Terrifying sleep paralysis

[skippy66]

Try to imagine this if you can: you're in bed, drifting off to sleep, and suddenly you find yourself fully conscious but unable to move or speak or scream or anything.

This has happened to me about 5 times in my life, all over the past 10 years, maybe once every couple of years.

It's THE most terrifying experience I've ever had. I realise I can't move a muscle but my brain is fully functioning. I try to talk to let my wife know im in trouble but I can't, so I try to scream but I can't.

Then, after about probably 5-10 seconds, all goes back to normal.

I can't find anything about this condition on google, does anyone have any clue as to what this is?????

[Maj]

Hi,

I'm sure if you google sleep paralysis you'll find info on it. I've never had it but my son, husband, mum and auntie have and they say it's horrible!! Yes, it only last a few seconds but they say it is terrifying at the time because there's nothing you can do until it passes. Is it not due to over-tiredness and stress? Why don't you type it into Yahoo answers and ask if anyone has had it and I'm sure you'll see lots of sufferers.
Myra:)

[mandyclare]

I've heard about this and Im sure this has happened to my boyfriend before.. it must be extremely frightening.... i do feel for you... i dont think medically it cant do you any harm though but im sure the fear of the situation is absolutely terrible... chat to the dr.. you never know he may know something that would help

Mand x

[Mander]

It's happened to my little sister a few times, especially when she was a kid. There was one episode where she could speak but nothing else. My mom was terrified, but it went away in a minute or so.

I think it's just one of those wierd things that happens to some people, like sleepwalking. My sister used to do that, too, but it's never happened to me or anyone else in the immediate family. It will be interesting to see if my nephew ever sleepwalks.

[darrenc]

I've had this maybe 10 times in my life, and it mainly occurs to me when I sleep in an upright position, such as on an airplane.

In my case, it only really occurs when I'm extremely tired (I try not to sleep on airplanes because of it).

I've also had instances of waking up screaming in fear, but that's probably something different.

[Anxious_gal]

it's normal, i get it all the time but it never lasts too long.
it happens because your brain wakes up before your body.
while you sleep your body is paralyzed to stop you from acting out your dreams n moving about.
it is scary! sometimes cause's me to panic. i hate when my mum comes into my room in the morning as i can tell she's there but i can't move!
i do the trying to scream thing too!
sometimes i'm asleep but i know i'm dreaming and i keep trying to wake up but i keep going into different dreams. when i finally wake up i'm pretty freaked out.