pretty sure this is a repeat from a couple weeks ago.

/experiences sleep paralysis
//not a student or psychiatric patient
///should be a psychiatric patient?
////slashies

I experienced my first and so far only incidence of sleep paralysis a few months ago. Losing conscious control of your breathing is terrifying.

Fuggin Bizzy: I thought sleep paralysis was more-or-less normal. It's what keeps us (usually) from falling out of bed in the dead of night. It also keeps us from fighting or running in our dreams, which is...inconvenient at times.

The phenomenon they are talking about is waking up while still in the paralyzed state.

Happened once to me. Hopefully never again. You just lay there in bed, telling your arm to move....leg....finger...anything. Really creeped me out.

I'm a law student and get paralysis three times a month, so I'm getting a kick and such

Having experienced it twice so far, and having some rather strange hallucinations as well as the feeling of absolute terror during both experiences, I've made damn sure not to sleep on my back anymore. *shudders* Fark that.

Failing_Junk: I experienced my first and so far only incidence of sleep paralysis a few months ago. Losing conscious control of your breathing is terrifying.
I have had it once a week or so since i was a kid. The breathing part sucks the most. You feel like you have to manually inhale but your lungs are too tired. Sometimes i just lay there hearing all of the sounds around me but cant move. Once in a while i can call out in my sleep and my wife shakes me awake. She says it takes a lot of shaking to wake me.

Yeah, people with severely disrupted sleep schedules are a lot more prone to it.

I had one episode of sleep paralysis a few years back, after a long couple of weeks of crazy schedules. Luckily, I'd read about it a week or two before, in a book by Oliver Sacks, so I had the luxury of knowing what it was and what was happening. So I went back to sleep and woke up fine.

Uh, yeah? Waking sleep paralysis is associated with periods of intense mental stress and screwed up sleep schedules. Students are always stressed out and usually stay up way too late, makes perfect sense.

Failing_Junk: I experienced my first and so far only incidence of sleep paralysis a few months ago. Losing conscious control of your breathing is terrifying.

It's right down there with the drowning dream isn't it?

After a while I was able to calmly wait for the rest of my body to wake up and it wasn't as scary, soothing in a strange sort of way. Of course, half of the time the sleep paralysis was accompanied by the intense need to pee, which is always nice when you can't move. Thankfully it never took more than a minute or 2 for my body to catch up with my brain and wake up.

Getting the sleep apnea diagnosis and going on CPAP put a stop to the drowning dreams and sleep paralysis in a big hurry.

So does this mean that students are abducted by aliens at school now? Link (new window)

Besides students and patients who else gets asked if they have experienced sleep paralysis?

Sounds like someone is hunting for funding.

This happened to me once.

I saw an 'alien' grey thing slowly peering out of a wall. Couldn't move. Couldn't scream and stuff.

So, um, what is sleep paralysis exactly? TFA seemed like it wanted to keep it a secret.

Morning Stiffness is much more common as well.

While we're on the topic... anyone else here ever experience Exploding Head Syndrome? (new window)

Exploding head syndrome is a rare and relatively undocumented parasomnia event in which the subject experiences a loud bang in their head similar to a bomb exploding, a gun going off, a clash of cymbals or any other form of loud, indecipherable noise that seems to originate from inside the head. Contrary to the name, exploding head syndrome has no elements of pain, swelling or any other physical trait associated with it. They may be perceived as having bright flashes of light accompanying them, or result in shortness of breath, though this is likely caused by the increased heart rate of the subject after experiencing it. It most often occurs just before deep sleep, and sometimes upon coming out of deep sleep.

Again, before the sleep apnea diagnosis, I would get this about 5 - 10 times while trying to fall asleep. Every night.

This has happened to me a few times and, oddly enough, was the dinner table topic the other night.

Truly the most horrifying experience I've had. I think it's because you cannot vocalize. At all. I was terrified each time.

The First Four Black Sabbath Albums: So, um, what is sleep paralysis exactly? TFA seemed like it wanted to keep it a secret.

Imagine waking up, being completely aware of all of your senses, your breathing, sounds in the room, etc, but being unable to open your eyes, move, control your breathing, or speak.

The paralysis part is a normal part of sleeping, it keeps us from flailing about and hurting ourselves while asleep. Sleep paralysis is what happens when the conscious mind wakes up before the brain takes the body off of autopilot. You're kind of 'stuck' there until things get synced back up.

It's scary.

What Plants Crave: While we're on the topic... anyone else here ever experience Exploding Head Syndrome? (new window)

Exploding head syndrome is a rare and relatively undocumented parasomnia event in which the subject experiences a loud bang in their head similar to a bomb exploding, a gun going off, a clash of cymbals or any other form of loud, indecipherable noise that seems to originate from inside the head. Contrary to the name, exploding head syndrome has no elements of pain, swelling or any other physical trait associated with it. They may be perceived as having bright flashes of light accompanying them, or result in shortness of breath, though this is likely caused by the increased heart rate of the subject after experiencing it. It most often occurs just before deep sleep, and sometimes upon coming out of deep sleep.

Again, before the sleep apnea diagnosis, I would get this about 5 - 10 times while trying to fall asleep. Every night.

I had that once. Took me a few seconds to realize the sound was only in my head. Then I just waited for a stroke or something.

i just get sleep wood.

I have sleep paralysis. It's pretty freaky. Being awake, yet your body is still in deep sleep. I struggle to breathe, but I cans till move my eyes around. I don't have the hallucinations that people are talking about (those are during my normal sleep). I love sleep, but sometimes it's too scary for me :-(

And for anyone needing a more visual explanation of the phenomenon, I found a video that I think explains it pretty well here. (new window).

I experience this almost every morning. I had no idea it was not how everyone woke up.

I have it pretty regularly. If it happens as I'm drifting off instead of when I'm waking up, I'll sometimes hear this weird "whooshing" sound. That's scarier than the paralysis.

What Plants Crave: While we're on the topic... anyone else here ever experience Exploding Head Syndrome? (new window)

Exploding head syndrome is a rare and relatively undocumented parasomnia event in which the subject experiences a loud bang in their head similar to a bomb exploding, a gun going off, a clash of cymbals or any other form of loud, indecipherable noise that seems to originate from inside the head. Contrary to the name, exploding head syndrome has no elements of pain, swelling or any other physical trait associated with it. They may be perceived as having bright flashes of light accompanying them, or result in shortness of breath, though this is likely caused by the increased heart rate of the subject after experiencing it. It most often occurs just before deep sleep, and sometimes upon coming out of deep sleep.

Again, before the sleep apnea diagnosis, I would get this about 5 - 10 times while trying to fall asleep. Every night.

I get that once in a while. I didn't think much about it as a kid but when I got out on my own, the first time it happened, I thought the transformer on the pole outside blew up. It was pretty loud & there was a bright flash that went along with it.

Do you also jerk awake right when you are just about asleep? I don't know what causes that but it sucks.

''What's the big deal about the Hag?'' I asked. The room went quiet. Faces turned my way. "Never talk about the Hag that way," one of the men whispered. (new window)

What Plants Crave: The First Four Black Sabbath Albums: So, um, what is sleep paralysis exactly? TFA seemed like it wanted to keep it a secret.

Imagine waking up, being completely aware of all of your senses, your breathing, sounds in the room, etc, but being unable to open your eyes, move, control your breathing, or speak.

The paralysis part is a normal part of sleeping, it keeps us from flailing about and hurting ourselves while asleep. Sleep paralysis is what happens when the conscious mind wakes up before the brain takes the body off of autopilot. You're kind of 'stuck' there until things get synced back up.

It's scary.

You got that farking right. I have had it a couple times in my life and it is perhaps the most frightening things I have ever experienced.

God, I hate the words sleep and paralysis used together. I get it every so often and even though Ive researched it, and know ill snap out of it, the whole not feeling like your breathing thing sends me into a straight panic every time.
GAHHHHHHH

/ok im good.
//maybe

(new window)

What Plants Crave: While we're on the topic... anyone else here ever experience Exploding Head Syndrome? (new window)

Exploding head syndrome is a rare and relatively undocumented parasomnia event in which the subject experiences a loud bang in their head similar to a bomb exploding, a gun going off, a clash of cymbals or any other form of loud, indecipherable noise that seems to originate from inside the head. Contrary to the name, exploding head syndrome has no elements of pain, swelling or any other physical trait associated with it. They may be perceived as having bright flashes of light accompanying them, or result in shortness of breath, though this is likely caused by the increased heart rate of the subject after experiencing it. It most often occurs just before deep sleep, and sometimes upon coming out of deep sleep.

Again, before the sleep apnea diagnosis, I would get this about 5 - 10 times while trying to fall asleep. Every night.
This happened to me a few times a week ago while I was at home during an episode of sleep paralysis, it scared the everliving shiat out of me since I was immobilized and thought someone was breaking in or something else that would require me to not be paralyzed. It took me a while to realize that the noise was coming from in my head.

/21, was studying at the time
//should probably say something to my doctor

What fun is it if the sheep can't move? Oh, oops. sorry. heh, never mind.

Alicious: I get that once in a while. I didn't think much about it as a kid but when I got out on my own, the first time it happened, I thought the transformer on the pole outside blew up. It was pretty loud & there was a bright flash that went along with it.

Do you also jerk awake right when you are just about asleep? I don't know what causes that but it sucks.

Yes. It usually went like this: Drifting off to sleep, brief, loud ringing in ears, loud percussive noise which jarred me awake at which point my heart would be pounding and I would we all sweaty and gasping for air. Sometimes this would be accompanied by a flash of light. Repeat 5 - 10 times before finally falling asleep. Dream of drowning, 'wake up' with sleep paralysis.

I only ever heard of sleep apnea because of a guy at work whose wife worked at a sleep diagnosis center. He took one look at me (tall guy, large build {not fat}, 17" neck) and asked how I was sleeping and if I had high blood pressure. [Poorly, yes] He advised getting a sleep test, which I did. It turns out that I was having 60-70 episodes per hour, so basically asleep, but not really sleeping. After adjusting to the CPAP, the blood pressure dropped considerably and I dropped about 20lbs pretty quick. All of the above problems pretty much went away.

What sucks is how under-diagnosed it really is. Most physicians will throw some blood pressure meds at you and tell you to lose some weight. The problem with that is that if you are not getting good sleep, the cards are stacked against you in a huge way. Lack of sleep will sabotage nearly any attempt you make to lose weight because it slows your metabolism way down. It also causes your blood pressure and temperature to spike at night to compensate for the lack of oxygen (this is also why you wake up in a pool of sweat). On top of that, weight may exacerbate the sleep apnea, but is generally not the cause. That would be genetics. Enter vicious cycle...

Failing_Junk: Fuggin Bizzy: I thought sleep paralysis was more-or-less normal. It's what keeps us (usually) from falling out of bed in the dead of night. It also keeps us from fighting or running in our dreams, which is...inconvenient at times.

The phenomenon they are talking about is waking up while still in the paralyzed state.

Yeah, I had to go look it up myself because the article writer could not be bothered to explain what sleep paralysis was. I thought the same as Fuggin Bizzy. Of course, now I know that what I thought was sleep paralysis is actually REM atonia.

Now, should I praise the writer for causing me to go and learn something new today or hate him for making me do my own work? Hmm. Seeing how I am primarily an autodidact, I guess I'll praise him and his lackadaisical work effort.

Since I keep blathering on about my sleep apnea, I should probably point out that it isn't necessarily linked to the sleep paralysis. That just seems to be the case in my particular situation.

Euell Gibbons: Happened once to me. Hopefully never again. You just lay there in bed, telling your arm to move....leg....finger...anything. Really creeped me out.

After a few episodes I read somewhere that if you can move your eyes then moving them back and forth rapidly can break the paralysis. For what it's worth, it worked the next time when I finally remembered to try it.

\Luckily no more since then.
\\Though they were getting progressively less scary and more just weird. Probably because I actually knew what was happening.

I'm pretty sure I have experienced sleep paralysis. It really only happens to me when I am waking up from a nap. I can't move and I can't tell if what is happening is real or if I am dreaming. I don't find it to be terrifying, though. Maybe that isn't really sleep paralysis?

/seriously thought it happened to everyone

U8D1EyedSnake: I'm pretty sure I have experienced sleep paralysis. It really only happens to me when I am waking up from a nap. I can't move and I can't tell if what is happening is real or if I am dreaming. I don't find it to be terrifying, though. Maybe that isn't really sleep paralysis?

/seriously thought it happened to everyone

No, that's sleep paralysis.
It's happened to me twice. One other time was waking up after a nightmare. I was dreaming that I was driving a car from the back seat and I ended up driving off a bridge and into the water. I woke up suddenly and my heart was beating really fast but I couldn't move. It was terrifying.

The other two times I've been woken up suddenly and I can't move. Like, I'm awake and all, but the relaxant on my muscles hasn't worn off. Not being able to move was terrifying.

I've never had the "thing preventing you from getting up" dream, though.

planes: [www.global-air.com image 150x195]

'What's the big deal about the Hag?' I asked. The room went quiet. Faces turned my way. "Never talk about the Hag that way," one of the men whispered. (new window)

Wtf is up with you Newfies?