Sleep Apnea

[spirit72]

Oh and incidentally? Yeah, the BMI is a big fat crock, and that's per my MD.

According to the BMI, I should weigh no more than 170. I was 175 my senior year of high school(almost 20 years ago now), was a two-sport athlete at the time, and was completely ripped. I don't think I could get there at this point without destroying lean tissue along with fat.

[BuLLitz]

Re: Sleep Paralysis?

Sorry for perhaps straying off topic here, but I'm curious if anyone else experiences sleep paralysis. Basically, when you are in your deepest REM sleep as I understand it, your brain shuts down most motor functions, so that if you are dreaming of running through spring pastures, you don't actually get up and run into the wall. At least this is how it has been explained to me.

Sleep paralysis is a malfunction in which upon waking the motor-control "switch" is still off, so to speak, and for a period of perhaps a full minute every muscle in the body except the eyes are completely paralyzed. It started out as a pretty terrifying experience, but over the years as I've gotten fairly used to it, it's become just terribly uncomfortable. It's the ultimate in clausterphobia I guess I would say -- you wake up, realize that you can see and look around, but you are completely unable to even lift a finger. Often times I will be trying so hard to move something, that when the "switch" turns back on I start flailing around and sometimes I'm screaming or just making scary noises because I can't vocalize either. Some poeple often report the strong sensation or perception that someone or something is in the room with them when this happens. I've felt this a few occasions. Since the paralysis is related to REM sleep, when it happens it can sometimes be difficult to distinguish between dreaming and waking, so some people even attribute other people's claims of alien abduction to potential sleep paralysis episodes.

One time I was having a particularly intense bout of it, drifiting into and out of sleep and paralysis, and I didn't know it at the time but I was dreaming there was someone in my apartment and I was running around in the dark with my sword (not the one in my avatar lol, unfortunately that is not me) trying to stab whoever it was, and upon fully waking I couldn't tell if I had actually been running around my apartment with my sword or not, despite the paralysis element of the experience.

Anyway, sorry to ramble away so hard on that. Anyone else deal with this? I've read that it's hereditary but no one in my family knows what the hell I'm talking about. I snore louder than Fran Drescher having an orgasm but I don't think I have sleep apnea.

EDIT: Interesting Wikipedia link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_paralysis

Yeah... I had that occur frequently throughout my Juvenile life and several times while an adult. The last episode about 13 years ago. One of my daughters has this happen and was quite relieved when she found that she wasn't the only one.

Once you aren't afraid of it, at least in my case, it stopped occurring. I almost always felt it coming on... it was rarely a surprise.

During my last several episodes, I was able to "play' with it. I was able to let it come on and then fade it out and then back in again. I was hoping to master it... but it has not happened since.

If it happens to you again, and you feel it coming on... try playing with it.