Did I have a seizure?

[emcclain]

So on Sunday night as I was falling asleep, I felt two sort of zaps in my brain and then I felt my head involuntary twitch to the side a couple times. After this I could feel my whole body violently shaking and I couldn’t open my eyes or break out of it, but I was aware of it happening. I’m not sure how long it was until I sat straight up in bed and I had to think about if it was a dream or not, but decided that it happened. I’m really worried if this was some type of seizure or sleep paralysis.

[supermum_ms]

Hi there,

I'd say from your description of the episode and how you reacted afterwards, you've more likely to have experienced 'sleep paralysis' than a type of seizure...

Sleep paralysis is the temporary inability to move or speak, they can include hallucinations that are visual, auditory, physical sensations etc and they typically happen when you're waking up or falling asleep, they actually only last a few seconds or minutes but can be very frightening and feel a lot longer than that.

Sleep paralysis affects people of all ages though most common in teenagers and young adults, but they say it's not uncommon to experience sleep paralysis at least once or twice in your life time. They're not harmful or generally a sign of something serious, they are usually to do with sleeping habits or poor sleep quality eg not getting enough sleep, irregular sleep patterns etc  

It is unlikely to reoccur but IF they keep happening you should consider bringing it to the attention of your family GP.

Hope it helps......JJ