Severe head pressure during sleep paralysis

[Jester99]

n the past, I have had many different episodes of sleep paralysis, so I am fully aware of what happens during most episodes.  However, a couple of nights ago, I went to bed late and after about an hour and a half of sleeping, I had sleep paralysis but with a very scary symptom.  When I found myself in that "in between" being awake and asleep condition, as usual, I couldn't move or speak.  All of the sudden, I felt as if the pressure in my brain was increasing gradually (as if being pumped up) until it got to the point that I thought I was definitely going to die of an aneurysm or something similar.  The pressure then stopped, and then rose again, and then I finally woke up FOR REAL.  After awakening, I was scared and my heart was pounding, but I didn't have any headache, pain, or anything.  I went back to sleep immediately and the same exact thing happened again so I stayed up that time.  I have been sleeping on the recliner the last two nights and I haven't had another episode.  I don't have any pain during the day at all.  I feel fine.  I have had issues of dizziness and vertigo in the past few months, but I was diagnosed with Benign Paraxosymal Positional Vertigo.  After about two and a half months, the positional vertigo is now completely gone and other symptoms of this disorder which include lightheadedness, head pressure, etc. have gotten progressively BETTER although they still linger sometimes.  When I had this dizziness, I had a CT SCAN of the brain, and MRI w/wo contrast of the brain, an EKG, an ECHOCARDIOGRAM, a CHEST X-RAY, blood work, etc.  I do have high cholesterol and triglycerides, but I am only 31 years old and have been eating healthy and exercising for a month.  Is there any possible explanation for INTENSE HEAD PRESSURE during SLEEP PARALYSIS?   By the way, ALL of the test I mentioned earlier were completely NORMAL.

[akumar123]

I too have the same issue.  I had first reported it back in 2012. I still have this severe head pressure issue during sleep. Refer to my link:
https://www.medhelp.org/posts/Neurology/Severe-Head-ache--Pressure-in-Head-during-Sleepas-if-it-is-going-to-burst-out/show/1672324

[DheerajKumar]

Hey Guys, I am Dheeraj (17) and I am also having the exact condition as you guys. Whenever I try to fall asleep (at a time other than usual routine) I experience an electric shock-like pain and pressure in my brain and Can't move or do something.What I have learned is that it occurs due to 2 things= 1. Sleep Deprivation 2. Dehydration.
So, I try to stay hydrated and get Full Sleep.

[Tstreit]

I've been Looking for info on this for years. Everytime I described it to someone they just looked at me and thought I was crazy. Described exactly what happened to me. Usually during the day and most of the time when sitting up in a chair falling asleep. Feels like all your goes to ur head and seriously feels like ur moments from head exploding. Also would feel life ur paralyzed and trying to wake urself. Had a couple so bad when I woke up I felt like had a stroke or hit in the head with a hammer and very weak. Sometimes would be perfectly normally when awakening.

It's been a while since this happened to me tho happened alot when I was young. If anyone has more info on this please post it thanks.

[Deebles3]

Hello. I have also been experiencing this on and off since I was about 17. At first I thought I was dying but now when it happens I try to relax and breath deeply and slowly move parts of my body and this will eventually bring me out of the strange state. The only thing that I have ever been able to correlate it with is dehydration. It is horrible... You are aware but totally out of control. Pressure builds up (like a clamping in the brain) followed by an almost shaking sensation (like the brain has no room) and you can't move anything! I can often feel the build up if it happens early on in sleep and I will wake myself up, drink lots and try to sleep again to avoid it happening. Sometimes I allow it to continue and just ride it out. It can be so scary, it feels like you are having some sort of stroke! The next day you feel ok but sometimes I have a dullish ache in my head during the day. Anyway, it happened last night and has not happened for about 6 months so it reminded me to do some research. I can't find answers anywhere.

[Gowtham_KJ]

I Do not know how to even start but one day as I was sleeping I felt a Sharp Pain in the Back Side of my Head. I did not know how to react as I have never experienced something like this before. While I tried Opening my eyes with Great Effort, my vision was So Fuzzy. I have read about Sleep paralysis before so I tried moving my fingers with Great Difficulty. The Pressure Points of the Pain kept changing I as tried to move my Head. It felt like a Dream but I knew it was real but as soon as I Woke up it all felt like a Bad Dream...!!!!

[jenjen042]

I have been having the very same thing! The only way I can describe it to my husband is that I will be stuck in usually a bad dream and cant wake from it then I start to feel pressure in my head as if someone is pushing past my skull and pushing my brain down slowly until I cant take it anymore and my whole body jolts, then it just keeps building up again and again. Until I finally wake up and if I lay back down I instantly go back into that state, so I need to stay up for hours before I can attempt sleep again. Everyone keeps telling me I look exhausted all the time...smh, it is really scary

[Pipnivy5]

I have had hundreds of these episodes over the coarse of probably 20 years. You never have any kind of a warning it just happens. My advice to you is the next time this happens talk to yourself telepathically! Tell yourself that it will be over soon and ride it out. At one point this happened to me and I submitted my self to the paralyzingly horror and pain , upon doing this I woke up. In a nut shell it stops and you can move again. If it happens then you try to go to sleep, bad move, It will happen right away. I believe we are in such a relaxed meditated like mode when this occurs. To me anyways. It's like sleeping but being awake? Have you ever woke up out of a sleep only to sit up look around and then a few seconds later noise and sounds appear like the television or air conditioner or people in the room talking. To me this is on the same lines as the crazy head pains. I think all of us that experience these things are tuned in a little more than others. We should try to open up and accept when this happens.......play on it see where it goes... if we're going to die we will die. No stopping that!!! So why be frightened?  Hope this helped           Sincerely.  Pip

[Pipnivy5]

I have had hundreds of these episodes over the coarse of probably 20 years. You never have any kind of a warning it just happens. My advice to you is the next time this happens talk to yourself telepathically! Tell yourself that it will be over soon and ride it out. At one point this happened to me and I submitted my self to the paralyzingly horror and pain , upon doing this I woke up. In a nut shell it stops and you can move again. If it happens then you try to go to sleep, bad move, It will happen right away. I believe we are in such a relaxed meditated like mode when this occurs. To me anyways. It's like sleeping but being awake? Have you ever woke up out of a sleep only to sit up look around and then a few seconds later noise and sounds appear like the television or air conditioner or people in the room talking. To me this is on the same lines as the crazy head pains. I think all of us that experience these things are tuned in a little more than others. We should try to open up and accept when this happens.......play on it see where it goes... if we're going to die we will die. No stopping that!!! So why be frightened?  Hope this helped           Sincerely.  Pip

[jsycz]

Exploding Head Syndrome can occur with sleep paralysis, particularly when you transition from wake down to REM again. Consult with a SLEEP NEUROLOGIST! (there are few out there, but they do exist.) Sleep Study and Psychotherapy can help in the meantime.

Excerpt from MedScape Article on EHS:

To date, there have been no clinical trials of therapies for EHS. In the majority of cases, firm reassurance that the condition is benign is appropriate; patients are not treated with medication In patients who complain of sleeping difficulties due to frequent attacks, clomipramine, 50 mg at night, has been used with success.Topiramate, 200 mg per day; nifedipine, 90 mg per day;[18] flunarizine, 10 mg per day and imipramine 10 mg plus alprazolam 0.25 mg, at night have been reported as effective.

[jsycz]

Exploding Head Syndrome?

[KiMiC]

This happens to me. I cannot hardly find any help online and my doctor told me that it was probably just sleep paralysis. This has been happening on and off since I was 15, I am 24 now. The pressure in my head is painful when it happens and occasionally it has felt like there was a jolt of electricity going through my head. I also have fairly severe scoliosis and I often wonder if it is really just sleep paralysis or if it has something to do with my spine (maybe putting pressure on a nerve) or something. This mainly happens to me when I fall back to sleep in the mornings or if I take a daytime nap. It is very scary and troubling. I just want an answer, or to find more people who experience this. When it happens it seems that it takes hours for me to wake up, because I try to jerk myself around and it stops, but I feel intensely tired during these episodes and it is like I have no control over going back to sleep and it seems to always happen severely times before I can truly wake up.

[Batman7482]

My earliest memories of SP were at about 13 years old. Now 42, I still fight it. Just had an episode. Mine is almost immediate as I'm trying to fall asleep. The head pressure thing just started happening to me, I'd say in the last year or so. There have been times I have felt the pressure before the SP episode fully starts, and can sit up before it happens. (Rarely). The drowsiness, fear, and sometimes cold, makes it hard to get up after the first episode, but that's the only way to break the cycle. One trick I've learned over the years is to wiggle my toes, so I actually lay down at night with one set of toes hooked to the end of my mattress. That way when I wiggle my toes, it shakes the bed a little. If not that, my wife hears me groan and wakes me up. It's a scary thing, and apparently I have passed it on to at least one of my children. I don't know any family members before me that had it tho. I just keep hoping for a cure one day. If you have it, you're definitely not alone. I have met 2 people at work who have it, and a third who had an ex girlfriend with the problem. Best wishes and good sleep!

[Chazdex]

I also have this and it's very scary I think I'm dying not seen anyone about it but it's like I'm awake I know who I'm with and where I am but my brain feels like it will explode I scream for help but nothing comes out

[stynx]

hi! i'm fifteen years old and i have experienced lots of sleep paralysis episodes since i was just a child. i could totally agree that i also feel that sensation from the tip of my toes slowly rise and build up to my head-when it reaches there, i feel like it's gonna burst-and then it would go down to my feet and the cycle would start again. i've done a lot of research and i found out that npt everyone has this during sp. i don't even know what to do. it's really horrible to wake up feeling like someone has clawed inside your brain.

[Nooora89]

Hey I got pressure head while sleeping it's ruining my life I can't sleep at night when it happens I'm looking for a job now but I keep missing interviews cuz I can't go sleepless I'll just screwed and I would start cry at night I really don't know what's wrong I keep read diseases symptoms and I get scared

Actually I feel kinda relieved knowing that I'm not alone with this weird things

I hope you all be fine and get through this soon

Thank you ..

[jake52783]

I also have the same situations occur occasionally since the age of around 21. It actually  happened last night twice and i always have to jerk myself out of it. Terrifying right? Like you, i would like some medical explanation. Hope it makes you feel better to know you're not the only one

[Concerned_Sleeper]

Hi everyone and thanks for writing in! I don't know, don't think, I've ever written on a forum before! But I just snapped out of the scariest sleep paralysis I have ever had. I have had problems with this phenomenon for years, but never had the physical and audio part of it before! I am used to being paralyzed about a half hour into falling asleep (only when I nap), but this time my ears started ringing and buzzing and it felt like someone was pushing me up, head first, into the headboard. It ebbed and flowed. I am writing just to let the next person that you are fine, it happens, you are not dying or crazy. Best of luck to everyone!

[Mayank99]

Right now 1/10/16 at 11:12 am.... i was sleeping few minutes before writing this and while was feeling so tired for days becuz of sleep depravation i felt so weak like extreme fatigue.....came from gym around 9:45 and directly hit the bed first it was okay later after 1 hr i was in sleep...suddenly at the time of wake i got crushed in the feeling of paralysy extreme head pressure on head and chest came suddenly anf it started increasing.....i cant get out....( the only way to get out of this is....dont panic cuz it will nt do anything just wait and wait and breath deeply take yur time let it bring how much pressure on head and chest how much it brings wait for the time and suddenly with awareness wake up quickly dont panic!!!!!!! It will nt harm yu and just keep it in mind 8 hrs o sleep by 10 to 6 is good as per yur view.....!

[DennisT2]

Hey, regarding your symptoms of head pressure during sleep paralysis, do you also experience a loud ringing sound? Also, do you feel the pressure buildup to a rapid pulsing sensation inside your head?

[Lrtb12]

I also have SP, for the past 6 7 years. But the pass 6 months I have had head pressure. Yes it is scary wish someone could figure out why this happens. To me it seems to happen when I'm really tired and up late at night, cause I don't sleep well at all.

[HarshilS]

I just had SP 15 mins ago 2 hr after I sleep. It happened 5 to 7 times before in last 10 years. It feels like brain will burst. I still have beep sound which I hear in SP but brain pressure is normal. I have concluded that it happened only when mosqito repelant was on and windows were closed and I found my self sufocated sweting and stressed. I hope fresh air and meditation before sleep is good idea. But if that pressure is real and actual physical then I realy need some guidance

[stellefelice]

Dear Jester 99,

I have had severe sleep paralysis since I was 20 years old and it almost always was accompanied by severe head pressure--to the point where you feel as though, indeed, something will break within your head. I am now 40 and they continue to happen though the frequency of the attacks were reduced following sinus surgeries -- not for the sleep attacks but for other reasons--I am super healthy, very low cholesterol, very low blood pressure, raised a vegan and now eat a healthy diet of fish, eggs, and whole grains and protein and organic greens--am slim, and do power/hot yoga. I assumed that the terrible pressure is just part of the paralysis and I have never had an episode where it was not a part of it. As you might experience, the more you try to fight it and wake up the worse it gets, to the point of having even that strange shadow sense of yourself moving, when you are not.  I wake up finally after all this very weak and exhausted and often my body is sore. So...all I can tell you is I completely identify with what you are experiencing, though I think has nothing to do with physical health. If anything, I have often thought it was correlated to having sinus congestion and restricted airway passages--that has been theory anyway. I have found if I don't fight the attacks and even cry out positive things like "I love you!" or say a prayer it helps a lot.  It would have been wonderful if 21 years ago, when I searched the internet terrified after going to the ER in the middle of the night, this kind of information would have been available.  Best wishes to you! Of course, your symptoms may be very different than mine and I am glad you got all the basic medical check-ups.

[sleepsleep]

Hmm. Sleep paralysis has some weird symptoms at times it seams.
Ive worken up twice feeling like i was gonna have a heart attack.
(you know the old hag thing where she sits on your chest?)
Well kinda felt like that except no one was sitting on top of me.
Woke up paralyses, and felt like some force was pushing on my chest and feeling like was about do slip into a hole in the bed. Hard to explain really. Felt like getting slowly pushed through the actual bed.
This is kinda creepy. And do have some anxiety related issue around the heart subject. But makes no sense to get a heart attack one night and survive then later take a stress/bike test and everything shows up fine. . . So must have been something "mental"-

Also Ive woken up to the feeling of a storm kinda.... Roaming in my bedroom trying to push me over into the wall next to the bed.  

So dont see it to be unlikely you would feel some pressure anywhere on your body.
(doesnt mean that it cant be anything else of course. )

[Jester99]

Although head pressure isn't the most common symptom of sleep paralysis, I have found around 7 or so people on websites describing their episodes of SP with severe head pressure as well.  They seem to describe what happened to me.  That said, it seems more rare than the classic symptoms.  However, not being able to move, speak, etc. were also symptoms I had as well.  And, again, when I woke up I had no pain whatsoever.  Plus, it happened again after I quickly feel back to sleep within 30 minutes of the first episode  (a classic symptom of SP).  When I awoke the second time, again, I had no pain whatsoever either.  

I agree that clogged arteries can cause dizziness/pain, etc.  However, it would seem unlikely, in my opinion, that I would experience head pressure pain in sleep paralysis, wake up and feel fine, 30 minutes later go back to sleep and have another episode of SP and then wake up and feel perfectly normal again.  Wouldn't a major problem carry on after I woke up two different times from painful SP?  In other words, head pressure from a major problem wouldn't stop when awake, and then come back as soon as I sleep again?

Anyway, thanks for the reply and feel free to offer any more insight you might have.  I do appreciate it and I have been working hard on my cholesterol numbers.  I have lost 18 lbs. in 3 1/2 weeks while eating completely healthy and spending 45 minutes on my treadmill 5 times a week.  

[Paderla Anitha, DNB]

Hello and hope you are doing well.

Not aware of head pressure happening during an episode of sleep paralysis. But increased cholesterol by itself can cause dizziness, so have yourself evaluated for the same and try to maintain it under normal levels. Regular exercise and avoiding fatty foods can help to increase the flow through the arteries.

Hope this helped and do keep us posted.