Sleep Paralysis

[sarahsimagination]

Last night I went into Sleep Paralysis. I was fully awake but, my body was asleep. I couldn't speak, couldn't move, and it felt hard to breath because I began to hyperventilate. It's easy for me to think of another place when this happens and then I am able to break free from this. When I was a kid I experienced sleep paralysis but didn't know what was happening and I thought it was demonic possession or something but, turns out I had bad anxiety attacks in my sleep.

[Wolfjk]

Originally Posted by sarahsimagination

Last night I went into Sleep Paralysis. I was fully awake but, my body was asleep. I couldn't speak, couldn't move, and it felt hard to breath because I began to hyperventilate. It's easy for me to think of another place when this happens and then I am able to break free from this. When I was a kid I experienced sleep paralysis but didn't know what was happening and I thought it was demonic possession or something but, turns out I had bad anxiety attacks in my sleep.

Hi Sarah,

I couldn't speak, couldn't move, and it felt hard to breath because I began to hyperventilate.

Don't you think that your sleep paralysis was caused by the breathing difficulties you experienced in your sleep? While extreme stress and anxiety may be a contributing factor, the actual sleep paralysis is caused by the sleeping position that impairs your breathing.
When you're stressed, you toss and turn in bed a lot and more likely to get into bad sleeping positions that needs a frightening dream. Another contributing factor is that during stressful situations you sleep in fits and starts and sometimes your level of consciousness falls too low which requires a frightening dream.
Cheers Wolfjk

[IrisRavenstar]

Hi Sarah,

I once went into sleep paralysis with my face buried in my pillow, and woke up unable to breathe or move! I was so scared! Fortunately, I had re-read Jeremy Taylor's _Where People Fly and Water Runs Uphill_ just before, and remembered he said to try to move fine motor muscles rather than large muscles like arms and legs. So I tried to twitch my eyebrow and it worked, and I was able then to move and blessedly breathe!

Air is a precious commodity!

[Zuludawn]

This is just something that happens, it happens to me at the worst time also, usually nightmares when I need to run uphill; instead of struggling to move I have begun to just relax (similar to the reaction of sinking in quicksand) and once I relax I slowly get my movement back and then my voice.