Sleep Paralysis

Is anyone else experiencing sleep paralysis...several times a week i will wake up in the morning and i am "stuck" and it is a painful "stuck". my hubby has to help me in the morning by lifting my legs and arms slowly to loosen them up. My doctor diagnosed me with sleep paralysis.

I was also diagnosed with Raynaulds and carpal tunnel in both wrists which explains the painful fingers. Just seems i am adding more and more symptoms to my fibro.

It is painful..the first time it happened to me i woke up in the morning and was stuck like : head turned to the left, one leg up, one foot down, and both arms were above my head. it was soooo painful, hubby had to oil me like the tin man

everyday I wake up extremely stiff. I can barley move my joints. I hardly can stand, but as soon as I get moving and working out the kinks it a lot better. I have had this for years. I have raynauds, but I know this in not related to this. I know it's from FM and arthritis. I do have a 3 level cervical fusion that causes me numbess in my arms sometimes in the morning. I dont start my daily chores until noon because of my stiffness. I thought sleep paralysis was like your in a dream and cant move your body at all. I had it once and it was very scary. Thank heaven it was a dream. I hope things get better for you, it not fun I know. I was wondering is your body tingling or numb feeling? Or is it stiff and just to need to work out the kinks? If it numb, maybe something being pintch, like a nerve?

Notluvinit when I wake up I am usually stuck, I start my day by doing some stretching because thats the only way I can get out of bed without actually hurting myself. It takes me about 1 1/2 hours to get out of bed in the morning, moving even half an inch in extremely painful so I take my time. On days when I have to be up, do to appts, I have my hubby help me get up or pass me pain meds and a drink so they get a chance to kick in so I can move.

I wake up every day extreamly stiff, and some days I wake up "stuck". Just this morning was such a day. It is always hard...I mean really hard...to get up. But some days I just can't move a muscle. I tried for four hours to get out of bed with no luck.

Now I can really push myself when I put my mind to it, but no amount of will can "un-stick" your muscles when it happens. everything hurts so bad and as you struggle to swing your legs over the side of the bed it feels like they should be moving because you can feel the effort. Yet they remain in place with the result being you are exhausted from trying and you feel hollow like your legs are dead weights sewn onto your waist.

Please let me know if this is what you are feeling. It can be very scary and it truly feels like you are paralyzed. It would be good to know that someone else experiences this.

Cognizance,

Couple of questions?

1. are you awake when this happens? Like fully awake, like able to talk, see, hear, and ask someone to help you?
2. did you ask the doctor about it? did they say it had anything to do with FM?

I have both FM and suffered from sleep paralysis for many years and I totally agree with the other comment that what you are describing is NOT sleep paralysis. That sounds like some sort of arthritis or something else?

FM does have many sleep disorders that may happen with it but not at all what you are describing. Most of the sleep disorders are not being able to go to sleep or going into deep sleep.

Sleep paralysis is when you are in-between the very first stage of sleep and you are not totally asleep yet. Your mind is still awake (sort of) but you are not able to move at all. You are able to feel your body parts but are not able to move them at all. They are not stiff or stuck your mind is just not communicating with them.

There are parts of your body you may be able to move (mostly feet, face, and hands) but nothing else. This is not like when you wake up and cannot move. You are still in a stage of sleep. It is very disturbing and can be really scary if you are not use to it. But if you calm down, just assure yourself you are ok and safe you will be able to concentrate enough to wake yourself up completely by moving your hands or feet really fast.

The paralysis has nothing to do with your mussels, you are not stiff, you have no pain at all. You don't feel anything. You are aware of body but you cannot move it. You are not even awake (sort of) to tell anyone to help you to move. It is an awareness of where you are and what is going on but you are not really awake.

So to answer your question no I've never heard of what you are experiencing but it doesn't sound like it has anything really to do with FM. Or it can? FM is so new that no one can say what will or wont happen with it. Every person is has different things that happen with it. For me I don't have mussel pain at all. I have more like nerve pain. But I can say for sure that it is not sleep paralysis. It's something different.

I'd get that checked out like asap if you can (like an MRI in case it's something really wrong). No one can say for sure that it's not from the FM but from what I have experienced and researched in all the years of having FM I've never come across that before. But as said, it is not sleep paralysis for sure.

I had the same thing happen to me, wake up so stiff that I would cry out from pain when trying to move. Getting out of bed was bad and I was getting so bad I couldn't dress myself. I was diagnosed with Polymyalgia Rheumatica. When the symptoms kept coming and I kept getting worse & worse it was a very scary time.

You say you are getting more symptoms you may want to google Polymyalgia Rheumatica or PMR. Good Luck!!!

 

Cognizance,

Another possible cause of your extreme morning stiffness could be rheumatoid arthritis...before I got on the proper medication, I had symptoms very similar to what you're describing, and RA is always worst in the mornings.

I agree with other posters that what you are experiencing is definitely not sleep paralysis, and you need to talk to your doctor and describe your symptoms in detail.  Best of luck to you!

Hi, Linda, and welcome! I have never experienced this but perhaps taking a muscle relaxer before bedtime could help. That has to be frightening! I take Robaxin (methocarbamol) a couple of times a day and it has made a significant difference in my pain. I don’t get so stiff and tight like I used to. I do hope you feel better and this stops happening to you.

Be sure to read Fibro 101...the first thread on the forum. There are links to good info about fibro and you can learn a lot there.

I’m looking forward to getting to know you better. Don’t hesitate to ask questions because we are here to help you. Hope to hear more from you soon.

Sherrine

Hello Rockon and thank you so much. You've given me a lot of new info that I'll have to look into, I've never heard about mast cell issues. I really appreciate your input. I'll check into that and hope to hear from you again. You certainly are knowledgable ! Thank you, Linda

I always thought sleep paralysis was when we were sort of awake, but our hormones (?) that keep us from acting out our dreams keeps us from moving. I had it a number of times when I was young (as did my husband), but we seemed to grow out of it. We always seemed to fall back to sleep after the episodes. The sleep paralysis being referred to here is new to me.