So it seems that every once in a while I get a panic attack at night, I remember this happening twice in recent memory, once last night, and once more a couple of months ago, and vaguely recall it happening additional times over the years, it seems to be getting more frequent.
I have no good memory of the event, I describe it as a panic attack out as a ad-hoc description, basically I sort wake up in the middle of the night and seized by an inexplicable sense of overwhelming terror and dread to the point I yell out some sort of fear driven request like "GO AWAY!" or "who are you" "don't go!" I cant quite recall the words exactly but it sounded like a request. Usually I think this is directed AT something.
Not a dream as last night a few minutes later as I calmed down and was trying to fall back asleep my dad came down asking what was happening I said "bad dream" as I didn't want to dwell on it.
So these seems to be increasing in frequency, is there a possible medical reason and should I be concerned?
Posted by MattP (Member # 10495) on :
Are you always aware when this happen or do people tell you about it later? It sounds a bit like night terrors.
Posted by Blayne Bradley (Member # 8565) on :
I am always aware, I just quickly forget about it, as of now 24 hours after the fact I barely remember that the event happened at all.
Posted by ketchupqueen (Member # 6877) on :
Sounds like waking from night terrors to me.
Panic attacks usually come with symptoms like sweating, shortness of breath, chest pain, shaking, and are often traceable to a trigger.
Posted by BlackBlade (Member # 8376) on :
quote:Originally posted by Blayne Bradley: I am always aware, I just quickly forget about it, as of now 24 hours after the fact I barely remember that the event happened at all.
Sounds like night terrors. Very different from the experiences I had while living in Taiwan.
Posted by andi330 (Member # 8572) on :
Didn't you recently have a sleep study? You might want to mention this to the doctors who ran the study. It may help them pinpoint your sleeping problems.
Posted by dantesparadigm (Member # 8756) on :
Panic attacks? Oh yeah, I'd panic.
Posted by paigereader (Member # 2274) on :
I like to call these "my flip-outs." These follow the "people in the room and/or closet" and seeing the "video cameras in the light and sprinkler fixtures." My husband hates the flip outs because he is left to deal worrying about the "people in the house" while I go right back to sleep. The feeling you have during these episodes is worse (to me) than any thing else but fortunately doesn't last long.
Posted by Ron Lambert (Member # 2872) on :
If you are having something like a nightmare, and you wake up partially, but the part of your brain that has your motor nervous system switched off during dreaming is still switched off, you can be consciously aware of being paralyzed, which is pretty frightening. That happened to me once or twice when I was in my teens or a little older. It made me wonder if the devil was trying to possess me, and I prayed for Jesus to save me. Well, I did. It seemed like a good thing to do, then. It lasted only a few moments though--then I came the rest of the way awake. Some of the troubles of life are just easier, if you have faith.
Posted by jebus202 (Member # 2524) on :
I get sleep paralysis sometimes and I'm not sure how being crazy enough to confuse it with being possessed by Satan would make it easier.
Posted by Orincoro (Member # 8854) on :
I've suffered from sleep paralysis and night terrors for many years (since early childhood). At a young age it manifested itself as a recurring dream in which lightning struck me, and I was compelled to count an impossibly large amount of money that was laminated in a binder. Later I had them in which different tormentors of the waking world would sit next to me and tell me my inner thoughts while saying "go ahead and pretend to be asleep." I would awake totally unsure as to whether the words I had been hearing in the dreams were real, or imagined. I also sometimes hear loud sounds or speech while in bed, and am unsure if what I have been hearing is real. I also would have sleep paralysis in which I was totally unaware of my own identity, where I was, my name, or what situation I was actually in. This can be frightening.
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
The one time I had sleep paralysis I felt the characteristic "evil presence" that people often describe sensing. It really felt similar to the way J. K. Rowling describes the dementors feeling. I can very easily see a person who believed in devils, demons and the like thinking that they were being visited by one.
In my case, as I lay on the bed struggling to move I could feel the presence coming down the long hallway that led from my bedroom to the rest of my house. I threw up a time loop in the hall, effectively trapping the thing. It would advance to the point it was at when I threw up the loop, and then skip back down to the end of the hall, over and over. Having made myself safe from it, I was able to wait out the paralysis.
Some of the troubles of life are just easier if you read a lot of science fiction and fantasy, and are able to lucid dream occasionally.
Posted by Blayne Bradley (Member # 8565) on :
Wasn't paralized, the two recent incidents I could move freely if I had the wits about me to move, the first time I tried getting up but the level of evilness increased so I went back under, the second time I vaguely recall moving into a sitting position.
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
Hm. Still sounds related, to me, but I could be wrong. Is talking to the people who recently did your sleep study, as someone else suggested, an option?
Posted by Bob_Scopatz (Member # 1227) on :
Blayne,
To possibly set your mind at ease, the "increasing in frequency" thing is probably nothing to worry about. These things do tend to cluster and then go away for awhile.
I like the idea of contacting the people who did your sleep study.
Mainly, my advice would be to seek help if this problem gets to be intolerable. But, if it's just an occasional bout and you can live with it, then don't worry about it.
Posted by Dobbie (Member # 3881) on :
Is it really inexplicable that Blayne Bradley would feel a sense of terror and dread?
Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :
quote:In my case, as I lay on the bed struggling to move I could feel the presence coming down the long hallway that led from my bedroom to the rest of my house. I threw up a time loop in the hall, effectively trapping the thing. It would advance to the point it was at when I threw up the loop, and then skip back down to the end of the hall, over and over. Having made myself safe from it, I was able to wait out the paralysis.
Some of the troubles of life are just easier if you read a lot of science fiction and fantasy, and are able to lucid dream occasionally.
When I was young I had a lot of falling dreams. Then I heard a joke about a skydiver who didn't open his chute when he was 400, 300, 100, 50, etc. feet from the ground. Then when they were only 10 feet from the ground, one asks "Should we open the chutes now?" "Don't be silly," said the second one, "We're only 10 feet off the ground. You don't need a parachute to fall 10 feet."
So I tried it in my dream. I fell and fell and fell, and just before I was about to hit, I feel 10 feet. I hit the ground, rolled, and stood up.
And I stopped having falling dreams that night.
Posted by Ron Lambert (Member # 2872) on :
jebus202, what makes it easier is having an effective recourse to deal with your fears.
Noemon is right, there can be a sense of an "evil presence." One time I even thought I could see the Devil (who looked like a fairly ordinary man, no horns, grinning at me in a sinister manner), standing by my bedroom window-inside with me.
There is a story recorded in some biographies of Martin Luther, that he had a vision of the Devil trying to discourage him by saying he was a hopeless sinner. Luther shouted, "I am justified by faith--the Lord is my righteousness!" Some accounts say that he threw an inkwell at the devil, which smashed against the wall, as the Devil fled.
The couple of times I experienced this kind of thing--and I still suspect it involves the portion of the brain still being switched off that prevents motor system movement while dreaming--it was different from lucid dreaming, where you are aware you are dreaming and can take at least partial control of the dream. I was aware that I had been dreaming, but now knew I was lying in bed, and could open my eyes. But I could not otherwise move. And sometimes I was aware of an evil presence, seeking to attack me. Maybe that was how my mind interpreted the paralysis, as something hostile imposed upon me, or trying to impose itself on me.
I am not trying to claim anything about this, one way or another. I am just describing something I experienced, as I perceived it. And there is a good possibility it had a physical explanation. There is a portion of our brains that turns off our motor muscle control, so that we will not move while we dream.
Posted by Ron Lambert (Member # 2872) on :
I did some internet research. Here's what I was thinking of--something I read a long time ago:
quote:People are prevented from acting out their dreams by a special system in the medulla which inhibits motor areas during REM sleep. This causes the characteristic lack of movement during REM sleep. If commands sent to motor cortex during a dream are particularly strong, they can overpower this inhibition and lead to a spastic, jerking motion, which has led to the misconception that people will sometimes act out their dreams by sleepwalking. In reality, sleepwalking in a healthy person does not occur during REM sleep, because no smooth, continuous motion can overcome the inhibition. However, this can in fact occur if this area of the medulla is removed. Patients lacking this part of their brain will display the full range of waking behavior in response to stimuli in a dream.
I read some years ago about some experiments where this area of the medulla was removed in a cat. The cat then began stalking around and pouncing while asleep. Being a cat-lover, and having two cat-persons for my friends, the experiment was rather abhorrent to me. But the results were interesting.
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
quote:Originally posted by Ron Lambert: The couple of times I experienced this kind of thing--and I still suspect it involves the portion of the brain still being switched off that prevents motor system movement while dreaming--it was different from lucid dreaming, where you are aware you are dreaming and can take at least partial control of the dream. I was aware that I had been dreaming, but now knew I was lying in bed, and could open my eyes. But I could not otherwise move.
That's pretty similar to my single experience with it. When I had my experience with sleep paralysis I woke up from a mid-afternoon nap, lying on my stomach, and discovered that I couldn't move. My eyes were open, and I could see, but I couldn't blink. Everything in my field of vision looked just slightly strange. I suspect that despite being able to see and think, I still had one foot in dream, which was why I was able to react to the evil presence with something other than impotent terror.
Ron, when you're coming out of the paralysis, what's it like for you? In my case I was lying there, focusing on moving my fingers (the time loop didn't require conscious attention to maintain) when I started hearing a sound quite a bit like an approaching train blowing its whistle. It got louder and louder until it was physically painful, and then the state just snapped into full and normal wakefulness.
quote:And sometimes I was aware of an evil presence, seeking to attack me. Maybe that was how my mind interpreted the paralysis, as something hostile imposed upon me, or trying to impose itself on me.
Could be. My former wife used to experience sleep paralysis fairly often. It wasn't infrequent that I'd wake up with a sense that something was wrong with her and shake her shoulder, breaking the lock that the brain had on her body. I think that she always experienced a presence of some sort, but it wasn't always evil, interestingly enough. Even when it wasn't, though, she still found the experience terrifying.
[ March 05, 2009, 10:16 PM: Message edited by: Noemon ]
Posted by Ron Lambert (Member # 2872) on :
It's been so long ago--several decades--since the last time this happened, it is hard for me to recall what it was like coming out of the paralysis. I heard no on-coming train, or whistle, or anything dramatic like that. I think I just gradually came out from under the paralysis after a few seconds, and then was able to move again. I did feel a sense of peacefulness, like the Lord had answered my prayer and I could feel Him near. But I had no desire to go back to sleep, I will say that.
Your ex-wife's experience, Noemon, of having edge-of-sleep paralysis frequently, sounds unusual to me. I'm no expert on the phenomenon of course. Maybe she just represents one end of a bell-curve of what is normal. It is interesting that you could tell something was wrong.
Posted by Katarain (Member # 6659) on :
quote:Originally posted by Noemon: I threw up a time loop in the hall, effectively trapping the thing. It would advance to the point it was at when I threw up the loop, and then skip back down to the end of the hall, over and over.