Dreams and wakefulness.. I get stuck in between.

[Tiffy]

Sorry this is so long.

Okay, pretty much, I have this problem where I get stuck in between wakefulness and dreaming. It concerns me a little, and I want to know what it is, so I've come to Off Topic in hopes someone has experienced it or can at least shed some light on what's happening to me.

This has happened to be for years and years now. Not ever night, and not exactly ALL THE TIME, but often enough to make me dislike the idea of sleeping. It happened last night (this morning, rather) and I'm too scared to sleep. Sometimes it's VERY extreme, like this:

A few months ago, I closed my eyes to sleep (I was very very tired, early morning), and I immediately started dreaming. I saw a fist reaching out at me through the green smokeyness I often get when I close my eyes. I opened them again, saw the room around me, but couldn't move. I closed them again in hopes to fall asleep, because that was ALL I could do. Rapid images flashed across my mind, vivid situations, extreme dialouge. I was panicking because I wanted to open my eyes, and at which point I COULDN'T. I was aware of my body, the room I was in, the slowness of my breathing. I was literally fighting for dear life to take a deep breath, to stop the DREAMING, if you can call it that, and snap back into reality. At one point I felt as if my body were crawling across the livingroom floor (I was dozing on the couch), but when I finally was able to open them a slit, I saw the floor beneath me, and knew I was still laying on the couch, my face positioned over the side. I couldn't move still.

At one point I was able to take a wild gasp for air, and I was back again. Totally randomly. Last night was slightly different from that. My eyes were open constantly and I couldn't seem to close them. I was facing the wall, and I was beginning to dream (yes, with my eyes open), so I tried to incooperate the wall into my dream. It didn't work. I tried to focus on the wall. It didn't work. I was listening to my Canadian friends laughing in my head, I was sitting in a car with them on the way to their house, it was ALL VERY VIVID, yet I was also lying in my bed staring at my wall.

It felt like my mind was crossing its eyes. I tried to wiggle and hit myself against the wall, to snap me out of it. I remember trying to make myself grab my wrist to drag my nails into my skin. I tried to make a noise. Nothing. In the end, I took a gasping breath and returned, but holy god I didn't sleep after that.

If anyone has ANY IDEA what this is, please tell me. Can I cure it? How can I make it stop?

 

[kazlin]

It sounds like you have a form of sleep paralysis. I used to suffer with it. Athough I was awake, I wasn't awake enough to move my body and was always too scared to open my eyes.

It is pretty scary at times.

 

[Tiffy]

Is it genetic? For some reason I remember my father saying he suffered from sleep paralysis... but I could be wrong. Is there any way of avoiding it?

 

[gangofgin]

i used to get sleep paralysis and every now and then still suffer from it, dont think people realise how scary it is.
this doesnt sound exactly like that i get but quite similar, so maybe its the same thing.

id quite often believe i was awake but apparently im still asleep, id have my eyes open and id be fully aware of my surroundings. i couldnt move, speak, shout or anything and i just felt like i was in serious danger. i know it sound really really silly but sometimes id think i was being possessed by a ghost or something and my whole body was frozen apart from my head. i remember having it once when i was younger falling asleep on a friends sofa, and i was watching the gmtv clock in the bottom of the screen, it lasted about 15 minutes and i was totally frozen not able to move. i feels like a life time though.
i went to the doctors and he said things that cause it could have been pevious drug abuse, funny sleeping patterns and diet. at the time, i was working nights and had it regularly (8pm - 8am). since then ive gone back to working normal hours and it seems to have eased off a little.

 

[gangofgin]

oh, my doctor also had me on an anti depressant for other reasons but that he said would help with it, but i wasnt having them that regularly at the time he put me on them. he said he thought it could all be linked though. since i found out i was pregnant ive had to come off them, hope they dont come back like they did or my other halfs in for a traumatic 9 months

 

[Sammystar]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_paralysis

I get this. It can be scary. Sometimes I feel like I'm rising up and I'm actually on the ceiling, or I'm being held down, or even beaten, by somebody or something.


I get it more if I'm over tired (permanent state of affairs recently!) or stressed.

I've learned to get used to it over the years, but it isn't pleasant.

 

[gangofgin]

just copied this from a site too..

How can I stop the sleep paralysis?

In severe cases, where episodes take place at least once a week for 6 months, medication may be used.

You may be able to minimize the episodes by following good sleep hygiene:


getting enough sleep
reduce stress
exercise regularly (but not too close to bedtime)
keep a regular sleep schedule

 

[Tiffy]

I have had it for a while, actually. I was just thinking about it in the shower, and I realized that I've had similar episodes since I was a child. I remember vividly, when I was around seven or so, I was asleep with my pillow pressed against my face. I was aware that this was what was happening, but I was unable to move or change my positive for more air. I didn't have odd dreams accompanying it, though...

It isn't silly at all, gangofgin. It's FRIGHTENING. I hate it. My OH was like, "WHAT HAPPENED, ARE YOU OKAY!?!?!" and I explain what happened and he ended up pinching me every five minutes to make sure I didn't doze off and it didn't happen again.

 

[Tiffy]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_paralysis

I get this. It can be scary. Sometimes I feel like I'm rising up and I'm actually on the ceiling, or I'm being held down, or even beaten, by somebody or something.


I get it more if I'm over tired (permanent state of affairs recently!) or stressed.

I've learned to get used to it over the years, but it isn't pleasant.

Usually they happen when I'm exhausted or if I wake up then go back to sleep again.

 

[frangelle]

I get this quite often, its very scary. I always try and call out my OH's name but cant

 

[gangofgin]

oh another time i had it, i was at work doing a sleep over and i felt like someone i couldnt focus in on was dragging me round the room by my feet, i actually woke up crying because i was so scared and ran into a room where patients were asleep and just sat with them so there was at least some company.

 

[Tiffy]

Just wish I could be a little more rational when I get it... then at least I could tell myself it will be over soon. As it is, I'm too freaked out to think straight and all I want is to get out of it.

 

[krystal&jack]

I had this before when I was suffering severe anxiety..

it was horrible, it felt as though i was parylsed (sp?) from my toes and it moved up my body to my chest and i couldn't breathe and i couldn't move to stop it, the feeling was so scary.

Another time i seen this man peep around my bedroom door then walk back across the landing crying!! I then was able to move my body and chucked myself of the bed and hid down the side, my oh was working night shift and i called him screaming for him to come homw cos someone was in house!!

 

[Tiffy]

I had this before when I was suffering severe anxiety..

it was horrible, it felt as though i was parylsed (sp?) from my toes and it moved up my body to my chest and i couldn't breathe and i couldn't move to stop it, the feeling was so scary.

Another time i seen this man peep around my bedroom door then walk back across the landing crying!! I then was able to move my body and chucked myself of the bed and hid down the side, my oh was working night shift and i called him screaming for him to come homw cos someone was in house!!

Just reading that made me scared too. ... I'm not kidding neither.

 

[katyk]

It is also called a hypnogogic state. That sleep paralysis article on wikipedia is good, the hynogogic one doesn't say a lot except it's a word used to describe the hallucinations.

Small amounts of medication from your doc can help it and if it's really bad, they can probably give you tablets that are ok-ish to use in preg when you really need them

I've only had it once really- a big crowd of magicians in black robes were in a circle around me cursing me or something

 

[krystal&jack]

bloody scared me lol

they stopped when the anxiety pills started kicking in - haven't had them for a long time thank god.. didn't realise it was this common though! I told a few people at the time and they looked at me like a was a right lunatic

 

[frangelle]

I once saw a clown hovering horizontally above my bed, he then dragged me into the living room, and it was so real- the christmas tree was there, everything was exactly as it was when I left it to go to bed, it was horrid

 

[gangofgin]

luckily mine have never involved clowns. if the two things ever joined together to terrorise my dreams id be a wreck for weeks

 

[glitzyglamgirl]

I have a similiar thing, it started happening about a year ago and got to be happening everynight, but then I spoke about it on here (in adult section) and it slowed down. Now it happens about once a week but im much more calm about it.

Anyway, what I get, is when I'm not awake but not asleep, that inbetween stage, and I suddenly get this tremendous feeling that I'm about to be hit by something very big and heavy. Imagine you were stuck on a railway line, couldnt move, and you saw a train coming towards you. How you would feel the split second before it hit you -thats what it feels like, but there is no imagery or sound accompanying it - just that feeling of panic and pressure. I usually end up sat bolt upright in bed frantically looking round the room and whimpering until OH brings me out of it. I thought I was going mad but its quite normal apparantly and a form of sleep paralysis.

I have ALWAYS been a big dreamer. I dont have dreams, I dream. Some people will know what I mean, its hard to explain lol.

I studied my dreams, and the psyhcology of dreams for years (not in an official capacity though, just as a hobby - im an armchair expert lol), and have run a dreamworkshop online before teaching people to interpret thier own dreams (I believe only the individual can make sense of thier dreams, not some dream interpreter), what different kind of dreams there are, which ones are important and which ones are just your minds filing cabinet at work, all sorts - I seem to have a natural understanding of these things. Theres nothing like delving into the subconscious to see what it is trying to tell us. But.......Ive never been able to get my head around this wierd thing I get, I cant find any reason for it other than a physical and mental outpouring of my own fears in life.

I hope that talking about it, and bringing it out into the open helps you as it did me, and please dont be scared about it, its very wierd but its also very normal

 

[LaulLaul]

I used 2 get this when i was little.
1 time when i was about 6 I was laying with the pillow over my face and I nearly suffocated meself.