Was this a night terror?
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Last night something weird happened and i'm not really sure what it was and its never happened before so i'm hoping someone might be able to help me. I'm 17 idk if that info is important but we'll go with it. Anyway, so last night while i was sleeping i remember being consiously aware but I don't think i was actually fully awake. I remember "waking up" and having uncontrollable body movements like I couldn't control it and i remember being scared because i couldn't control specifically head/neck/face and i couldn't open up my mouth to make noise which made me panic even more and my pillow was right next to me and i tried shoving my head in it so see if that could stop it. I don't think it lasted very long from what i remember. Then when i woke up i remember going to stand up and my body feeling really heavy. Idk it was weird. At first i thought maybe it was a seizure but i could remember it pretty clearly so then i was thinking night terrors but I heard that people scream but i didn't do that obviously bc i couldn't control my mouth to open it and make noise. Idk i was hoping someone here could help me figure it out or maybe i got possessed by a demon lmao.
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lily65668 Guest
Posted
Hello elynn,
Not night terrors, but sleep paralysis. The former is a disorder of non-REM (i.e. non-dreaming) sleep related to sleepwalking, that causes people to jump out of bed and rush around in the grip of some strange idea or other, often waking others with their screaming and shouting.
Sleep paralysis (SP) is a disorder of REM sleep. If it reassures you at all, I've had SP for more than 50 years and am also a former neuro nurse.
First of all, it's absolutely nothing to worry about, as alarming as it can be the first time it happens. It's also nothing to do with seizures, mental illness or any other medical condition. And you're certainly not being possessed by anything!
It's actually very important that you're 17. SP overwhelmingly presents for the first time between the ages of 17 and 25. (I was 23 when it started.) It's strongly hereditary - my father, at least one of his siblings and my grandmother all had it. However, like all hereditary conditions, it has to start somewhere. Most people will get a one-off episode during their lifetime, and it may well be that this is all yours was. However, about 5% of the population get it on a regular basis.
Of those 5%, about half have vivid hallucinations during episodes. That's certainly true for me. It's important to remember that hallucinations can affect any of our five senses. In addition, some of us get what I call "proprioceptive hallucinations". Proprioception is the faculty that in waking life allows us to know what position our bodies and limbs are in without looking at them. During SP, we can get false signals from this system too - hence your feeling that your limbs were thrashing about uncontrollably. If anyone had been able to see you during this attack, they would have confirmed that you were totally motionless throughout. That's why you couldn't call out - your vocal chords were paralysed too.
Why does it happen? Every night we all go through phases of deep, non-dreaming sleep alternating with REM, or dreaming, sleep. REM stands for the rapid eye movements you can see under the closed lids of someone who's dreaming. Our eyes are in fact the only thing we can move during the dreaming phase of sleep. The brain secretes a paralysing hormone in this phase, to prevent us from jumping up and acting out our dreams. It only paralyses our voluntary muscles, not the muscles of the autonomic nervous system, that keep us breathing, swallowing our saliva, and control our heart beat, intestinal movements etc. - all the things that keep us alive while we're sleeping. So there's no danger that you'll stop breathing, or your heart will stop beating. In some of us, there's a completely harmless glitch in the brain that either carries on pumping out the paralysing hormone for a minute or so after we wake from sleep, or starts just before we've actually fallen asleep, as in your case.
As I already said, this may well be a one-off. However, if you turn out to be in the "5% Club" like me
, there are plenty of things you can do about it. The main thing is to identify your triggers. These vary from one person to another. My main trigger is getting overheated while sleeping, so I make sure I always sleep in a cool room under light covers. No cosy quilts for me! In some people, getting too much sleep can also be a trigger. I'm more likely to get an SP attack when sleeping late in the morning or having an afternoon nap. However, it's the complete opposite for others, who find they get attacks when they're not sleeping enough. Some foods eaten late at night can trigger attacks, as can alcohol or recreational drugs. Sleeping too close to electronic equipment can also be a trigger. This isn't as weird as it seems, as the brain functions via electrical impulses. Hard as it sounds, you might want to try switching off your phone etc. at night, or leaving it in another room! Stress and anxiety can trigger attacks too - especially anxiety about getting another one. I was in the run-up to my final nursing exams when I had my first attack.
Just because you've had one episode, there's no reason to suppose you'll have another one. Try not to worry about this - though I know from my own experience that's easier said than done. If you have any more questions, don't hesitate to post here again. You can also send me a private message if you want to. (Click on the little envelope icon next to my name.) PMs via this site don't expose the email address of either party or carry viruses.
Sweet dreams!
Lily