[phy6]

To add to my experiences, I've noted that it usually happens to me with these circumstances: 1) Sleeping on my back (it always happens this way, has never happened on my side or stomach) 2) poor bedding, where you've worn a divit/canoe into too soft bedding. 3) After having foods with lots of salt/msg (chemical imbalance? dehydration?) 4) On stuffy nights with stagnant, humid air or a stuffy nose 5) Sleeping on my back with arms above my head. I'm not sure why this is, but it's almost repeatable.

[leahculver]

Thanks for mentioning these. I sleep on my back, occasionally with my arms above my head. I'll see if I changing my sleep position helps!

[vubuntu]

All of these are strong triggers of sleep apnea, if your jawbone, throat, body structure etc, already make you susceptible to sleep apnea. All of these worsen my sleep apnea condition. I am starting to believe there is a strong connection between sleep apnea and these sleep paralysis episodes. Not that it cannot happen in other situations. But mainly here's my conclusion

1) Sleep paralysis is your brain waking up before your body and experiencing the 'unable to move' condition.

2) Lot of conditions can cause it. Mainly Insomnia, stress/sleeping-less due to work etc

3) Most folks who are saying that these episodes are not accompanied by irrationally terrifying 'presence' feelings probably have no other health conditions

4) Sleep apnea is your brain not getting enough oxygen. - Your brain goes into alarm/warning mode at some point and wants to force the body/mouth to change position so that you can start breathing normal again. - The way it does this is to try to wake you up, which results in most times you waking up short of breath, snoring very loud that it wakes you up. But in some cases, your body is very deep in sleep, so you first go through partially wake state...the sleep paralysis. - The brain is then further trying to wake you up fully, by recalling from memory things/experiences that have awaken you in the past - Someone bending over your face (your spouse giving you a good morning kiss) , some child running into your room (your kid running into your bedroom in the morning), sounds of walking steps (people walking in the morning close to you while you were partially awake, getting up), some frightening movie event/character that had made a strong impression on your brain in the past and which jolts you up (get adrenaline going, thus making your body recover from paralysis) etc. - These experiences that the brain induces, would feel more terrifying if you were in a state of paralysis and could not move. Thus the irrational terror. Especially if you are also living alone. - I think loneliness also is a trigger, as I have had sleep apnea induced breathless wakeup episodes (on some days when I neglect to use my CPAP machine), when my wife is next to me, but so far never the irrational 'presence' feeling when I am not alone. Even the sleep paralysis episodes are rare when my family is around. I just wake up straight short of breath when not using CPAP. But it is possible that my CPAP usage has improved my breathing. The last sleep paralysis episode I had was about 1.5 yrs ago when I was not yet using CPAP for my sleep apnea.

I have done this analysis so many times and very convinced that it is very likely to be accurate. But even then the fact that most people similar to me, have experienced 'the ghost bending close to your face and breathing over you, the demonic child standing in the room or walking/running towards you, the sound of steps' is still irrationally terrifying. That is why I do not watch horror/supernatural movies that much...to avoid giving more terror inducing fodder to my brain :)