sleep paralysis and night terrors

[kjohn77]

I have had problems sleeping since i was young. I would be awake and feel that the room was swallowing me up, like i was small and everything was big. i would also sleep walk and do things like write on walls and go outside. At first i just thought i was dreaming but the writing was on the wall in the morning and my feet were muddy from being outside. I would often have what seemed like normal dreams but become so frightened in them for no reason that i would not be able to speak. my brother also had problems with sleep walking. these issues stopped when i was about 8. recently i had an episode of what sounds like sleep paralysis. i was asleep and woke up but could not get my body to wake up. i was completely aware of my surroundings but i could not open my eyes or get up. my daughter and husband were also sleeping. i tried calling out to them for help but they could not hear me. it was like i was having an out of body experience where i could see them and talk to them but they did not know i was there. i could feel my arms moving but i could not move anything else. finally my daughter woke me up and i was so happy that i could get up. i feel quickly back to sleep and it began all over again. thankfully she was able to wake me up a second time and then i stayed up. my daughter is also showing signs of having night terrors and she is only 3. she has a lot of problems with sleeping, since she was born. her doctor told us to give her melatonin and wants to send her to a sleep specialist. i just do not know what to do.

[Paderla Anitha, DNB]

Hello and hope you are doing well.

The symptoms you are experiencing could be due to an entity called sleep paralysis. When this happens in sleep the person has difficulty moving his hands or feet. This is the symptom of a sleep disorder called Narcolepsy. This sleep disorder is characterized by excessive day time sleepiness, sleep paralysis, cataplexy where the person has episodes of loss of muscle function while awake, hypnogogic hallucinations and automatic behavior. You will need to consult your primary care physician, who may schedule you for a polysomnogram (sleep test) to rule out sleep disorders and initiate appropriate therapy.

Hope this helped and do keep us posted.

[ChitChatNine]

My daughter as a toddler had sleep terrors, too .. and believe it or not we traced it back to a preservative in one of her medications .. she'd get the terrors when she took the med with that preservative in it, and the generic which had different makeup was fine.  Just a thought, as you try to find an answer for your daughter.

Please stop back and let us know how she's doing.

C~