Terrifying nightly sleep problem

[mscoldchaser]

I have had this problem every night for about 4 years since i became a teenager and am 18 now. It usually happens when I am trying to get to sleep, and it feels like I have shrunk and the room is massive around me and it is quite terrifying and it takes me an hour or so before I can get to sleep.
I doesn't' seem to occur when I share the room with someone and the other day it happened in the car in broad daylight.
This problem is quite embarrassing and I would really like it if someone knew what it could be and if it can be treated. Thanks.

[njonja]

Yes, it just might be that. I remembered now when I was around 7,8 I woke up suddenly in the middle of the night and couldn't move or speak for some short time, but still enough for my parents and my brother to see it and get pretty terrified. They tell me part of my face also loosened a bit, and they were quite scared. I was doing a lot of tests, and in the beginning there were some signs of epilepsy, but as the time passed all the traces were gone. Then I didn't have any crazy hallucinations though.

Thanks for the link!

[trolleater]

some readin on sleep paralysis:
http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/exchange/node/1740
I would be willing to bet both of you are experiencing this

[njonja]

I had the same thing with spiders, not that big, medium sized, but still creepy. I saw them 3 times, one was just now while I was napping in my office on the table, I saw it on the chair between my legs, but it immediately disappeared. First time I was in a hotel, and that one looked really real, and I was sure it was real so I immediately ran out of bad, and I thought i scared him off, so I was searching everywhere but with no success, and i couldn't sleep for a good couple of hrs. In the morning I told the cleaning lady that there is a big spider in the room and that if she can find it I would appreciate it. But there was nothing, so later when it happened again I just continued staring and it disappeared. I have a huge phobia of spiders, so I'm connecting it with that. Once I saw a huge butterfly , but that was just funny :).

Also something similar as sam994 mentioned, one night I had 3 episodes of waking up because of a very loud and crazy sound in my head, so I wake up and it disappears, but as soon as I fall asleep it comes back again and wakes me up. For me that was the most terrifying experience among these, and thank god it happened only once.
  

[trolleater]

  sounds like it could be some type of anxiety or maybe a type of phobia, get with a mental health care specialist, I feel sure they can identify and help you with this...good luck