Help with sleep paralysis?

[SnowWhiteQueen]

I feel a little strange talking about this, but here goes - I have sleeping disorders, very likely for genetic reasons. Some times I will sleep walk, other times I will "astral project" (so to speak), and have always suffered from sleep paralysis (or sleep terrors) ever since I was a child. I'd like to know, has anybody else had to deal with any of this? And if so, could you lend me tips on how to prevent it?

 

If ever I am able to get back into the hospital, I am hoping to speak about it with a doctor because this has gone on all of my life, and has been getting worse lately (probably due to stress from life in general, unfortunately), but I'm getting worried about it because I've been falling asleep out of the blue, and feeling sharp pains and numbness in the left side of my head when I fall asleep and when I wake up, which really scares me. I try to dismiss it as my migraines, but I cannot be sure... which is why I want to talk about it to a doctor - best to try to be safe, and not sorry, right?

 

Until then, I'd really appreciate ways on how to prevent it, hopefully from personal experiences from others.

 

Thankyou in advance!

[sidehop]

I get SP when I'm exhausted. If I'm sitting up and falling asleep sometimes I'll see the dark shadows come but nowadays it's the "held-down" feeling that I need to imagine myself twisting like a bottle cap in order to snap out of it. It is frightening though. One reason I try not to get myself too tired and try to get at least seven hours of sleep. They say you can control it to enter lucid dreaming but it frightens me every time as I can't breathe.

 

Though have you had a CT scan or some sort of neurological testing done regards to the sharp pains? It's probably a good idea to get that part checked out.

[tattoobunnie]

Sleep paralysis is so scary! I had it my entire childhood, and teens years...and at times as an adult. Never fall asleep on your back! I got my dog over a year ago, and I haven't had an episode since...weird, right?!

 

Though..."falling asleep out of the blue, and feeling sharp pains and numbness in the left side of your head when I fall asleep and when you wake up"...that doesn't sound like sleep paralysis. You should get a sleep study done to see what is happening.

[SnowWhiteQueen]

Well, it's not exactly like narcolepsy (although that is closely linked with sleep paralysis) - I should have worded that better, my bad.

 

But when I lie down, just for a moment and not very tired, I feel the numb feeling and fall asleep. Perhaps it's exhaustion, and insomnia catching up on me? Hopefully, but as long as I can remember, that's never happened before. I do hope it's only severe migraines (regarding the numb feeling, since I have it during the day when I'm awake, too - not all the time, on that note. Stress does seem to make it worse though, like a tension headache)... I definitely want to get this checked, for sure!

 

Thankyou both so much.

 

I'm thinking your dog must have been a big source of comfort, since I know some sites say that the sleep paralysis could be caused by stress. Maybe this just goes hand-in-hand with insomnia... regarding the sleep paralysis, that is.

 

I am going to tell my doctors about the numb feeling, and bring up migraine treatment again (if needed).