I am in my late 40’s. My mother is from the South and would suffer from this disorder often. As a child I remember she developed a sign of moaning loudly in her sleep when this would happen to her, and I would have to shake her really hard until she came out of it. She was always so exhausted when she would awake. She would tell me it was called the old hag or the witch on her back. This would happen most when she slept on her back or was very tired.
One remedy she would use to ward this off, was to place a sweeping broom at the foot of her bed before she went to sleep or place a glass of water underneath the head of her bed. Another remedy was to call and curse the spirit out in her mind.
I myself suffer from this quite often, mostly when I fall asleep on my back, which I try never to do. Today (Sunday, March 30), at about 3:30 pm, I fell asleep in my swivel office chair on my left arm over my bed while watching CNN on TV. My eyes opened to CNN and I could see and hear CNN but I just could not move at all. My head would snap back every time that I tried moving it up. This went on longer than usual.
I tried screaming in my head to wake myself up. I tried scratching my comforter, I tried wiggling my fingers. I could not move my feet, could not move anything. I felt moments away from breathing my last breath. I tried pulling my comforter off my bed.
Sometimes when I did manage to move my head, it would feel like it would violently snap back in position. I was so afraid that it was my last chance of life and that someone would find me dead in my bedroom because I was running out of time to wake up. I woke up at exactly 5:15 pm extremely exhausted, scared, out of breath and more tired than ever.
Sometimes I am afraid to go to sleep. I do think this is serious because you are so afraid when this happens that it feels like you can get a heart attack. My mom is in a nursing home now with Alzheimer’s disease so I can’t talk to her about it any more.
Tonight I will be placing a glass of water underneath the head of my bed. I have not been diagnosed with anxiety attacks, but sometimes I do have them and I do have a lot of stress in my life.
Sent in by “Constant Fear”, Copyright 2008 True Ghost Tales
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