it happened to me too Little lol. That's what lao/thai people call "pee aum". Some nights i can't move or yell or talk at all. I feel like there's something holding me down too. Sometimes i think that it is because of "pha hom", too easy on us and it makes us have difficulting with breathing.
We call that "pee aum" cos a lot of people can't explain that paralysis, so they just say it's surely due to something paranormal lol.
A rational explanation : " the sleep paralysis" (or also called by the physicians Hyperersthesia psycha-sexualis)
It is about the structure of our sleep. When we sleep we do a lot of dreams that we sometimes remember only the quarter of them, and only our brain is active during our dreams, but our body is paralysed. This paralysis is essential or else our body would reproduce in real our actions in the dreams. The muscles are completely relaxed (cataplexy), and do not respond to instructions from the brain. Only the muscles of the eye and breathing escape paralysis.
When we wake up, in theory, this paralysis has disappeared. But sometimes the mechanism which keeps separate the dream and the awakened life hangs, so in this case we feel paralysis coming at the moment we fall asleep or at the time we wake up, and we are aware that we can not move or speak.
This is what the doctors called the sleep paralysis, which always accompanied with a rapid heartbeat, difficulty in breathing and a feeling of fear.
From doctors point of view, sleep paralysis is a symptom of narcolepsy (a sleep disorder in which a person falls asleep in an uncontrolled way). However, many people are affected by sleep paralysis without being affected by the disease. People has experienced that at least once in their life, especially during adolescence. Sometimes sleep paralysis affects several members of the same family.
The causes usually associated with sleep paralysis are due to, the stress, anxiety, a sudden change in daily habits (moving, changing work), unhealthy sleep (irregular sleep schedules, napping) or when we are tired.
It is terrifying that when we are in that situation, we are quite aware of what's happening around, but we are trapped in a hallucination hypnogogic.
It's a twilight state between sleep and wakefulness, where our dreams are so clear that they concern us because they seem real.
For people who suffer from that, the first sign of sleep paralysis is a strange noise, a squeal, hum, but it can also look like a no noise, or the noise of a motor, or even screams and laughters. The body can get vibrations, undulations and contortions. Some people can see strange lights fluttering around the room. It can be flashing lights, small stars, or incandescent forms. Sometimes, it seems like the room we are in, seems lit by a supernatural glow, and the objects are surrounded with a halo of color.
But the most scary in sleep paralysis is the feeling that there's someone close to us in the room. We are convinced there's somebody in the room with us. In many cases, that presence is even visible (our eyes are often open during the sleep paralysis), and can adopt a lot of forms, human, animal, demonic, even extraterrestrial lol.
According to the doctors, the Sleep paralysis isn't dangerous for our health.
=> For people interested, David Hufford wrote a book about the Sleep paralysis, or Nancy matis wrote something about that too "The Terror of Sleep Paralysis"...pretty interesting subject to me.
an old legend explanation : "The Old Hag" or " The demonic lover"
There are people who believe that paralysis affecting us during our sleep is due to something supernatural. During centuries, across cultures around the world, was described similar assaults. Generally, these phenomena occur at night, just before we fall asleep or waking up. These attacks have caused in all cases complete paralysis, a sense of oppression on the chest and sexual arousal. many other supernatural stories noted the similarities between the various experiences of the same type around the world. People feel like there's a presence around them holding them down.
According to a legend, and many of those working on the issue now, these entities are evil spirits condemned to stay on earth. They are demons and witches who attack us during our sleep. One of the traditions the most widespread is the "Old Hag," named like that by the community of Terre Neuve in Canada. It has been said that it is the terrifying character who works at night, And this same Old Hag appears in the World over. For Germans, it is "Mare" (which comes from the word "nightmare"), the Scandinavians call it "Mara", and the Greeks, "Mora."
There's another supernatural explanation for that paralysis : the incubated, also known as the "demonic lover", a kind of spirit who has sex with the living. Indeed, that lover is responsible for the sensation of tightness of the chest and the feeling of sexual arousal that accompanies these assaults night. The incubated-word which comes from the Latin
incubare (spread) - is a daemon (fallen angel by the lust) who seduces women and abusing them in their sleep. The succubus-
subcubare in Latin(sleeping under) - is a female demon, which looks like a woman, joins with a human.
I hope it helps u Little to understand ur symptoms better
