Dear Dr. Joshua My problem is hard to expain but I’ll give it a try. Just as I am about to doze off sometimes I have seizures, my head jerks to the side very hard I feel a weird feeling in my brain, like a warning it is coming. I can remember some of it but not all it feels very scary, like electricity or earthquake coming through my body. I can feel my head move the most. Sometimes I can have just a few in a row or up to like 12 in a row lasting a few seconds each time. I can not call for help or reach out to anyone like i am paralized. I have had this since i was about 19 years old. I am now 31. for the last nine months or so they are getting stronger and more frequent, but the weirdest and scariest thing is lateley I have been having hallucinations while I am having these seizures. one example that happens is while I am having this seizure I feel and hear my fiance comforting me and talking me through it, only to find out he was asleep the whole time. It feels so real, it must be a hallucination. other types of things happen like while having the seizure i will think my daughter is standing there watching me, but she really was in bed spleeping, or I will think I am somewhere else, when I am really lying in my bed having the seizures. It is getting worse and I feel like i am going crazy I am very scared. I never had a seizure in the daytime unless I was dozing off to take a nap. And never have them when I am fully asleep, just as i am starting to doze off. When the episodes are over I have trouble with speach, confused and severe frontal head pain. What could this be? Any input would be greatly appreciated. Sorry this was so long! P.S. I also have a lot of drool.
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Dr. Joshua’s Answer:
Thanks for the interesting question. Epilepsy should be ruled out (a sleep EEG would be needed). However, it seems to me that you may be suffering from sleep paralysis. This is a condition which occurs either right after falling asleep, or right before waking up. When we sleep, and dream, the body is paralyzed. This is a normal phenomenon and its purpose is to limit your movements during dreaming so that you would not move physically and perhaps injure yourself. In your case, there are some untypical symptoms, like your head jerking from side to side, and the headache and speech disturbance, which could be signs of migraine or epilepsy. However the electricity sensation as well as other quite fantastic experiences have been described as occuring during sleep paralysis. I recommend you talk to a doctor about this and see if he/she thinks a neuro consult and/or EEG might be needed to rule out seizures / epilepsy.Â
Sleep paralysis is a very interesting phenomenon, and I’ll cover the basics and my personal account of it in another post: Sleep Paralysis
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