The Old Hag Syndrome or Night Terrors - Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) Message Board

karloff · 03-07-2003, 05:15 PM

Anyone suffer from Old Hag Syndrome or Night Terrors? If so give us your story and what you do to cope with it.

Pfretzsch · 03-09-2003, 06:42 PM

I used to wake up in the middle of the night totally paralyzed, unable to do anything more than just try to grunt. I had a feeling like somebody was in the room and was going to get me.

By accident, I came across an article (Readers Digest, I believe) that referred to this condition as a "Night Terror". Understanding this condition gave me a lot of consolation. Our body protects us from getting hurt at night by suppressing our ability to thrash around in our sleep. Sometimes we become awake mentally before our body has fully woken up. We are actually paralyzed temporarily, but our mind is fully awake (a pretty scary condition).

Now here comes the good part, I read that this mostly happens when people are sleeping on their back. Sure enough, when I made sure that I fell asleep while lying on my side, the Night Terrors stopped.

[This message has been edited by Pfretzsch (edited 03-09-2003).]

LSspine · 03-10-2003, 08:50 AM

Ugh, I have had these and they are scary indeed. As a matter of fact, I had one just this morning and although my mother used to tell me to always avoid sleeping on my back and that usually works, I was on my side this morning when this happened. I was sure there was someone in my house trying to get to my children and I was paralyzed. No matter how hard I tried to sit up and open my eyes to get to them, I couldn't. It was a horrible feeling. Then I would wake up and be lying on my side just as before and of course no one was in the house. I recently had back surgery and am taking medication so I attributed this episode to that but I have had similar episodes when I wasn't taking any medication at all. One time I was sure I saw someone looking in my bedroom window and I couldn't move to get help. It seemed so real!! Until I read about night terrors, I thought for a long time that someone really HAD been at my window!!

tony123 · 03-11-2003, 06:27 PM

The condition is called sleep paralysis. I was haunted by this for years - not knowing what it was. However now that I know what it is - it does not bother me nearly as much. It seemed to occur much more when I was younger. If fact it is pretty rare for it to happen anymore. When it does happen it is usually when I am sleeping at an odd time i.e. in the middle of the day on a Sunday. Now that I am no longer afraid of it, I sort of wish it would happen more so that I can explore the experience without the associated fear.

karloff · 03-12-2003, 11:09 AM

You sooooooooo crazy!