Question:
I am trying to determine if I suffer from Night
Terrors and or Sleep Paralysis or just plain old nightmares. Please allow me
to give a little background.
I am a 44 year old happily married, mother of two great teenagers. I also have
severe OSA (obstructional sleep apnea). I was diagnosed almost 9 years ago and
am on a Bi-Pap machine (bi-level positive airway pressure).
For as long as I can remember I have been afraid of the dark. My earliest
memories go back to the age of 3.
I have never been afraid to go to bed, never looked upon it negatively in any
way, but when the lights go off...it begins. I lay in bed and try to sleep.
within in short time (minutes) I begin to hear every "house" noise. I listen,
wondering if someone has broken into the house or my room. If I hear more
noises or see a shadow I become frozen in fear, unable to move, usually holding
my breath so the bad person won't hear me....if i lay stilll enough. Many
times I feel the presence of someone in my room. Many times I have experienced
a feeling as if someone were standing over me...sometimes I actually "feel" the
matress compressing down like someone is pushing on it. When I was a child,
sometimes I would think it was a fierce animal...a lion or a big mean dog...and
sometimes a person. I just "freeze" in fear for hours until I fall asleep. I
seldom screamed out for help because then whoever was there would get me. In
the morning, I just get up and go about my business, don't even think about the
night before. I don't remember the frequency that this happened as a child,
but I would guess most nights. I don't ever remember telling my mom, but
sometimes a younger brother would hear me scream out and he would check under
my bed and in my closet and behind a chair to convince me no one was there.
When he would turn off the lights and leave, it would begin all over again. As
I grew older, into my teens, this continued. I slept with a knife under my
pillow ( my mom would have a cow if she knew this LOL). I was embarrased by my
fear of the dark and kept it to myself. Even after I married, the experience
continued although only a few times a month, still too often I think though. I
still, today, am afraid of the dark, feel a bad presence and lay frozen in
fear...holding my breath... is this "Night Terrors" (certainly is
for me) and "SleepParalysis"?
Answer:
my sleeping experiences are very similar to
yours,,,,,apnea......sleep paralysis......long sleep
onset..........nightmares......
1. Nightmares, for about two years all my dreams were nothing but
nasty, I still have them but not as bad or as often, what really helped
me and you could try is after you wake from your bad dream consciously
review the dream and change the ending anyway you want, to an outcome
you like, this worked like a charm for me. After about two weeks of
doing this the nightmares lost their potency and frequency, just
remember to do it right after the dream while your still in bed.
2. Sleep paralysis, when you can sense the room around you, and
hear things etc..Alot of people have different opinions as to what is
going on , but even though it can be quite intense it is very common, it
still catches me off guard and scares me silly.....For me, for dream
paralysis to occur I have to be sleeping on my back, so to avoid this I
sleep on my side or stomach, if I happen to fall asleep on my back I
will almost always go into this state or one close to it.
3.Apnea, that is fun, huh? I think I am usualy sleeping on my back
when this occurs but I am not 100% , I almost always go back to sleep
after I start breathing again so I don't remember much.
4. Night terrors, isn't that where you get physicaly violent and
thrash about in bed, I don't do that, about once a year I'll try to kick
something trying to get me while I'm in the paralysis state and I end up
kicking the wall extremely hard. I have started this new thing about
three years ago, where I'll chomp my teeth together for no apparent
reason , I almost always end up biting my tongue , that may sound silly
but of all the bad things that have occurred to me in the sleep state
that is the worst by far, very painful.
5. May be these things are reflections or symptoms of things that
need fixing in our waking state...........what do you think?
As I see it, the thinking that you're doing here involves the
recognition that you are more real than what you are imagining, and that
it has no power over you and is nothing to be afraid of or otherwise
upset about. So practicing this tends to relax the thoughts and
feelings behind the nightmares and resolve the difficulty.
The key thing that I have found is relaxing my emotional investment in
what is experienced. Asking 'God' for help with this has been quite
helpful to me. If a person can't get there for 'God', any kind of
thinking that is similar would do this also.
so you have a fear of the dark. Sleep with the light on? Get some fear
counselling. This is the sort of thing that is within your powers to
recover from.
