Sleep paralysis.

Not alot to say about the past week really. Nothing has happened and I've spent most of my time working on the couple of assignments I've got to hand in. I remember sitting in bed last night thinking "I might write my blog post early, I doubt anything's gunna happen that'll be worth reading about, much less writing about it. However I'm write about sleep paralysis because I woke up at 1:00am 'cause of it and it's the closest thing to terrified I've ever been.

I haven't been sleeping so great while I've been at home, no idea why, I just haven't. It doesn't help that the duvet here is alot heavier than the one in Lincoln and it makes me get stupidly warm during the night and anyone that knows me knows that when I'm tired I'm next to useless and  have no patience for anything.

Anyways, sleep paralysis. For anyone that doesn't know, sleep paralysis is where you wake up suddenly, completely unable to move except for your eyes which search the room frantically for the unseen danger or whatever woke you up. It's one of the most frightening moments of your life, you'll be sound asleep one moment and then wide awake but stuck rigidly in bed with absolutely no idea why the next. You are intensely aware of your arms and legs, you can feel exactly where they are but when you try to tell them to move it's as if they can't hear you and just lie there uselessly and then when you try to call for help you can't. It's as if the words get confused somewhere between thinking them and saying them so just back track and run around in your head for a little while. All the while you're lying there sense of terror rising as you become painfully aware that you're lying in bed absolutely helpless to defend yourself from whatever it is that woke you up which adds to the building wave of panic. Then comes the thunderous noise from within, your heartbeat tripled by fear causing your breathing to become short and shallow. My favourite (sarcasm right there) part is next, where your eyes continue to dart around the room but as you've just been woken up, your mind is still in a somewhat hazy state in which every shadow seems to take on a more sinister and fearful shape, adding another layer to the panic. Suddenly you regain control of your limbs, all at once with no explanation as to how or why and only your racing heart to remind you of what the hell just happened. All this can happen in a matter of seconds or can drag on for minutes and in some extremely rare cases, hours. I can't think of a more hellish experience then being frozen in bed, looking around the room for hours unable to move or call for help...I'm not a fearful guy but waking up unable to move is genuinely one of the scariest experiences anyone can have. This isn't the first time I've woken up like this, doubt it'll be the last either. You'd think you'd get used to it eventually but you don't, it's just as mind numbingly terrifying every time it happens.

No one is sure of the exact cause of sleep paralysis as there are several forms and it can be brought on by many different things. One such thing is increased stress which, right now, I can vouch for due to impending deadlines and the exam period just over the horizon. I guess this is just another sign that the pressure is beginning to take its toll and that I'm not as unshakable as I once thought...but I thought A-Level results day proved that last year....but hey ho! It's a bright new day so best crack on with some work, I'm slowly running out of time.

Catch ya later folks