Sleep Disorder?!?!?!

Ok this is my first post so let me just let you guys know now im serious im not just doing this for kicks.....anyways im 21 M im in the military and well leave it at that....

Ive been experiencing something very strange when i go to sleep. Its not a dream, well at least i dont think it is. Basically right before i fall asleep my body becomes paralyzed. Its almost like my body is asleep but inside my mind is fully awake. I can feel it coming on and the only way to stop it is to jolt myself awake. I cant move in anyway, however i feel like i can move my toes and nothing else. Also in the past when i knew someone was next to me i tried to yell, i couldnt yell but i could almost hum loudly. While im laying down i feel like a tight pressure in my head and i start to feel extremely heavy. At that point i always jolt myself awake before i go any further. Usually in the past i would jolt myself to wake up and change positions, and then it wouldnt happen again, for some reason i believed this happens more when im laying on my back, anyways today i felt like no matter what position i was in i couldnt move and even after i jolted myself awake my body was still extremely heavy like i was extremely weak. I could barely open my eyelids. It basically is freaking me out because i am worried i have a sleep disorder. If i go to medical i would probably be discharged because thats their policy on sleeping disorders.
I feel like the longer i wait in this state the less control i have of jolting myself out of it, this is why i immedietly jolt myself awake the moment i feel the symptoms starting. Also when this does happen and i jolt myself to wake up and change positions and do fall asleep i always have very intense dreams. Its always of past situations in my life whether i when i was a child or even more recent. Its always intense dreams and sometimes when i wake up ill have been crying if it was a sad dream. Sometimes its about people i havent seen in years and theyll show up in my dreams. Its very strange. Some are sad some ill end up dying, some are even good dreams, but i only dream when this happens. I just did some recent looking around on the internet and i found some weird websites. One site said it was my inner self or spirit or sumthin trying to travel. I read some things that said i could leave my body and travel around, but this is something i definetly do not want to explore, although the thought seems kind of cool. The things they described were all things i felt and it did feel as if what they described as my spirit or whatever i would have described as my mind. but it did feel seperated from my body. I dont really know what im asking for but i would definetly like to hear if you guys have heard about this and if its something serious. Id hate to fall into the state and not be able to come out, thats my worst fear. Oh another thing i was thinking is if thats what people feel like when they are in a coma. just a lot of things are running through my head. Anyways any advice would be gratly appreciated.....thanks


Lorenzo

It's just normal sleep paralysis, and it's nothing to worry about. In fact, its somewhat of a blessing. Ignoring all the 'spiritual' BS you might have seen on other sites, what's happening is your mind jumps straight from a waking state to REM sleep. Normally, when you go to sleep you start in stage 1, progress through 2 3 and 4, then enter REM, so you're asleep when this all happens. Basically, to prevent people from sleepwalking or acting out their dreams in real life, the body sort of shuts down the nervous system to a certain degree to keep you still while in REM. Your eyes can still move, and perhaps some other extremities, depending on how complete the sleep paralysis is.
Like I said, it's definitely not something to worry about. Remember when you mentioned you had extremely vivid dreams afterwards? That's because of the direct transition to a dreaming state. The reason why it's somewhat of a blessing is that it makes WILDing incredibly easy. WILD (Wake-Induced Lucid Dream) is where you go to sleep for five hours, wake up for a short time, then go back to sleep in a controlled manner to directly enter a dream and become lucid. You're just skipping the first several steps and going straight to the good stuff. It's not a sleep disorder, so no worries about being discharged, either. Just let yourself relax into the sleep paralysis and fall asleep and you'll be fine. You probably should try to maintain consciousness while relaxing to get an LD out of it, too. Be warned though, as the sleep paralysis goes on, you might hear things. They aren't real, just the first signs of entering a dream, but sometimes they can be creepy. Just let the dream form and don't panic about anything, visual or audial.

Wow thanks for the reply. I cant believe i didnt think of the REM. I just finished my psch 101 class and the REM explanation really does explain this. Although i dont have narcolepsy its almost the same effect where i jump straight to REM. That would also explain the dreams afterwards. That does help out a lot but im still uneasy about just tryin to sleep through it because its extremely uncomfortable to try and sleep through it and not jolt myself up, but i guess i will try the next time it happens. Also i saw you mentioned sleep walking, when i was young i used to sleep walk all of the time and when i was a baby i used to stop breathing at night. As i got older the breathing thing stopped, as far as i know, but the sleep walking occasionally happend when im very stressed/excited. Thats not something im worried about though because it rearely happens. Yet when i was younger i did it a lot, one time to the point where i woke up outside. I feel though with age my sleep walking has almost totally gone away. Sometimes my roomates in the morning are like damn what the hell were you yelling about last night. i just pretend i dont know what there talkin about lol. But back to the topic on hand thanks a lot that kind of puts me at ease.

Well, the breathing thing is Sleep Apnea, and that's something you might want to get checked out. So long as you're not grossly overweight (And I'm assuming you aren't, if you're in the military) it shouldn't bother you too bad, but sleep apnea can make your sleep less restful and in extreme cases can kill.

Sleep paralysis is a very normal condition. Actually, it happens to everyone to some degree.
Some get it to more intense degrees than others....Don't sweat it. It's just the way it goes. If I were you, I would turn this SP into something awesome: A WILD. SP is a great state to Lucid Dream in.