Sleep Paralysis

Just curiouse, dose any one els suffer from this. I have for as long as I can remember. It seems to run in my family. I’m not sure if it has anything to do with the AVM stuff, but I thought I’de ask. I was doing some research on it and notticed it has been associated with other stuff that could be associated with AVM. I’m verry puzzeled, I would like to know if any one knows any thing about this. But just incase you’de like to know more too, I added some of the things I’ve just learned about it.

Definition of Sleep paralysis
Sleep paralysis: A frightening form of paralysis that occurs when a person suddenly finds himself or herself unable to move for a few minutes, most often upon falling asleep or waking up. Sleep paralysis is due to an ill-timed disconnection between the brain and the body.
The symptoms of sleep paralysis include sensations of noises, smells, levitation, paralysis, terror, and images of frightening intruders. Once considered very rare, about half of all people are now believed to experience sleep paralysis sometime during their life.
Sleep paralysis strikes as a person is moving into or out of REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, the deepest part of sleep. During REM sleep the body is largely disconnected from the brain leaving the body paralyzed. Sleep paralysis is the result of premature (or persistent) mind-body disconnection as one is about to enter into (or exit from) REM sleep.
Sleep paralysis occurs most often after jet lag or periods of sleeplessness that interrupt the normal REM patterns. It affects both sexes equally and occurs at all ages but is most common in teenagers. Sleep paralysis can be familial and may be genetic (inherited) in some cases.
An attack of sleep paralysis is usually harmless and self-limited. It tends to be over in a minute or two as soon as the brain and body re-establish connections and the person is able to move again. However, the memory of the terrifying sensations felt during sleep paralysis can long endure. (Some scholars believe that sleep paralysis may account for some of the old claims of attacks by witches and the more recent “reports” of nocturnal abduction by space aliens.)
A rare fatal form of sleep paralysis may, it is thought, underlie the cases of healthy teenagers, mainly in Southeast Asia, who die in their sleep, sometimes after fighting for breath but without thrashing around.

Sleep paralysis goes by a number of names, including the “old hag” in Newfoundland (for an old witch thought to sit on the chest of the paralyzed sleeper), “kokma” in the West Indies (for a ghost baby who jumps on the sleeper’s chest and attacks the throat), “kanashibari” in Japan and “gui ya” or ghost pressure in China (because a ghost is believed to sit on and assault the sleeper). Medically, sleep paralysis is sometimes called waking paralysis, predormital (before-sleep) paralysis, postdormital (after-sleep) paralysis, and REM sleep atonia.

Learn to recognize the symptoms.
Sleep paralysis can affect different people in many different ways. Knowing what to expect and how it can affect you can make symptoms much easier to cope with. Individual experiences vary, but some symptoms can include: overwhelming feelings of evil entities watching you, an intruder in your room, alien abductions, rape, someone attacking or suffocating you in your sleep, and many other frightening experiences that always take place while in a paralyzed state.

Consider having a sleep study to diagnose whether the cause of the sleep paralysis may be sleep apnea. With proper treatment of a diagnosed sleep apnea condition, the sleep paralysis events may subside and/or disappear.

Is it harmful?
Sleep paralysis is most often associated with narcolepsy, a neurological condition in which the person has uncontrollable naps. However, there are many people who experience sleep paralysis without having signs of narcolepsy. Sometimes it runs in families. There is no known explanation why some people experience this paralysis. It is not harmful, although most people report feeling very afraid because they do not know what is happening, and within minutes they gradually or abruptly are able to move again; the episode is often terminated by a sound or a touch on the body.
In some cases, when hypnogogic hallucinations are present, people feel that someone is in the room with them, some experience the feeling that someone or something is sitting on their chest and they feel impending death and suffocation. That has been called the “Hag Phenomena” and has been happening to people over the centuries. These things cause people much anxiety and terror, but there is no physical harm.

I just joined this site a few weeks ago and today is the first opportunity that I have had to go through the disucssions one page at a time. I have had episodes of sleep paralysis off and on since I was about 18 years old (22 years ago!) and the last time I had one (about a month ago) I started wondering if there could be a connection between having an AVM and sleep paralysis. I will go almost a year without having an episode and then will have them multiple times a night for a few months. I have no idea why they will suddenly start interfering with my sleep or why they go away as quickly as they came on, but I would be curious to hear if there are any others on this site that have sleep paralysis!
Christine W.