Sleep Paralysis

[ParaSleep]

Has anybody else here ever experienced sleep paralysis? Is anybody suffering with it now? Has anybody suffered in the past and now has a better quality of life after any kind of treatment?

To be fair, I didn't even know what it was until the specialist told me after all the tests. Basically, you wake up, you can't move a single muscle, and you can see things or hear things around you that are absolutely horrific. I've seen things that I can hand on heart say that you would only ever see in a horror movie. I don't even want to explain some of them because they would carry a TW. I had the worst one I've ever had in my life a few nights ago, and it's been affecting my ability to cope day to day since. You are not asleep when it's happening, you are awake. And when you can finally move, the things you were seeing fade away.

The only treatment I've been offered by the specialist, my doctor isn't willing to prescribe, because it's a potentially habit forming drug.

I've only recently had a diagnosis, but I've been struggling with this condition for years. Eventually I asked for help, not because I thought I needed medication but because I thought I was losing my mind and needed to be committed.

So I'm hoping that there's at least one other person with a similar issue that I can talk to. Or somebody with some advice on how to make it stop. I would really very much appreciate it.

If there's a better section to post this in, please could somebody guide me?

I agree with not sleeping on your back - I used to have hideous sleep paralysis episodes every week or so. They would usually happen as I was dozing off but have stopped almost completely since I've made sure I turn on my side as soon as I get on bed.

Mine is horrendous. I also have dreams within dreams within dreams.
Two nights ago I was having a nightmare ,are about a dead woman in our bedroom. I was screaming at DH to wake up. When he did, terrible things happened and I realised I was still dreaming. I tried to wake up for for real by screaming and DH heard me and woke me up for real. It was awful.
I get the whole paralysis thing too. I have learned to recognise it, and I tell myself to relax and move one finger only. That works. Never fall straight back asleep or I go back into paralysis. I have to put on a light, watch tv or something.

Op, staying up because you're afraid of sleep is probably making it worse. After your dcs go to bed, try to get into a routine. Read a calming book or watch TV, try to get to bed before you're over-tired.

I have at least one episode a month and it is always the same thing I see. I have found it helps if I sleep on my stomach so my eyes can't make shapes/figures out in the room and instead I end up just dealing with the heart racing/sweating/anxiety instead of the terror I feel at seeing things. The figure I see always comes out of the ceiling and moves towards me making this weird screaming noise, and I can't help but stare at it. It ends up right in my face until the screaming it makes is so loud it makes me jump awake. I am known to jump out of bed and run, too. I hate it and it's why I get scared staying over at friends/relatives houses, because I'd be ashamed if it happened there! I've accepted it now, but it doesn't mean I like it.

It has happened to me a couple of times whilst practising lucid dreaming, but only once was it absolutely terrifying and felt completely real (still get the shivers, thinking about it).

But conversely, you may find learning to lucid dream can help you control the sleep paralysis / shift into a lucid dream state instead of stuck awake and paralysed state (along with the visions).

Does anyone else ever feel like they are levitating around the room and off the bed that's the worst !

I do but thankfully I don’t get the seeing/hearing part. I did for a period but just used to think my mum was talking to me so not distressing at all until i would realise it’s not real (my mum is alive and well I should add). I find zopiclone really helps, i think it improves my sleep quality and happens far less often. When it does I try to focus on trying to wiggle a finger

Yes. I have it. Mine is always accompanied with a black figure by the bedroom door. I can’t move. I’m stuck. I’m petrified. It is one of the most horrible awful things I go through. I can see the figure it never moves. It’s terrifying

I get it, had a hard time with it as a kid & I think my claustrophobia stems from these experiences. As an adult, 2 things help: understanding it really well so it's not as terrifying (in fact often I think "oh here we go" when it starts), and being able to lucid dream, which I think is a related thing TBH but I practiced & can often stop the "terror" part of the paralysis episodes in the same way. I get it much more when I'm tired or stressed, so try to have very good sleep hygiene. Although I've been a shift worker for years & am about to have a baby, I prioritise getting enough sleep & having a good environment before bed, whenever I actually sleep! You couldn't pay me to take zopiclone.

I suffer with them, but haven’t had any since having my son. I think it’s because I’m not oversleeping anymore! Like previous posters I would get them when napping or sleeping in a bit longer in the morning. Agree that as hard as it is, getting up immediately after coming out of an episode is important. Similar to moving a finger or toe I try to blink to get out of it.
It is horrible - hope it improves for you soon.

I used to have them occasionally and I always had the same theme in them, being swung by my ankles around the room by an unknown demonic entity. They were horrific but sound fairly lame compered to some of you.

Mine always happened when about to doze off at night, not in the morning like for many others. And training myself not to sleep on my front stopped them happening. I haven't had one in years now. I think for me it was because sleeping on my front I had my arms folded underneath me and that made me feel trapped.

I've suffered too over the years.

I have horrible vivid dreams followed by waking myself up screaming, but I think it comes out as a groan, and I'm paralyzed.

When I wake up I can't remember the dream, or very very little of it, but I know it was something horrible and distressing.

Sleeping on my back, being stressed or overtired, and falling asleep or watching something on my tablet seems to trigger it. Although sometimes it happens and I can't see why.

I suffer maybe once a month or every other month.
Mine generally happens when DH isn't in the bed and I'm always on my front. I don't ever see anything though, mines all audio. I feel like I'm pinned to the bed on my belly, but can hear something or someone running around my house. Always starts with what sounds like a door slamming or being kicked in.

I try and focus all my energy on moving a finger and that normally brings me round. Or sometimes if I can't move a finger, I'll try and force out a shout or shout or even a murmur, which also works.

It's bloody horrible. I try not to think about it because I feel like I'm going to jinx myself into an episode.

What's so weird about it is that it's characterised by really awful, scary visions. I can't see the reason for that. If the brain is trapped between being asleep and awake, then why aren't the visions just bog-standard dreams? Why are they so horrible?

@GetRid I've often wondered that. You probably wouldn't care about not being able to move if you were dreaming about skipping through a field of flowers.

But maybe the paralysis is part of what makes it horrible. We're not programmed to enjoy not being able to move.

This is fascinating as I've never met anyone in real life who has experienced this. It's only happened to me a few times but it was utterly terrifying.

I’ve had this for years and my DH recently had it for the first time too. Always when I’m seriously overtired. I see white spiders all over the walls fairly regularly, and have had demons peeking round the bedroom door at me. DH got dragged out of bed by his ankles during his episode!

@nikkijr1990 I get the levitation one more than I do the paralysis but I get both. Its horrible 😞. When I get the paralysis, touch wood I don't see anything horrible but things aren't right in my bedroom..my bedside lamp might be different. I remember saying to myself once 'wake up' and I could hear myself. It was horrific because it came out as a disembodied groan. My partner would have had a heart attack if he'd stayed and heard that!

I also used to get a very vivid repetitive dream as a child that's happened again a few times in adulthood.

Long story short, I was a child in a medieval village and had to have a sword fight with someone. I lost and fell through the wooden floor of the upstairs room we were fighting in and was mortally wounded.

As I was on my deathbed waiting to die I knew that soon my body would be thrown on what seemed to be a water mill type structure but for bodies.

Very odd and I had it repeatedly throughout my childhood.

The worst dream I've had linked to sleep paralysis was walking along an narrow wooden path over crocodile infested swamps knowing that if I fell in I would die.

I did slip and fall in and I just let myself drown. I didn't try to swim or get back on the path. I just accepted that my clothes would waterlog and drag me down or the crocodiles would get me. All the while paralyzed.

I woke up feeling absolutely worn out and devastated that I'd let myself die.

I used to get it when my eldest was a baby/toddler.

I would wake up to hear him crying and getting out of his bed and opening the front door (we lived in a flat at the time) while this was happening there was something awful in the doorway that would stumble over to me and grab my legs and hold me down.

Fast forward about 12 /13 years to sometime last year and I had a dream.
I dreamt I was still in the flat with my then husband and I woke up to hear my boy crying and getting out of bed so I get out of bed to check on him. Nothing wrong, he’s sleeping so I shuffle back to my bedroom where my ex husband is sleeping and I realise there’s someone sleeping on my side of the bed but it’s dark so I can’t see properly so I feel my way up these legs in my bed and when I get close I realise that it’s me in the bed and I’m actually the awful creature stopping me from moving.

When I woke up from that dream I couldn’t shake the feeling of shock for days. It did quite the number on me.

I used to episodes I would have 4 one after the other on bad nights its horrific. It happens now an again for me when I'm over tired, stressed or my thyroid is acting up. I coped by concentrating on my breathing made it loud enough I could hear it as I couldn't feel my breathing then trying to wiggle my toes or fingers ignoring anything I could "see"

@GetRid you've made two very good points. I would like to try relaxing like that before bed, normally I read MN but that's rarely relaxing 😐

The other was about the things I/we actually see, I've had the same question; why is it always scary things? Why have I never woken up to be laying in a bed in a mansion? Once I woke up and I was in my bed, but my bed was in the middle of a forest. That was very surreal.

I've just tried googling zoplicone, I haven't been able to figure out if it's available at any pharmacy or do I need to have it prescribed? At this point, I will honestly try anything. I'm DC's only carer at the moment, DP is very unwell and I'm in the process of leaving anyway. I have so, so much I need to do, and the stress and tiredness caused by these sleep issues is going to be the end of me.

I know I said it before but thank you again, everybody, for sharing your stories and helping me to feel that I'm not just losing my mind