Top Ten Spooky Sleep Disorders

Insomnia and sleep hallucinations occasionally.

When I was young I would dream and half wake and think I was seeing my mom go over my homework.
Now I knew it wasn't happening but it did.
Very rarely happens now thank goodness, as it sometimes is too real.

The insomnia has been all my life and I prefer cat naps now. I don't feel tired from lack of sleep or the disorientation I used to suffer before.

I get sleep paralysis. I hate it. Sometimes I'll get hallucinations, but I actually don't mind those, it's just a really vivid dream. The paralysis I hate is when I'm more or less fully awake in my mind but my body is sleeping and I can't make myself "wake up". It's just nothing works and the only thing I can do is go back to sleep. Sometimes it's difficult not to panic when this happens.

Splint - yup, sleep paralysis is very scary even when you know what it is and you know it'll pass. The literature all says that it only lasts a few seconds, but that's not my experience. I've counted breaths up to around fifty before now - deep breaths, too, not panting. Not only isn't that "a few seconds", but it feels like forever.

I frequently have sleep paralysis with hypnagogic hallucinations. And insomnia. And, apparently, exploding head syndrome. Though I was never told that when I was diagnosed at the sleep clinic. I always assumed the loud noises and voices were part of the hallucinations. Altogether they're in the same group of hypnagogic sleep disorders.

For those of you that get sleep paralysis, let me share something I learned at the sleep clinic. Focus all your attention on trying to move one small part of your body. I usually focus on the fingers of my right hand. Try to remain calm and remember that as soon as you start to move that part of your body, everything else will follow and you will be awake almost instantly. This is not always easy because for some people (like me), the hallucinations are very vivid and insanely terrifying. That's because the part of your brain that deals with fear is firing away like crazy. I've never felt fear like that in real life. Usually I'm hallucinating that some evil creature is crawling up from under the bed and grabbing me. Or that something malevolent is coming up the stairs toward my bedroom. And I can't move. With practice I've been able to wake myself using the above method.

Luckily, I've not experienced the scarier sleep disorders. But I have experienced the same hypnagogic hallucination a number of times -- generally when falling asleep while semi-sitting up reading: I seem to be looking out from behind my shut eyelids.

I can look down and see the book resting against me, the same room I'm actually in and all the surroundings. But then I wake up.

Weird but not unpleasant in the least.

Katie - that doesn't work for me, but what does work is breathing very loudly so my wife wakes up and shoves me out of bed. Every time she's bothered, it's worked a treat, the sudden outside stimulus kickstarts the "regain control after sleep" function in the brain. Trouble is it's hard to get her to a) wake up and b) understand just how hard she needs to shove me.

I have a bad case of Exploding Head Syndrome. It usually happens when I'm really tired but can't sleep. I'll hear this really loud bang or a build-up of a sound and then the final big 'bang!'. It's awful.

@Katie @Skipweasel

For me I always think I may be hearing someone trying to break down the front door or jiggling the doorknob. Like I said, I'm more or less awake in my mind but I can't move and I have trouble focusing my listening to determine whether I'm really hearing it or it's just a hallucination aspect. For me trying to wake up never works and trying to focus my listening never works, I'm completely paralyzed. the only thing that works is to completely relax and try to go back to sleep, it'll often go away not too long after that. I think the act of "trying" to do anything actually prolongs the paralysis because that's what the paralysis is there to do in the first place, keep you from acting out your dreams.

I walk in my sleep. One time I woke up in a hotel lobby, and since that point, my husband piles furniture against the door.

I've also woken up, standing in my bedroom, and I had no idea where I was.

I think I have sleep paralysis sometimes. I know that I think I'm dreaming, but I have a feeling like I want to wake up. I can't though, and I try to yell in order to wake up, but I can't. Usually when that happens, I see demons.

I once had a dream that I woke up and got out of bed and was walking around my apartment, but I was getting frustrated because I was looking for the light switch, but couldn't find it. It wasn't there.

At night, I have my blinds closed. Always. One morning, I woke up and they were wide open. I freaked out. It felt like someone had been there while I was asleep and opened them. Everyone said I must have done it while asleep. I don't sleepwalk. That's never happened before and it hasn't happened since.

@gregr

In sleep paralysis studies, individuals often report a feeling of another presence. I don't know what causes it but it's not uncommon, which may or not be comforting. :) I get that too, like when I think there's people outside my front door, trying to get in.

I have periods of insomnia and or sleepparalysis and or exploding head. If I have stressed periods in my daytime life, I can be sure to get at least one of these things. To me the most frightening combination is exploding head and sleepparalysis, because sometimes I really cannot find out what the loud noise was- One has to move to look around and that is impossible. So that gives this nightmarish sensation that something has gone terribly wrong just outside one's view. And that makes that when this has happened some nights on end, I just dare not go to sleep so I keep awake while I'm in bed. Or I awaken in the middle of the night completely freaked out because I believe I just heard this explosion or because I think I'm paralysed- both of which mostly are then not the case.

The oly thing that really helps is to have as much a stressless life as possible with lots of excercise, without the use of chemicals, pills, powders or drugs.

I also suffer from sleep paralysis and hallucinations which they call "incubus attacks." I strongly sense the presence of someone/something in the room and then feel it slowly settling on top of me. I feel the pressure and warmth one would expect from an actual body. The more I panic mentally, the worse the "attack" becomes. I can even feel the hot breath of the thing on my face sometimes. It's SO realistic and absolutley horrified me the first few times it happened. I literally thought there was a demon after me. Now I can concentrate to the point where I can snap myself out of it and wake up. For me, I have to concentrate really hard - it's almost like you have to work to send the message to your body and limbs to move. It's very strange but interesting too. Still, I wouldn't wish it on anyone.