paralyzed painfull dreams

[Collie1003]

I had these reoccuring dreams as a teenager and lasted many years they went away but now seem to be slowly coming back. I am sleeping and all of a sudden wake up I cant move and I feel like I am severly shaking. I here voices of people arund the house sometimes family memebers sometimes people are in the room tooo I can sense and hear them. I try yelling to get my family to help me up because at this point I am hurting all over my entire body. Nobody ever hears me screaming. I then realize I am still sleeping and I and try to force myself awake. When I do finally awake my body is in pain almost a tingling but in a painful way. No quite the same as in a leg or arm falling asleep much worse. Is this anything of an actual problem or just simply a messed up sleep cycle dream?

[Collie1003]

tyvm for your advice. I will have to check it out. I have always had problems with wanting to cat nap. I was always forcing my self to stay awake never thought if narcolepsy because I thought they just fell asleep immediately for no reason didnt know taking actual naps were the same. Those painful numbing dreams I was begining to think I was just crazy and stressed out. Thank you agian to all!

[Halloweenbaby1946]

Both sleep apnea and narcolepsy are so different from person to person. My husband has them both but was very atypical till he had a sleep study and found a good doc who recognized what was wrong with him.

His narcolepsy got worse as he aged (he is retired now for nearly 4 years) but his sleep apnea was always very bad and it made it hard to be suspicious of him having narcolepsy due to the fact his sleep apnea was and is so bad.

The narcolepsy before he got older just sort of made him zone out or disconnect but he was able to do his work etc. He developed sort of a "stone face" and always did what was expected or required of him but he lost the zest/vim and vigor to his personality.

He was diagnosed with sleep apnea first, had all the repair surgeries, was mistakenly put on a bi-pap, then a cpap and finally on auto-pap which helps some. His masks always leak and his mouth won't stay shut unless he tapes it and a full-mask isn't comfortable enough to make it through the night.

The NARCOLEPSY was diagnosed much later and he was placed on Provigil 200 mg and the daytime is pretty good for him now. It would NOT be good if he were trying to stay awake without it. He'd be going to sleep while driving, reading, eating, watching TV and even an activity during which you'd never dream a male member of the human race could sleep through.

Narcolepsy is nothing to treat lightly. Many people have both sleep apnea and narcolepsy and either one alone is bad enough - together they can cause real damage.

I was actually diagnosed about 2 years ago with positional sleep apnea and low nighttime oxygen levels and so now hubby and I are both in a pickle.

Good luck and remember not all narcolepsy patients are alike.

[Jules77733]

It is entirely possible to have narcolepsy given your symptoms. The disease manifests differently from person to person, and it progresses with time (usually worsening, then improving in some). In fact, what you've described is consistent with my symptoms, and my most recent MSLT--my third one in 4 years--finally indicated that I had sleep-onset REM periods in 3/5 naps, even though I had fallen asleep during every single one of my naps in all three of my MSLTs but never had any SOREMs before.

I still have not had a "sleep attack" where I've had an irresistible urge to sleep, but I feel tired constantly and after being up for 12 hours or so, I will find it incredibly hard to stay awake while doing mundane tasks, such as watching TV, laying in an MRI machine, or driving a vehicle. In general, I can sense the disease worsening, which makes sense, since I'm still fairly young. Hopefully this is not what you have, but it's worth investigating. Keep in mind that it doesn't easily show up on an MSLT and it may take multiple sleep studies before you actually catch it (since narcoleptics don't enter REM sleep during every nap, but this is the diagnostic criteria).

[Jules77733]

Actually, the naps that narcoleptics take are generally considered to be refreshing, as opposed to non-refreshing, but only for several hours. This is why narcoleptics tend to experience "waves" of intense sleepiness every 2 - 4 hours, thus necessitating naps every so often. Those naps enable them to feel more alert for a few more hours until the next "sleep attack".

The only clinically accepted test for narcolepsy at this point in time is the MSLT, as blood tests are unreliable.

[Paderla Anitha, DNB]

Hello and hope you are doing well.

Understand your concern. Narcolepsy is characterized by an irresistible urge to sleep and the naps are usually non refreshing. Besides other tests, narcolepsy is diagnosed by SOREMs, sleep onset REM episodes on Multiple sleep latency test (MSLT). Treatment can help to alleviate the symptoms.

Hope this helped and do keep us posted.

[Collie1003]

I thought Narcolepsy was uncontrolable constent falling asleep? I can sleep at amytime for brief periods but when I am sleepy I can usually control forced staying awake. Is it possible to have narcolepsy without that symptom. Or am I under a misconception about that? Thankyou very much for your time and concern!

[Paderla Anitha, DNB]

Hello and hope you are doing well.

The symptoms you are experiencing could be due to an entity called sleep paralysis. When this happens in sleep the person has difficulty moving his hands or feet. This is the symptom of a sleep disorder called Narcolepsy. This sleep disorder is characterized by excessive day time sleepiness, sleep paralysis, cataplexy where the person has episodes of loss of muscle function while awake, hypnogogic hallucinations and automatic behavior. You will need to consult your primary care physician, who may schedule you for a polysomnogram (sleep test) to rule out sleep disorders and initiate appropriate therapy.

Hope this helped and do keep us posted.