Woah... What? Walking Sleep Paralysis?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Because I have no idea what to call what just happened to me.

I’ve had sleep paralysis before, and usually accompanied by bad nightmares and ‘‘waking up’’ 20 times before I realize I finally woke up for real. I’ve also woken up, only be to immediately sucked back into the nightmare–that is the worst, because I’m conscious of literally being unable to wake up, of having no control over whether my body sleeps or not. It’s been a while, though.

I woke up today to go to an early appointment, came back, felt tired, and decided to go back to bed. What resulted was a long, drawn-out, miserable sleep paralysis experience. After about forever of going through this dream-sequence thing on a giant ship, I finally realized I was asleep. Then I was in my bed on the giant ship, trying to wake up. I must have had 10 false wake-ups. And the more I woke up, the more I felt someone was in the apartment, and the more freaked out I became about being unable to move.

Finally–finally–I woke up. As soon as my body would work, I confirmed that nobody was in the apartment and then I stumbled to the bathroom.

But this is the weird thing. For the longest time, I wasn’t sure if I was awake or not. My limbs were going numb and I felt that, even though I had just got up and walked around, I was being sucked back into sleep! My eyes kept rolling back in my head like I was going to pass out or something. As though I could be walking into the living room and instantly fall asleep and collapse to the carpet. I’ve had plenty of times, in dreams, where I’ve questioned the reality of a dream, but I have never been awake and questioned reality!

So I spent the next twenty minutes oscillating between the possibility that I was still asleep and the possibility that I was in danger of collapsing into paralyzed sleep at any moment. My hands were too weak and numb to do much, for a while there seemed to be getting number. I just sat there trying to fight being sucked back into sleep. Then I got a soda and some pretzels to try to convince my body I’m awake. I think it worked.

It has been 25 minutes since this occurred, and it doesn’t appear I’m going to fall asleep involuntarily. The feelings are less strong, and I am 95% certain that this is reality and not a dream.

I’m still exhausted… but scared to go back to sleep! :eek:

I’m sorry if this post is less than articulate. I feel like parts of my brain are still asleep.

Has anybody had this happen to them before? WTF?

2

I’ve never had anything like this happen though I did have a couple of incidents of sleep paralysis (of the hypnopompic<sp?> sort, i.e. upon waking) when I was a teen. Those were bad enough, thankyouverymuch (as in, terrified me into hysteria).

What you describe though sounds a LOT like things associated with narcolepsy. The hallucinations, the sleep paralysis, the muscle weakness… IANAD, my sleep disorders are of a totally different flavor, and chances are this is nothing but, well, see your doctor and maybe demand to see a sleep specialist.

3

I am not trying to alarm you, but I would personally see a doctor ASAP. While the most of it does sound like sleepwalking/night terrors/sleep paralysis, my father had the same type of experience which turned out to be a small stroke. When he told me about it, it kind of scared me, as I run the gamut of sleep walking/talking, paralysis and night terrors and now everytime it happens that I sleepwalk and experience the sleep paralysis at the same time, I worry it might be a stroke.

Of course, I am inserting the standard disclaimer: IANAD, IANAL, IANAAU, YMMV

4

I have this same thing happen to me a lot. I have no idea what to call it. I hope, even though this post was left in 2007, this post gets responded to. It can be terrifying, because it feels like I AM being pulled into sleep. If I try to wake up the second my head comes back the feeling comes again. I have let myself be sucked in once or twice and it is the oddest dreams. I feel like I am being enticed by the devil himself. It is horrible and twisted. Well I was trying to wake up one time and I couldn’t, finally I did and my bf told me I sat straight up like in a movie. Not where you fold up normal or use your arms to push you up, but you fold straight in half. I then made a sound like someone emerging from water.
The only thing I know is that I woke up on my back gasping like i was just emerging from water. I always wake with the feeling that something is in he room and it is definatey watching me. I don’t feel like it can get close to me. I would love to know what it is.

5

Get a sleep study done ASAP.

6

Wow, I’ve experienced sleep paralysis just like you described, but never the walking kind! That sounds especially scary! Have you googled or anything to see if other people have had that experience?

7

Hopefully Olives dealt with this back in 2007, when the OP was written. Considering she’s a frequent poster, i assuming all is well Refraining from obvious zombie jokes will take much restraint. :slight_smile:

Hey, Olives! Update?

8

It happens to me sometimes, but I have narcolepsy.

A zombie thread about zombie symptoms. :smiley:

9

Some anxiety medicines can also cause this.

10

Ha! I didn’t even notice the zombieness.

11

Yup. That was joke! I’m glad someone made it!

12

Wow, thought I was the only one who had this. I’ve tried to explain it to family, friends, doctors, etc. only to get that, now all too familiar, odd look in return.

I have only been able to describe it as sleepwalking and being fully aware of the dream but unable to wake up.

I’ve read so many stories on sleep paralysis and many sound just like me, with the one big exception, I’m up and walking around during it all.

My arms and legs feel as if they weigh nothing, however it takes a huge amount of effort to move them. My fingers have no dexterity and the bottoms of my feet feel rounded. I’ll be aware of what I’m doing and wander aimlessly trying to figure a way out of my dream. I cannot perform even the simplest of tasks in this state, other than walk and fumble with things to try and think my way out of it. I will feel as if someone is with me, next to me or behind me watching. I get this intense fear that I will be trapped in the dream forever. My ears have a barely audible buzz and there is this white noise cast over everything that is barely visible, but sometimes prominent. (like the static from an older TV when it isn’t tuned to a station.)
The whole time I’m fighting the urge (i dont know why) to fall asleep. Even though, in reality, I already am asleep.
…and no I’m not dreaming of walking around. I am. It’s been witnessed. I can also recall every minute of my “adventure” and go back to certain things I tried to do while asleep. (like make coffee) When I wake, I can follow my steps of the dream and see the things I tried to pick up or the mess I made while trying to unsuccessfully do something.

This used to happen to me a lot when I was young. It’s only happened once or twice in the past year. But the feeling of helplessness, fear and disorientation last for months after each episode (like a nightmare that hangs with you all the next day) so I’m fortunate that they happen with less frequency now.
Let me answer most of the common questions up front:

No, I’m not depressed, on medications legal or otherwise.

Yes, I’ve been to many, many doctors about it, but due to the infrequent nature of the problem, no doctor has witnessed it.

Married, middle aged guy with the house in the burbs, three kids, wife, two dogs, etc. No abnormal stress.

I have yet to correlate a trigger to the episodes. They seem simply random.

With the lack of any similar stories on the web, save this thread, I hope to hear others stories.

13

goddamn zombie threads

14

That sounds like an issue that could be diagnosed with a sleep study/MSLT. I have narcolepsy without cataplexy. Cataplexy commonly goes with narcolepsy and is a loss of sensation and control of parts or all of your body. Narcolepsy is characterized by inappropriate REM activity. This can take the form of Excessive Daytime Sleepiness, Automatic Behavior, Cataplexy, Sleep Paralysis, and Hypnagogic Hallucinations. During my MSLT, they told me that my body doesn’t shut down in REM and that my brain approaches REM activity before really falling asleep. This has lead to some stories that sound amusing but are quite terrifying.

I have on multiple occasions woken up sitting in my living room or kitchen eating a breakfast I cooked while asleep. I make decent pancakes when asleep, and even am capable of cleaning up the dishes. I generally don’t have a recollection of these events, but occasionally I do. I woke up one morning thinking I had had an odd dream about walking to Sonic about a half mile away from my dorm. I then realized I had my shoes on, my wallet in my pocket, and my keys sitting beside me on the bed. My roommate said I could not be persuaded that they were closed at 2 am and he thought I was awake so he didn’t stop me.

Basically, do you have daytime fatigue or any other symptom of narcolepsy? Do you fall asleep rapidly and dream rapidly?

15

Woah, that’s a blast from the past. Well, for what it’s worth, this doesn’t happen to me anymore.