Toaster, did anything traumatic happen to you as a child? Did you witness anything that may have caused you some trauma? I’ve heard that night terror can be related to Post Trauamtic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Just a suggestion…
- Jinx
Jinx, I can’t really say yes, something traumatic occurred. I’ve had lots of bad experiences, but those weren’t back from when I started having them, back around age three or four. My memory’s kind of hazy from back then, yanno? Past then I’ve had bad experiences but nothing I think would cause Trauma Stress Disorder Unhappiness Stuff… 
I’ve kind of got a lot of memories blocked, so I can’t really even say if I have had any major trauma outside a few of the terrors (ie. permanently scaring myself out of a room because there was an evil spirit in the closet, and I could not exit the room, I was frozen in fear and my parents had to come fix me).
I used to have sleep paralysis frequently. Usually it would occur as I was falling asleep, I would pass through a period of time in which I was completely aware, yet completely paralyzed. This was usually accompanied by a feeling of sufforcation, and I would panic and try desperatly to waky myself up.
About two years ago I was diagnosed with sleep apnea, and got a CPAP machine. As a side effect of stopping my sleep apnea, the CPAP machine also banished the periods of sleep paralysis - I fall asleep gently without feeling paralyzed now, and on those rare occasions in which I do become aware while still being paralyzed I don’t panic but fall back asleep.
Whew! I’m so glad I’m not the only person with this problem! I too have had similar symptoms, but never knew what to call it. Sleep paralysis seems apt. I feel like I’m between being awake and asleep, I feel like I have to force my breathe in and out of my chest or I’ll suffocate. I try to move, I struggle and struggle, and in my “dream” I move like I’m moving through jello or something. And the whole time I hear this horrible horrible screaming. It’s awful. I used to hate going to sleep just for that reason. Back when I was a Christian i thought it was demons or something. After my Christianity phase I thought it was ghosts or spirit world stuff. (i have to admit sheepishly that I have still been leaning toward the ghostly theory)
But the weird thing is, when I wear earplugs to sleep (which has been almost every night for five and a half years), I’ve never had that happen again. On the off chance that I DO go without earplugs, it has happened a few times.
I’m glad it’s a sleep disorder that some people have. I mean, not glad that some people have it, but that it’s actually some sort of disorder that can be treated. I’m not possessed! WOO HOO!!
Lorie
Wow! Reading your post reminded me that when I was younger, once in a while, I used to have similar episodes, but so few and far between that they never bugged me. I never knew that there was a name for them, but the laying there and ‘wide awake’ dreaming was what I would do. My episodes just went away on their own, but, like I said, they happened so very rarely.
Some, I considered interesting but I do recall that it took a tremendous amount of will to force myself awake when in such a state.
I think I was under quite a bit of stress at the time in school. Is there a lot of stress in your life? I was still living with my folks then and was pretty young, but years after I moved out, I had an episode now and then in my own apartment, but mine usually consisted of just knowing that someone was coming in my bedroom door that I should be afraid of. (I lived alone.)
I suggest going to see a psychiatrist. They’re just another doctor after all and these terrors might be your subconscious reacting to something that has bothered you. Plus, they can give you some form of medication, like a mild tranquilizer but somewhat different, that could allow you to sleep better at night without being all drugged up. Either that, or just sweat these things out and they might go away.
How many years has this been going on? If more than one, or if more than just a couple of months, then see a shrink. They do great work. Think back to when they started and see if you can determine if something was stressing you out back then.
Good luck whatever you do.
J248974, I can’t really follow through on any of your suggestions. The paralysis has been around for about seven years, the terrors since I was about three years old. Many people start having terrors at a young age and grow out of them. Both are not really stress-oriented because I actually have no acknowledged stress sans my current hobo spider bite. I cannot think back to when I was three, and at the time of paralysis, I had two cases one night out of the blue, then a few years passed before I had more. Nothing major going on at either time. I will not take medications for either problem – I’m on enough to keep my body working as-is.
As for the terrors, they’re not really my subconscious acting up (I hope – or is my subconscious really infatuated with rugs and leprechauns and jellyfish and chickens?), they’re my brain never having developed an ability to shut down my body when, as neurodoc said, I get to a period of sleep with dreaming. The paralysis is the opposite pretty much, the brain not waking up the body for a while after waking up. I don’t see how a psychologist could train my brain to do that, especially as how the ones I’ve seen couldn’t have cared less about my terrors and paralysis and would not help with them.
I’ve got a short list of places to go try for sleep experimentation around here. Hopefully when 2002 rolls around I’ll be at one and…I don’t know. I will see what occurs then.
I’ve had this condition for as long as I can remember, and I did some research on it a while back…
From what I remember, which is hazy…
Your body releases several hormones/chemicals/whatever when it comes to ‘putting it to sleep’ and ‘waking it up’
One chemical combination induces/revokes paralysis, to make sure you don’t start trying to walk in real life while you walk in your dream.
Another shuts down your consciousness, so to speak, and then turns it back on later.
Well, for whatever reasons, sometimes your body can release the “turn brain on” chemical and not the other one. This leaves you feeling normally conscious, but your body is completely, chemically paralyzed.
Depending on whether or not your body is in a dream-state at the time this happens, you may or may not get dreamed up delusions. If this happens during a dream, generally the dream will be encorperated into your consciousness. (Chicken in the closet, you said)
Or, if you’re not in a dream state, then you’ll wake up, fully conscious, but completely unable to move. This, I’d imagine, is the preferable of the two, but it’s still not pleasant.
I, myself, have only experienced the latter. This has happened to me on and off for years now, but I’ve never had a waking-dream type sleep paralysis.
I think they used to call that condition ‘the old hag disease’ or something similar. Not because it was predominantly in old hags :)… but because it was very common to dream up a witch or old woman sitting on your chest trying to suffocate you. That seems to be a common theme in these types of situations - someone sitting on your chest trying to suffocate you.
Interestingly enough, I think this all can be chemically induced artificially. It’s not too uncommon (unfortunately) during administering anasthesia during surgery to screw up the chemical balance and paralyze your body while still keeping you conscious in a similar fashion. Unfortunately, in this case, you can feel the surgical tools cutting into you and such. Sounds pretty horrible.
Also, an interesting little tidbit I learned from all of this:
When you talk, normally, your brain apparently anticipates what you’re going to say and exactly how it will sound - and your “inner voice” will exactly mirror your vocal chords when you talk. In addition to simply hearing the sound you generate, your brain is actually “internally vocalizing” what you say and you can “hear” it in your head. I discovered that by trying to yell during the paralysis… you actually hear what you’d sound like, given your panic level and the urgency you meant to convey, without generating any actual sound. In my case, I heard “MOM!!!” in my head quite loudly.
Also, I’ve noticed that most people here try to force themselves to wake. My first instinct in this sort of situation is panic - I feel like I’ve suddenly become paralyzed and that something is horribly wrong. But I’ve noticed that there’s a lot less struggle and general discomfort if you just calm yourself and do your best to go back to sleep. If anything, concentrate on moving your eyelids. They’ll seem impossibly sluggish, but if you can close them, and remain calm, you’ll get back to sleep and wake up normally later.
For some reason, I have an odd fear of waking myself up in those situations - that I won’t quite be “fully” waking up, and that I’ll somehow be permanently damaged from the incidence. Silly, really. But in general, I try to go back to sleep.
(Also, if you go back to sleep, it’s much more likely that you won’t remember the incident. In general, it’s worse to know you’ve suffered than not to know, for whatever reason.)
Well for all the other stuff I would suggest following the advice others have given you, but for this, have you considered a sleep mask?
My oldest daughter used to get them fairly frequently, but luckily she hasn’t had them in a while. She would lie in bed, crying and screaming, with her eyes open . . . but we couldn’t talk to her. The only thing we could do was hold her until she fell back to sleep. Interestingly, if we asked her about it the next morning, she would deny ever waking up (which, in a way, she didn’t).