Finally

Finally! I don't seem to have a headache this morning. I've had one every day for the past 4 or 5 days. Nothing seemed to help.

I haven't had any Sleep Paralysis episodes since my last post on the subject.

Dr. Wu contacted me about the sleep study. He'll be sending me (and my family) some questionnaires and such for the study.

I've got lots to do today.

Tension Headache

Hmm.... I have a horribly bad tension headache today. I was almost in tears earlier. Excedrine Tension Headache only helped for a few minutes. I'm supposed to take it every 6 hours. Well, it's only been 1 hour and my headache is back with a vengence. I don't know what I am tense/anxious over. I wonder if that is why I had Sleep Paralysis last night....

Undercover Research

My dream last night:  I was helping do some undercover work which took me to some shady parts of town where I was ducking in and out of abandoned buildings, spying on drug dealers, and trying to avoid getting shot.

Then, I was going up countless flights of stairs to find several different researchers and retrieve their research binders.  I had my oldest son in tow, but he was only about 2 or 3 years old in my dream.

We stopped for Asian food in the lobby of one of these buildings.  The server suggested some things but then the chef ran out the door.  The server asked if we wanted to come to the kitchen to see how the food is prepared.  We agreed, went to the kitchen, and started preparing our own food.

We received word that someone was looking for us.  It was not someone good, so we quietly and casually left the building.  Once outside on the sidewalk, we tried to act as normal as possible as we were approached by the bad people.  Fortunately they did not know what we looked like, so we were able to walk away after a brief chat.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Just prior to this dream I had two back-to-back episodes of Sleep Paralysis.  They were just small ones.  Very short in duration.  Nothing scary in them.  I was just trying to wake up and I couldn't.  Suddenly I did wake up, but I didn't change position fast enough and fell right back to sleep, back into sleep paralysis.  I was trying to awaken myself from this second episode of sleep paralysis when I heard my husband enter the room, as he had been watching television in the living room.  As he got in bed he touched me and it woke me up from the sleep paralysis.\

Usually I am scared during sleep paralysis, but these were so short that my heart wasn't even racing when I woke up.

Locking him out

I took another nap today.  It was around 3pm I think.  I woke up at 5pm.

Just about an hour prior to my nap, my husband and I had a little argument.

So, my dream:  At first I was on a speedboat in a lake with my sister, her boyfriend, and a few other people, maybe family members.  My sister's boyfriend was someone whom I have never met before, I think I've seen him on television.  Anyway, we stop at a dock in the Caicos and discuss how we had been to the Caicos many times, but never had we taken this particular boyfriend with us.  I laughed to myself and said aloud, "Funny how we get our memories confused... it feels like you've been here with us before, but you haven't."

Then, suddenly, I am inside a house.  It was a familiar house, but I've never been there before.  I was trying to get away from my husband.  I wanted to lock myself in my room, but every time I tried to lock the doors they wouldn't lock correctly or the door itself would fall off the hinges or the actual wall would start to fall in.  I wasn't upset with him though, I just wanted him to think that I was still upset.  Then I woke up.

Been tired for days, but no SP

Strange how Sleep Paralysis hasn't reared it's ugly face lately. I've been so tired for days and just feeling generally "blah." Maybe it's just menstruation that's causing me to feel like this. Maybe my body is giving me a break from Sleep Paralysis while I menstruate. Awww... isn't that nice?

I didn't fall asleep until almost 2am this morning because of that nap late yesterday afternoon. I didn't want to get up at 6:30am though.

Oh, something else strange happened last night. Around 1am I was reading about sleep paralysis and parasomnias when I suddenly started gagging! This immediate, intense nausea overwhelmed me, causing me to gag on nothing at all. I quickly ran to the kitchen and grabbed some crackers to settle my stomach. After a few minutes the nausea died down. I awoke this morning still a little sick to my stomach.

Also, I don't remember much from my dreams last night. All I remember is that I was walking around without a shirt on and kept seeing myself in mirrors. But the reflection wasn't quite right. Strange.

I sent Dr. Wu an email today with regard to the University of Pennsylvania Sleep Clinical Trial that I mentioned in a post yesterday. I'm awaiting a response.

Strange Naptime Dream

I fell asleep on the couch today after my husband got home.  My dream was interesting:

I was at some sort of convention or assembly hall with my family and kids.  There was a man dressed in a strange costume, kind of like Cirque du Soleil, with an extremely long tail stuffed and made of cotton cloth.  It kept falling off and ending up in other places.  He was apparently some part of the performance in the main hall.  To see the performance and sit with the audience, we kept having to go through tiny doorways through which I barely fit.  First I would lift my kids and help them get through the openings.  Then I would squeeze myself through.  In my head, I was thinking how everyone must be so impressed that I could fit through such a small opening, but it appeared that no one was paying me or my impressive-squeezing-ability any attention.

After getting inside I kept having a confrontation with an obnoxious woman because we were "disturbing" the performance for her.  She lost her pen and blamed me.  I kept trying to help her find it and finally just moved to a different seating area, though she kept giving me dirty looks.  I had to go back into the hallway, where we were originally when we saw the man with the extremely long tail.  BUT this time I didn't have to squeeze out through the same opening through which I gained entrance.  There was a door to the side that I hadn't noticed before.  From then on I entered and exitted the seating area(s) through the regular size door.  Sometimes I was carrying the man's cotton tail with me, though it was so long that it was burdensome.  Carrying it through the door proved much easier than through the small opening we squeezed through initially.

I don't remember how it ended because my husband woke me up to ask me a question... so I guess it didn't really have an end.

Familial Sleep Paralysis Study

The Division of Sleep Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania is conducting a clinical trial:

Study on Familial Sleep Paralysis

Patients that suffer from frequent episodes of sleep paralysis.  Sleep paralysis occurs upon awakening or just falling asleep when patient is awake but unable to move.  These experiences are often scary and can also involve unusual feelings. For some patients, these episodes occur frequently and appear to run in families. Adult subjects (at least 18 years of age) who experience sleep paralysis on a frequent basis (at least once/year) AND have other family members who also experience sleep paralysis frequently.  Taking part in this research study would involve a medical history and a blood draw. 

Contact:  Dr. Mark Wu, marknwu@mail.med.upenn.edu

I think I'll explore this further...