Panic attacks while asleep :-(

[Feelingblue]

Has anyone ever experienced this? I haven't had a full blown attack while awake in a month now but still have a constant state of anxiety. Anyway recently i have been freaking out in my sleep, its like i know i am in a dream and then try to wake myself up but i can't so i start to panic and have some really horrible hallucinations which feel like they go on forever. I get this a couple of times a week and when i told a relative about it she just said its "nightmares". But it feels worse because its soo real. Has anyone else experienced this? And if so any tips for dealing with it would be very much appreciated. Thanks.

[jon mike]

hey, ye what your probably experiencing is sleep paralysis, ive been getting it for years, i used to find it disturbing but i got used to it, theres a great book by a guy called louis proud who wrote a book on sleep paralysis you should buy it its so interesting, i made diaries of what used to happen to me, it sometimes isnt a bad thing, its helped me in many ways believe it or not, if you can stay in your dream and not panic in the dream it can actually be quite good, weird at first but good, i no what you mean about waking up and hallucinating, i do get it a lot, i wake up panicking, usually thinking ive stopped breathing? i think, then open my eyes and can still see things that i was dreaming about, i usually wake up and see black smoke or something swirling on the wall, or a spider!! im sure its down to anxiety though, your not on your own though for sure :-) jon