sleep paralysis

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AlisonIsCrazy
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu May 27, 2010 11:14 pm

sleep paralysis

Post by AlisonIsCrazy » Mon May 16, 2011 12:12 am

hello everyone... I havent been on this site in awhile for my anxiety for the most part was doing a lot better since using the program... all of a sudden my anxiety is back at its worse again... i had something happen to me that a looked up online and was explained as sleep paralysis and i just want to know if anything else is going through the same thing that i am... i sometimes will be sleeping and all of a sudden its like im trying to wake up but cant... i cant open my eyes... i can barely move... and sometimes it feels like i cant breath... sometimes i get myself so worked up from it that its like i panic attack in my sleep... im not really sure what it is but all i know is that its one of the scariest things i have ever experienced... i only get them everyonce in awhile but once it happens i have problems sleeping for weeks cause im terrifed of it happening again... this is how i will feel with the not being able to wake up feeling... not opening my eyes and being able to breath and then all of a sudden i just wake up... sometimes i get sooo scared that im not going to be able to get my body to wake up and thats what keeps me from getting sleep... please if anyone of you have ever had these please let me know... im hoping im not crazy and alone...

laaaaa
Posts: 4
Joined: Sun Sep 11, 2011 12:08 pm

Re: sleep paralysis

Post by laaaaa » Tue Sep 27, 2011 8:07 pm

I have had this happen to me a lot in my life. I remember at least 1-2 dreams I have every night. The most I have ever remembered was 12. Sometimes I become conscious in my dreams, or conscious of my body while I'm asleep but not dreaming. This can be a very scary thing. Sometimes I can have fun with it, and do whatever I want in my dream, but other times, it is not quite like that. It is as if my consciousness is being ripped out of itself. It feels like I am being electrocuted, I am aware of my sweaty cold body laying there in my bed, but I can't move. It sucks. Sometimes, directly after I wake up I will hallucinate things like a raccoon, an over sized pair of clown pants, a zombie head on the floor, or just floating in the air. They usually don't last more than about 30 second though - thankfully. The best thing I have found to do is, for dreams that you can't get out of, is to go to sleep in your dream. Stop no matter where you are, or what you are doing, or what is chasing you, close your eyes, roll over, and go to sleep - it works like a reboot. For the scary nightmares, and electrocuting sleep paralizations, I keep a copy of Forest Gump in the VCR. If I wake up freaking out, I just press play, and amazingly it calms me down, and puts me back to sleep. You don't have to do Forrest Gump, any movie that you have seen a bunch of times already that is kind of boring will work. If I am hallucinating when I wake up, and I find it unpleasant, I just close my eyes, and start naming objects, in my head, that are in my room, or hum a song. "Keep a little song handy wherever you go, and nothing can ever go wrong"-Betty Boop.

srm77
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Oct 26, 2011 6:53 pm

Re: sleep paralysis

Post by srm77 » Wed Nov 30, 2011 11:23 am

I've had this before. I've read that our body gives off a certain chemical to keep us from acting out our dreams. People that sleepwalk have less of this chemical. It kind of paralyzes us. Sometimes we wake but it takes a little time for our body to come out of this state. If we didn't have enough of this chemical then we'd be up every night running through our house or out in the street or whatever, acting out what we're dreaming.

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