so the other night I was dozing off after staying up super late (I was watching tv on my iPad) it was around 5am and I finally dozed off and started kinda dreaming like you do when yoy start to fall asleep, and then after not that long of unclear and un vivid dreaming my body started pounding like it was my heart beat but all around my body, then I felt sick for a moments ( I thought maybe because I had eaten pizza at 2:30am) but the feeling quickly passed then it was just pounding but I still felt kinda asleep/half dreaming then I kinda woke up more I think and I felt like I couldn't really breath or move. Now you're probably thinking sleep paralysis but I looked up the symptoms and they looked different. Now at this point I honest to god thought I was going to die. I thought this was it. And i Didn't see/feel the so called intruders you see during sleep paralysis, I knew I was alone. My body was pounding and my breathing wasn't there really and I felt immobile but not really. To explain it wasn't like I coulnt breath, I just didn't and same with moving. Why was my body being lazy and just not breathing? a few seconds or more maybe 15-30 I don't even know really it was a blur, I got out of it but it wasn't a sudden realization I don't know really how I stopped this. I got up after and drank some water and went back to bed and everything was fine I feel completely normal and it's been 2 days
Hi Emma,
At a guess what has probably happened is that because you had stayed up late you were tired and still making your brain work (watching tv) when you go to sleep the you are in alight sleep and can be easily awakened, you can also experience muscular contractions and a falling sensation or 'start' this is a self defence mechanism to protect the body. This function is controlled by the unconscious part of the mind because this was taking control at the time and then as you awoke with a start the conscious mind had to quickly take stock of what was happening and a fight/ flight responce occurred while to body worked out what was going on. Sleep depravation can be extremely devastating to the bodies systems even after just a few days so even staying awake for say 20 hours can have an effect. The body requires sleep to be able to recover, just remember your brain makes about 64 billion decisions a second so my advice is while it is cool to stay up late when your body says it's tired, listen to it.
Hope this helps
David
Hi Emma,
I know you said it wasn't sleep paralysis, but to me that's exactly what it sounds like. I used to get sleep paralysis on a daily basis when I was a student, I didn't often get the "stranger in the room" thing, that only happened about 5 times (I remember them very specifically as it was terrifying!)
Often with sleep paralysis you just lay there sort of half awake unable to move, sometimes breathing can be a bit difficult (from personal experience this was occurred mostly when I was lying on my back) but it’s always accompanied by fear, there’s no rational reason for it but it's always there. Some people say you can control it and go into lucid dreaming but I've had no success at that.
Like the David said, staying up late and being that tired probably triggered this so hopefully it won’t happen again. If you have repeated episodes of this I recommend always setting an alarm even for a short nap as that always gets you out, also concentrate on moving a small part of your body like your little toe. Just try not to worry yourself about it as you’ll not be able to sleep and that will just make things worse.
I hope this helps.
The same thing has happened to me a lot of times, it sounds like sleep paralysis, but maybe you get anxious when you can't move, and the anxiety is causing you to experience the shortness of breath and dying sensation. It is really scary! Just remember that it's normal to have that happen in your sleep, and you're probably experiencing an anxiety attack. Although it feels like you're dying, you can't die from a regular panic attack. Feel better!