01.18.06
New post
Gerry is right. It is time for a new post.
How about, isn’t it amazing how stress can manifest itself so physically? Something stressful happened to me last weekend. Until this morning I thought I was managing just fine. My stomach was in a knot, my fists were clenched, I was gritting my teeth, but I persuaded myself that the stressful thing wasn’t really that stressful. Eventually I shouted at my husband this morning, burst into tears, apologised, and then the pain in my tummy went.
Here’s another thing. Sometimes, maybe every month to 6 weeks or so , this really horrible thing happens to me. I wake up, but I’ve been dreaming so I’m still paralysed – you know the way when you are dreaming you can’t move so you don’t act your dreams. Sometime my husband’s arm will be around me and the weight feels like it is completely crushing me. But I can’t speak or shout out and I can’t breathe. I lay there struggling for what feels like minutes desperately trying to both breathe and speak. Eventually, just before I burst, I manage to explode and I ROAR out gasping for air and shouting at him. The poor man who has been sound asleep gets the fright of his life and scurries over to the far side of the bed convinced, that yes, he did marry the scariest woman in Ireland. I take a few deep breaths and go back to sleep.
Does this happen to anyone else?
auds said,
January 18, 2006 at 8:54 pm
No, I can’t say it had but I’m the kind of person who goes to the cinema the night before exams and has never had a scary dream ever.
That said, a cry is the best treatment for all my stressed out times.
Ring Mammy up, curl up on sofa and sob away for 20 mintues – then the world’s shiny and happy again.
Those kind of mini-panic attacks are common – while sleeping does sound a little odd but once they’re not upsetting your life in a major way, don’t worry about them.
When you’re stressed, breathing exercises and visualisations have found to be good.
I’ve a friend who got 3 weeks of pure insomnia before our last set of exams – she found that taking a bath before sleep gave her 2-3 hours of sleep but then she woke up so she had to do on drugs to stop acting and looking like the living dead.
Did your husband not figure out your scariness long before then??
Darren said,
January 18, 2006 at 9:50 pm
What you’ve got there is commonly known as sleep paralysis, and it sucks.
Dave said,
January 18, 2006 at 10:15 pm
Indeed it’s definitely sleep paralysis. I’ve gotten it in the past too and I know loads of people who’ve gotten it too and not known what it was either. As soon as it’s explained everyone is delighted.
Sarah said,
January 18, 2006 at 10:28 pm
hurrah! I am not mad. Fascinating stuff. So the crushing weight on chest is not him but part of the experience…I will try not to panic the next time. Thanks!
Dave said,
January 19, 2006 at 12:29 am
Yep Sarah, I bet you’ll be surprised by the amount of people who’ve experienced that if you start mentioning it to people!
Pete said,
January 19, 2006 at 12:16 pm
Physical symptoms of stress: Very common during long periods of stress (berevement etc.) is the formation of strange hard lumps under the skin. They feel like they’ll develop into hige zits, but they never do, they just go away after a week or two. Personally, I get chest pains, which doctors tell me are nothing to worry about, but which make it difficult and painful to take a deep breath.
Sarah said,
January 19, 2006 at 12:28 pm
that’s awful. Personally I think we should all be Buddhists. Their philosophy is amazing. I wish I had time to drop into their centre in Dublin more often. I wonder would they open one in Enfield? sigh.
tom said,
January 19, 2006 at 4:53 pm
yeah, buddhists never have stress, in fact nobody in china is ever stressed by anything at all.
Joe said,
January 20, 2006 at 1:05 am
haven’t experienced this. But I have had a “lucid dream” where I realised I was dreaming and didn’t wake up. After that everything is suspect!
Sinéad said,
January 20, 2006 at 2:42 pm
No you’re not mad, I’ve had that too, and it’s terrifying. Once I was convinced someone was in trying to break in through my windon, but I think that was, as Joe mentions, a lucid dream. I couldn’t wake myself up and it was so frightening.
I’ve been having really weird sleep lately but I blame that on the RSI in my shoulder from being on my damn computer too much.
Sarah said,
January 20, 2006 at 2:59 pm
perhaps I have over-estimated the power of Buddhism. I went to a yoga class yesterday. On the way in I had that giddy bloated feeling in my tummy (brought on by inlduging a craving for sausages sandwiches (scrummy). Coming out of yoga I was totally relaxed. The tension had totally lifted and I thought there just might hope for my hair (which was having such a bad day my sisters, torn between sympathy and laughter, had suggested a blow dry might be in order). Got home delighted with my new age therapies to discover my period had arrived. Doh! Those goddamn hormones. The amazing thing about PMT is that when you are consumed by it, it never occurs to you that that’s the problem.
Tom said,
January 22, 2006 at 10:20 am
About 20 years ago I began waking up and gasping for breath and had to walk around in the bedroom to calm down. Eventually I went to a doctor who seemed to think it was in my head, but he ordered some tests on me and found that I had “mitral valve prolapse” that causes the heart to seem to “skip a beat”. He put me on a small dose of Inderal and I take it to this day and have never missed a night’s sleep since.
My Favourite Post in the Long Tail | DarrenBarefoot.com said,
June 21, 2006 at 8:21 pm
[...] It’s about sleep paralysis, and it’s not long–I wrote all of two paragraphs. I also cited my friend Sarah’s experience of the peculiar affliction. [...]
GUBU » Sleep Paralysis said,
June 22, 2006 at 10:27 am
[...] Here’s my original post (some of my old links are a bit funny, sorry about that Joe – I think connected with my server move). [...]
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