I have been suffering from this indescribably horrible event during my sleep for many years now. Usually when it would happen and I would come out of it, I would simply turn the TV up louder, turn the light on and then go back to sleep and it wouldn't happen again. But lately it is becoming so debilitating. Last night was probably the worst of all. What happens to me is that my brain wakes up but I can't wake my body up and I start panicking and can't breathe. There have been times when I come to the realization that I am going to die because my heart is racing so fast and I am unable to get any breaths in at all and I'm so far into it that I can't wake my body up. This is when it is the worst for me. I am convinced that I am going to die and I am fully alert in my mind. I fight with everything I have to get my eyes to open but when they do open I don't have the strength to wake my body up. Finally when I am able to wake my body up I am literally gasping for air. Sometimes when it happens I am so worn out that I fall right back asleep and the same exact thing happens again. As others have said on here, don't fall right back to sleep because chances are it will happen again. Last night, I had such a horrible experience because I really thought I was awake and sitting up trying to wake my body up. But I wasn't. Then I guess I had a hallucination because I heard my mother come into my room and speak to me and hug me. I felt her weight against me and she was upset and I literally FELT her and I kept trying to say her name but I couldn't and I wanted to console her but I couldn't get myself up. I tried so hard. And then she lifted off of me and was gone and that's when I was able to wake up. It was absolutely terrifying and it made me want to call my mother in the middle of the night to make sure she was alright but I didn't. She is okay but the realness of it was just so intense. I was too afraid to go back to sleep and I have been having more of these episodes so I went online to try and find out what the heck this is. And now I know and it's good to know I am not alone but it's still a horrible thing to have to go through. When I wake up in the morning after having experienced sleep paralysis i feel exhausted and dizzy and emotional. I am really stressed out at this point in my life so I feel this may be why it is happening more often. It also tends to happen to me when I am overly tired. I absolutely hate it and I guess the next time it does happen I will try to just ride the wave and take deep breaths but how do you do that when you can't catch your breath???? Sleep is so important and no one should have to go through this!!!!!!