Sleep Paralysis and other disturbing sleep problems
I suppose my history of sleep problems started as a kid, I guess when I was like 6 or so. I have/had the following sleep issues:
1. Nightmares and strange dreams- very violent, vivid, abnormal ones. I can go into detail about a few of them, if you want, but I won't do so unless someone asks!
2. Hallucinations- These stopped a few years ago, but I'd get them upon waking up. They were different than the hallucinations that accompany sleep paralysis, as I was fully mobile and able to move around as I pleased. It was just stuff like spiders, auditory hallucinations (it was always a voice saying my name and it would wake me up because it was so loud), people standing in my room, faces, etc.
3. Sleepwalking- To my knowledge, I've only done this a few times, and only when I was a kid. Just random stuff like walking into my mom's room and asking for a pencil or whatever. Nothing bad or scary. Like I said, this stopped a long time ago, so it's no longer a problem.
4. Abnormal sleeping patters and daytime sleepiness- This started in the military, when they purposely fucked with my schedule. Make me work nights and then come in and work the next day, etc. Now I fall asleep at strange times- sometimes way too early and sometimes I'll have insomnia and not be able to sleep until the sun comes up the next morning. Sometimes I actually won't be able to sleep for two days straight, and I'll be awake all night for two nights and days in a row. It's completely erratic too... there is absolutely no rhyme or reason to it. I can sleep all day and then fall asleep at 9 pm. On the flip side, other times I can wake up super early like 5 or 6 am, and then not be able to sleep that night. I'll use the last few days as an example, so you can get a sort of visual understanding.
Saturday: Fell asleep around 8 pm, woke up around 12:30 am. Finally went back to sleep at 7 am, then slept until freaking three in afternoon.
Sunday: Fell asleep at 9 pm (despite having slept the day away), woke up the next morning at 6:30 am.
Monday: Fell asleep at 5:30 am (despite having woken up at 6:30), woke up at 10 am because I had to be at an appointment.
Tuesday: Fell asleep at 10 am (technically Wed. morning... and again, despite having wokenup kind of early and only getting a few hours of sleep), woke up at 2 in the afternoon.
See how out of whack that all is? I've tried supplements like melatonin to help regulate my schedule... worked for a while, but not so much anymore. This is probably the worst problem out of all of them because it's directly affecting my health, productivity, energy, and every day life.
5. Sleep Paralysis. This started about a year ago, and I believe the combination of Suboxone and Xanax is what triggered it, because I had NEVER had anything even remotely close to sleep paralysis until I started those medications... and it started very, very soon after I started taking them both consecutively. Here's what bothers me about the sleep paralysis: like my sleeping schedule, it's very erratic. It comes and goes. I'll get it frequently for a month or so, it will stop completely for a few months maybe, then start up again. And each time it starts up again, it gets progressively worse. I'm starting to get worried because it's happening almost every night now, and sometimes more than once a night. It's become very hard to breathe, it's as though my lungs are paralyzed just like everything else. This freaks me out because this is a recent thing, I never had this problem when I first started getting SP episodes. Now it happens every time. I've heard of people dying during extreme cases of SP episodes because it was so severe that even their heart muscles became paralyzed and stopped beating. I don't want my SP to keep getting progressively worse until it ends up on that level, but that's what I'm afraid is happening. :/ Also, lying on my stomach or side instead of my back or keeping the light on used to work for a little while, but now I can get it no matter what position I'm in, what time of day it is, or how bright the room is.
So, I have a few questions. One, should I be worried about the way my SP seems to be getting worse? I don't want my heart to become paralyzed one day too! Which brings me to my next question... I'm wondering if anyone has experienced the same thing, and whether you've found anything that can be done about it, or at least help alleviate it so it isn't as severe? Even if I can't stop it completely, is there a way I can ensure it doesn't continue to get worse?
And lastly, is it possible that some people are just more susceptible to sleeping disorders than others? I feel like I have/have had in the past an abnormal amount of sleeping disorders. Is the fact that I have so many sleep disorders at all something to be worried about? It's not as though every single one of them affect my day to day life, I can deal with most of them alright, but I'm not sure if it points to a bigger problem, something like brain/neurological damage. I'm seriously hoping not, but is that possible? Also, is there ANYTHING that can be done about the nightmares? A lot of them are really bad!!!
Any suggestions/advice/information would be very much appreciated! I'd love to hear what other people have to say about this... and I'd also love to hear other people's experiences if they want to share, specifically about the vivid, violent nightmares, the completely out of whack sleeping schedule, and the sleep paralysis.
Thanks!
Thanks!
Otherwise, I try to make sure my lunches and dinners are balanced. I always have some sort of fruit with lunch and vegetable with dinner. Juice is my absolute favorite thing in the world, so I drink that a lot. I'm not very good with my milk and water intake though, but I'm slowly trying to improve cause I know those things are important. Ohhh and I love nuts and dried fruits... especially dried bananas and mangos... I'll choose those to snack on over anything else every time if I have them around!
