Erm, I came across
this and now I'm afraid.
Sleep Paralysis.Sleep paralysis consists of a period of inability to perform voluntary movements either at sleep onset (called hypnogogic or predormital form) or upon awakening (called hypnopompic or postdormtal form).
Symptoms.A complaint of inability to move the trunk or limbs at sleep onset or upon awakening.Presence of brief episodes of partial or complete skeletal muscle paralysis.Episodes can be associated with hypnagogic hallucinations or dream-like mentation (act or use of the brain).
Harmless....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...
Who wouldn't be freaked out, right? I don't want to be conscious and not be able to move, and have something suffocating me by sitting on my chest. I would
cry go crazy.
