Night nurse paralysis anyone?

[nursingaround1]

When I was temping, last time about 10yrs ago in London, I mainly worked nights because of the money, but I had a shocking sleep pattern - 2 nights work, 1 off, then 1 on again. It was because you took the work when you got it, so it was really quite erratic. But then something scary happened, although I never knew what it was at the time.

I came home from a night shift, went to bed, and as soon as my eyes closed, I felt a massive rush going from the back of my head, working its way forward. It scared me, but what made it worse was that I could not move, and I couldn't open my eyes, but I fought it. I was worried what would happen if I let it run its course, but I somehow knew that if I could open my eyes, it would be over.

After an huge internal effort, I opened my eyes, and it was over - the sensation left, and I could move.

This got worse over the next few months, but strangely didn't link it to night shift, until I talked about it with a nurse who was near retirement age, who actually called it 'night nurse paralysis' and said it was not too uncommon among night nurses.

I've since looked it up, and learned about sleep paralysis. Since I stopped night shifts, I haven' had it since. But even knowing what it is, it's still quite terrifying.

Has anyone else experienced it?

[NICU Guy, BSN, RN]

It is a temporary short circuit in your brain while you are sleeping. In REM sleep, your brain paralyses your body so that you don't act out your dreams (sleep walking). The short circuit happens when you are awake, but your brain still thinks you are dreaming. You break the paralysis by moving something like opening your eyes or moving a finger or toes.

[klone, MSN, RN]

I never experienced it during the 4 years I worked nights, but I suffered from sleep paralysis as a child. It was quite frightening. Sleep disorders run in my family (my mom has narcolepsy, and my two older children suffered night terrors and sleep-walking when they were younger).

[BeachsideRN, ASN]

I get this with migraine

[Jacob080110]

I get the sleep paralysis most nights sometimes up to 7 or 8 times in one night. I feel like I never make it past REM so I am always tired. It usually occurs as I am just drifting off. It starts out with a buzzing sound that becomes loud and high pitched. My body is vibrating and as the noise increases the shaking becomes violent. I cannot scream for help and can only exhale. After trying to scream I am unable to inhale and feel as if I will suffocate.

If I am able to open my eyes I will see things that are too terrifying to talk about. Lately it seems as if I am being torn out of my body and can see through my eyelids. I am floating at the ceiling, When I realize that I am no longer in my body I get so afraid and like a jolt of electricity I am shocked back into my body again which makes me automatically sit up and gasp for air.

The violent shaking is so real and intense but it never wakes up my partner or my 4 year old son who are in the bed with me. I have learned to jerk my head against the vibrations and usually this will help me snap out of it before it gets bad but this doesn't always work especially after a few nights of 7 or 8 episodes because I am just too exhausted to fight hard enough. I have always had a schedule where I am awake until around 3 a.m. but never thought that that might contribute to the condition, until reading your post.

[nursingaround1]

I get the sleep paralysis most nights sometimes up to 7 or 8 times in one night. I feel like I never make it past REM so I am always tired. It usually occurs as I am just drifting off. It starts out with a buzzing sound that becomes loud and high pitched. My body is vibrating and as the noise increases the shaking becomes violent. I cannot scream for help and can only exhale. After trying to scream I am unable to inhale and feel as if I will suffocate.

If I am able to open my eyes I will see things that are too terrifying to talk about. Lately it seems as if I am being torn out of my body and can see through my eyelids. I am floating at the ceiling, When I realize that I am no longer in my body I get so afraid and like a jolt of electricity I am shocked back into my body again which makes me automatically sit up and gasp for air.

The violent shaking is so real and intense but it never wakes up my partner or my 4 year old son who are in the bed with me. I have learned to jerk my head against the vibrations and usually this will help me snap out of it before it gets bad but this doesn't always work especially after a few nights of 7 or 8 episodes because I am just too exhausted to fight hard enough. I have always had a schedule where I am awake until around 3 a.m. but never thought that that might contribute to the condition, until reading your post.

wow, i'm so sorry you have something so bad like this. My problem only happened during an 8 month spell when I was working night shift, but at completely different/irregular times. I never had it as bad as you - shaking or seeing things, but there was an absolute fear of what would happen if I didn't fight it.

I'm very curious as to the terrible things you see, and the floating up by the ceiling. I've looked at some people's experiences on youtube, and it seems others see terrible things as well.

Would you be ok sharing what sort of terrible things you saw?

[BlueDawnRN, BSN]

I've been having sleep paralysis since I was a kid. It always happened when my sleep schedule was thrown off or when I was extremely tired. It was very scary for me at the time since I didn't know what it was for years. It's lessened over the years (and I work nights, too). Also I'm not afraid of it anymore and I've learned how to deal with it.

The key to not getting it is to maintain a regular sleep schedule, and avoid sleeping on your back. If you do get an occurance of sleep paralysis and wake up from it, you have to fully wake yourself up (read a book, get a snack, pet the dog) before going back to sleep or it will likely reoccur. During sleep paralysis if you focus on trying to move a part of your body like a hand or a foot, you can wake up from it. Never open your eyes during sleep paralysis. You can still dream and you will see weird things. Though sometimes it can be fun to watch ghosts walking around your bedroom.

When I was a kid I thought I was being abducted by aliens during sleep paralysis :)

Once you're not afraid of it, it's not too big a deal. I've been having it for at least 20 years and it's definitely more annoying than scary at this point. Just know that nothing bad is going to happen to you.