Waking up 'trapped'

[purplesleep]

I keep regularly waking up in the middle of the night feeling trapped. Like I'm trapped in a small dark enclosed area and cannot get out. When I eventually snap out of it I'm out of bed have even knocked things off my drawers as I'm so disoriented. It feels so real and like there's no way out. I feel petrified like I'm truly trapped and am going to run of air.
Has anyone else experienced this? As I've got in to bed I've just realised this has happened quite a few times lately. I don't like it. Ideas on what it is, what's causing it?

Sleep terrors?

Are you stressed at the moment? Confinement nightmares can be related to real life worries. Are you feeling like you're taking on too much, Or in a situation you can't see a way out of?

Bach remedy White Chestnut and Star of Bethlehem are great for helping with sleep worries.

It’s sleep paralysis. I used to get it when I worked strange hours and had an afternoon nap and then went to bed very late. You need to allow yourself to come to a little, remain calm and then wake up. It’s very scary when it happens as you feel so helpless. If you google there’s lots of advice.

I feel like I can move and clearly can as I'm wrecking my bed and knocking things over in the bedroom. It's trapped as in the sense of being in a small box and not being able to escape it as such?
Would terrors/paralysis mean I physically couldn't move?

I possibly am stressed yes, I have poor sleep anyway struggle to stay asleep as it is, also suffering from migraines a lot more which is making me feel pretty unhappy right now

I've had similar situations where I would wake up with an overwhelming sensation that if I didn't get to my bedroom door immediately I would be locked in for 24 hours. Once I touched the bedroom door, the feeling disappeared and I realised it wasn't real. I solved the problem by leaving the door open and the landing light on. No idea what was causing it, I wasn't stressed by anything I was aware of, so it seemed best to find a practical solution. Could you do something like that?

Possibly yes...Do you have any suggestions of what to try? 🤷‍♀️

It’s sleep paralysis
It’s normal for your brain to shut down the physical responses or ‘motor control’ Sections of itself during sleep. This avoids you sleepwalking it acting out any dreams. You are essentially in a stare of paralysis. In normal waking your self awareness and motor control are synced and so as you regain consciousness from sleep, you start to move.

Sleep paralysis happens when the ‘awareness’ part of your brain wakes up before the ‘motor control’ part. So you are aware of your surroundings but essentially paralysed against acting upon your thoughts. It tends to happen during periods of stress or extreme tiredness such as jet lag.

It’s completely safe and you are fine

Try and relax and return to sleep. Use a mantra, reassure yourself, think peaceful thoughts. I know it’s tough. You'll Doze off and wake up normally.

Next time it happens, make yourself aware of where you are. Say to yourself I'm in my bedroom and I'm safe. Then let yourself go back to sleep calmly. Keep doing this, as it's always the best thing to stay calm. Can you have a light on the landing and leave the door open like I did? It really helped me because if I did wake up I could see immediately where I was.

I used to have something similar happen to me fairly regularly and would be trying to escape my bedroom through the wall!

I somehow learned to recognise it straight away and would put my bedside light on and immediately would click out of it.

I think try to gain awareness the minute you 'wake up' (I think the reality is that you're still 90% asleep when it happens but you can learn to use the 10% awareness to identify that it's a night terror, put the light on, call yourself a prat and then a few minutes later go back to sleep.