Sleep paralysis

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Had it again this past weekend. Not pleasant, think it's because I fell asleep on my back.

I have never been able to unparalyze myself. I can't even move my fingers. I will stay paralyzed for at least a half hour and sometimes over two hours.

Can't imagine what suffering sleep paralysis for more than a few seconds is like, let alone half an hour. That sounds like a horror film.

I think I once had a partial paralysis, it was a normal morning, I stood up, and fell on the ground since my left leg wasn't taking the weight.
just had to wiggle it a bit and it was ok.

It really can be terrifying because the longer it lasts the more you wonder if you are ever going to come out of it or if there is any damage being done to the brain. And you are screaming for help the whole time and no one can hear you. After the first couple of times I stopped screaming for help once I realized it would do no good and I just had to wait til my body was ready to come out of it on it's own.

Just in case anyone is curious about more of the physiology of sleep paralysis...

There are different stages of sleep that everyone goes through every time they sleep during which different things happen in your body. One of these stages is REM sleep (Rapid Eye Movement) during which almost all of your muscles are paralyzed except for your heart, some of the muscles that allow you to breathe (I can't remember which ones at the moment), and your eye muscles. A lot of dreaming takes place during REM sleep and people's eyes move around a lot, hence the name. Usually a person doesn't wake up while they are in REM sleep so most people never know that they were paralyzed. On the rare occasions that people do wake up directly out of REM sleep, they find themselves still paralyzed which can be quite scary to say the least. Lack of paralysis during REM sleep can actually be a really bad thing as the person usually has REM Sleep Behavior Disorder. Since the person is not paralyzed, they physically act out their dreams which can often be violent. Often, the person is dreaming that they are under attack and so they defend themselves, which can unfortunately lead to their partner to waking up in the middle of the night because they were just punched in the nose. Not such a good situation. REM sleep behavior disorder can sometimes be a precursor to developing Parkinson's disease. (Sleep is NOT actually one of my special interests: my dad is a doctor specializing is sleep, so I've grown up with words such as "REM sleep" being common everyday terms, e.g. that's the reason I know all this random stuff about sleep.)

This is really fascinating and good to know. Thank you ImeldaJace. Sometimes my husband moves around violently and I will wake him and ask him what he was dreaming about and he will tell me that he was dreaming that he was being chased or that he was riding his bike. It's not often but it can certainly be annoying for me! :0) One time he actually hit me dreaming that he was boxing. I am glad that he always wakes up whenever I need to wake him.

Yes before I went paleo and stopped eating processed sugar, dairy, grains, etc. Now I don't get it at all.

I have never had sleep paralysis.