Awake but can't move

In My Humble Opinion
21

See if you can get a sleep test (Polysomngraph, about $3k) prescribed so that insurance will cover it.

Repeated sleep paralysis is probably not healthy.

22

It doesn’t happen that often any more to me. Maybe once a year (I’m 52).

Back in my 20s and 30s it would happen a few times a year.

23

Happens to me all the time. I even get it before falling asleep once in awhile.

24

How do you get sleep paralysis without being asleep? :confused:

25

Probably fell asleep for a second and didn’t realize it. I have a thing where I think I’m still awake in my bed but I’m actually dreaming.

26

Yep. That happens to me too, quite often. Sometimes I dream that I’m awake and trying to to find a place to sleep, but there’s too many people and too much noise. I venture from room to room, usually with a pillow and blanket, looking for some peace and quiet. This goes on forever and ever, and when I finally awake I’m exhausted from trying to find a place to sleep!

27

I have had sleep paralysis and other sleep disorders all my life. The complication for me is that I also have sleep apnea (it was much worse before I had surgery for it but still not completely gone). That means that I sometimes I become fully conscious but I can’t move and I also can’t breath at all. It is absolutely terrifying every single time it happens. It feels like I am smothering to death (which basically is exactly what is happening). Luckily the human body has a few override switches in its tool kit. Before I die of asphyxiation, a survival mechanism kicks in and I can suddenly move again. That is usually when I sit straight up as fast as I can gasping for air. I have even thrown myself off the bed during the panic (that isn’t cool when you have someone in bed with you).

I don’t like the times when I am breathing any more than the others though. That is a struggle to work through and it takes a whole lot of effort. I have to find a part of my body that I can move and that is most reliably the tip of my left pinky finger for some reason. If I try really hard, I can twitch it enough to get the whole finger working again and then the hand followed by part of the arm. I can use that to push on other body parts like my leg until they come back online as well. It is a tedious effort that takes a lot of deliberate effort and seems to take forever (in reality it is one to three minutes but it isn’t a fun time).

I would pay large sums of money if there was a way to make sleep paralysis go over forever.

28

Slight hijack:

Has anyone ever dozed off without your eyes being closed? Then your brain says Hey, how is that light getting in through my…wait a minute, my eyes are open!

29

I’m in my 60s and hadn’t thought of this subject in many years. I remember as a kid having them occasionally. I was paralyzed, lying on my back with a dark creature of some kind either sitting on my chest or sitting next to me on the bed. I remember being terrified, trying to call out or run away and could do neither. I couldn’t move a muscle.

I would still have them sometimes as a young adult and finally read that they were not uncommon and were called Night Terrors. I had always assumed it was just some kind of nightmare that only I was having. When I had them as an adult, I would realize what it was and was not as scared and would force myself to wake completely.

As far as having “wood”…uh no, I was so scared I’m sure there was massive shrinkage.:smiley:

30

I was thinking of this one.

I haven’t experienced it myself. Unless it’s related to that thing where you’re starting to drift off to sleep and feel a little floaty and suddenly, BAM, it feels like you’ve dropped two inches. Instantly totally awake.

31

I had this exact thing happen to me, except I was an adolescent in military school at the time. So combine it with the fact that it’s happening late afternoon in a barracks filled with more than its share of questionable characters, and that I’m facing a wall during the entire time - staring at a painted cinderblock, wondering who the hell climbed into bed with me!!1! …and how are they holding me so completely still?! …and what’s gonna happen next?

It was my only experience with sleep paralysis, and it was definitely a big WTFF. The extra F is for Fuckity.

32

The thing with sleep paralysis though is that part of your brain is still asleep, so whatever you feel or see at that time is likely hallucination or a dream if you prefer.

33

^ You don’t say? :dubious:

34

Well, something similar… Sometimes, I’ll “wake up” without actually waking up. I’ll actually even force my eyes open, and will see the room I’m in. But my mind twists it around into a dream image (and, at that point, my eyes usually close again.) This weird state can go on for ten minutes, opening my eyes every thirty seconds or so, “seeing” reality, then dreaming it away again.

I have dozed off…but it’s usually pretty obvious. I’ll by lying in bed, reading, and suddenly drop my book. That startles me right back into full awareness again. Only once, I fell out of my chair.

35

I’ve fallen asleep with my eyes open while driving. I’ve completely blacked out for thankfully only seconds at a time and managed to jolt back to reality thanks to rumble strips or sheer luck. But yeah, falling asleep with your eyes open while driving is not a good idea.

36

Welcome to the myoclonic jerk or hypnic or hypnagogic jerk. I hate those. (BTW don’t we have a poster named Hypnagogic Jerk?)

Since we’re discussing weird sleep things, I’ll throw in the mildly annoying “repeated waking” phenomenon, which I will sometimes get after a particular deep nap but not as a result of normal sleep. This is where I “wake up” and get up and walk around and do stuff, and then “wake up” again and realize that all that was just a dream and get up and walk around and do stuff, and then “wake up” again etc etc and repeat this a couple of times until eventually I actually wake up and lie there trying to recaliberate my whole sense of reality and determine whether I am in fact truly awake this time.

Usually by this point I really have to pee so fortunately when I get up and go to the bathroom I am actually doing this and not wetting the bed.

37

Yup. Satan sitting on my chest, breathing hot air into my face…the whole shebang. Good times.

38

I didn’t realize sleep paralysis was a disorder. I thought it was a feature of one the sleep cycles.

I often wake up with a few moments of sleep paralysis. I’ve never had the impression of someone else there, and it’s never lasted so long to be frightening. I thought it was just a normal thing.

I’ve read about night hags. I didn’t realize they were related to sleep paralysis, but that makes a lot sense.

39

I don’t remember the last time it happened to me. I always assumed it was a dream until I read Cecil’s column about it. I’m pretty sure it hasn’t happened since I’ve been married. I should ask my kids if they’ve had it; they certainly seem to a lot of mornings before school.

40

My episodes ran a course of about 6 or 7 years from late 20’s to middle 30’s.