Question
I am 21 healthy female. I have experienced this tempory paralysed feeling
twice now. The first one occurred 4 months ago and the most recent was last
night. The first time I had put down the book I was reading and lay down in
bed then I felt a pressure beside my legs on the bed like someone had just
sat down. I tryed to move and call out but I couldn't . I coulnt hear either.It's
the most horrible feeling ever. I couldn't move, talk, but I could see and move
my eyes. However last night I lay down on the bed and bang I felt like
something hit every bit of my body and al my muscles went limp. However
this time I could hear a loud fan noice and everytime I enhaled air it would
get extremly loud and when I would exhauled it would get quieter. Please
please tell me what's wrong with me. It's real scary. I don't know if this will be
usefull but my mother and aunties have experienced similar situations.
Answer
Relax I get tons of questions like this, they should make a tv commercial telling all to relax. This is called sleep paralysis and hypnangogic hallucinations. Research doesnt know why it happens. However when it happens and your daytime wakefulness is affected then it could be a sleeping disorder but every now and then is normal. The brain and body are synchronized to fall asleep together and awaken, however once in awhile one of them lag back for a split second and so your body is still asleep paralyzed which is what happens to us when we dream at night or all of would be sleep walking, but your brain is awake so you are dreaming with your eyes open. Dreams can be so vivid yet you cant scream out, because you are paralyzed.Narcolepsy is a sleeping disorder that has these as one of the symptoms. I suffer from this, a narcoleptic gets this more frequently but sometimes everynight but our daytime wakefulness is being affected. The episode is so real that the dream makes you think if you are dreaming of a bug that it is still in the room up to 1/2 hour when awake,. What you can do sometimes it helps, is 3 hours before bedtime keep away from tea, coffee, alcohol, caffeine, chocolate, coke pepsi ginger ale and other caramel colored things, and exercise all this make for restless sleep, and 30 minutes before bedtime take a hot bath to relax, l5 minutes before drink a glass of warm milk. Milk when heated contains tryptophan a natural amino acid sleep inducer so a glass may help. If you get them two to 3 times a week then you would need to consult a sleep center for sleep study, go to sleepnet.com click on disorders, narcolepsy and read about those two symptoms, otherwise relax you are perfectly normal.feel free to email again karel
