To be fucking terrified

[Scaredtosleep1]

Apologies, I’ve posted on here before for advice but I changed my username since then and I can’t find my old post because I don’t remember what it was. Just starting a new one as it’s been a few weeks anyway.

im having awful problems right now. I’ve never had any issues with sleeping until a few months ago and now it’s horrendous- i keep having awful nightmares. It started occasionally but now it’s almost every night. I always dream of something horrible or scary, like I’m being chased or attacked, it’s different each time but it’s really horrible vivid nightmares, then I wake up and can’t move or yell but I can see something in my room. I know I’m not really seeing something, it’s just sleep paralysis, but it’s horrific and so scary. Last night I thought I saw a big dark shadow crawling up my bed and I was terrified and couldn’t even scream or move, it was like I was locked in my body. Then I get a horrible sensation where it’s like I’m in a kaleidoscope and everything is colourful and flashy and bright, and I get the most horrific screaming in my ears. Then I wake up properly and the screaming takes half an hour or so to stop, and then I usually have the worst migraine ever after and I’m usually dripping in sweat, it’s as if I’ve had a shower and jumped straight into bed, I’m soaked from the sweats.

i still live at home, and I’ve spent the last few months on and off screaming the house down at 2 am with these night terrors, but it’s definitely happening a lot more often. My parents are obviously a bit confused and worried, and I’m terrified to go to sleep now. It’s already after 11 and I know I’ll have to fall asleep soon and I just want to cry I’m so scared about it

I’m not over tired and I’m stressed but not really stressed, I’m at university but I’m actually really enjoying it and all these problems started in the summer holidays. I’m happy with my life, my part time job and everything else

i was going to go to the gp but I can’t get an appointment because I’m in Uni everyday and it’s only phone appointments so it’s so difficult to get through, you have to phone 100+ times and all the appointments are fine

i don’t know why I’m posting or what I’m looking for, I’m just absolutely terrified to go to sleep again tonight but obviously I’ll have to, but by 2 I’ll be drenched in sweat, have a splitting migraine and have had at least 2 night mares. my parents are really supportive but I feel so alone with this and I’m actually terrified

OP, I had a very similar experience a few years ago. I started having nightmares every month, then it was every week and then every night. Similar to what you describe: someone attacking me in my bedroom and I would wake up screaming and sweating and be too frightened to go back to sleep.
(I didn’t experience the kaleidoscope though.)
I skipped the GP and went to a therapist that was trained in EMDR therapy (google it). I had 2 sessions (under £50 each) and I have not had a nightmare since. I absolutely recommend it.
Also a PP recommended a soft/cuddly toy. That’s exactly what the therapist recommended too. For some reason it has worked.

You need to prioritise going to the doctor's. Can you ring as soon as the phone lines open and get an appointment on the day? You can't suffer that every night for the foreseeable.

Register for and use the ask my GP app at your GP they will ring you back the same day. If they have it that is.

I had sleep paralysis for years, Gp sent me to a sleep clinic and I had narcolepsy. Oddly ten years later it went when I had a tumour removed that they say had been there around the same duration. In short pain and poor sleep created the paralysis. Meds helped me manage it well.

I have had sleep paralysis on and off since I was 14. It only happens if I try to fall asleep... so if I watch something before bed, or read, and fall asleep naturally I'm fine, but if I just go to bed and put the light out and try to sleep ill get sleep paralysis. Luckily I've never had the weird demonic people in my room, but I get the locked in, can't move, can't speak or scream etc. Sometimes I hear a loud whirring noise and sometimes I feel like I'm somewhere else or being lifted into the air. So strange. I now deal with it by... I guess lucid dream? I talk myself through it now if it happens, i say to myself 'its sleep paralysis, just relax and itll stop' and i can almost feel myself go through the stages of sleep and know when im going to wake up. Since I've started being able to do that about 5 years ago it's helped massively. I can now control my dreams and all sorts. Don't ask me how 😵‍💫🤯

Our of curiosity, do you find yourself lying on your side to cuddle the teddy? If so, it might be a way to force you not to sleep on your back - which seems to be a common theme in people that suffer!

*Out

I am a sleep Walker and talker which gets worse with stress / caffeine / alcohol.

100% keep pushing to get through to your doctors but maybe it’s worth keeping a diary of food / drink / emotions? See if you can work out any triggers.

I get sleep paralysis too. I have to not panic. I try and relax as I'm aware it's happening. Not easy for some.

It is sleep paralysis. I have it really badly and have been subject to endless tests/sleep studies. I have made friends with the entity that haunts me, following a lot of reading/study. DM if you'd like more info, I found understanding it very helpful.

I see a previous poster mentioned that her nightmares were seen off by Christian ministry. Mine were too, after two decades. Not happy clappy as that's not my style, but entirely mainstream Church of England, talking about it with a priest who then prayed for healing and anointed my head and hands with holy oil. It worked and I have had only the odd nightmare since, again about two decades ago. These ministries operate below your conscious mind and don't usually require any faith commitment.

Like many it seems I used to suffer from sleep paralysis (funnily enough also when I was at Uni and the following few years) - only get it about once a year now.

As other have said - it is utterly.terrifying. Yes, you do need to see the GP, I know it is a nightmare even getting in touch with them but you need to prioritise this. Does your surgery have an online triage system you can send them a message via? I've found that this is the quickest/easiest way of contacting mine. Otherwise it might be a case of taking the morning off lectures and phoning repeatedly as soon as they open until you get through / or even queuing up at the door just before they open.

In the short term using some sort of grounding technique might get you through until you get some better treatment/advice. The one thing that really helped mine was keeping the TV on in my room (do people even have TVs in their room these days?!) on a very low volume. Then if I "woke up" with sleep paralysis I focused on that and it kind of pulled me out of it. Terrible from a sleep hygiene perspective I know.

This used to happen to me and I always found that calling on Jesus stopped it (I'm a Christian). I had nightmares every night of being chased, attacks, demons coming after me etc and it stopped once I started calling on Jesus.

I had a horrible 'attack' during the day once where I was suddenly overcome with such fear that I couldn't move. It's not characteristic for me to have panic attacks but I was so overcome that I was frozen. I lay on the bed and managed to reach my hand into a drawer beside my bed while I just focused on my breathing. I was trying to find my Bible but only managed to pull out a post it note that I had written some scripture on it years before.

Isaiah 9:6
For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. The government will rest on his shoulders. And he will be called: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

As soon as I read 'Prince of Peace' it just vanished. It was the weirdest thing but I always go to that piece of Scripture as my antidote to fear or terror.

I'm so sorry to hear about what you've been going through.

OP I used to suffer with this and was terrified as I did not know what it was. Was telling my sister about it and she knew what it was cos her ex had it. She said oh yeah it's called old hag syndrome. I read up on it and was so relieved I wasn't going mad. It has lessened over the years and I get it every now and again but the episodes aren't as bad but tends to be when I'm very tired.

Yes, I go to sleep on my side cuddling the toy. Although I always wake up on my back!
Honestly, I can’t recommend the EMDR therapy enough. 2 sessions and I haven’t had a nightmare again.
Don’t wait for a GP referral, pay to see a private therapist (if you can afford it).

Try hypnosis from a recommended therapist and it should get to the bottom of why you’re having these dreams and probably resolve the issue in one session.

Nothing, no exam, no course, no job, is more important than your health.

@Shandyinthejarro You’ll probably find reading any piece of fiction with a happy ending helps.

Side sleeping (key), CBD oil, no heavy food after 8pm (snack right before sleep tho), night light and addressing the stress I didn't recognise as 'stress' - that's what helped me. I found sleep paralysis terrifying initially but the fear itself can perpetuate the cycle - you don't want to fall asleep, feel anxious, so you're tired, get less quality sleep, which makes sleep paralysis more likely to happen, which causes the nightmares/hallucinations, so you don't want to fall asleep...

Understanding what's happening helped massively - as I understand, it during REM sleep our bodies go into a kind of paralysis (our muscles relax so we don't start flailing about, acting out our dreams), but in sleep paralysis our brain starts to wake before our body has either entered/exited REM sleep. It's a glitch in the matrix so to speak and the disconnect causes the hallucinations. I read somewhere that the shadows we see (mine is a really sinister figure) is our mind projecting its latent awareness of our bodies shape, but again it's glitchy. We feel fear because the part our brain that normally determines threat/non-threat isn't active during REM sleep, so it can't tell us that 'feeling paralysed' is normal in REM sleep. So it's very real...but also it's 'just' our brain reacting to a glitch.

Someone else mentioned being able to rationalise what's happening while it happens - I can do this now too. It took some time to get there but it's very possible. I never managed a toe wiggle but I can calmly tell myself it will pass and I keep trying to move my eyes until I wake myself up.

The kaleidoscope vision is worth seeing a GP for though, if you have migraine there are meds that can help.

Fucking hell. Talk about delusional. 🤦🏻‍♀️

God doesn’t exist. Demons don’t exist. The church exists to make money and control people and has been pretty effective at doing it for thousands of years, by fear and threats of retribution. It’s all bollocks.

I felt exactly the same as you until my 'sleep paralysis' took a very dark and sinister turn. I'd been an atheist for my whole life.

How is your overall health?

When I'm unwell e.g flu, covid etc I get sleep paralysis, a couple weeks ago I went to bed with a bad headache and had it.

I would be looking at my overall health and rule out any organic causes, such as pushing for an MRI and getting bloods done etc.

Then I would address it psychologically.

I’m sure someone has already said this but if not: get off your phone/gadgets at least 2 hours before you go to bed. Give your brain time to properly decompress. Nice milky drink and a relaxing book. You need to calm your (what sounds like an) overactive brain. Also re the migraines: a daily small dose of amitriptyline has completely done away with mine - game changer!

Lol. Didn’t say anything about a god or a church. As I said, personal belief. But hope you have a great day!

I used to get sleep paralysis but only if I fell asleep on my back. I read somewhere that sleeping on your back can definitely cause it and to stop yourself rolling over at night you are meant to sew a tennis ball into the back of your pj top which wakes you if you roll over.
Worth a try