Sleep Paralysis

I don't know if anyone has ever suffered from Sleep paralysis but if you ever have it is devastating . The other evening, with all that was going on in my house, son just coming out of the hospital, and all the other tensions that are every day occurrences I had an episode of Sleep Paralysis. I thought I was dying. It seems that sleep paralysis occurs when the brain is awakened from a REM state into essentially a normal fully awake state, but with the bodily paralysis still occurring.
I actually felt as if I was fully aware of everything that was going on around me yet I was unable to move. I felt as if someone where sitting on my chest. I could not move my arms or legs. I could not make a sound, I felt this panic start to engulf me as I laid there unable to move. My husband finally heard me moaning and crying and he shook my body to awaken it. It was horrible. It took around two to three minutes before I could move and sit up.

I went on the internet and started to look for causes of this sleep disorder. I found out that we go through different stages of sleep. Rapid Eye Movement (REM) stage is the stage where dreaming occurs. Muscular Atonia, your muscles are suppressed during REM sleep except for your diaphragm and your eyes, during REM the muscular atonia is created in this stage as an internal mechanism to protect us from acting out our dreams. During a normal sleep cycle, the atonia ends when you move to another stage of sleep or when you wake up. What happened with me was that I skipped the the atonia, my brain woke up and my body failed to follow. I found out that this disorder can be caused by stress. Like I don't have stress in my life. I found there are ways to avoid this disorder, and they are easy enough to do without the aid of sleeping pills. Get enough sleep try to strive for at least six hours. Try to avoid taking a nap during the day. Reduce stress, try to exercise but not before bedtime. Also try to schedule a regular time to go to sleep, I don't fall asleep until after 11:30 each night, so I have to do some work in that area. Don't drink caffeine prior to retiring for the evening, and finally take a hot bath before bed to make your body relax.