The Terror of RISP (Sleep Paralysis)

Member Name: helmet

Product:	Sleep Paralysis
Date:	31/05/01 (475 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: You get to experience things you normally wouldn't

Disadvantages: Anxiety/fear, Tiredness (you don't want to sleep)

Have you ever woken to find, although everything appears normal, that you're unable to interact with your surroundings? You can't move... you are somehow completely paralysed!

There's a fair chance you have...

Apparently, when you enter REM sleep, your brain releases a chemical to your muscles which paralyses them; the idea being that when you're dreaming of being chased, your legs aren't thrashing about in the bed, etc. Similarly, as you awaken from this state, this chemical production is stopped. This is what's known as Sleep Paralysis, which you wouldn't normally notice.

On occasion however, your brain gets the timing wrong and paralyses your body before you've fallen asleep proper or doesn't 'unparalyse' it until after you've awoken. This, because you can still be or are becoming aware of your surroundings, is known as Awareness during Sleep Paralysis (ASP). ASP is something that just over 6% of us experience at least once during our lifetimes (Reuters) and based on that, the condition is sometimes referred to as Isolated Sleep Paralysis (ISP). Still with me?

ISP would be fine but there are a more than a few people who experience it more than once; fairly regularly in fact and this is Recurrent Isolated Sleep Paralysis (RISP). Unfortunately, I've been one of those people for about 8 years.

OK, so what's the big deal? Well, when you've no idea what on earth is happening, it's as scary as get out. Initially, you dismiss the experiences as really bad nightmares but when they don't stop you start to get worried. I asked my GP what might be happening and he told me they were just Night Terrors and I'd grow out of it. Since I associated Night Terrors with children, I dismissed this; I was 30 years old for pity's sake.

You 'know' it's not just a dream though. Dreams don't tend to be the same thing every time...

In m
y experiences there is always noise; white noise. You know when you're sitting in complete silence you can hear a wee, high-pitched tone in your ears? (Or is that just me?) That's how it starts. That wee tone gets louder and louder, to where it is so loud I can just bear it and then it gets louder still, the single tone becoming distorted and louder. Physical pain now; becoming excruciating to the point that I would die just to be free of it. Usually, the pain tends to be concentrated on the sides of my skull as though some invisible force was attempting to crush it, gradually increasing pressure. Occasionally this force is concentrated downwards on my chest as though trying to cave in my ribcage. I am awake - this is NO dream; my eyes are open and I'm trying my damndest to free myself from this terrifying noise/pain thing. I'll attempt to lift my arm, my leg, head, anything but I CAN'T MAKE IT STOP! Sometimes I 'do' manage to lift an arm in front of my face only to find that I CAN'T SEE IT! I'll become more aware of where I am and sometimes feel or see there's someone in the room with me (whether or not there actually is). So I'll try to call out to them to wake me but all (I think) I can muster is a feeble croak (I don't know if any sound is made at all). Eventually, after persevering with trying to move a thumb or toe, the pain and the noise subsides and I'm free again. On one occasion I felt as though I was slipping out of myself. Although I could 'see' my legs up on the bed (which they were), my feet, as far as I was concerned at the time, were pushing hard against the floor to stop me from leaving me completely (if that makes any sense). It was the scariest thing I've ever known. I really thought I was going to die.

Of course, once I'd been diagnosed as experiencing ASP (just last year, by my brother who's a Doctor), I realised why I couldn't see my arm; it hadn't moved at
all, why I couldn't shout out and why I saw people that perhaps weren't there. I then found out that other people have the same experiences very similar to my own. In fact, reading their accounts gave me some sense of relief, as I now knew it wasn't just me. Sheryl Crow mentioned her own experiences in an interview for Rolling Stone magazine. The reports of hallucinations that seem to be related to this half-awake, half-asleep state are like dreams getting mixed with reality. It also seems that Alien Abductions and Out of Body Experiences may be ASP episodes.

Why I can see and move my eyes during ASP is because they are controlled directly by the brain whereas I cannot move or shout out because these actions are controlled by the spinal cord, which can't do anything at this point. I haven't found any reports of any harm coming to those that experience this phenomena, apparently breathing & heart rate remain normal even though you might not think so at the time. A few of the cited causes of ASP are poor diet, bad sleep pattern, stress and depression. Perhaps if I get a job that doesn't involve an alternating shift rota and start eating properly I 'will' grow out of it :)

If, as you've read this you've thought, "That's it! That's what happens to me!" then I'm happy. That was exactly what I thought when I first read another's description; realisation & relief.

Only, knowing what is happening now doesn't make the experiences any easier. It's still the most terrifying thing I know and it's still daunting to go to bed not knowing whether I'll sleep perchance to dream or be once more thrown into the terror and fear that is, for me, RISP.

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