Ever since my awesome self-diagnosis led me to believe that I have sleep paralysis, I’ve been sleeping on my side to avoid being trapped in my body again. So far, it has worked and I don’t get sleep paralysis when I am sleeping on my side. However, I wake up with serious back pain and sometimes pinched nerves on my arms so I go through the whole day with the arm on the slide I slept on in total pain (in addition to the back pain).
Sometimes when I wake up in the morning, I sleep on my back to hopefully ease the damage to my body. Sleep paralysis isn’t so bad when I get it in the morning because I can see my surroundings and it’s more easier to rationalize things than if I were to have an episode of sleep paralysis in the dark when I can’t see a thing. So far every time I’ve slept on my back, I’ve had sleep paralysis. Whenever I get sleep paralysis and understand that I’m under it’s symptoms, I force myself to wiggle my fingers and toes to hopefully wake myself up. It occurred about three times last morning. I’d drift in and out of paralysis, waking myself up by forcing my hands to move and hoping that the rest of my body will follow. The hallucinations, however, haven’t really subsided. Luckily though, they’ve not been as scary (again, probably because I can see my surroundings).
This morning I heard myself trying to rationalize with me. I heard me–my own voice, telling me that my body was tired. I heard Dream Karen saying in my softest voice saying “Karen, you’re tired. I know your brain isn’t, but your body is, okay? Let it rest.”
When I was able to move again, I turned over to my side and slept. No sleep paralysis, but my arm hurts a little. The world just isn’t ready for two of me.
Woah, that’s so weird. I’ve experienced it maybe twice but I always wake up before it gets scary. I’m glad that sleeping on your side is working.I usually sleep on my side, and I keep my arm comfortable by not laying on it. Obviously I have to lay on my shoulder but I curl my arms up under my pillow. It might also help to get a really big pillow.
I second the side-sleeper pillow, like Sara said. It does wonders. I was using Derek’s floppy normal pillows for the longest time and finally invested in a side sleeper… never looked back (except when he gets up to go to work in the morning and I steal his side of the bed).
Also… maybe you should talk to your doctor about the sleep paralysis? From what I’m seeing on the wikipedia article, it could be related to sleep issues (irregular schedules, deprivation, etc), so maybe some sort of sleep aid might help?