I've been coming here for quite a long time and came along this thread and thought I should give my two cents.
Anyways, sleep paralysis and night terrors I have found to be virtually the same thing. Sometimes you wake up in the middle of the night and it feels
as though you can't move - like someone is holding you there. You can't make a sound, no matter how hard you try. Its as if something is holding
you down forcefully. Well, usually, to break out of the problem you have to let out some type of noise and then all of the sudden, the feeling stops
and everything is back to normal. During this time though, you can see things, hear things, etc... You will also know when you are going to have
one of these episodes because you will start getting strange sensations - like you're whole body is falling to sleep. It usually only happens when
you are lying down trying to fall asleep. If it starts to happen, I have discovered that if immediately get up and start walking around for about 7
minutes - the effects will dissipate and you will be able to get back to sleep normally. All of this is caused by your body falling asleep before
your mind actually goes to "sleep." Its as if you all control is relinquished from your body. That is why you can see all of that happening but
have no control over it. Its the body falling to sleep on your ass! It can cause other things of course, but I won't delve into them. I haven't
had a problem like this for a long time because I know when they are about to happen and I get up immidiately before the effect takes over. Walking
around keeps it from happening. What causes your body to do this though? When you are incredibly tired, and I mean really, really tired. Your body
has the ability to shut off everything incredibily fast but not the mind (the mind when it comes to outside input). This can start to happen when you
are awake going to sleep or when you are already asleep. The time you are asleep is usually when you have trouble avoiding the affects - because you
wake up with them. Your mind wakes up before the rest of your body. It will be hard to speak - but when you can do it, the paralysis usually goes
away and you regain control. Anyways, check out this link:
www.nightterrors.org...
It should help you out. They are strange and most people if not everyone has had that type of experience. A lot of people actually don't remember
having those experiences - they somehow can sleep through them - I've never been able to do that though.
Sorry for the unorganized wording but I'm sort of in a rush. GTG!