Sleep Paralysis/Bad Dreams

[Normando91]

Strange one this but does anyone else suffer Sleep Paralysis/Nightmares if they fall asleep on their back?

Ive gotten pretty good over the years at making sure I never fall asleep on my back, but sometimes it happens and when it does I am guaranteed to suffer both in some way. I’ve just woken from a pretty grim one now.

I’ve had this since I was 16 and it truly sucks. A lot of the time I know I’m asleep and just remain calm until it passes but sometimes it’s horrible and takes a long time to get through… then I’m sat here, like now, terrified to go back to sleep.

Does anyone know what the correlation is between falling asleep on my back and this happening? Never experience it when sleeping on either side.

Yes I hate it. It's worse now I'm a widow as when dh was alive he could wake me quickly, but now I have to rely on my teenage dds hearing from another room and waking me which can take longer. God knows what I'll do when they leave home as I don't seem to be able to get myself out of it on my own and it's very frightening. I tend to dream there is someone in the room clinging to the back of me.
I read on here it's to do with the position of the brain when you're on your back but don't know if that's right.