I'm not ready to call a Priest just yet...

Ever since I can remember I've been a terrible sleeper surviving contently on a few hours sleep a night. When I was a young child it always took me forever to get to sleep and I'd lie awake in bed listening to Pink Floyd, Animals on cassette until I finally dozed off.

It got so bad a few years ago that I spent a full Summer sleeping on the sofa because I'd fall asleep in the early hours of the morning watching nothing but rubbish on TV. It all changed when I got sick, just over a year ago now, I came down with tonsillitis which developed into glandular fever. With glandular fever came a whole load of other problems including what was thought to be anaphylactic shock from antibiotics, urinary tract infections and to top it off, what I thought would be the death of me, a fungal skin infection.

Supposed anaphylactic shock. Imagine waking up to this!

With all these problems and medications came the 16 hour sleeps (Which are in no way useful 3 months before exams.) and since then I've slept around 7 hours a night even though I've fully recovered.

I can't really remember my first attack of sleep paralysis but I know it was sometime during my recovery that it struck. Since then I've had it as frequently as every night and sometimes it only happens once every few months.

Sleep paralysis medically is explained as "a period of inability to perform voluntary movements either at sleep onset or upon awakening".

My attacks can happen at anytime, usually in the early hours of the morning, before I wake up or if I'm having a nap. It's difficult to explain what happens and just how terrifying it is without experiencing it first hand however, this isn't something I'd wish on anyone. It usually consists of me waking up, or thinking I've woken up, I'm in the same surroundings I fell asleep in, with the same people, at the same time of day but I'm still asleep. Imagine it like your head has woken up but your body is still asleep. You can't move, speak or shout.

Everyone has had those dreams where you can feel something isn't right but you can't explain it and once you've woken up telling someone else about it doesn't have the same horrifying effect. Well this is what waking up to sleep paralysis is like. There's a strange feeling in the room something that you know is not right one time I could have swore someone walked into my room spoke to me and left. Another time I woke up turned round and started punching a statue of Jesus (that's a different issue all together) even though I was still lying in my bed unable to move.

My most vivid memory of this happening was when I fell asleep watching TV with my boyfriend. I woke up, or at least I though I had, to the same surroundings I'd fell asleep in; my boyfriend lying next to me, Hollyoaks on the TV (again, my boyfriend watching Hollyoaks is another issue for another time) but there was something at the bottom of the bed that I didn't want to look at, it's presence made me uneasy and I  began to panic.

I was getting really angry because I couldn't speak, my lips were moving but nothing was coming out. I was mad that my boyfriend hadn't noticed and I needed him to wake me up. In my head I was punching and biting him, doing everything I could to get his attention but in reality I was paralysed and unable to move. All this must have happened within a couple of minutes but to me it felt like hours.

Eventually I snapped out of the paralysis and woke up in horror. I  think he felt worse than I did and ever since then he knows when I begin to breathe heavy and fast in my sleep it's just me giving him a sign to wake me up.

I went to the doctor about this issue because it was happening more frequently and I wasn't best pleased with the answer. Basically I was told there is no cure or treatment but if I find one I've to go back and let him know. Oh thanks I'll Google some symptoms and see what Wikipedia says. 7 years of medical school for that.

Turns out I did Google some information into sleep paralysis but ironically I have no recollection of doing it because it happened in my sleep. After waking up from punching a statue of Jesus I went back to sleep but apparently not for long because I woke up the next morning with over 40 tabs open on my computer to do with sleep paralysis.

Now I've just recently went to see the film Insidious  so I'm not taking any of this too seriously at the moment.

There is loads of information on the net about people having attacks of sleep paralysis and feeling a weight on their chest which they describe as someone sitting on them. Hence why sleep paralysis is often referred to as Old Hag syndrome.

Now apparently, and I use the term apparently because I'm not even slightly convinced, sleep paralysis can lead to astral projection where the spiritual body leaves the physical body.

I know how this sounds and if I hadn't experiences sleep paralysis I'd have laughed this off as nonsense. I'm being open minded, if Dr "why don't you Google it" doesn't have an answer and the only other medical treatment is a course of antidepressants then I may as well listen to what other people who've experienced this have to say.

Without going into the subject in any great detail I am not in any way even slightly, never have been probably never will be, religious. However I do think having comfort and believing in something so much that you think it can cure cancer, make you live for eternity or just keep you safe is irreplaceable. It is for this reason (and lack of decent sleep) I will keep my mind open to anything, even if it is my new hidden talent to astral project to a parallel universe and return before my body has even woken up.

Here are a few links I found. Some begin to make sense, some are totally ridiculous, some are scams and then there's the medical ones which are totally useless.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omzsLqbgRaU 

This is a woman in severe sleep paralysis she has other conditions also and this is much more severe than what I go through.

http://www.erinpavlina.com/blog/2008/03/does-sleep-paralysis-lead-to-astral-projection/

This is an explanation on how to remove your spiritual body from your physical body and astral project. Yeah, I'll let you know how that goes...

http://narcolepsyrevealed.com/sleep-paralysis-symptoms/

"The science not the myth"

http://www.webmd.boots.com/sleep-disorders/sleep-paralysis

Trusty Boots.

If you have any experience with sleep paralysis, astral projection or any sleep/ supernatural experience let me know. @Claire128