Sleep Paralysis???

So I have been experiencing my bed shaking when I'm in my bed trying to go to sleep.
It has been the past few years I have been experiencing this. There is no pattern to it. It has happened a few nights in a row and then most of the times there can be days to a few weeks between these occurrences.

I would be almost asleep in bed, kind of in the 'in between state' where I'm relaxing my mind, I'm breathing slower, just your basic process of trying to fall asleep, and then I would feel the bed shake. Like someone is standing at the foot of the bed consistently pushing it with their knee. Usually it lasts for about 1-3 minutes. I thought maybe it was me moving, so I tried a few things like paying so much attention to my body laying completely still, to holding my knees up to my chest, to sitting up in bed. And still the bed keeps shaking. I just can't figure out what this could be. I'm never woken up by it, it always happens when I'm just relaxed and sometimes I"m not even getting ready for sleep. I'm just in my bed reading...Sometimes if I'm by myself when this happens, I get up and go grab my cat for a sleeping partner :S

It's not a nice thing to experience. I don't like this feeling, most of the times I just close my eyes and just cuddle up next to my husband and it eventually goes away. It's not a jolting feeling, I live in Alberta and we don't have earthquakes.

I have experienced sleep paralysis once, about 6+ months ago, where I was lying in bed and all of sudden my arms got really tingly and heavy, and so I just continued to move them and shake them, and then my legs got that feeling too. It was like my body was falling asleep before my mind was. So after awhile of moving my arms and legs around (luckily I didn't wake up my husband!) eventually it passed. This has been my one and only time experiencing that. But the bed wasn't shaking at that time.

Is there any explanations for this...I'm healthy, 5'6 125lb. I have no major health concerns with me or my family history.

[Suri123]

Hi malibuqueen, how are you? I feel it is better you seek a sleep specialist evaluation and opinion earliest. You seemed to be under stress due to the sleep depravation and the uneasy feeling towards your daily activities. What you are describing as bed shaking or the abnormal movements while going to sleep could be rhythmic movement disorder, where these movements tend to occur during the stage just prior to falling asleep and typically increase along with stress levels. Sleep paralysis is which occurs when you may go to sleep or may tend to wake up from sleep. It is a temporary phenomenon where in you are incapable of moving your body or even part of it physically but keep trying to shout loudly or seek someone’s help. It may be lasting for a few seconds to minutes. There may not be any physical injury to body but you will be probably frightened with sweating and increased heart beat, one may feel a shortness of breath or air hunger. Relax and be assured as nothing has happned. Do post your thoughts and doctor advise.

[malibuqueen]

Well I'm actually a pretty laid back person, all my friends would say that. I don't get stressed that much, especially since I switched my career path almost a year ago. Everything at home and at work are going very well. I'm pretty lucky right now. I get about 7 hrs of sleep every night, which I believe to be average. I've looked into rhythmic movement disorder, but it's not me that is moving. I can sit up in my bed and look around, and the bed is still shaking. My husband says there is no movement in me while I'm sleeping other then a bit of tossing and turning and switching sleep positions but not often.

The more I read about sleep paralysis I don't think it has anything to do with that too. Is it normal to be awake while your body is falling asleep, going into sleep paralysis? And to have also experienced this once in my lifetime? Thought I"m only 25 so far, but  the moment I felt my arms tingle and get heavy I started moving them around. my legs did get that feeling a bit but definitely not as much as my arms did. I'm going to talk to my doctor about it in the next couple weeks so I will see what he says. But for right now I'm trying to see if there is anything similar to what I'm experiencing out there that I can research up on.

[Suri123]

Hi, Thanks for your reply and sharing your views. I feel bit strange to hear you saying that not you and your bed shakes while you sleep. Either it should be secondary to your body movements like frequent jerks or something wrong with the mattress or the cot you are using. You can just check it by sleeping on other mattress or on hard surface like on floor just for one odd time to observe it you or your husband can notice any changes. Yes, about 7 hours of sleep per night is ok if you are also able to manage atleast 1-2 hours of sleep in daytime. Stress could be either mental or physical and end of day if you are in a run down state it could lead to sleep depravation, so try to relax and have lot of liquids. Alprazolam can be taken before bed time for few days. Do update on your doctor advise. Take care.

[Stressed78]

Hi there. I find this very interesting as I have been going through a very similar thing. My wife and I read for about a half hour before going to sleep. I say to her "did you feel that" she says "feel what".
It feels almost like your partner is moving, but when you look, they are not. Very subtle shaking sometimes almost unrecogniseable, but gets harder - never very hard though.
My wife and I have been having marital problems, and it has been a very stressful time for us both. I have been having bouts of paranoia, and at one point thought that she was doing this to drive me nuts. It is just hard to comprehend that this could be a mental thing when it feels so real, and I have never suffered from any mental issues.
Sorry - no help, but you are not alone.

[ECHK]

Hi Malibuqueen
This is not definitely not SP. We live in Toronto Canada. Our bed has been shaking almost every night for quite sometime now. This happens between the hours of 11:00 pm and 1:00 am and often in the morning - while we are wide awake.
The first time it happened it lasted over 1/2 hour in intervals. We assumed it was a rare earth tremor and waited until the morning to read about it in the paper or on the local news - but nothing was mentioned. This past spring, while we were in London England, we were there and actually experienced the earth quake that had occured - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7266390.stm.  It felt exactly the same as our bed shaking. Until last week we thought it was actually mild earth tremors, even though we don't live in an area of earthquake activity, but we thought what else could it be?
We've asked our neighbours if they have been experiencing the tremors, but the answers are always "no". The other day I decided to Google "shaking bed" and I was surprised to see how many people have experienced the same thing - almost down the to exact detail. Most attribute their experience to "supernatural forces" and not SP. My wife and I are actually starting to think this is the reason too. We are not asleep but often sitting up reading in bed. We have a water glass next to the bed that rocks with the motion - hence we assumed it was the whole house!

The other night we had our 3 yr old daughter in our bed when the bed started rocking quite violently - lasting about 1 minute. Our daughter woke and sat up with us and asked us if that was a qhost. Although we didn't show it, we were actually feeling quite freaked out by this experience.

Last week we were sitting on our couch watching the Daily Show (around 11:45) and the couch started shaking. The shaking actually feels like a constant mild rocking - like an very mild earthquake.

Before the bed shaking, there was a period where the floor boards below our bed would knock loudly - only one knock every 30 seconds. This would last approx. 2-3 minutes. We live in an old house (1895) so I attributed or dismissed this as house settling. Thing is, it would always happen at night between the hours of 11:00pm and 1:00am - the same time of night as the rocking bed. The floor board knocking does not happen anymore - it's been replaced with bed shaking!!

I really wish someone could advise us on what is causing this.
Thanks,
EC

[Curtis1960]

Malibuqueen, I agree with ECHK.  It very well could be supernatural.  I am not one to fall easily for these notions but I have experienced the same thing and could not find an explanation for it.  I watch a television show called Paranormal State which is about a team of investigators from Penn State University.  They investigate hauntings and other strange phenomena.  You could possibly contact them and get an explanation for these strange occurrances.  Here's the link to their website.  http://www.paranormalresearchsociety.org/

Please let me know what you discover.  I'm very interested in knowing the answer.

Best of luck!

Curt