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I am a seventeen year old girl who has been suffering from sleep paralysis ever since I can remember. I have tried telling my mom about it, but she doesn't really pay attention. However, my problem is that it lasts from what seems to be a really long time. I try to injure myself or inflict pain by scratching or hitting myself, but I can't, and the reason I do this is because as soon as I am able to move, I know I'm back to normal. What can I do or what do you suggest I do?
Have you seen a doctor about the sleep paralysis? There are a few medical diagnosis that can cause this. When I was your age I was scared and confused. I didn't know what was happening to me and I thought I was crazy or people would think I was crazy when I told them. When It got worse people DID look at me like I was crazy and I was sent for mental evaluations that came up negative. It took 10 years before i was finally diagnosed with Narcolepsy. There are medications that help control paralysis, but in most cases people with narcolepsy get worse, not better...so it is smart to get to a sleep specialist asap. Hope this helped and one more thing..try relaxing while this is happening..you know it is happening and you will be ok...I found the more I stress out about it, the longer it lasts.
I am a 20 year old student and have been suffering with sleep paralysis for about a year. I have experienced similar experiences to those described in the other comments and sometimes get it up to 8 times in one night, at worst I will have it 7 nights of the week.
However... I also have ADHD (and as a result depression/anxiety) and when I told my consultant about the problem he gave me a diagnosis straight away. He spoke to some neurologist and gave me a trial of melatonin (the sleep hormone which if you don't have enough of can cause the condition).
Since this point I only experience sleep paralysis when I am very stressed/sleep deprived/upset- but most of the time the melatonin controls it. As well as melatonin I have also been prescribed imiprimine in small doses (an antidepressant which can help massively). I really advise that anyone suffering from it on a very REGULAR basis tries out medication as it has really helped me.
But, at the same time I think its important to take personal responsibility for your sleep and recognise how important it is for your general well being. This means as a student in central London I have had to be fairly sensible about how often I party and deprive myself of sleep. As well as this I always study in the library or at my desk- not laying on my bed! This allows a bit of seperation between bed as a place of rest away from studying and stress. I also find keeping a tidy room, eating before bed, not sleeping on my back and not getting too hot all help to stop myself getting it.
If all of these things fail to help then remember that you can try to calm yourself as it happens. I often find myself calming myself down as I panic during an attack of paralysis- accepting it and waiting for it to release tends to work better for me then fighting it relentlessly.
Hope this helps anyone wondering what the hell is happening to them! I remember when I first told my family/friends and they had a good laugh at me... its one of those things that only the individual who has experienced it can actually understand.
i suffer from sleep paralysis. it first happened when i was 18 and iam 29 now. its been happeneing every night this week n until a few months ago hadnt happened for years. its been happening ever since the man upstairs hung himelf right above my bedroom. i did NOT know he died until recently even tho its been happening since his death. i did have horrible night terrors when i was a child- i have heard that it happens more to ppl who have suffered from terrors. the paralysis happened a lot in my late teen years but only when i was in the basement. i take melatonin at bedtime so ppl who say this helps may not be right for the most part. i do take seroqeul for sleep... i didnt used to when it happened before. does anyone who suffers from this take sleep medications?>
I'm sorry to say, but i just woke up from the sleep paralysis 5 different times this night and after the 5th time i made myself get out of bed because i kept falling back into it. It was terrifying. I couldn't move and my dog was ripping at my skin, and i couldnt scream. It took a lot of effort to wake myself up, and as soon as i did i felt myself falling back into another deep sleep. So its hard for me to go back to sleep..im really freaking scared.
Sleep Paralysis is fantastic. I experience it only once or twice a week though. I wish it was more frequent. Once you learn how to control it, there's a lot you can accomplish with it. If you have a great imagination, it's very, very fun. Challenge those dark forces with your own sinister, twisted thoughts and you'll find something reality only offers to few.
I'm 20 years old and I have experienced Sleep Paralysis twice. The first time, I was laying in my bed and woke up. I couldn't move or make a sound. I kept feeling myself get drawn back to sleep. I didn't know what it was, and so naturally I thought that maybe I was dying and that if I let myself go back to sleep, I wouldn't wake up. I forced myself to stay awake, and ever since that happened I've been forcing myself not to keep until I'm really really tired. I almost feel like I'm afraid of sleeping, because I'm afraid of waking up in that state. If I'm correct, my first experience with it was when I was around eighteen or nineteen.
I recently had it again this morning. I'd gone to bed at 12 PM and woke up at 4 AM. I stayed away for about 4 hours and went to lay down around 8ish, figuring that I'd sleep for another two or three hours. I remember having a strange dream, my mom and I were in the car and we were driving to be pizza. The dream felt so real, but I remember waking up here and there, then drifting off back to sleep. The only thing is that, that part felt like a dream too. Finally, I had woken up to see my mom standing in the doorway but my vision was blurry. It'd looked like her head had shrunk, so I called out to her.
I started to get up, but I couldn't move my body. The difference between the first time this happened and the last, was that I remember not being able to make even the smallest of sounds. This second time I was able to rasp out words, though I think I was still more in a dream state than I was reality. Toward the end, I felt myself slip back into sleep like I had the first time, and I thought to myself again: "No. I can't do this. This is just like last time. What if I die." -- So I had concious knowledge that it had, indeed, happened before.
I snapped my eyes opened like I had done the last time and woke up making a really strange sound, sort of like a "aaaaaaa" call. I felt shaky when I woke up... Like I had a hard time walking because my body felt like it was stiff. Eventually, I managed to make it into my moms room where I laid down beside her and relaxed. After that, I ended up going back to sleep in my moms room for about 7 hours, which is a long time for someone who DID sleep about five.
Another thing is that sometimes, because my room sometimes gets used as a guest room, storage room, or can't be slept in for one reason or another, I sleep in my moms room. I've NEVER experienced this sleep paralysis while sleeping with someone else. This has only ever been when I'm in my room alone, which makes me wonder if this might possibly be a paranoia or some form of fear on my end. I've never had this problem while my dog was in the room with me either. Could it be possible that this is some fear related disorder?
If anyone has any suggestions or thoughts, I'd love to hear them. This baffles me and I'm so afraid of going to sleep and having this happen again. It's gotten so bad that sometimes I stay up so late that I'm too tired to do anything but sleep -- at least I think that works, I don't know for sure.
i had the same problem too, last night was on a differnt level, im 20, but it seems like my toes can actually move when im in that state, though the more scared u get the more u forget what to do. last night i fell out of bed because of ppl walking into my room. i looked at my bed and saw myself staring at my manikin by my window, i couldnt hear my heart beat nor my rapid breathing. so i freaked out and feel back into my body. no joke, it was intense, then in my body i fought to wake of course and did almost 5 min later, i tried to even just go back to sleep but my manikin walked up to my bed and a child ran and slid under my bed so i was losing it. been having this since i was like 10 or 12 but last night was intense.
i often experience sleep paralysis.... Ive been getting it since i was about 12 and im 24 now ,what helps me is that ive found my triggers what bring it on ... if i have an abnormal sleep schedule or ir im stressed or drinking alcohol excessively it will happen sometimes five times in a night i will also get sleep paralysis if i take a nap during the day of if i sleep on my back.
if sleeping next to someone helps even if its your dog just keep doing it, the reason i think you might not experience it while your in ur moms room is because you feel safe there or safe next to someone wich could bring down ur stress level also try keeping a consistent sleep schedule staying up beuase your afraid to sleep is just gonna make things worse
my earliest memories awake paralised terrified in bed , my family just thought i was dreaming, 10 yrs old i had several night seizures always in my sleep, i still take eplim, my family has history great aunt narcoleptic and mild epilpesy on both side of family i understand medical world is ignorant of this condition which many people suffer alone as if u talk about this u just sound stupid is there a forum 4 people who suffer this can get together on
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