Happens a couple of times a year and it knocks you frikkin sideways mentally when you get out of it
Physiologically, sleep paralysis is closely related to the paralysis that occurs as a natural part of REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, which is known as REM atonia. Sleep paralysis occurs when the brain awakes from a REM state, but the body paralysis persists. This leaves the person fully conscious, but unable to move. The paralysis can last from several seconds to several minutes "after which the individual may experience panic symptoms and the realization that the distorted perceptions were false".[5] As the correlation with REM sleep suggests, the paralysis is not entirely complete; use of EOG traces shows that eye movement can be instigated during such episodes.[6] When there is an absence of narcolepsy, sleep paralysis is referred to as isolated sleep paralysis (ISP).[7]
I get that every now and again. It's never awesome. :P
i got that pretty much every night from age 16-19. im 22 now, and it happens once in a blue moon.
how old are you? Generally speaking people grow out of it.
Quote from: He Man on March 24, 2010, 10:52:04 PM
i got that pretty much every night from age 16-19. im 22 now, and it happens once in a blue moon.
how old are you? Generally speaking people grow out of it.
I am cracking 59 this August
It started when I was a teenager about 15..lasted for about 10 years....didn't have it for about 25 years...
Started getting it again in my 50's...maybe 2 or 4 times a year and it just pisses me off....
I get this..........It usually haunts me when fear enters a dream and I am completely paralysed with fear. I have PTSD from the war. I wonder if this is part of it? It seems like I am looking at myself and saying its ok to scream and cry and all these people are there but no once can hear me I cannot scream or cry out .The vocal chords will not work......The nights sleep is over. Sometimes I am shaking when I wake up .........complete fear.I am usually sweating profusly when I wake up.
I love feeling this way-not!
BGB
I've never had sleep paralysis, but every once in a while just before falling asleep, my entire body jerks like a large current was passed from head to foot! What the make the beast with two backs is that?! [laugh]
Quote from: badgalbetty on March 25, 2010, 02:18:14 AM
I get this..........It usually haunts me when fear enters a dream and I am completely paralysed with fear. I have PTSD from the war. I wonder if this is part of it? It seems like I am looking at myself and saying its ok to scream and cry and all these people are there but no once can hear me I cannot scream or cry out .The vocal chords will not work......The nights sleep is over. Sometimes I am shaking when I wake up .........complete fear.I am usually sweating profusly when I wake up.
I love feeling this way-not!
BGB
You know it is funny(well not actually) that you brought up PTSD as a possible link. My childhood was a carnival/shit circus of crap and violence not worth going into here but I always thought extended hyper-vigiliance played into it.
Now that you mentioned PTSD I just realized this shit actually started again after 9/11...I was working downtown at the time the planes came in and from there it got pretty up-close and personal first hand.
The only way I can describe it is that I believe I understand what an awake but comatose person feels like......it sucks ape balls
That has only happened to me once that I can remember. It was very much like I was still in the dream, but I knew I wasn't.
It was pretty damn freaky and I didn't like it one bit...
I have never had this.
Can one of you guys briefly describe what exactly happens?
Do you have some horrible dream and wake up thinking it is a reality and go into a panic attack?
I get this every once in a while and it freaks me out quite a bit. I wake up, usually from a bad dream, and can't move. Every time it happens I try really hard to lift my arms and legs but they won't budge and it usually ends with a whole body jerk. It is freaky to look down at your body and not be able to move at all. For some reason it is also accompanied by a really loud high pitched ringing in my ears. It is similar to a really loud tinnitus sound.
The next morning I usually have a bad headache for an hour after I wake up.
I usually get it when im waking up from sleeping slowly or im about to fall asleep.
basically, your aware that your about to drift off, or your drifting back into real world. and all of a sudden you feel like something is sitting on you and you cant move your chest. at the same time you feel like your being pulled up by god or aliens or something of that nature. Then you try to move your body but nothing works, and for me, i can only move my head eyes and mouth. Which is pretty freaky for anyone sleeping around me.
When you try to scream but your vocal cords dont work, but you can make little whispering sounds.
And you can fully hear and see whatevers going on. but eveything is horrifying. Sounds sound extremely different, anything you see is instnatly turned demonic by thought and hallucinations.
There was one time i was moving out of an apt and i had a black garbage bag on the floor and i had an episode. being used to this, i knew the procedure, just forget about it, dont open your eyes and your all good and it will pas in 10-15minutes (or whateer feels like eternity to you). But i opened my eyes and i see the black garbage bag sitting on the floor of my room. The street lights were hitting it so you could see parts of it and since i knew it was a garbage bag, all i could think about was what was in it. and of course all i saw were dead body parts crawling around.
shit like that.
but most people grow out of it. It did for me. I started having them periodically around 14 as well, but it was until i was 17 that i came litterally everyday. and it was until about a year ago that it started to stop.
Y'all seen that movie "Fourth Kind" about the abductions in Alaska? I think that's what's happening to ya.
These are descriptions of what I experience. The not being able to move and the screaming but the vocal cords not working is huge. I am screaming as hard as I can and no sound.........while all around me in coming and shit breaking loose. I am glad you have put a finger on this, I ask my shrink if this is part of the PTSD.
Thanks!
Quote from: He Man on March 25, 2010, 04:52:20 AM
at the same time you feel like your being pulled up by god or aliens or something of that nature.
That is pretty spot on... I didn't want to post it because I thought I was crazy for thinking it... well at least I know I am not the only crazy person.
Quote from: Vindingo on March 25, 2010, 05:44:05 AM
That is pretty spot on... I didn't want to post it because I thought I was crazy for thinking it... well at least I know I am not the only crazy person.
Hey I have more loose nuts and bolts than a 1984 Yugo doing 90 down a hill on a washboard road....but this is one thing that really rattles me when it happens
figured I'd throw it out there and see if I was alone
thanks for all the replies
jesus christ guys.
that is some freaky shit.
Is this something you can address with your doctor and get treatment for? Or is it one of those things that just happens?
Happens to me a few times a year also. It's pretty freaky. :-\
Quote from: cyrus buelton on March 25, 2010, 06:06:43 AM
jesus christ guys.
that is some freaky shit.
Is this something you can address with your doctor and get treatment for? Or is it one of those things that just happens?
Doc's will throw meds at it...hell they'll throw meds at anything these days to get the spifs and perks from the pharmaceutical companies
For most I think it is an occasional thing like a false neutral between 5th and 6th gears
the brain just hiccups between the dream state and the conscious state...gets hung-up in the transition
I think they are studying links to migraine neurological syndrome..though I rarely get a headache ever in life
some get it more often than others and get the hallucinations thrown in....fortunately I don't get them ...boy I'm so lucky that way
I am just aware of my surroundings and aware that I am completely paralyzed, can't see or open my eyes can't scream though I'm trying and I can't figure my way out of it
oh and I should add that drinking yourself unconscious nightly usually will eclipse the more delicate, nuanced transitional machinations of the mind...but that has its own long term consequences :)
Quote from: pompetta on March 25, 2010, 03:05:27 AM
I've never had sleep paralysis, but every once in a while just before falling asleep, my entire body jerks like a large current was passed from head to foot! What the make the beast with two backs is that?! [laugh]
Me too. WTF?
Haven't had what RAT900's posting about though...
All I have to say if any of you end up paralyzed but conscious around me, I'm going to pee on you.
I have the same experience from time to time. Usually after nightmares. I wake up and can't move anything but my eyes. I have to talk myself out of it. It usually only lasts about a minute or two, and I don't have hallucinations. I do have really vivid nightmares though and often wake up screaming or crying and sometimes it takes 10 or so minutes for me to calm down and realize I'm back in realilty.
Quote from: RAT900 on March 25, 2010, 06:20:23 AM
Doc's will throw meds at it...
Just curious as to what form of medication they would use to treat this as it seems like it isn't an everyday occurrence.
Quote from: cyrus buelton on March 25, 2010, 08:32:09 AM
Just curious as to what form of medication they would use to treat this as it seems like it isn't an everyday occurrence.
probably Lunesta, Ambien or one of those sorts of things that have people "coming-to" behind the wheel of their car steaming down the highway, confused because the last thing they remember was being under the covers <laughing>
Quote from: NeenjaMastah on March 25, 2010, 08:20:30 AM
I have to talk myself out of it.
It's happened to me enough that I realize what's up to some degree and tell myself that I'm not awake.
It's bizarre. And scary.
The doc i spoke to says its common for young people and you shouldnt need med for it also dont do things that cause it (see below). Why it happens is anybodys guess.
The problem arises mostly from the way you sleep. It used to happen every time i slept laying flat on my back.
The sitting on the chest thing only happens when i have a hand on my chest. otherwise its mostly me feeling like im being lifted to get a probe stuck in my butt.
I dont get werided out by it anymore. Its kind of a fun trip feeling like your floating. I say enjoy it while it lasts and dont open your eyes cause youll start seeing shit.
Its that or we've all been abducted every night.
like neenjamasta said, just talking to yourself really helps. You can tell yourself "ok, im just in sleep paralysis and im floating or someones grabbing me into the depts of hell, but its okay cause the floor is in the way!. Dont open my eyes and enjoy the feeling and eventually if you fight it, you'll etiehr wake up or your in a scaryily blissful feeling and you fall back asleep"
Quote from: Speedbag on March 25, 2010, 08:43:32 AM
It's happened to me enough that I realize what's up to some degree and tell myself that I'm not awake.
It's bizarre. And scary.
+1 ...at some weird level of awareness I am able to think "Shit!! this again" then I begin struggling against it
Quote from: RAT900 on March 25, 2010, 08:42:58 AM
probably Lunesta, Ambien or one of those sorts of things that have people "coming-to" behind the wheel of their car steaming down the highway, confused because the last thing they remember was being under the covers <laughing>
[laugh] [laugh]
I took Ambien CR for a while when I was trying out some new anxiety/ADD medication as I couldn't sleep.
I always loved reading the warning about the medication.
You think you have a sleeping med but then wake up steaming down the street on your Ducati.........I know it is probably an awful thing.........but make the beast with two backs.....still makes me giggle.
However.....that stuff is the shit, though. I'd take it and in 15 minutes I'd be out and wake up in pretty much exactly 8hrs like they say.
It is freaky shit.
The problem is if you have bad sleeping issues like insomnia and take this........and dont fall asleep.......I hear you start tripping balls.
Might be fun for some......but with my anxiety, I'd probably have a heart attack.
Quote from: Duck-Stew on March 25, 2010, 07:53:04 AM
Me too. WTF?
Me three.
I often wake/kick B when it happens. Seems to occur more often when I'm really tired.
Some of the questions I was asked prior to my test for sleep apnea were very frightening not only in the questions themselves but also in how relevant they were to the symptoms I was experiencing.
Sleep paralysis, hallucinations, panic, etc. The "sudden jolt" thing came up to as I experience that quite often. Fact is, my sleep is shit. So much so that I verge on insomnia.
Sleeping with the machine has helped a lot but it has not rid me of a couple of the things I experience. The sleep paralysis and the hallucinations are still there but far less frequently.
Last night for instance, I woke up saying over and over again "Let me go back to sleep.". I really felt like someone was there with me trying to wake me up. My mind kept telling me over and over again that noone was there and I could go back to sleep.
I have yet to try sleeping aids but am not sure I want to. My roommate is on Ambien and I see how loopy he gets and frankly, it scares me worse than the potential of waking up in the mddle of the night.
Weird that you post this today as I get this on occasion too and had a variation of it last night.
I do recall pushing (pushing just seems like the right word for some reason) myself out of a pretty bad one one time in which I was totally aware of what it was.
Like we always used to say, it's just part of the show, man.
I find this really strange too. Whoda thunk this many dmf'rs get abducted by aliens. ???
Quote from: RAT900 on March 25, 2010, 06:20:23 AM
<snip>
oh and I should add that drinking yourself unconscious nightly usually will eclipse the more delicate, nuanced transitional machinations of the mind...but that has its own long term consequences :)
Dood...
whatever works. ;)
Mine is usually related to taking a narcotic medication. Certain cough syrups cause this in me ~
JM
Its caused by 2 things..........internal stressors and also sleep depravation. Its quite common in people who have PTSD such as myself . I cannot turn my brain off sometimes and the result is one maybe two hours sleep a night. This happens for several days and then finally one simply has to crash. The sub conscious is processing all of the information that you see hear smell see feel etc and the brain is just overloaded. Finally in sleep the brain has trouble processing what is real and what are your dreams because of all of the information being processed.
I am falling which indicates life is out of control(combat is usally an out of control situation despite John Wayne making it look so good.........its not its a shit storm and scarrier than hell) and during the dream of falling I scream.......the paralysis makes sure that no sound is heard or no words muttered.Yes, very scary stuff indeed.
The way to stop this happening is to get plenty of good restfull sleep everyday. Drink plenty of liquids, eat a balanced diet and try to reduce stress.
Unfortunately for me I cannot sleep more than 3-4 hours a day.I can make do on 2 hours sleep a day.4 is a luxury.
Quote from: badgalbetty on March 25, 2010, 10:02:30 PM
Its caused by 2 things..........internal stressors and also sleep depravation. Its quite common in people who have PTSD such as myself . I cannot turn my brain off sometimes and the result is one maybe two hours sleep a night. This happens for several days and then finally one simply has to crash. The sub conscious is processing all of the information that you see hear smell see feel etc and the brain is just overloaded. Finally in sleep the brain has trouble processing what is real and what are your dreams because of all of the information being processed.
I am falling which indicates life is out of control(combat is usally an out of control situation despite John Wayne making it look so good.........its not its a shit storm and scarrier than hell) and during the dream of falling I scream.......the paralysis makes sure that no sound is heard or no words muttered.Yes, very scary stuff indeed.
The way to stop this happening is to get plenty of good restfull sleep everyday. Drink plenty of liquids, eat a balanced diet and try to reduce stress.
Unfortunately for me I cannot sleep more than 3-4 hours a day.I can make do on 2 hours sleep a day.4 is a luxury.
If I get 7 hours straight I am ready to celebrate...4-5 is usually the max I get.
One of the things that I discovered early on was that when riding a motorcycle I could artificially speed up events to a level that sync'd with my processing speed while giving it something to train-in on. Riding channeled the thinking into a singular loop that required unilateral focus and a defined priority triage...
the now-disciplined brain cycling through external threat checks (for instance Cyrus blasting through a light on Ambien, child's ball in the street ablah ablah), and the contained threats,,ones like what the machine under me was doing/sounding like/feeling like....
all the other noise and data stops flying at you.....
you are now sorting out the important from the unimportant effectively..... the task becomes immediate and simple....
unfortunately every little thing is critical to the hyper-vigilant mind...it cannot effectively sort and assign and/or discard data....
so the stream of consciousness is bombarded with data that is sounding like an orchestra warming up...nothing is in unison...anarchy....but each item or piece of data is in fact legitimate or deemed to be so...it is just that simultaneously occurring, they become so much contending noise
on the bike,,,,the concerto has begun...your mind must create an enforced data filter on the bike...priorities are indisputable and each one is in fact critical
the only other time I actually felt effectively quieted,,, was when I went to an acupuncturist who came highly recommended...went there with a lot of skepticism....this woman took one look at me and shook her head and then confirmed all she saw in our conversation...
She pinned me up and actually got me to the point where there was just one slow relaxed thread of consciousness drifting though my head like a ribbon riding a breeze or a single violin doing a slow gentle interlude
amazing accomplishment on her part...to me at least...
anyway please don't report me <laughing>
I have never experienced the sleep paralysis but I sometimes do get the whole body jolt before I fall asleep. It always happens when I am lying down, usually when I am flat on my back and suddenly I feel like I have lost my balance and am falling. It is a damn weird feeling to lose my balance lying down. Of course when I get that feeling my whole body jerks to catch myself.
thats why we have the official i cant sleep thread.
i cant sleep 8 hours without waking up and doing stuff every 3 hours. but i usually get a solid 3-5 hours of sleep a night. usually i can operate fine on 2 hours, but thats just because im used to it. no way do i enjoy it, want it or what not. i dont have PTSD, but after talking to chris once about ADD, yea i'm pretty sure i have it.
Quote from: 77south on March 26, 2010, 03:47:57 AM
I have never experienced the sleep paralysis but I sometimes do get the whole body jolt before I fall asleep. It always happens when I am lying down, usually when I am flat on my back and suddenly I feel like I have lost my balance and am falling. It is a damn weird feeling to lose my balance lying down. Of course when I get that feeling my whole body jerks to catch myself.
+1
That's an excellent description.
Quote from: pompetta on March 25, 2010, 03:05:27 AM
I've never had sleep paralysis, but every once in a while just before falling asleep, my entire body jerks like a large current was passed from head to foot! What the make the beast with two backs is that?! [laugh]
Come on, you should have researched this by now, Mr. Scientist.
It is called a hypnic jerk. Very common. I rarely get them, but it happens more when I'm really tired and fall asleep in an uncomfortable position. And it is often accompanied by the sensation of falling.
Some people get them nightly. When falling asleep, the body relaxes, obviously, but the brain recognizes this relaxation as a fall or situation that needs remedied to keep the body functioning, hence the jerk to stimulate the muscles.
I thought he was just having nocturnal emissions and was skipping over the graphic details ;D
Quote from: RAT900 on March 26, 2010, 10:52:35 AM
I thought he was just having nocturnal emissions and was skipping over the graphic details ;D
He's an organic chemist. He doesn't have a sense of humor. [laugh]
This would happen to my ex all the time. At first I felt sorry for her, but then it just got annoying because she'd freak out and wake me up.
I hope she still get them, because I still miss my dog!!! [cheeky]
Quote from: Jobu on March 26, 2010, 10:20:59 AM
Come on, you should have researched this by now, Mr. Scientist.
It is called a hypnic jerk. Very common. I rarely get them, but it happens more when I'm really tired and fall asleep in an uncomfortable position. And it is often accompanied by the sensation of falling.
Some people get them nightly. When falling asleep, the body relaxes, obviously, but the brain recognizes this relaxation as a fall or situation that needs remedied to keep the body functioning, hence the jerk to stimulate the muscles.
I get these as well.
They're almost like a brief, very severe electric shock. And not very fun either. they leave me with a fast-fading, brutal headache.
:P
I experience that as well .........I have also known another type of jerk.....the soon to be ex [laugh]