Biggest scare of my life. Sleep paralysis?

[adastra]

This happened last night.
I had gone to sleep and maybe after an hour I woke up in some kind of shock.

- My heart was racing very fast and i could feel it beat all over my body.
- I had trouble breathing. I was hyperventilating , but wasn't getting any air.
- I felt this pressure in my head.. It felt like my eyes would pop out o.o .
- My arms and legs were shaking so much i nearly collapsed when trying to stand up

 Also I felt this huge depression and I was sure i was going to die.
After few minutes i felt better and tried to get some sleep.

Could this be sleep paralysis?   I didn't feel any kind of paralysis though o.o
damn, i was scared.. Do I need to see doctor?

[kári]

I have no idea about any of this but if you're fine now I would not go see a doctor. If it ever happens again though or if you still feel discomfort by it definitely go see a doctor.

[adastra]

I've never felt anything as intense as that.
I thought I was having a stroke or something.
Strangest thing was the way I was feeling ; I knew I was going to die.

[wasteland]

I've never felt anything as intense as that.
I thought I was having a stroke or something.
Strangest thing was the way I was feeling ; I knew I was going to die.

Could it have been a REM awakening? I heard that such experiences can be extremely traumatizing and potentially dangerous, like waking up a sleepwalker.

[BlackInk]

Sleep paralysis doesn't really fit the description. Sleep paralysis is when your body has fallen asleep. Your mind can wake up after that has happened and if that was the case you wouldn't be able to move you body at first. It may even cause halusinations.

I haven't heard what happened to you before. My guess would be that both your mind and body jolted out of sleep because of something. The depression or feeling that you were going to die sounds like your mind was still part asleep and were still in the mood or state it was just before you woke up.

Do you remember if you dreamt anything just before waking up? Something bad that your brain would still believe after waking up?

Could it have been a REM awakening? I heard that such experiences can be extremely traumatizing and potentially dangerous, like waking up a sleepwalker.

This also sounds possible.

[adastra]

I can't really remember what I was dreaming.
But I guess it wasn't anything depressing.. I felt like something grabbed me from my sleep and pulled me up.
I've been a little bit depressed for some time . I guess that could have something to do with that experience.

Actually i had a hallucination too .. But i see hallucinations frequently (about 2 times a week) , So I thought it wasn't worth mentioning.
There are couple of reasons why i could see hallucinations;

1. I sleep on my back.
2. I go to sleep when I am too tired (yeah, i read that it can fuel hallucinations).
3 Stress.

[The Stray Seed]

It could be Paroxysmal nocturnal dyspnoea. The symptoms seem to match, except for the absence of coughing. And if it were to be really dyspnoea, you should really take care of it soon, so go see a doctor as soon as you can. I had experienced Hypnagogic paralysis once, and it was really scary, but what happened to you looks different. The heart racing fast and the trembling of your limbs seemed to me something related to blood pressure, this plus the fact you were choking made me think to dyspnoea. You can find something even on the wiki:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paroxysmal_nocturnal_dyspnoea

Hope I was useful, anyway please go and tell what you felt to a doctor.

[adastra]

It could be Paroxysmal nocturnal dyspnoea. The symptoms seem to match. And if it were to be really dyspnoea, you should really take care of it soon, so go see a doctor as soon as you can. I had experienced Hypnagogic paralysis once, and it was really scary, but what happened to you looks different. The heart racing fast and the trembling of your limbs seemed to me something related to blood pressure, this plus the fact you were choking made me think to dyspnoea. You can find something even on the wiki:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paroxysmal_nocturnal_dyspnoea

Hope I was useful, anyway please go and tell what you felt to a doctor.

I'll keep this in mind. I'll propably go see doctor some day.
I actually was also thinking about blood pressure.  I've measured my blood pressure couple of months ago and then it was normal.

[Rattlehead]

Sounds like a panic attack to me but I could be wrong.

[adastra]

Can you have panic attack while you sleep? o.o

[Perpetual Change]

Can you have panic attack while you sleep? o.o

Yup. My fiance gets them.

[Kotowboy]

I've had the whole " having a very intense and vivid dream before waking up but being unable to move for two or three seconds. "

It was not nice the first few times but eventually it was like Ok - just wait a few seconds.

It's literally just your body waking up a second or two before your brain has un-paralysed you.

Not nice though.

[BlackInk]

I have tried for years to be able to deliberately reach sleep paralysis at night since it's a way to achieve lucid dreaming at will. I have succeeded two times and found it more interesting than scary. Maybe because I was prepared though.

[Fuzzboy]

I had this happen to me once in a car on a roadtrip. Felt like I was trying to hyperventilate but my body could only draw in long deep breaths as it normally would when it's sleeping. Really felt like i was suffocating but it went away as soon as i realized that i was in fact breathing

[Kotowboy]

Lucid dreaming at will would be the greatest thing ever.

Being able to live in your own fantasy world and have it feel as real as waking life.

[lonestar]

Can you have panic attack while you sleep? o.o

Yup. My fiance gets them.

Sounds like a panic attack to me but I could be wrong.

This, I used to get them in my sleep all the time.

[black_biff_stadler]

Can you have panic attack while you sleep? o.o

Yup. My fiance gets them.

Well, she does have to sleep next to you

As for the sleep paralysis thing? I've experienced it at least 30 or 40 times in my life (probably way more in fact.) Still scares me shitless sometimes. I used to just try violently shaking and could worm my way out of it. Then I found out that you can sometimes come out of it by slowly taking deep breaths to wake your brain up fully by getting more oxygen to it.

[7StringedBeast]

This is interesting to me because this has been happening to me frequently as of late.

The worst of it was just the other night.  I woke up from a dream in which I was just told that my cousin had died.  I felt the most grief I think I have ever felt in my entire life.  I woke up in tears and my girlfriend was trying to calm me down.  I was freaking out by all accounts.  I felt like I was dying.  I was seeing things on the walls.  It was crazy.  I got out of bed to try and go get water, so I walked in the other room and I stopped.  I could not make myself enter the room to get my glass.  I started panicking and turned around and ran back into my bedroom.  All the meanwhile I was completely unsure as to what was  happening to me.  It was freaky for sure.

I've never felt so much pain, grief, and fear as that night.  It took me a half hour to calm down and then get back to sleep.

The worst part about the dream, was that I was told my cousin had died because "her brain stopped working".  I also learned this as I was getting into a car to go to a soccer game... I don't play soccer nor do I think about soccer or like soccer.... but my cousin had a friend on her soccer team who died suddenly of a brain aneurysm while they were playing... It was freaky as hell.  I was convinced I was about to have the same thing happen to me, or that something awful had happened to my cousin and I was about to get phone calls regarding it.

Anyways, that's my story.

[BlackInk]

Lucid dreaming at will would be the greatest thing ever.

Being able to live in your own fantasy world and have it feel as real as waking life.

Like I said I've succeeded two times and while pretty cool. It doesn't feel as real as reality. I mean that blurriness and sense of sleeping is still there.

[Chino]

I have sleep paralysis episodes multiple times a week and have never experienced anything like you described.

[jonnybaxy]

Dann guys I feel for you, sounds pretty horrific, I just barely sleep like 2-4 hours per night

[adastra]

I decided to get appointment with my doctor.
My nurse friend said that I might have gotten a cardiac dysrhythmia.

My Brother died many many years ago because of that and he was only 19yrs old.
So maybe it's reasonable to go check it out

[bout to crash]

Sounds like a night terror to me, but ask your doctor.
Info: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001812/

[lonestar]

Night terrors fucking suck.

[black_biff_stadler]

Yes they do

[bout to crash]

I have never experienced one... I HAVE had sleep paralysis a few times, which ranges from simply weird to terrifying. One time I woke up, couldn't move, and hallucinated a person on top of me 

[adastra]

I'm pretty sure it was night terror.
And damn it sucked o.o