Temporary Paralysis - Sleep Disorders Message Board

i_finlayson37 · 11-15-2003, 06:38 AM

Last night I was just lying on my bed, relaxing waiting for someone but I was pretty tired and fell asleep. I woke up about an hour and a half later and I couldn't move at all for about a minute. I was lying on my back and I can remember trying to move my head to see what time it was on the TV but it just wouldn't turn.

The problem with this is that because I was waking up I guess it's possible it was some sort of dream, because I have in the past had dreams where I've been half awake and certain things happening in real life (TV, people in the room) have worked their way into my dream.

But although I was feeling a little woozy when I woke up and it happened it seemed real. Also I spoke to my girlfriend and she said one of her friends had a similar experience. So I'm just wondering if anybody knows what it could be, I'm willing to consider that it might just have been a dream while I was half asleep but I'd like to know all the possibilities.

apple · 11-16-2003, 05:31 PM

It is referred to as "sleep paralysis", where one is alert but the body remains "asleep". I have forgotten the medical reasoning and the hows and whys of it, but I myself have experienced that extensively during my teen years and on into my twenties. I would "wake up" only to find that for a number of seconds I couldn't move anything but my eyes, which, by the way, always spotted the shadowy silhouette of a stranger in a fedora hat standing over me during these strange episodes. Once my body "awoke", the stranger would disappear and everything would become normal. It was always quite frightening, for the strange intruder always seemed so real. I could not even scream or call out. The paralysis was that intense. I have read that many people who experience sleep paralysis also will "see" this strange intruder with the fedora hat. How wierd is that?

i_finlayson37 · 11-16-2003, 11:12 PM

That sounds like a possibility. I didn't hallucinate about anything as far as I can remember. But I did have a little of the fear that seems to be associated with it. It all seemed pretty normal, but I was just stuck staring up at the ceiling. I've done a little research into sleep paralysis and my age seems to be in the most common age group to start suffering from it.

1Ageless · 11-18-2003, 10:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by i_finlayson37

That sounds like a possibility. I didn't hallucinate about anything as far as I can remember. But I did have a little of the fear that seems to be associated with it. It all seemed pretty normal, but I was just stuck staring up at the ceiling. I've done a little research into sleep paralysis and my age seems to be in the most common age group to start suffering from it.

There is a popular medical website which I don't think we are allowed to mention specifically on this board, however, a condition in which the body does not awake completely or hallucinations are associated with a feeling of paralysis can be a sleep disorder called narcolepsy. This is a quote from that specific website I am referring to ... Some narcoleptics also experience strange hallucinations just before falling asleep and muscle paralysis upon awakening. I would suggest seeking medical attention for this, and then a second opinion.

ashpie · 11-18-2003, 10:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by i_finlayson37

Last night I was just lying on my bed, relaxing waiting for someone but I was pretty tired and fell asleep. I woke up about an hour and a half later and I couldn't move at all for about a minute. I was lying on my back and I can remember trying to move my head to see what time it was on the TV but it just wouldn't turn.

The problem with this is that because I was waking up I guess it's possible it was some sort of dream, because I have in the past had dreams where I've been half awake and certain things happening in real life (TV, people in the room) have worked their way into my dream.

But although I was feeling a little woozy when I woke up and it happened it seemed real. Also I spoke to my girlfriend and she said one of her friends had a similar experience. So I'm just wondering if anybody knows what it could be, I'm willing to consider that it might just have been a dream while I was half asleep but I'd like to know all the possibilities.

I had the same thing happen to me a few years ago...scared the hell out of me..I awoke from sleeping and could not move my body at all..it never happened again after that..