LonelyTraveler

Hi

Maybe someone here can help me figure out what happened last night. It was very strange. First, I suffer from Anxiety, OCD, Scrupulosity, Hypochondria and I have panic attacks from time to time. I am taking Atarax at night for sleep and Lorezapam during the day for anxiety. I have also been under a GREAT deal of intense stress lately and have been drinking (and I don't mean milkshakes!).

Anyway, for several nights I was either waking up too early or finding it difficult to get to sleep even with either the Atarax or Lorezepam. Then, yesterday, I drank about 7 beers, ate dinner and finally went to bed. I had a very perverted dream about something I won't even talk about here and woke up at about 1:30AM, sat at the computer until about 5:00AM, took a Lorazepam and finally crawled back into bed hoping to get at least a few hours sleep before daylight.

As I was laying there trying to fall asleep, I kept having these mini panic attacks and it felt like my entire body was being slightly rocked back and forth as if something was under my bed pushing up on it and moving me around (really weird sensation!). Several times I was jolted awake by this sensation and became afraid to go back to sleep. Thinking it might be vertigo, I tilted my head back and forth and everything seemed fine.

At some point, I drifted into some type of strange "sleep stage" where I was'nt really asleep (at least I don't think I was) and that's where it got really weird. I had gone to sleep with a mattress pad over my entire body (like a cacoon) and the next thing I know, I can feel something big moving around under my bed and fearing that it might try to reach up and strangle me or something, I grabbed my pillow (while still lying on my back) and lowered it down between the headboard and wall. Then, I could feel whatever was under my bed tugging at the pillow and it became a tug of war. I tried to struggle to get out from under the mattress pad and free myself but my arms and legs would not move and I did'nt want whatever was under the bed to get me. I could think "ok, arm move!" but nothing would happened.

Finally (and I guess I was still in this sleep paralysis state or something) I managed to get a hole in the mattress pad positioned over my right eye and I could see disco lights dancing around all over the ceiling and everything looked really strange. Even the light on the ceiling was spinning around. Then I woke up/snapped out it (or whatever) and somehow managed to get my head out from under the mattress pad and I was so freaked out and totally disoriented that I did'nt even know where I was and this made me panic. Then, I realized that I was in my own room but could'nt make out where my bed was in relation to the rest of the room. Gosh, it was so weird.

While my experience felt much different from a dream, I must have been in some type of dream-like state because I don't have any holes in my mattress pad and there is'nt any room to slide a pillow down between the headboard and the wall. What was really wierd was that everything about this whole thing was real...I mean, I "dreamed" I was in my room (which I was), had my matress pad wrapped around me (which I did), something was moving around under my bed (which it seemed to be before I drifted off into this weird state), etc.

Anyway, the only thing I have been able to come up with is "sleep paralysis". Does any of this sound familiar?. Thank's again for any replies I get and for helping me figure this out. Very freaky for sure!!.

- Regards, Lonely Traveler