paralyzed and gasping:( help

[aamp123]

i read a bunch of stories and answers about people having a dream like thing happen to you. Your lying in bed and you can not move at all only your eyes sometimes and you hear or see scary things. This happens to me all the time

The only difference is that one night it happened to me EVERY time i closed me eyes and fell asleep even if it was for a minute.. and i would become so scared i would try to wake myself up by moving my legs and i would try so hard they would twitch

then eventually towards the end of my paralyzed state i would start to hyperventilate and my heart beat would RACE.. now this happens to me quite often but not everynight and if it does it only happens once.

help whats wrong with me!

PS: i have nightmares ALL the time.. never good ones could that be related?

[IrisRavenstar]

I need to keep a copy and paste of this on my computer... it gets asked so often! This is called sleep paralysis, it's physioligically caused, and your heart is racing because being paralysed is frightening you. You can't move big muscles like your leg, but fine motor muscle movement will release it. Next time it happens, try twitching an eyebrow. That worked for me one time when I was in a *real* panic, because I woke up paralyzed with my face stuck in my pillow and I couldn't breathe... fortunately, I remembered reading about sleep paralysis in Jeremy Taylor's book the day before.

[aamp123]

oh thats what i thought is might have been... why do you think it happend every time i tried sleeping that night? Literally as soon as i closed my eyes it would happen it was the weirdest night of my life

[gpfm]

If you're sleep pattern is not consistent, then you'll prime yourself for sporadic episodes of sleep paralysis. Other primers include eating too late, stress or even worrying about it happening. They can occur many times in one night; as you keep on waking and your body keeps on trying to get itself stopped for sleep, this conflict will lead to many occurrences of paralysis.

[Archie]

hi aamp123
I recall I used to have similar experience more rapidly during puberty...

[aamp123]

thanks gpfm .. that helps haha i definitely set myself up for it then

oh and i am 18.. might be a little old for puberty :X