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My Head Felt Like It Was Collapsing

by Ryan
(Ohio)

I'm just your average 16 year old boy with the same sleeping patterns as any other teenager. I do not suffer from any sleep disorders such as narcolepsy. I do however, suffer from chronic migraines, i'm not sure if that is relevant or not... Anyway here is my story:


This is the second time in a month this has happened but I remember this one perfectly. I first found myself on a soccer field and yes I do play soccer. My head started hurting then suddenly it felt like someone was trying to compress my head and flatten it yet I could not make it stop.

Next I woke up in my bed to find that I could not move, only see my surroundings. I tried to fight the urge to fall back asleep but I was helpless. The next thing I knew I was laying in my bed with that same pressure squeezing my head.

I had a friend staying the night laying in a bed next to me and I found myself trying to yell and shake him but no matter how hard I tried, nothing was accomplished. It almost seemed that he was dead.

Next the pain in my head ceased long enough for me to run to my parents' room. When I got there I started yelling and thrashing saying I was dying but my parents just stared at me. I could hear a crack as if my skull had been been crushed or an anuerism was squeezing my brain.

As I felt like I was going to die, fading to black I woke back up in my bed. Now in reality, my head was pounding when I awoke. I was really scared when I looked at my clock to see the time was 245, I had gone to sleep around 215. How could all that occur in such a short time? I thought REM sleep took an hour to set in. What is happening to me??

Comments for My Head Felt Like It Was Collapsing

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Nov 14, 2014
 SOREMPs
by: Kevin

Hi Ryan, Thanks for sharing your story and sorry it has taken so long for it to be published here--we've been overwhelmed by the volume of sleep paralysis stories submitted.

Some people experience sleep-onset REM periods (SOREMPs), and while it is a characteristic of narcolepsy, narcolepsy is not a requirement to experience them. Being sleep deprived raises the percentage of your sleep that is REM sleep and can increase the chances of falling quickly into REM sleep. We have a little bit of information about that in our Causes of Sleep Paralysis section.

Sounds like you hallucinated going into your parents room during the sleep paralysis episode. It's crazy how that can happen, just like a dream, as I imagine it felt very real and their non-response was confounding.

Feel free to follow up here in the comments with any experiences you've had or lack thereof since writing this.
Nov 15, 2014
 13 ohio NEW
by: cassie

Ok so when i have mine it feels like im in the nightmare and did you feel like you were in yours?

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