Discussion You are awake but you cannot move

[viscera]

What are your experiences with sleep paralysis?

For me, it started several years ago along with some RLS issues. I usually get it when I'm about to sleep, in which case it makes me so uncomfortable that I get shocked out of falling asleep. As you can imagine, this can be pretty bad for my sleep quality :) it got so bad that I actually saw a neurologist to try to fix it.

Until recently however, I didn't tend to get hallucinations like some people describe. This changed a few months ago, and now I sometimes get auditory hallucinations along with my paralysis. It's not really anything scary though. For example, last time, it sounded like I was in the hospital and I heard a man telling me that everything was going to be alright.

Despite the difficulties, I think it's fascinating that you can get these kinds of experiences at the border between consciousness and unconsciousness. You can feel awake and experience elements of reality, while at the same time your experience is immersed in dreamlike fabrications of the mind. How can we distinguish between objective reality and imagination when the border is so fuzzy?

I would like to hear your thoughts.

 

[Dot]

Slf hd slp paralyss aftr b-ing brokn up wth in 2008

Flt as tho a demn ws sittng on slf chst & slf hd 0 idea wht ws happnng

Ws v frghtnng xpernce

 

[Forever Sleep]

It's definitely a fascinating subject. Isn't the science that the hormones/ electrical signals or whatever that keep us from acting out our dreams- which could be harmful, are still in play?

I'm not entirely sure it's sleep paralysis I've experienced but- maybe. Once, I sort of woke up to my arms above my head holding the top of the headboard. In my dream, all these large woodlice were crawling all over my hands. I couldn't seem to move my arms and freaked out so much that I started crushing them- in the dream. Then, I felt bad about doing that. Then, I woke up. So- it's like I had moved but then got stuck in a position, then dreamt something horrible.

The other one I've had a few times is- I manage to fall asleep underneath my pillow. I feel like I'm suffocating but, I can't move my arms to move it. Naturally so far- I've moved it in time- eventually but, that one's a horrible experience.

I also realise I'm tired in a dream sometimes. Like I can't do the most simple task because my body feels so tired. Not so different to waking life to be honest! Just a lot more intense. Plus, I'm usually in a former workplace and my managers are getting annoyed with me. I guess that isn't sleep paralysis as such but, it's a weird connection maybe with finding it harder to move and, dreaming.

I used to sleep walk when I was younger too. That's really weird.

 

[locked*n*loaded]

Ok. I had an "experience" once when going to sleep. Just as I had done thousands of times previously, I was laying in my bed to go to sleep. I was starting to drift off, but was still at that point between consciousness and unconsciousness, and I still had awareness of myself, at least to a reduced degree. Everything was normal up to that point. As I started to drift more towards actual sleep, some new kind of "sensation" started to come over me. I felt myself drifting more off to sleep, and I was aware of it, but, at the same time, I started to feel my body, my entire body, collapsing in upon itself. That's the only way I can describe it. It felt like my body was collapsing, shrinking, much like what happens to a blown-up balloon when someone lets go of the opening after blowing it up. It started off as a slow collapse and gradually picked up speed. I tried to wake myself up but was unable. It seemed like it went on for hours, but it was probably only minutes, maybe less, although I really don't know how long all of it lasted. Anyway, there I am. In bed. I feel my body collapsing in on itself. I'm powerless to wake up. The intensity of the collapse is picking up speed. It all, finally, ends with (what feels like) my body collapsing into a single point. AND A BOOOOOOM!!!!! The boom awakened me. I immediately sat up in my bed. I was coughing, hacking, breathing hard, and dripping sweat.

I had no idea what had just happened, and even today, I still really don't. I know it was the start of a bunch of medical issues for me. Over the next bunch of months, I started getting these weird symptoms I had never experienced previously. I'd get these fleeting, little, intense "shock-like" pains all over. Some I could feel radiating until they emerged somewhere. And I'd get these "sizzling" shocks that I could hear. The worst ones were in my head. I was extraordinarily fatigued. Then I started getting these episodes of an intense "heat" feeling in my entire body. Even that radiated. It would start off as just a little "warm" feeling and then build-up in intensity to an all out hot sensation.

Long story short, after going to multiple doctors and having all kinds of tests, including neurological ones, I finally got diagnosed with hypothyroidism. None of the doctors could tell me what happened to me that night. The only thing I can surmise is that my thyroid level completely crashed, which resulted in what happened. Even on medication, I'm still not the same as before that incident. I still get this "knock" sensation in my head when trying to go to sleep. I don't know how to describe it, but it's uncomfortable and disconcerting. I've lived with it now for about 22 years. I've had to give up a lot of foods I used to eat. And coffee. And I can't have anything, food or meds, with dyes. For some reason dyes "short out" my nerve endings and I get shocked when they do. Even the smallest amount of dye, like in a single pill, will do it. Dyes just don't metabolize correctly with me any longer, like many foods. So, there is some kind of permanent damage from whatever happened to me.

Edit: I forgot all about GERD that I developed shortly after, maybe a few months after that incident. That's a messed-up feeling to be sound asleep and all of a sudden you feel your stomach's contents rising up your esophagus. It wakes you up right away, hacking and coughing. Did the meds (Protonix) for about 8 years, and this was back when they were prescription only. Got myself off them by changing my diet dramatically and just avoiding any/all trigger foods/ingredients.

 

[Pluto]

 

[vitbar]

A few times a year. Mare common when I was an adolescent. Always as I woke/never when falling asleep. Usually just a sense someone evil was in the room, a few times shadowy figures. I didn't feel the presence was paranormal except when I could see shadow figures, instead it was a murderer, or burglar. Usually loud ringing sound and or heartbeats, sometimes regular sounds (neighbour answering door, people walking past outside). Rarely I felt like something grabbed me. This feeling fading with the paralysis but slower.

 

[Hiro Uchiha]

Sometimes, if I'm lucky, sleep paralysis just comes with the feeling of doom, inability to move, rapid heartbeat, pressure over my body. In most of my experiences, shadowy figures or some full-blown demonic, paranormal looking shit presence is involved. 3/10 experience.

 

[Kurwenal]

I have supposedly developed this year what my GP has told me is sleep paralysis. Reading everyone else's experiences, there seems to be so much variation in how it presents. For me personally, the first few times were terrifying, because I didn't know what was happening. Mine always happens in the same way: I wake from sleep, but just can't move. I'm fully conscious, fully aware that I'm awake and not dreaming. I'm not in pain or discomfort, which is odd, actually, because I usually have something to complain about in that regard. I just literally can't move anything. I put my entire being into moving an arm, a hand, a finger, something to tell me that I'm able to do something and am not trapped forever. I never know how long it lasts for, because I can't access a means of telling the time, naturally. It feels like an eternity that never ends. It's probably all of a minute, in reality, knowing my warped perception of time. And then an invisible switch is flicked somewhere within me, and I can slowly, ever so slowly, move something. Then something more. Then eventually I am 'normal' (as close to it as I get, at least). I go back to sleep eventually. The first couple of occurrences were pure terror, because one of my greatest fears is a failed suicide attempt where I am left alive, conscious, aware of my surroundings, but completely paralysed, unable to communicate or express anything, just trapped in the greatest prison I can imagine. I still get that fear sometimes when the sleep paralysis hits, but it's approaching something more manageable because I know that each time it's happened thus far, it resolves itself (even if, as I said, it may be an eternity or only a minute). I only ever experience it at night: I sleep often enough during the day, but have yet to have it happen then. I think my daytime sleep is often a lot lighter, more of a doze: perhaps that's a factor. It happens probably two nights a week on average, thinking about it.

I'm so sorry for those who experience it with hallucinations or other mental symptoms. That would be horrific.

Edit: I forgot all about GERD that I developed shortly after, maybe a few months after that incident. That's a messed-up feeling to be sound asleep and all of a sudden you feel your stomach's contents rising up your esophagus. It wakes you up right away, hacking and coughing. Did the meds (Protonix) for about 8 years, and this was back when they were prescription only. Got myself off them by changing my diet dramatically and just avoiding any/all trigger foods/ingredients.

I'm so sorry you had the experience of GERD. My mother suffers from it and I know it's absolute hell for her, in waking and sleeping. The meds don't help her, and she's done elimination diets but never found any real relief. Congratulations on coming off the meds: I hope your symptoms are less severe now.

 

[locked*n*loaded]

I have supposedly developed this year what my GP has told me is sleep paralysis. Reading everyone else's experiences, there seems to be so much variation in how it presents. For me personally, the first few times were terrifying, because I didn't know what was happening. Mine always happens in the same way: I wake from sleep, but just can't move. I'm fully conscious, fully aware that I'm awake and not dreaming. I'm not in pain or discomfort, which is odd, actually, because I usually have something to complain about in that regard. I just literally can't move anything. I put my entire being into moving an arm, a hand, a finger, something to tell me that I'm able to do something and am not trapped forever. I never know how long it lasts for, because I can't access a means of telling the time, naturally. It feels like an eternity that never ends. It's probably all of a minute, in reality, knowing my warped perception of time. And then an invisible switch is flicked somewhere within me, and I can slowly, ever so slowly, move something. Then something more. Then eventually I am 'normal' (as close to it as I get, at least). I go back to sleep eventually. The first couple of occurrences were pure terror, because one of my greatest fears is a failed suicide attempt where I am left alive, conscious, aware of my surroundings, but completely paralysed, unable to communicate or express anything, just trapped in the greatest prison I can imagine. I still get that fear sometimes when the sleep paralysis hits, but it's approaching something more manageable because I know that each time it's happened thus far, it resolves itself (even if, as I said, it may be an eternity or only a minute). I only ever experience it at night: I sleep often enough during the day, but have yet to have it happen then. I think my daytime sleep is often a lot lighter, more of a doze: perhaps that's a factor. It happens probably two nights a week on average, thinking about it.

I'm so sorry for those who experience it with hallucinations or other mental symptoms. That would be horrific.


I'm so sorry you had the experience of GERD. My mother suffers from it and I know it's absolute hell for her, in waking and sleeping. The meds don't help her, and she's done elimination diets but never found any real relief. Congratulations on coming off the meds: I hope your symptoms are less severe now.

Thanks for your sympathy, but I'm pretty much over the GERD. Ofc, I had to give up a LOT of trigger foods, but it's better imo than continuing on the pills that I was on for 8 years. They were absolutely terrible for me with all kinds of unpleasant side effects. The meds did help me, but side effects outweighed the benefit, at least as far as I was concerned. It was mostly just crappy, unhealthy food, anyway, that triggered my GERD, so it was just better for me all around to stop eating the junk. I eat a bland diet now, VERY bland, very plain foods, with very little seasoning (salt and pepper only). Yes, it's boring and gets old, if you know what I mean, but I've been doing it for pushing 20 years now, so I'm used to it.

I hope your mom can ultimately get some relief from hers by finding something that will work for her. It causes damage to the esophagus and teeth if allowed to go on too long unabated.

 

[Kurwenal]

Thanks for your sympathy, but I'm pretty much over the GERD. Ofc, I had to give up a LOT of trigger foods, but it's better imo than continuing on the pills that I was on for 8 years. They were absolutely terrible for me with all kinds of unpleasant side effects. The meds did help me, but side effects outweighed the benefit, at least as far as I was concerned. It was mostly just crappy, unhealthy food, anyway, that triggered my GERD, so it was just better for me all around to stop eating the junk. I eat a bland diet now, VERY bland, very plain foods, with very little seasoning (salt and pepper only). Yes, it's boring and gets old, if you know what I mean, but I've been doing it for pushing 20 years now, so I'm used to it.

I hope your mom can ultimately get some relief from hers by finding something that will work for her. It causes damage to the esophagus and teeth if allowed to go on too long unabated.

I'm really pleased to hear you're pretty much symptom-free from the GERD at this point. We have to take the little victories we can, I suppose, even when we're on this forum because of other problems, mental or physical or both. Thank you for your concern for my mother. She has indeed been warned about many of the possible comorbidities that can develop as a result of it; it's just deeply frustrating that nothing the doctors are doing is really getting her much relief. I don't recall the details of her elimination diets, though, so I will discuss with her the option of trying a very plain diet for a period. She generally eats what I suppose would be considered a 'healthy' diet (though everyone has their own perspective on what that constitutes), but perhaps her elimination diets weren't extreme enough. Either way, you've given me something to discuss with her, so thank you for that. I hope you remain free of the GERD, even knowing the restrictions you've had to live with for two decades in order to attain that state.

I think there would be more than a few people on this forum who know the crushing difficulty of being diagnosed with something that has what I considered reliable treatment(s) from doctors, but that for whatever reason the treatment doesn't work for them individually.