Sleep Paralysis

[Patty]

In the last few weeks I have been experiencing bouts of Sleep Paralysis.

 

It's the single most scary thing I have ever experienced. Waking up after hearing something approaching your bed but not being able to move or speak. The first couple of times I thought it was a dream, but I had attacks for 4 nights from this week.

 

So I decided to google my symptoms and Sleep Paralysis fitted it to a T. I'm seriously considering going to the doctor but it's reported to be very common. Also, unfortunately there is no cure or medicine for it. Apparently it's related to stress, so I will just have to find away to de-stress myself!

 

Anyone else experienced this?

[OddJob]

In the last few weeks I have been experiencing bouts of Sleep Paralysis.

 

It's the single most scary thing I have ever experienced. Waking up after hearing something approaching your bed but not being able to move or speak. The first couple of times I thought it was a dream, but I had attacks for 4 nights from this week.

 

So I decided to google my symptoms and Sleep Paralysis fitted it to a T. I'm seriously considering going to the doctor but it's reported to be very common. Also, unfortunately there is no cure or medicine for it. Apparently it's related to stress, so I will just have to find away to de-stress myself!

 

Anyone else experienced this?

I've had something similar before, i mean being unable to move but no actual panic attack. That does sound scary right enough like. I'd still go and speak to a doctor and you never know there might be a help group, speak to fellow sufferers isn't a bad thing and can ease your anxiety

[boboisared]

Hae a wank min.

[RUL]

Wasn't there a thread about this a few months ago? Must be on the rise

[Patty]

Hae a wank min.

 

I would if I could move...

[looksgoodinred]

I've had something similar before, i mean being unable to move but no actual panic attack. That does sound scary right enough like. I'd still go and speak to a doctor and you never know there might be a help group, speak to fellow sufferers isn't a bad thing and can ease your anxiety

 

self-diagnosing isn't necessarily the best thing either. it may be as you've found, or it could be something else. i'd go see a doctor if i were you.

 

hope things improve soon for you.

[The Boofon]

self-diagnosing isn't necessarily the best thing either. it may be as you've found, or it could be something else. i'd go see a doctor if i were you.

 

hope things improve soon for you.

 

 

I googled itchy legs and it said I might have liver cancer so I'd steer well clear of internet diagnosis as the lady says and go and see a man / woman who knows what they're talking about.

 

My itchy legs were actually caused by a change in washing powder at work so I'm glad I didn't take that radiotherapy treatment I was advertised.

 

Googling anything will always result in you fearing the worst.

 

Patty have you recently changed jobs just out of interest?

[rossafc92]

In the last few weeks I have been experiencing bouts of Sleep Paralysis.

 

It's the single most scary thing I have ever experienced. Waking up after hearing something approaching your bed but not being able to move or speak. The first couple of times I thought it was a dream, but I had attacks for 4 nights from this week.

 

So I decided to google my symptoms and Sleep Paralysis fitted it to a T. I'm seriously considering going to the doctor but it's reported to be very common. Also, unfortunately there is no cure or medicine for it. Apparently it's related to stress, so I will just have to find away to de-stress myself!

 

Anyone else experienced this?

 

Suffer from it a lot myself, mainly because of an irregular sleep pattern. Get it when I try to go back to sleep after waking up, and it's horrible. First time I experienced it, it was possibly the most frightening experience of my life.

 

Like you say, it is fairly common apparently, and I don't think there's much need for you to see a doctor. Try and get a regular sleep pattern and not be so stressed (although that can of course be difficult) and you should be fine.

[Patty]

No change of job. No change of any situation in the last few weeks to make this happen.

 

I have no previous issues with stress (it got really busy at work for a period last year but that didn't stress me out) or anxhiety.

 

If I have another attack I am going to phone up the doctor for advice though. But I'm hoping if I do have another attack that it won't be anywhere near as bad having an idea of what is actually going on.

 

For a few minutes last time I thought I was going mental. Nearly started to believe in ghouls an ghosties!

[StandFree1982]

YES!!

 

I have had this many a times in the past, not recently mind you, and it's genuinly scary. I think the thing that scared me most was that I tried to speak and couldn't. I tried screaming out...nope! I believe it only happens to me when was lying with my arms at my side, lying on my back.

 

I found that just relaxing and drifting off back to sleep worked best. I panicked the first few times it happened, but I learnt how to deal with it and come out of it, which was a relief.

 

Thankfully it hasn't happened to me in years. Reading back, if it was due to sleep patterns, it probably happened during my uni years when I didn't have a proper sleep pattern.

[tup]

I went through a spell of outrageous panic style attacks from sleep when I was studying intensely.

 

Mine were not paralysis though, the very opposite, I would wake and find myself sprinting for the nearest exit, and sometimes I would come to on the landing outside my flat, wondering what the fuck had happened, but fearing going back in to the house and back to bed, sometimes for up to 20 minutes.

 

Then I would realise I was being a tool and go back to bed and back to sleep.

 

It was like a massive claustrophobia, in sleep, but very real when I first woke.

 

Anyway, I've never had it before or since, and it was simply a reaction to the pressure I was under at the time.

[The Boofon]

No change of job. No change of any situation in the last few weeks to make this happen.

 

I have no previous issues with stress (it got really busy at work for a period last year but that didn't stress me out) or anxhiety.

 

If I have another attack I am going to phone up the doctor for advice though. But I'm hoping if I do have another attack that it won't be anywhere near as bad having an idea of what is actually going on.

 

For a few minutes last time I thought I was going mental. Nearly started to believe in ghouls an ghosties!

 

I have the polar opposite after a few sherbets and so a little paralysis wouldn't go amiss.

 

Wake in the middle of the night, get disorientated, freak out because I don't know where I am, cannot find a light switch and so stumble into any available room and piss freely.

 

Very close shave on Wednesday night after getting delayed going to work.

Hit the free bar at the camp and got mortally drunk. As I was in an unfamiliar room when I woke through the night I hadn't a clue where I was and was just about to piss on the main room carpet when a car drove past and the lights coming into the room alerted me to the fact the shitter was in fact at the other end of the building.

[Ke1t]

No change of job. No change of any situation in the last few weeks to make this happen.

 

I have no previous issues with stress (it got really busy at work for a period last year but that didn't stress me out) or anxhiety.

 

If I have another attack I am going to phone up the doctor for advice though. But I'm hoping if I do have another attack that it won't be anywhere near as bad having an idea of what is actually going on.

 

For a few minutes last time I thought I was going mental. Nearly started to believe in ghouls an ghosties!

 

The thing to know about doctors, particularly your GP, is that they have cookie-cutter solutions to problems... and that's even assuming they even know the reason for your ailment.

 

Not to be a dick, but if you're having a mental as opposed to a physical problem, you should probably ask to be referred to a psychiatrist rather than a GP, given a shrink is going to be better able to figure out why you're having this problem. Your GP is more able to identify athletes foot and prescribe a cream than get to the root of some psychological issue.

 

I was going to be flippant about your problem and suggest coke or Jack, but it sounds fucking horrifying and I hope I never suffer from that.

 

I'd see a shrink, they're better equipped than your doctor.

[rossafc92]

No change of job. No change of any situation in the last few weeks to make this happen.

 

I have no previous issues with stress (it got really busy at work for a period last year but that didn't stress me out) or anxhiety.

 

If I have another attack I am going to phone up the doctor for advice though. But I'm hoping if I do have another attack that it won't be anywhere near as bad having an idea of what is actually going on.

 

For a few minutes last time I thought I was going mental. Nearly started to believe in ghouls an ghosties!

 

A few tips I've picked up for when you're suffering a bout of sleep paralysis:

 

- Take deep breaths. You'll probably try to start breathing quickly, but will soon realise you can't making you think you can't breathe at all, making the situation of panic a lot worse. Since your body is tuned in to 'sleep mode' but your mind (and eyes) aren't, you have very little control over any part of your body.

 

- Try moving your fingers and/or toes. Apparently these are the only parts of your body that you'll have control over, and if you start to try and move them, then you might speed up the process of waking your body up.

 

- Try and think about the situation you're in. You'll think you're dreaming when it's happening, at first at least, so try and focus on the fact that it's just another bout of sleep paralysis.

 

- Don't sleep on your back. Increases the chances of it happening, apparently.

 

It's a horrific experience, but I've found these tips have helped. Just found them when I typed it in to Google, so it's not like it's come from a doctor or anything.

[Pash]

I have experienced it a lot before, hasn't happened for a while though.

 

Thought I was being possessed or something the first few times it happened! F**king shit myself. Stuck to my bed, can't speak, sounds like there is a hurricane in my room and a dark silhouette of a person hanging over my bed, scary as f**k.

 

Only happens when I sleep in certain positions.

[stirlingsheep]

I have also suffered from this in the past, was quite frequent a few years ago, went to the doc, and because it was a rural place and he had no other patients, he went through a variety of solutions.

 

What I found was it was happening when I lay on my back.

I found sleeping on my side, with a pillow at my back, and a pillow between my knees stopped it. Something to do with flow of blood or something. Doctor also suggested my work was having an effect, as I mainly sat at a desk, he got me in to running and lifting weights. He also suggested that because I smoked, having that last ciggy before bedtime can make a difference, i.e. your body craving something. Further to this, also cutting out caffeine after 6 in the evening helped. Kept to this and, apart from getting a solid 8 hours a night, it never happened again

[Patty]

Cool, thanks guys. I'm not a back sleeper. I'm more of a side sleeper. When ever I've awoken I have been on my front though.

 

Pash, you described it 100%. It does feel as if you're possessed.

 

Funnily enough I have not had an attack in a couple of days. But what I am going to do is try and focus on thinking about what is actually happening. Maybe now with this knowledge they won't be too bad.

 

Also Kelt, you know how to make a guy feel like he's a loon! Coke & Jack would have been much more welcomed advice.