need to do your homework. My main trigger is getting too hot in the night. A lesser one for me is getting too much sleep, though some people have the opposite and are more likely to have an attack if they're overtired. Other triggers can be alcohol, coffee, certain foods, and - surprisingly - even the orientation of your bed or sleeping too close to a wifi outlet or a fuse box. It's down to a minor glitch in the temporal lobes of the brain that can be influenced by electro- or geomagnetic phenomena. Google Michael Persinger, one of the few scientists who's really researched the condition.

    And of course, anxiety about getting another attack is a major trigger, especially in the early days.

    Try and identify your triggers. The ones listed above are only a fraction of all the ones I've heard of.

    What can help to break out of an attack is trying not to struggle (sometimes easier said than done, I know) but instead concentrating on the position of your real body, as opposed to the one that's being thrown around. You can also make an effort to try and wiggle your fingers or the tip of your tongue.

    Once you get used to this and figure out how to avoid having too many attacks, you'll find it's only a tiny part of your life.

    • James3030
      James3030 lily65668

      Posted

      Thank you for your reply. I'll definitely do some research on Micheal Persinger once I get home. One of my biggest worries was that I really wasn't sure what I was experiencing, but now that's cleared up, my next experience (if I should have one) shouldn't be too terrifying.
  • evergreen
    evergreen James3030

    Posted

    Yes, these are classic sleep paralysis symptoms. I too have haad the feeling of being dragged out of bed and even out of body experience of floating above my bed. Around ten years ago I also had a series of attacks by a winged demon (all in the mind of course, but another classic sleep paralysis symptom). I even had a few incubus visits following obn from that. All down to sleep paaralysis. Thankfully, apart from the one out of body experience, I haven't had any more in the last ten years. But remember, it's all in your head. It's just your mind trying to explain why you are awake and unable to move so it assumes something terrifying must be attacking you.  I actually became aware that this was what was happening whilst it was actually going on and I was able to tell the 'intruder' to **** off! Gradually it became much less frightening and went away completely.
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