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The following is a visitor-submitted question or story. For more, you can submit your own sleep story here, or browse the collection of experiences and questions other visitors have shared here.
Sleep Deprived Mom Experiencing Sleep Paralysis
by Amy
(Boston, MA)
My son is 6 weeks old and needless to say I haven't gotten much sleep. The night before my sleep paralysis experience, I had only gotten 2 hours of sleep. This is my experience:
Tonight I slept on the couch because my son hasn't been sleeping well. He's actually across from me sleeping in his swing. Well, in the dream I woke up on my couch and it all looked the same and my son was still sleeping in the swing. However, I was paralyzed and I couldn't move off the couch to get to him. Finally the paralysis started to wear off, but I had to drag my body to my phone to call my husband to come home. When he got home he didn't believe me and went back to work. I "woke up" or so I thought in the same place on my couch. This time my son was on the floor. I went to him and he was frozen/paralyzed like I had been! I try to leave with him to get help, but outside my door is a man in a creepy costume running full speed at us as I struggle to close the door and lock it. That's the most I can remember before I finally woke up. It was terrifying because it felt so real! I guess the part where my son is paralyzed is the lucid dream part maybe?
Also, when I was experiencing the sleep paralysis, my brain was telling me that someone was in my house injecting me with something that was making me paralyzed. So I was feeling afraid that someone was in my house trying to hurt me and my son. It was definitely more frightening than any nightmare I'd ever had before!
Kevin: Hey Amy, that sure does sound very frightening. I'm glad though that you have the resourcefulness to look up information about sleep paralysis. While episodes can be unbelievably scary and life-like, my belief is that they are just dreams and dream projections--amazing stories that our mind cooks up using our fears and our immediate environment (which of course makes it more real!).
If you'd like to learn more about sleep paralysis, and potentially get some advice to make any future episodes less scary, I recommend Ryan Hurd's book, Sleep Paralysis: A Dreamer's Guide.
Kevin
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Sleep Debt: How Much More Will You Achieve When You Reduce Yours?
The Stages Of Sleep: The Journey Through The Night
Delayed Sleep Phase: You Want To Sleep But You're Not Tired Yet
Paralyzed at Night: Is Sleep Paralysis Normal?
Sleep In Words: Smart, Strange, and Funny Quotes About Sleep
Sleep Disorders In Children: What's Keeping Your Child From A Full Night's Rest?
Attacks of Pavor Nocturnus (a.k.a. Sleep Terrors, Night Terrors, or Incubus Attacks)
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Sleep Paralysis: A Dreamer's Guide
Ever woken up paralyzed? A surprising number of us have, believe it or not. But few know the actual causes of this phenomenon, and fewer still how to exert control over it. Dream researcher and sleep paralysis expert Ryan Hurd shares breakthrough insights into how to do just that.
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