Sleep Problems or Demons or Just Bad Dreams?

I've had this sleeping problem for a couple years now. Some nights it is hard to fall asleep, and when I get to that borderline between sleeping and awake, I get, well I guess stuck, in between. My whole body goes rigid and sound gets really distorted. I can usually feel myself moving to try and wake up but it's hard. Worst of all: It scares me.
Now comes the demon part: Just recently I prayed to God for the first time (real praying, not kiddy crap like when I was 5)and that night while I was sleeping I had a "dream" that my body came off my bed about 3 inches, but I grabbed my bed sheets and pulled myself back down. I then heard this scary gurgling growl (like that of the tooth-fairy in Darkness Falls) and I opened my mouth to scream, but the sound only got louder as if it were coming from me. I don't remember waking up and I thought I already was. The next thing I did was call Auslander and he can tell you, I was pretty scared. Well, something similar happened tonight, around 3 AM lets say, when I was trying to go back to bed, but I haven't gone back to bed and it's almost 5 now. I actually said in my head "I hate you for allowing this to happen to me" and I had no idea why I thought that. I'm majorly freaked out and I want to know anyone else's opinion.

I hope this wasn't too long and for the record, I'm not a Christian.

 

might be time to see a psychologist, cabbit girl

 

Edit

 

It sounds like you're experiencing a Parasomnia (abnormal behavioral or physiological events due to activation of autonomic nervous system, motor system, or cognitive processes during sleep or sleep-wake transitions). There are three major possibilities:

1) What you've described sounds most like Sleep Paralysis = inability to voluntarily move during the transition between wakefulness and sleep. Typically, episodes occur at sleep onset (hypnagogic) or while waking (hypnopompic). Often, episodes are associated with extreme anxiety (i.e., impending doom/death). It's most common to have this disorder in association with Narcolepsy, but it can occur in isolation.

2) Possibly what you have is Nightmare Disorder (a.k.a., Dream Anxiety Disorder) = awakening from a majory sleep period and recall of detailed/frightening dreams (i.e. threat to survival, security, self-esteem), usually during 2cd half of sleep period. Typically, upon awakening, the person rapidly becomes oriented and alert (if not, it is more suggestive of Sleep Terror Disorder or a Seizure Disorder [i.e., Temporal Lobe Epilepsy]).

3) It is unlikely that it's Sleep Terror Disorder = abrupt awakening from sleep, during first 1/3 of major sleep epidose, typically accompanied by a panicky scream. Intense fear and autonomic arousal (i.e., rapid heart rate, rapid breathing, sweating). However, usually with this disorder you have amnesia (no recall of the dream detail).

Regardless of which disorder it is, if you're experiencing confusion, disorientation, and/or extreme fatigue after one of your episodes, you need to get yourself to a neurologist ASAP -- because this indicated that you're having seizures (most commonly, people will tell you that you're looking blankly into space during the episode... you don't necessarily need to be having all the motor movements, like in a grand mal seizure, to be having a seizure).

Neurologically, you could be having problems with your Reticular Activating System... where wakeful-producing soma and axons reside in the midbrain.

However, more likely than not, the cause is psychological. So, I think (as the previous poster suggested) it would be wise to go and see a psychologist who specializes in sleep disorders.

Oh... the other thing I forget to mention is that some of these disorders can be brought about or acerbated by substance use. So, the first thing to do is cut out any alcohol, caffeine, and tobacco use in the hours before bedtime... and see if symptoms remit.

 

Thank you very much for the information RussReef, I didn't actually think it could be some disorder or something along those lines, I shall look into it.

 

as far as praying and then having crazy dreams, I read in a book that if you pray and ask for a dream (I don't mean praying for a certain dream in particular, but more along the lines of asking for more knowledge about something), that it does happen more often than not. I put this to test one night and it worked.

It does sound like you're under a deal of stress though. Couldn't be your sister stealing your cell phone could it

 

that's usually the case with couples. Most of the stress is caused by the spouse/girlfriend/boyfriend.

 

To be honest,it could be a burp in the middle of the night.One of those gurgle burps,then you could have imagined the rest.I can't say I believe in demons or anything like that until I see it for myself.Probably a bad dream,because sometimes it is possible to have a dream that feels real.I have had a couple dreams that are pretty interesting myself that felt like they where real,so probably just your mind playing tricks with yah is all.

 

hardy har har, ddp. lola's sleep problems began years before i met her; but as to stress, well...i'm a pretty good source of relief

 

i'll put it this way: i'm leaving the house in a few minutes to go relieve some of DrawingLS's stress...she needs a hug

 

"I didn't actually think it could be some disorder or something along those lines, I shall look into it."

Well, it doesn't necessarily NEED to reach the threshhold of "being a disorder" to cause distress. For example, everyone suffers some anxiety at some point in their lifetime, yet we wouldn't typically diagnose people with an anxiety disorder unless it was persistant and caused ongoing significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or another important area of functioning. Nevertheless, the anxiety that the person experiences IS just as real and distressing to them in that moment as for someone who has a ongoing clinical disorder.

The only reason why I mentioned "the disorders", is that sub-clinical syndromes often mimic (in-part) clinical disorders, and can lead to clues and insights into how to go about addressing/treating the problem.

You've mentioned that you've had this problem for a couple of years now, but you didn't seem to indicate that this was a frequent occurence. So, probably it would NOT be classified as a "clinical disorder." Nevertheless, the fact that it is distressing to you suggests that you should probably address it and seek help -- the first stop being a conversation with your primary care physician.

The other thing you should know is that your experiences are not entirely unique. We all go through a phase of so-called "sleep paralysis" during sleep-wake transitions every night. The problem in your case seems to be that you're waking up just before or during this phase. And, I know it can be terrifying! For those of you who have never experienced this just imagine not being able to move when you were thinking, "Right arm move!"... it can be totally terrifying. And then what happens? Well, your brain goes into panic mode, often autonomic processes (i.e. heartbeat, respiration, sweating) will accelerate [similar to how your body prepares for "fight or flight" situations], and then cognitive processes finally kick in to explain to the rest of your brain what the f*ck is happening. Often these cognitive processes will be distorted and not reality-based, because you're caught in the sleep-wake transition where subconscious thought processes are not yet over-ridden by more rationally-based conscious processes. So, thinking that you hear a demon talking to you or things like "I hate you for allowing this to happen to me (self-blame internal monologue)" is certainly understandable [and, in fact, totally normal]. -- and VERY memorable, and VERY scary! There are lots of irrationally-based things our subconscious tells us every day, that when we are conscious, we can largely ignore... at least overtly. When stress and anxiety greatly intrude upon our lives, often these irrationally-based thoughts of the sub-conscious are less well contained by our consciousness... and evil/hurtful/self-depricating thoughts can leak out! You've had experiences of you sub-conscious leaking out when you've had a "slip of the tongue" or when you've snapped at someone who in your mind's-eye represents someone else with whom you have an ongoing conflict.

The point here is that to have a nightly phase of sleep paralysis is entirely normal! Imagine if you didn't... That is, if there wasn't inhibition of long motor neurons during sleep! Well, what would happen then, is you'd be sleep walking! Which is (in a way) the opposite problem from what you've described.

So, sleep paralysis is normal... but what's not entirely normal is that you're becoming aroused before the normal period of sleep paralysis has passed. Again, there could be physiological (i.e., substance use) or psychological (yes, like stress/anxiety) causes for this early awakening.

The first thing a cognitive-behavioral psychologist would do is tell you to practice good sleep hygiene. That is, getting to sleep and waking up the same time every day, not staying up into the late hours of the night watching TV or helping out noobs on Ad, cutting out substance use in the evening hours, etc. Addressing your level of stress, anxiety, and pressures in your life is the next thing the psychologist is likely to do. I'm not talking about psychoanalysis or any kind of Freudian "interpretation of dreams" nonsense! Stress and anxiety about things that happen during the daytime OFTEN cause nightime sleep disturbance... Believe me, I can personally attest to that fact! What I'm sure the psychologist would talk with you about in addition to your current stressors, would be what was happening in your life at the time you first started to have this problem (years ago). For example, did you just move? Did a significant relationship it your life come to an end? Was there another major life transition that occured? I think I noticed that you're about 17 years old now (from other threads) and there are a world of stresses and transitions that people are faced with during the teen years.

So, the thing to do now, is try not to panic of freak out about this stuff. (Actually, I'm sorry for mentioning the word "disorder" because is hindsight that might have elicited more anxiety, and that's not what's really going on here, from what I can tell). However, it's still a good idea to tell your primary care physician about this (or if you have a counselor in school, to tell them about this) and start addressing this. The reason why you'd want to get in touch with your doctor is that he/she could likely prescribe a medication that will speed up sleep-wake transitions... and you'd want to take it if you have recurrent episodes over a consecutive nights. That said, if the episodes are more spread out, it really speaks to a psychological cause... and you don't want to simple take a pill and become dependant upon medications for such a thing.

"i'm leaving the house in a few minutes to go relieve some of DrawingLS's stress...she needs a hug "

Having a close friend (and a strong support network) is a very good place to gain relief from stress!

So hopefully all this was a little bit helpful... The only reason why I know a little bit about this is that I'm currently in a neuropsychology Ph.D. program (basically, a dual clinical psychology and neurology program), so I've had a little bit of exposure to dealing with sleep disturbance issues. That said, it's not my primary area of interest. Most of my research deals with the neuropsychology and diseases of ageing (i.e., Alzheimer's disease, Dementia with Lewy Bodies, Frontal-Temporal dementia, etc.)

In any event, I can assure you that your not "crazy". It sounds to me that what you're dealing with is a natural reaction to things that are going on (or have gone on) in your life. We all have these things happen to us. In your particular case, it looks like it's manifesting as a bit of sleep paralysis. In other people's cases, it might manifest as sub-clinical depression or other disturbances. So, you see, we are all human and all have problems.

What's not going to help you is freaking out, or trying to diagnose yourself with XYZ disorder. What would be most helpful is to surround yourself with friends, family, your physician and/or counselor to discuss what you've been experiencing.

 

I'm actually not freaking out, I'm just glad that it is something explainable. Yay! I didn't have any problems last night. Thank you Auslander for almost falling asleep with me, that did help a lot.

Oh, and me not being crazy, well, I still think I'm crazy.

And I guess it doesn't help that I'm a bit of a hypochondriac.

 

you may be a crazy person, but your my crazy person