Hello, I came across your post while doing a search on the internet for people going through this exact sensation because this is how it began for me and I remember desperately wanting answers. I created an account here just to respond to you. I'd like to share my experience with this, as crazy as it may sound, and maybe it could be of some help.
Be sure to check with your doctor, to confirm this isn't something needing medical attention, but here is my experience. Please understand how serious I am when I say that I never believed in anything prior to this, no religion, no spirits, nothing outside of what we see and hear on a typical day.. This ability has been so profound when it occurs, it is enough to completely change me from believing in nothing, and thinking people who do are crazy, to 100% convinced that there is FAR more happening outside the typical everyday world most people see and that the mind is not just part of blob of flesh and blood called the brain.. I am a 38 year old male, no drugs no alcohol. I'll describe only my very first experience, that one should be plenty enough to show you how incredible this actually is..
Around 5-6 years ago I began feeling a full body electrocution type of feeling in my sleep, and this sensation was coupled with the sound of a jet engine in my head. Another very close example of the sound is the noise you hear when you put your head underwater in a jacuzzi and are close to the jets. Just a very loud roar, and this full body electrocution... When these began, for the first 4-6 months it scared me to death, and hurt terribly, and I would force myself to wake up and make it stop. I would wake myself out of it approximately 3-4 seconds after it began. Due to feeling completely normal after these would occur, I never did go see a doctor for it, or even bothered researching it online back then.. Until one night, I left my body entirely...
I was deep asleep next to my wife, on my side, facing my nightstand with my wife to my back. She was awake and sitting up and was on her phone. In my sleep, the electrocution feelings came, along with the roaring, and for some unknown reason I remember telling myself while it began, "Ok I'm tired of this, lets see how bad this really gets before giving in to the pain waking yourself up." So I did not immediately wake myself out of it like I'd always done.. This time I did everything I could to bare the pain. Every other time this occurred, I'd wake out of it within 3-4 seconds as stated before, this time I let it continue and boy let me tell you, the intensity that these sensations build to are VERY extreme. About 15 seconds into this, I was about to give up, my entire body felt as if it was getting hit non stop by a bolt of lightning, and the roaring sound in my mind was as if my head was inside the engine of a jet.. Just when I felt I need to stop, or I'd die, BOOM it was gone. Just instantly like a pop, it was all gone. All the times I wake myself out of it, there is a short wind down period about the same length they took to occur, 3 to 5 seconds.. But this time, it was instantaneously gone and I sat up. I looked at my nightstand, then turned the other way and looked at my wife. Then I also noticed my body was still laying on my pillow, fast asleep!!! I immediately thought WTF???? and then got up onto my knees to back up a bit and look at this... Then I noticed my wife had not even acknowledged these 5-6 seconds of pure panic of mine, was still texting on her phone, and I quickly realized she couldn't even see me.. I said "BABE! BABE!" and nothing.. To her, I was still asleep next to her, facing away from her.. I looked at her phone and saw she was texting her cousin, which is rare in itself, and I read the texts that were on the screen. After reading these, I then snapped right back into my flesh body just as fast as I popped out of it. Now, in my real flesh body, I sit up in a panic and I'm just repeating WTF man WTF?? and my wife asks me what's wrong and what the hell is going on. I tell her I just left my body for like an entire minute after fighting the sensations she's known about. I then told her WHO she was talking to on her phone, and told her WHAT the texts said word for word.
This was impossible to know without leaving my body and seeing it with an astral body.. She said I was deep asleep and not even facing her direction.. The next day, I started searching the internet for people who describe these feelings in their sleep, and people who leave their bodies, and I found a few forums of people who described my EXACT sensations and too, leave their bodies and travel the astral plane/realm.. Like I said.. prior to this happening to me, I thought anyone who ever spoke of things like this were insane. I believed NOTHING, and now I am entirely the opposite.. There have been many other nights where this has occurred for me. Sometimes once a month, sometimes twice in a week. I have even had months and months without any occurrences.. I've seen things that are impossible to know without being there.. One interesting thing is, I have zero control over making these happen. I cannot trigger it to begin.. the sensations occur at random on random nights, but the moment they begin, I know what's happening and take it from there.
I hope my experience opens your eyes a bit to a potential gift you posses, but haven't yet been able to use.. It is utterly terrifying at the beginning, it actually still terrifies me every time, but is much easier to accept than it used to be.