Sleep paralysis

So there's a phenomenon known as "Sleep Paralysis" that often occurs when people are going to sleep or just waking up. Normally, when people are asleep, the brain remains active, so a special center in the brainstem turns on to block any outgoing neural signals. That prevents you from acting out your dreams (sleepwalking, among other things). This center prevents you from using all your voluntary muscles except for the muscles around your eyes and your breathing muscles.

Sometimes, this center turns on a bit prematurely, or fails to turn off for a little bit after we wake up. In that case, we are awake, but we are completely paralyzed. It tends to happen to people who are chronically sleep-deprived (like medical students...).

I had a horrible bout of this this morning. I couldn't open my eyes, I couldn't lift my head, I could scream to try to wake myself up, nothing. It's terrifying to be completely paralyzed like that.

This happen to other people?

A few times.... its weird tho aint it?

ya i've had that happen to me, it was horrible.

never happened to me as far as i can remember. heard about the phenomenon though.
reminds me of a good documentary on tv the other night about encephalitis lethargica

I used to get it quite alot when i was little, but i don't get it as much now. I didn't think it was scary, just a little strange.

its happened to me - about the only thing I can do at that time is to modify my breathing - faster or harder. I've gotten it to the point that I can wake myself up with the breathing (or get the person next to me to wake me up, hee hee!

Supposedly if you know what you're doing you can enduce an astral projection from that... Never actually managed it though

I never stop moving long enough for that to happen. I moove aaaallll night long, no joke!

~ Bobo

My father has serious sleeping problems. he has had this problem a few times before.

fortunatly I have not.

I have severe sleep apena and this happens all the time If I dont use my cpap machine. Its bloody horrible.

It's happened to me a few times... Every time it does I freak out so badly... Thanks for explaining what it was, at least if it happens again, I know what's going on.

yes it has several times and it freaked me out bad.
i also have sleep apina and every know and then i waske up and i still cant breath for a couple of minutes a freaked out bad last time

yeah its friggin weird hey but it only happens to me when ive been on the piss

like this morning i woke up from 4 hours sleep half drunk and i couldn’t feel my left hand and to make matters worse because i couldn’t feel it i had it in a weird pos and when it finally woke up it caned like all hell

then there was this other time when my whole right side of my body was asleep i had to use my left arm to move my right left and right arm around so i could become comfortable and trying to wake them up the odd thump and general movement

the closest thing to being wheelchair bound its pretty scary

Can't say it has happened to me.

I do however, hate waking up with the 'sleepy arm' where it's all floppy and numb. I hate that feeling. It happens occasionally. Feeling eventually comes back and everything but at the time...I hate it.

and the feeling when you get up too fast and everything fades to black and you get dizzy too. Lol. You stand up and within seconds you fall back onto your bed. It's funny.

i don't think i've ever had that before!! sounds kinda freaky!

i wish i had it this morning tho...you now that brief second after waking up the morning after a big night out and your bladder is screaming so you jump out of bed quite quickly? yeah, paralysis would have been good, so then i wouldn't have had that horrible feeling of all the blood rushing to my head and the after-effects of alcohol nearly knocking me out!!

but - i have been deprived of decent sleep for a long while now...so the paralysis thing may happen yet!! i need a good nights sleep...badly! i just can't fall into that lovely deep sleep...dang...

I first read the title as Sheep paralysis which sounded like Lightning branching into Vitinery..
..sounds like you got nipped by a blue ring octopus..
..I think they have an effect similar, without maybe the breathing bit. Which is quite important
Wanders off to bed

I'd been wondering about that... I've had it happen a lot. First time it happened I was really little and it scared the c*** outta me. Never had it happen after that until this past year. I guess I'm more sleep deprived than I thought.

Hay lightning the stuff about the section of the brain stem switching on and of, could this explain what happens to those people who claim to be awake during general anaesthesia?? When I was on my theta placement I was working in the recovery room looking after a woman who had just come had a total Knee replacement just as I was removing the incubation tube she jumped up screaming totally awake claming she was awake throughout the whole operation. Totally freaked me out on discussion with the anaesthetists he said he had never come across anything like that before.

Any ideas

Mint Sauce, I don't think so because if you were awake, you'd probably feel the pain...and that would increase your heart rate and blood pressure, so the anesthiologist would know about it, seeing as how he's got a monitor in just about every hole you've got and even in some holes that aren't normally there.

However, some patients have some rather disturbing dreams while they are anesthetized. A friend of mine who had to have an operation (and who was a resident at the time) dreamed that she arrested (cardiac) and had to be resuscitated while in the OR. She woke up going "oh my god, I arrested! Am I OK??" and the surgical staff was all "what the HECK are you talking about?!?!?"

This is especially problematic if they use ketamine as one of the induction agents.

i woke up once with deaden limbs. i dunno if it was a form of sleep paralysis or the effects of carpal tunnel or just sleeping on my arm wrong. but i couldn't move my arm to save my life. didn't even have pins and needles feeling. it was like it was entirely paralyzed. picking it up with my other arm and trying to move it was really scary. never knew my arm weighed that much.

It's a symptom of narcolepsy, too (because narcolepsy comes from not sleeping right - so it's very like being chronically sleep-deprived). My friend Teresa says this leads to dim waking thoughts like "how did I manage to break my spine while lying in bed?"

Get more sleep, dude. Do whatever you have to do. Hypnagogic hallucinations are next, and they could seriously mess up a patient, yeah? Not to mention cataplexy.

I've had hypnagogic hallucinations. Generally, I just hear awesomely beautiful music right before I fall asleep.

But now that I've caught up a lot on my sleep, I'm feeling much bettah!

Mo bettah, mo betta, mo betta!

yes that has happened to me many times....

it is very scary...

I think it's also a bit painful. At least, it hurts my back and neck (where I've had chronic pain until recently) a lot. Or rather, it feels like if I try to move, it will hurt intensely. As soon as I manage to, it doesn't hurt, of course.

Sleep paralysis used to happen to me all the time when I was a kid and it scared me to death. I couldn't cry out or anything.

About the time I turned 13, it seemed to wane.

I think it happened once when I was working on my Master's Thesis. I do NOT like the feeling at ALL.

What I really hate is when you suddenly realize that you're asleep and that you're in a horrid nightmare and that all you want to do is WAKE UP and you can't open your eyes!

It's happened to me twice now, both times last summer.

I'd read about it many times before it happened, so when it did I went with the flow, and within about 20 seconds i could move again. The second time it happened it only paralysed me for a couple of seconds. I've spent about 7 years researching/practicing lucid dream induction now and I can recreate the phenomenom at will when i LD, but I don't think it is a true experience, more likely a premature awakening (which I suffer from a lot when keeping a dream journal).

The thing which I found most interesting about it however is that I felt a presence in the room next to the edge of my bed, slightly out of view. I knew it was my mother, which didn't make sense as I was at uni at the time, but didn't worry me all the same. I hadn't seen it mentioned in lucid dream discussion groups before, but i did a search anyway. Turns out, a lot of people experience the same feeling when they have sleep paralysis, generally of an evil spirit. The second time it happened the presence did feel less savoury.

I don't know why this happens, I guess its a side effect of your rational brain trying to make sense of whats going on - i an't move so something must be holding me down, and hence a halucination just out of view. The interesting thing is that it fits in with a *lot* of reported ghost sightings (wake up, held down to the bed by a ghost, which disappears a few seconds later). I'm open minded, but a scientist, and I only beleive in things which have been proven/i can recreate. I don't rule out the existance of ghosts or aliens, but i can't help but see a link between things such as sleep paralysis and other medical phenomenons and them. I also can't help but see a link between alien sightings and the fact that most are reported by schizophrenic rednecks who want to be on TV (here in the UK we had a beer advert not so long ago where the presenter says to a bunch of aliens "Stop! what are you doing?! Why do you always abduct the stupid people? The earth has plenty of scientists and brainy people to take....". Anyway, i'm rambling off topic again as usual

My point is that when it happens and you see a 'ghost' in this way it is completely petrifying. I knew what was happening so it was less scary, but even so it put the fear in me. The question which I have, is this a hallucination created by the brain, or are we in this state able to link with another realm? I know some people beleive that humans can 'connect' in certain atmospheric conditions (temperal lobe epilepsy), but is it just all in our minds? Answers on a postcard.