I have been experiencing sleep paralysis my entire life, it usually happens when my sleep patterns are messed up, or when i'm really stressed out. After it happens I am usually out of it for the next few hours and it's all I can think about. The other night I had one of the worst experiences I have ever had, since it has been happening to me for as long as I can remember I can usually tell when it's going to happen and it usually happens when something in a dream scares me awake. You wake up and feel like you are able to get up but when you try to sit up it's like a force is pushing you down. I woke up yesterday and realized what was happening and I just laid there trying to keep calm and fall back asleep because in my experience, if you fight it, it makes it worse. I could hear someone laughing at me and I couldn't breathe, like someone was choking me, and then I felt like I was wearing a necklace and it was on fire or something because my neck was burning. I tried screaming but it's no use, you literally have to lay there and wait for it to pass, sometimes it's only a few seconds but most of the time for me it takes minutes. Finally I shook myself out of it and went straight into Jim's room to make sure I was actually awake because sometimes you think you've woken up and you will really be having a lucid dream and find yourself back in your bed unable to move again. After sleep paralysis happens it will usually happen over and over again throughout the night unless you get up right after and walk around for a bit. I have had some pretty intense experiences and I don't know one other person that this happens to, it sucks because when I try and explain it to people they look at me like i'm insane. I've read that you can take clonazapam before bed but it's really addictive so I try and keep my sleeping patterns regular and try not to sleep on my back, apparently it helps....
