Could this be Sleep Paralysis?

This definitely sounds like sleep paralysis. Your symptoms mirror the ones I have experienced. Like you, I felt like my eyes were wide open and I was also staring straight up at the wall. Here's my experience with it:

I'm always on my back when it occurs
It happens 1-2 times a week, usually in the middle of the night
I experience up to a minute of pure terror because I cannot move, I cannot breathe, and I have no control but yet feel fully awake, aware, and conscious
I can feel it coming on, as in I'll be asleep and I suddenly feel this intense pressure like I can't breathe and some how am woken up by that sensation, which is when the sleep paralysis episode takes place
Because I experience it on a semi-regular basis, I've almost become scared or nervous about falling asleep, which seems to actually trigger it or spur more of these episodes

I go to sleep every night between 10-11:30 p.m. excluding the occasional late night on weekends. I get up around the same time every day, between 8 and 10 a.m. I do drink a couple times a month while out with friends, and wonder if even just the consumption of alcohol a few times a month has been a contributing factor to my sleep paralysis. I'm 28 years old, and I hadn't ever experienced this until about a year or two ago, and now I have it on a regular basis.

What I do to relieve the anxiety is that I just simply wait it out/endure the episode. I mean, what else can you really do? You feel completely paralyzed. I guess I just have this innate fear that the episode will not pass and my temporary paralysis will become permanent. I think if I had to describe how it feels, I would say that it feels like you're dying (if I can even make such a claim, as I'm obviously alive). The feeling passes, but if I had to take a guess at what dying is like or what is to be expected, I would immediately think that'd it feel similar to sleep paralysis.

I have had this same problem since I was 5 I had to learn how to make all my muscles jump at once its very scary thought I was in a coma

I have had this same problem since I was 5 I had to learn how to make all my muscles jump at once its very scary thought I was in a coma

this happened to me too, i couldn't wake up from my dream. I heard a phone ring and I tried hard to wake up and get it. I tried so hard to get up, I felt my eyes fluttering back and forth in my head I tried to pull my head up (in my dream) but something was pushing me back down, and finally when I woke up at 3:45am I jumped up so fast and caught my breathe? never happened before to me

Hey Purple Sky!

Really sorry to hear about this, it does sound exactly like sleep paralysis. I know exactly how you feel, it's a petrifying experience isn't it. Did you get the hallucinations with it, or have you experienced them since? I hope you don't get these.

Take care!

I'm going through the same thing! its really scary.

- i can usually tell when it comes
- My eyes are always closed. im always on my back
- it lasts about a minute or so
- any noise will snap me out of it. (instantly) thank goodness!!!!
-i'm usually very exhausted when this occurs.
- during paralysis i do feel like sleeping through it, but the fear of going in a coma has me frightened. i try everything in my power to snap out of it.
- it happens at least once a month for me. (sometimes i can go months without it)
- praying calms me while im trying to snap out
- HAVING a consistent sleep schedule has helped me out tremendously

I've also suffer from this thing and god! Its really scary! I just started to experience sleep paralysis this early months of this year and until now, it seems that it become worse! I thought before that it was just part of any hallucinations happened over my dream, so I just ignore it, it took several times before I completely realized that it wasn't longer normal. I can't move even I want to, I can't breath, it feels like something is pushing me deeply down on my bed, I want to scream out so people around me wake me up hastily but nothing happens. I just ended up with sleep and wake up in the next day normally, as if nothing happened last night. I've also experienced this one afternoon and that was actually strange coz' it usually happen to me during middle of the night only and getting this in an afternoon and in just a nap is absolutely strange. I just wishing that it'll never happen again to me, that's why always pray before I sleep coz' it really scared me.

I've also suffer from this thing and god! Its really scary! I just started to experience sleep paralysis this early months of this year and until now, it seems that it become worse! I thought before that it was just part of any hallucinations happened over my dream, so I just ignore it, it took several times before I completely realized that it wasn't longer normal. I can't move even I want to, I can't breath, it feels like something is pushing me deeply down on my bed, I want to scream out so people around me wake me up hastily but nothing happens. I just ended up with sleep and wake up in the next day normally, as if nothing happened last night. I've also experienced this one afternoon and that was actually strange coz' it usually happen to me during middle of the night only and getting this in an afternoon and in just a nap is absolutely strange. I just wishing that it'll never happen again to me, that's why always pray before I sleep coz' it really scared me.