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Following up on our field trip to MetroNaps, let’s examine the dark side of sleep. Back in Volume 3, Issue 1 (“Our Worst Issue”), Dr. Ken Carter discussed five sleep disorders that will keep you up at night. Which could be a good thing.
Five Disorders That Make for Scary Slumbering
by Ken Carter, Ph.D.
According to the National Sleep Foundation, up to 72 percent of us experience some symptoms of a sleep disorder at least a few nights a week. People with chronic symptoms, however, can develop a sleep disorder that interferes with their lives on a daily basis, leaving them impaired and miserable. For most, it’s insomnia. For others, the problem is much more unique.
1. Sleep Eating
Nocturnal Sleep-Related Eating Disorder, or Sleep Eating, is a condition similar to sleepwalking in which affected people will engage in nightly noshing while partially or totally asleep. The most common Sleep Eating episodes entail a person sleepwalking to the refrigerator and munching on a midnight snack that they’ll probably never remember. Other times, the episodes are more elaborate, and the fully asleep sufferers head to the kitchen to chop, stir-fry, bake or bust out the George Foreman. In fact, reports indicate that up to one-third of Sleep Eaters have hurt themselves while preparing or eating food (which is actually really low when you think about grillin’ up food Emeril-style while unconscious—bam!).
The disorder is fairly rare, occurring in only about one and a half percent of the population. Two out of three people with Sleep Eating are women, and three out of four eat nightly (some up to eight times a night). Most of them (84 percent) are completely unaware of their nighttime snacks. And ironically, in almost all cases, the behavior doesn’t appear to be hunger-related.
To make things even more strange, the food choices of Sleep Eaters can be, at times, very peculiar. Case studies have revealed nighttime meals that include cat food, raw chicken, coffee grounds and milk, sandwiches made with fistfuls of salt, and even inedibles such as ammonia or buttered soda cans.
Keep reading for Sleep Paralysis, Sexsomnia and more…
2. Sleep Paralysis
During normal sleep, your brain sends a signal to your body to inhibit your movement while you’re dreaming. This keeps you from thrashing around and possibly hurting yourself. But when Sleep Paralysis occurs, the brain either switches on your muscle inhibition feature too soon or doesn’t switch it off when you wake up, which can lead to very creepy experiences. In addition to being unable to move, many people will dream while they’re awake — basically hallucinating. The most common hallucinations that occur with Sleep Paralysis include sensing or seeing another person in the room, being touched, hearing footsteps, floating, or even hearing someone call your name. And for some people, the sensation is so strong they think they’ve had a stroke and are really paralyzed. Episodes of Sleep Paralysis can last anywhere from 10 seconds to a terrifying 70 minutes.
But it could never happen to you, right? Wrong. Studies suggest that about half of us have experienced at least one episode of hypnagogic Sleep Paralysis, the kind that occurs soon after we fall asleep. Chronic Sleep Paralysis, however, only affects about six percent of adults. Generally, the disorder is related to jet lag, sleep deprivation, stress or even your sleeping position. It’s believed that supine sleep (sleeping on your back) can make a person five times more likely to have an episode of Sleep Paralysis than any other position.
If you do happen to wake one morning and find yourself paralyzed, try wiggling your toes. The paralysis seems to affect larger muscles more than smaller ones, so a good way to get out of it is to try to make small movements. If that doesn’t work, check for a crazed Kathy Bates lurching around your room à la Misery, and make sure your ankles are still intact.
3. Sexsomnia
It’s embarrassing enough to be told that you snore or mumble in your sleep, but imagine being told that you take off all your clothes, moan in ecstasy, and sometimes even pleasure yourself—all without any memory of doing so. This is what happens with Sexsomnia.
Researchers at the Sleep Disorder Center at Stanford University have classified the sexual behaviors that occur during sleep into three categories. The first involves actions that the researchers describe as “annoying,” though not harmful. Cases in this category include sexual moaning loud enough to be heard in adjoining rooms, attempts to remove clothing, and mumbling sexually inappropriate phrases. The second category includes behaviors that are also considered annoying but are, at times, harmful to the person suffering from Sexsomnia. Often, this involves violent masturbation that can cause bruising and soreness the next morning. The last, and most severe, category is for actions that are harmful to others. These cases involve inappropriate and violent sexual behavior.
When confronted, people with Sexsomnia have no memory of their actions and become confused and embarrassed. One case study described a man who was so ashamed of his uncontrollable sexual behavior that he refused to share a bed with his wife and would restrain himself during the night to prevent any inappropriate conduct. But even that didn’t work. According to the researchers, on one particular evening his Sexsomnia desires were so forceful that he not only broke his restraints, but also two fingers.
Most bed partners of those with Sexsomnia find the behavior disquieting and unwelcome. There have even been cases of arrest for sexual battery. Other cases aren’t quite as severe, and the episodes of Sexsomnia may be indistinguishable from sex when awake. One woman didn’t realize that her husband was suffering from Sexsomnia for months. Finally one night, she clued in when she noticed something different about her husband while they were having sex: he was snoring.
Some people think that the diagnosis of Sexsomnia is used to justify inappropriate sexual advances. However, in nearly every case, doctors were able to document abnormal patterns of REM (rapid eye movement) or non-REM sleep, something impossible to fake. The majority of cases also had other psychiatric diagnoses. Fortunately, most patients with Sexsomnia can be successfully treated with psychotropic medications.
4. Pseudoinsomnia
We’ve all had nights where we just couldn’t seem to get to sleep. We toss and turn, punch our pillows, count sheep, and wonder what shirt will go best with the dark circles under our eyes the next morning. This is classic insomnia, a condition that an estimated 20 million people experience on a nightly or nearly nightly basis. Strangely, roughly five percent of these insomnia sufferers actually sleep much better than they realize. Why? They don’t have insomnia, but instead a condition known as Sleep State Misperception, or Pseudoinsomnia. People with this disorder have vivid dreams about not being able to sleep: tossing and turning and counting those sheep. Consequently, they wake the next morning feeling exhausted and believing they spent the entire night wide awake.
Often a bed partner discovers the disorder by assuring their mate that he or she is actually sleeping through the night. Other times, it’s diagnosed by a physician, but usually only after prescriptions for typical sleep inducers seem to fail. Luckily, the simple diagnosis of Pseudoinsomnia is usually enough to do the trick in curing the disorder.
5. Sleep Terrors
Everyone knows that nightmares can be horrifying. You wake terrified, sometimes in the midst of your own screaming, remembering vividly disturbing images. That’s when it’s time to crawl into bed with Mom and Dad. But nightmares, which occur late in our sleep cycles, are a lot different from Sleep Terrors, which happen earlier during non-REM sleep. People with Sleep Terrors experience sudden episodes of concentrated fright. To an observer, they will seem awake, but they’re not. With eyes wide open, their breathing is intense and their heart rate has shot through the roof. They might even scream at the top of their lungs in fear, look panicked, and act as if they’re in excruciating pain.
It’s okay to wake them … if you can. But it’s very difficult to rouse some sleepers out of one of these episodes. When they do wake up, most of the time they have no memory of the experience or the emotional upheaval it caused them (and most likely, the people around them).
Sleep Terrors usually occur in kids. About three percent of children report having at least one attack. For adults, it’s even more infrequent, with less than one percent experiencing Sleep Terrors.
Comments (36)
Comment
My brother experienced Sleep eating when he was in his early 20’s. I would not have believed it if I hadn’t seen it for myself. He would get out of bed, go to the kitchen and grab whatever (cookies, bread;nothing weird though) shovel the food into his mouthm finish eating it and go back to bed without a word or a clue that he was conscious. He never remembered these incidents. My granddaughter also did this when she was around three years old. She would go so far as to climb up on a counter to reach the foood in the cabinets. Weird!
My oldest son had Night terrors when he was 4 or 5 and, all I can say is, thank God it didn’t last too long! When your kid sits up in bed eyes wide open and screams bloody blue murder and you can’t wake him up it is freaky! I just used to talk to him in a monotone voice and he would calm down and go back to normal sleep. It is awful to experience.
posted by JaneM on 9-19-2007 at 9:08 am
i actually suffer from sleep eating. i have no clue when it started bc i didnt know i was doing it, but i had bad stomach pain for years and could never figure out why. i had been eating cakes and cookies all night! My roommates caught me eating their food in college after everyone’s snacks and entemann’s were mysteriously disappearing at night. Now i know that when exams come up and the stress is high, im likely to find some empty cupcake wrappers in the morning. It makes for many sad days at the gym.
i ate half a stick of butter once before my sister found me and got me back to bed. i felt gross that morning.
posted by MsAlyssabrody on 9-19-2007 at 9:34 am
There’s also sleep murder, supposedly. I watched a show about a trial where a guy murdered his girlfriend, and his defense was that he was asleep the whole time. I think there was another guy who drove across town to murder his mother-in-law while asleep. Creepy!
posted by Molly on 9-19-2007 at 9:47 am
I experienced sleep paralysis a lot in college, i guess it was the stress, and you described it very well in this article. Now that I know what it is, its not as scary when it happens (on ocassion). My dad had it in medical school as well, so maybe its hereditary! But when it first happens, you dont know whats happening or why you cant move. I thought I was going to die because I didnt think I was breathing and couldnt take in a breath (although I know now I was breathing just fine!). Very scary, especially the first few times.
posted by Jennifer on 9-19-2007 at 10:22 am
Sexsomnia actually played a part in Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man. A poor black man who the main character had meet had raped and impregnated his daughter in his sleep. He had actually woken up near the end of the episode, but said that he felt compelled to finish.
I’m certainly never going to sleep with Daddy again.
posted by Nathan on 9-19-2007 at 10:28 am
I totally have sleep eating episodes, usually brought on when I’ve consumed vast quantities of vodka while awake. My boyfriend tells me I’ve eaten butter, too, and one night I came out with 1/2 a hardboiled egg in each hand slathered in Miracle Whip and asked if he’d like some. I also concocted “bread tacos” that consisted of white bread and Taco Bell taco sauce from the packets. I think I might have done this before when I lived alone, but I just didn’t know about it!
posted by Heidi on 9-19-2007 at 10:28 am
I mentioned once before, but my older son has night terrors. On nights when his normal sleep pattern was disturbed (ie. going to sleep late, sleep overs, etc…), he would have incidents. He would wake screaming, or on non-terror occasions he would sleep walk. I always found that it was better not to wake him. The confusion of finding Dad waking you in bed or in the hallway and trying to understand what happened, seemed to agitate him. This prevented him from falling asleep for a while and the next day he’d be a wreck. Instead I just guided him back to bed and stayed with him for 5-10 minutes until he fell back asleep.
posted by Stew on 9-19-2007 at 11:00 am
My sleep paralysis comes on if I sleep with my arms above my head…it’s one of the most terrifying experiences; on a couple occasions I swore I was on my way to the pearly gates.
posted by Ernie on 9-19-2007 at 11:10 am
I suffer from sleep paralysis about once a week on average. I cant take naps or go to bed exhausted. You’ve heard of too tired to sleep? if Im too tired, my body shuts down before my mind, and thats enough for me to get out of bed and deal with being tired. it happened the first time when i was about 16 and got gradually worse from there. its only a slight inconvenience now a days, but its still eerie and frustrating enough to avoid it when possible. i also suffer from insomnia, which, because it throws off my sleep cycle, plays a hand in my paralysis. I only hallucinate in the most extreme cases, but they are by far the most impacting experiences. usually they play along with the helpless feeling i get from not being able to control my body, like someone or something just out of my line of sight trying to hold me down. those ones usually ruin my day. P.S. in the rare occasion that someone touches me in this paralyzed state, i snap out of it. but this has only happened twice i think.
posted by John on 9-19-2007 at 11:18 am
The Shake Sleep
It happens when I am exhausted. It starts with a sensation much like free falling and then I feel like there are vibrations running through my body from my spine up through my throat, the vibrations range from something that a massager would put out to full out body shaking. (My body doesn’t actually shake like a seizure.) When I start to realize the sensation I generally am frightened by it and wake up. If i do not wake up I become unable to move and pulled into a vibrant ultra real dream world, I realize I am dreaming and it becomes difficult to wake up. I have to consciously move a single muscle in order to wake. Luckily or unluckily it doesn’t happen very often anymore.
posted by Luke on 9-19-2007 at 12:32 pm
My little sister used to have Sleep Terrors. I was only in elementary school at the time, but I remember them vividly. Sometimes she was silly (once, in between screaming & crying, she threatened that if I didnt find my Dad, she was going to go to the bathroom… on the floor…) but most of the time it was just plain scary for everyone.
Everyone except her, because she still doesn’t remember a thing
My parents, though, were told to take her into the bathroom or kitchen to wake her - the cold tile on her feet would shock her awake. That was the only thing that worked
After my parents divorced, my mom realized that 99% of the time her night terrors occured when my mom wasn’t home - my dad was an alcoholic, so that was apparently my sister’s way of dealing with him
ps - I’ve been “sleep paralyzed” once or twice in my life - SO scary! I’m glad I know that it’s a real thing, though
pps- It’s very very strange to me that this blog appears today, as I, myself, have been having sleep troubles lately - for the past few weeks I wake up nearly every morning remembering vivid details of NUMEROUS crazy dreams (when I usually barely remember my dreams) & feeling as if I never slept! (Even more strange is that most of my dreams are about people I don’t know at all, or dreams about my legs) I’m really sick of sleeping for a nice normal amount of time, & waking up like I only got 3 hours of sleep - my brain just won’t calm down overnight! Does this happen to anyone else?
posted by sd on 9-19-2007 at 1:25 pm
I get sleep paralysis all the time when I sleep later on the weekends. I kind of enjoy it.
posted by Zanti on 9-19-2007 at 1:26 pm
When I was a child I used to have frequent night terrors. I have multiple memories of waking up in a parent’s (or in one case, a babysitter’s) arms with no clue why or how I got there. Not so fun, and it got hard to find understanding babysitters. Having one of your charges start screaming uncontrollably must be horrifying when you’re still a bit young yourself.
Luckily I’ve seemed to have grown out of night terrors, but I’ve been told that I still talk in my sleep. Apparently the conversations I share are quite interesting.
posted by Katherine on 9-19-2007 at 2:30 pm
i never knew there was a name for the whole, thinking i’m awake all night and actually being asleep thing. i do this alot.
i’ll wake up exhausted and explain to my husband that i was up tossing and turning… and that i got up to read or watch TV or (the worst was the time i was convinced i had gone for a run). he has to convince me that i’ve been asleep the whole time.
my daughter (age 6) does it too from time to time.
i wonder if it’s stress related. i sometimes think it’s related to my ADD. cause it’s very hard to sleep when my brain won’t shut off, but my body is exahusted.
posted by amywithlemon on 9-19-2007 at 2:48 pm
I agree with John, I have Sleep Paralysis about twice a year. It’s one of the most frightening things to happen to me while it’s happening, but once it’s over, I feel completely fine. And I totally “see” something in the room and feel something there. Usually lasts a couple of seconds, but 2 or 3 will happen in rapid succession. I have tried not to fight it before, but then it lasts longer. I am always fighting it the whole time, trying desperately to wiggle my fingers. I keep wanting someone to witness it happening to me so they can shake me out of it.
posted by Rebecka on 9-19-2007 at 3:00 pm
I also suffered from Sleep Paralysis after switching to graveyard shift at a previous job. Word to the wise: never watch ‘The Shining’ before going to bed if you know you’re currently suffering from Sleep Paralysis. I vividly remember lying in my bed unable to move, and all I could think was ‘Oh no! I can’t move and those two little girls are at the foot of my bed!!’ Definitely one of the scarier things I recall from my past.
posted by Derek on 9-19-2007 at 3:04 pm
What is it called when you have only nightmares instead of dreams?
posted by John Levitre on 9-19-2007 at 6:01 pm
I am a professor of psychology. Right now, I study bad habits and how people can get rid of them.
Before that, though, I studied sleep paralysis. Al Cheyne, Steve Rueffer, and I published two articles on the toic.
The article failed to mention the overwhelming sense of terror that people experience oduring an SP episode. Also, psychologist Robert Baker thought that SP was at the heart of many accounts of alien abduction. So did Carl Sagan. I tend to agree. For more on this, google “Al Cheyne Sleep Paralysis”
posted by Habit Guy on 9-19-2007 at 9:26 pm
My mom has sleep paralysis and it’s creepy! You helped diagnosis it for her (thnx Mental_Floss!) Anyway she sees people and thinks she’s calling out for help, but really she’s screaming with her mouth closed. The worst I do is laugh in my sleep.
posted by Rachel* on 9-19-2007 at 9:54 pm
i used to have night terrors a lot. it was definately stress related.
but i would do other odd things, like get up and watch tv. it didn’t matter if the tv was on or not, i would just get up, walk out to the living room, and sit down in front of the tv.
i woke up on the couch a lot of mornings. lol
the real fun thing is the sleep talking. my boyfriend picks on me for it, as have many people who have heard me doing it.
i’m certainly not as loud as my younger brother.
he talks loudly and at legnth all night long, laughing and chattering.
i’m glad i never had to share a room with him!
posted by sue on 9-19-2007 at 10:40 pm
I used to date a guy that talked about having sleep paralysis. He had hallucinations too. I always thought he was nuts until one night it happened to me. I was wide awake but couldn’t talk, scream, yell, nothing. It didn’t last long, I think I convinced myself to go back to sleep, but it sure was terrifying.
posted by Aimee on 9-19-2007 at 10:49 pm
I am that less than 1% that experiences adult sleep terrors. It’s horrible, I wake up everyday tired. That and it’s turned me into a paranoid person. I don’t remember what I do or say usually (even though my boyfriend says it is weird) but I remember the dreams. I should write horror movies.
The worst part is that this month I’ve been dreaming a lot of him (bf) killing me violently.
Makes for some strange morning conversations
posted by Janet on 9-20-2007 at 7:59 am
My wife started having night terrors a few years back. About an hour after going to sleep she would sit bolt upright in bed screaming and throwing things ( luckely usually the pillows), utterly convinced that someone had bolted into our bedroom to attach us. Scared the bejezzes out of both of us. We had many a sleepless night. Then for some reason she stated a food diary, keeping track of what she ate each day. After a while a pattern emerged…..Chinese food for lunch. It took a bit longer to pin it down but the culpert ended up being Monosodim Glutinate (MSG). She had some episodes that didn’t coralate with Asin cusine but after checking further we would find the soarce, ranch dressing or chicken at chain resturants. Seems they dump this stuff into alot of prepared foods (which we,ve always tried to avoid),and in “lesser” resturants, over any cheap cut of meat to make it “savory”. MSG dosent effect the actual taste of a food product but acts as a nero stimulater to get your taste buds reved up so you precive the food tastes better. The Web has alot of sites with info about MSG but it takes a bit to sift through the chaff. Some of the more reputable sites even address sleep disturbances as a posible side effect. My thoughts are that it must stimmulate the limbic portion of the brain and the second she slips into a deep sleep her “fight or flight” reflex kicks in. Luckely she now usualy gets a warning when shes been dosed, she says its like shadows flikering just at the edge of her field of vision. Thankfully, we found a natural sleep aid caled Calm Tabs that contain valarion and some other herbs that does the trick for her.
posted by Mark Strom on 9-20-2007 at 8:17 am
Dunno what to call it:
I have episodes, nothing I can relate to my everyday life, where I have dreams, sometimes nightmares, sometimes not, wake up & piddle around the house, get something to eat, have a smoke, whatever, go back to sleep and resume the dream where it left off - kinda like watching a TV show or movie that I’ve put on ‘pause’. As I’ve gotten older I’ve had more and more of these experiences.
More disturbing are the nightmares where I wake up from a particularly disturbing dream only to find myself in another dream but unaware that it is a dream until something outrageous occurs, like finding my piano at 90 degrees to the floor and laws of gravity, at which time I wake up again - into another dream. Last time this happened I woke up into five subsequent dreams before coming to full wakefullness, which I questioned as ‘realitly’ for about three weeks before realizing I actually *was* awake and what was happening around me was consensus reality.
Anybody else have these experiences? I’m hoping I’m not alone in this…
Doc
posted by doc on 9-20-2007 at 8:24 am
I find if I drink A LOT I sleep like a baby, you should try it
posted by Philip on 9-20-2007 at 9:43 am
First off, Doc, i get that ALL THE TIME. The thing is, once i realize i’m dreaming i just keep waking up into other dreams, but have figured it out by then. I usually wake up in another dream, try to turn on the light to no avail, then i remember that this happens all the time. I just keep telling myself to wake up and keep my eyes shut since i have really awfully scary and vivid dreams, and eventually i do. I have no problem recognizing reality once i wake, though.
Second, i get sleep paralysis, but i think i might get it in combination with sleep terrors, too - if that’s possible. I got sleep paralysis a LOT when i was really depressed due to the stress, so i got used to it then. But nowadays when i get sleep paralysis, when i come out of it, i come out of it SCREAMING. I’m filled with terror though nothing has happened, and i have to sleep with the light on the rest of the night.
What really sucks is when i tried to explain this to my family the first times it happened, they just laughed at me. So i’m REALLY HAPPY to see stuff about it as a legit disorder! Yeeeah!!
posted by schmooz on 9-20-2007 at 1:49 pm
I’ve actually had a few instances of sexsomnia. My wife told me just last week she awoke to me groping her and attempting to have sex. I had no recollection of the events, It’s happened maybe a dozen times.
posted by sexsleeper on 9-20-2007 at 3:27 pm
THANK YOU for explaining my frightening hallucinations! I often wake paralyzed and hear (nonexistent) people talking to me, and recently I suffered an hourlong episode in which, over and over, I felt my cat jump onto my bed and rub his head against mine, even though the cat was shut out of the bedroom. I’m relieved to know it’s “just” sleep paralysis.
posted by Karen on 9-22-2007 at 6:33 pm
Oh my god!! The condition of sleep paralysis is something I’ve experienced pretty frequently ever since I was in high school, and I’ve never heard it discussed before! I’ve never even mentioned the strange, terrifying episodes I’ve had to anyone, for fear of sounding like at total nut. The best way I could describe it previously was an “out of body” experience, which didn’t seem to actually fit the way it felt. Sleep paralysis is a much more accurate way of explaining it. When I’m having an episode, I am sure I can see the environment around me - alarm clock, dark room, clothes laid across a chair, ect. The freaky part is that, as another post mentioned, I am certain I am not breathing during the time I am “trapped” in my body. I had actually considered seeing a doctor because I was afraid I wasn’t getting enough oxygen while I was asleep. I’m glad I’m not really dying!
posted by Stephanie on 9-23-2007 at 2:01 pm
For those of you who are sleep eating, or know someone who does, ask if they are taking Ambien. Apparently, it is a common side affect. It happened to my sister. As for me, I’ve had nights where I think I didn’t sleep, but I feel fine the next day, indicating that I probably really did sleep. I’ve also awakened into a subsequent dream, but I always know when I enter the real world.
posted by Cindy on 9-26-2007 at 9:28 am
My sister, whom I used to share a room with, would sit up and talk to me sometimes while she was still asleep. We had mostly normal conversations, though once in a while she seemed a bit disoriented. She also used to sit up and stare at me or sleep walk; one time she went downstairs, unlocked the front door and was trying to find her car keys before my dad led her back to bed. As far as I know I’ve never sleepwalked, though my firends say that if I’m in an unfarmiliar bed I’ll talk in my sleep. Hope I don’t freak out my roommates when I go to college…
posted by Sara on 9-28-2007 at 5:00 pm
Hi,
Just reading through the posts to try to understand what my finacee is going through. Seems to have picked up now occuring nightly.Strange and creeps me out. After he falls asleep, I will hear him do everything from blood curdleing screams, to ranting and raving cussing someone out. He never remembers. We can’t sleep together, haven’t for many a moon. Because of all the above and he would hurt me while I was asleep. By kicking, kneeing, etc and I would awake to pain and fear. He never rememebered.I still don’t understand how someone could share a bed with another and not be aware of the others space and not be aware of hurting someone.
I am not talking about being bumped in the night, I am talking about pain and he wouldn’t let up, because he was asleep. Will he get better? He doesn’t see he has any problems, so it’s my telling him. Should I video him? As he screams and rants and raves like a mental person as he suppodely slumbers?
This is all new to me and it’s scary stuff.
posted by Mary on 11-1-2007 at 11:25 am
Well i was seeing if any of these stories were alike to what happened to me but i think part of it might be, but last night i woke up half asleep and my bed was shaking up and down lightly and i tried to lift my hands up but it hurts if i do and my body wouldnt get up adn i tried screaming for my dad to come save me but i couldnt talk and i prayed for god to help me and it would fade to me waking up and i try to fall back asleep and it happened three times until i went to my parent’s bedrooma nd slept, im scared if its an excorcims or if its just a disease or elipsisy or something. im just terrified.
posted by kaytlin on 12-2-2007 at 1:40 am
I have been suffering from a starnge sort of sleep terror where I will fall asleep and the second I leave conciousness I wake back up in a complete panic, with chest pains and I think I am dying. As soon as I realize what is happening the pain goes away and i am not frightened anymore. Sometimes this can go on for over an hour 8 or 9 times. I think I will take Mark Stroms advise and see if I have been eating hidden msg, if not is there anyone else who suffers like me??
posted by colleen on 2-25-2008 at 3:16 pm
The Fuseli painting “The Nightmare” pictured with the portion of the article dealing with night terrors is generally associated with sleep paralysis, rather than night terrors. Just an observation.
Great article!!!
posted by Sarah on 2-29-2008 at 9:25 am
This is a really interesting article! I find it fascinating to read about the different sleep conditions, because I suffer from a lot of them.
Firstly, I snore. That may not be amazing in itself, but the list goes on - I drool, and I sleep with my eyes slightly open (and I have chronic dry eye. Go figure). Also, I talk in my sleep - my family tells me that often times, it’s incoherent, but there are times when they can have full on conversations with me, and I would honestly have no recollection of it whatsoever.
There was this one instance (when I was a child) when my Dad was leaving the house for work, he went to go kiss me goodbye, and I sat straight up, screaming, “FIRE! FIRE! FIRE!” It scared the crap out of him, lol. My poor father.
Lately, because I’m learning Japanese, my sister has told me that I would now talk in Japanese in my sleep. Sometimes I would dream in Japanese as well. It’s a very interesting experience…
I have experienced that “continuous dreaming” as some other people have posted, and also sleep paralysis, and it is a very terrifying experience. Another thing that plagues me is that whenever I take a nap, either face down (while on a desk) or stomach down, I almost ALWAYS have just one big twitch (actually, more like a jerk) in my body that would force me awake. Like, violently.
Does anyone else experience the same thing?
posted by Heliodus on 5-13-2008 at 1:42 am