http://www.stanford.edu/~dement/paralysis.html



Along with emet (which I still struggle
with), I used to suffer from what I have come to learn is popularly
referred to as “Sleep Paralysis”, and I was curious to see if any
of the emet crowd here have had any experience with this unusual problem.
As I have recently gathered, it has been positively</span>
associated with panic disorders

In a nutshell, sleep paralysis is
waking to a conscious or semi-conscious state before the mechanisms
that suppress</span> the movement of your body
during sleep completely let go. You experience consciousness, or at
least semi-consciousness sufficient to be aware of yourself and your
surroundings, yet your body remains completely inert and unresponsive
to your commands. Though it's difficult to judge the passage of time
in these instances, they typically last less than thirty seconds.


That's the antiseptic description. It
doesn't really express what an utterly detestable experience
it is to be trapped in your own body, without the ability to move
your legs, arms, your head, your fingers even, or anything else.


And I mean nothing. Nada. Zip. When I used to
experience sleep paralysis (and during adolescence</span>
and early adulthood I'd go through phases where I'd get it several
times a week) I couldn't do squat. I couldn't even scream (God knows
I tried) because couldn't move my mouth or throat to form words, or
contract my lungs with any more strength than was sufficient to keep
me alive. Whenever I woke up to these episodes, I used to try to yell
out loud because I wanted my parents to come in and shake me fully
awake. I never could; and by the time I was able to speak, I had
already shaken it off myself.


Usually my head would come back first,
just enough to throw it back and forth, and after some of that
movement I could begin to flail my arms about, and full consciousness
usually snapped back shortly after that. Afterwords</span>
I would usually get up immediately and begin my day no matter what
time it happened to be because my heart was racing and the thought of
sleeping any more was repulsive.


I only ever experienced the so-called
“hag-phenomena” once. In fact I never really knew about that part
until after the advent of the Internet. In my case, that one time I
felt an unspecified fear that seemed to emanate</span>
from within my room. I did not attribute it to an intruder, or
anything else really. I pretty much ignored it, and it vanished with
the paralysis episode. Usually the sheer revulsion I felt at being
paralyzed</span> and the hell-bent intention to
shake it off as soon as possible overwhelmed</span>
anything else I might have felt at the time.



And, like my emetophobia, I never knew
anybody else that suffered from sleep paralysis (or that it even had
a name), yet I always suspected that I could not be the only
person in the world that did. I never felt particularly freakish
because of it. I always assumed that it was simply a burden of my
peculiar</span> temperament, and there was little
I could do about it.


My sleep paralysis has taped off over
the years (unlike the emet, unfortunately). In fact, I can't remember
the last time I woke up in that manner. I wouldn't have even been
thinking about it had not I come across the reference linking it
to other panic disorders.



Which, of course, reminded me of this
board. Has anybody else here ever suffered from this problem?


<edited><editID>zalbar</editID>