Ever get sleep paralyis or strange "bottom drops out from under you" sensation when falling asleep?
598661
Sleep paralysis? No, never happened to me but I have experienced the bottom dropping and I read somewhere that is neurons slowing down in your brain. Very common.
243744
I have! I know I've at least STARTED to die in my sleep before, and I was all relaxed and drifting off with my father (who is dead) and stopped breathing & my husband had to shake me and I woke up gasping. Another time I dreamed of how someone else in the family died as if it were me, and I had the same feeling. It wasn't scary. THAT's what was so scary!
931483
Hi! I have experience sleep paralysis also, and found it a very frightening experience.  Some people tend to call it 'old hag' syndrome..  others just refer to it as a sleep disorder.  Like you, I rarely said anything about it because I thought I was going crazy!  Check out website www.sciencenews.org/articles/20050709 it's called 'Night of the Crusher', and might help you understand a little bit more.  I assure you that you aren't going crazy or anything.  If it happens again, try to relax and let it all pass.
462062
I have had this many times and it sounds like an anxiety attack. You become so afraid that you start breathing fast and hyperventilate. I was told to hold my breath and count to ten, after i had slowed my breathing down I didn't feel dizzy any more. I thought I was going to die when this started happening  to me and it seemed to get worse each time. When I realized I could control it and it was me being afraid that caused the problem, it has not happened again for several years. I am not a doctor, but these same symptoms happened to me.
649838
Because you are falling -- falling asleep!  Why do you think they call it that?
433679
When you fall asleep, you fall over.
734318
I am numb from the waist down due to a condition called Transverse Myelitis. Many people even get paralyzed from it. I would have the doctors look into it. If you do a search for it on the internet you will find some very useful information. Hope this helps. You will be in my thoughts.
347040
There are actually quite a few different medical terms for this, depending on the severity.\n\nBut what typically happens for most of us when we say that our leg "fell asleep" is simply the loss of blood circulation. Usually this will occur when we sit, sleep, or otherwise position ourselves in a particularly odd way...such as lying on one's arm for a lengthy period of time.\n\nOften, I have just referred to it called simply as "arm/leg numbness." But the more severe varieties have far more professional medical terms associated with them; for example, if one's arm nerves are the cause of the trouble.
723396
I know someone that this happened to and they had damaged a nerve in their head from sleeping on the couch, laying their head on the arm rest. They had to get an MRI or something to figure it out, but they're just giving it time to see if it heals itself otherwise there's some kind of surgery. Might be your problem.
3083
Yes this is normal. Sleep Paralysis is a common event where the mind and body start the relaxation process. When asleep the connection between the behavior of your mind and the response of your body is turned off. If it was not it is likely that you would hurt yourself as you body started acting out it's dreams. You know how when you are starting to fall asleep and you kick out or twitch in response to something you are dreaming about, same deal.\n\nIt is possible that your mind and body are not following the same pattern, that you body is shutting down before you mind can follow, or that your mind is waking before you body can follow. This is the state that is known as Sleep Paralysis. My whole family suffers from it.\n\nInterestingly, most people experience similar things when in this state. The feeling of a presence or of a pressure on your chest. A panicking feeling is also normal. People who have claimed to be abducted by aliens or visited by dead relatives have often been found to be suffering from this issue.\n\nThere are many resources online about this condition and I encourage you too look for them. This is a normal natural experience.
919961
has this been happening regularly to u? do not neglect your health. first try to rule out if its anything o do with the position of sleeping at night. if u do not manage to figure out anything best would be to consult a physician on this matter.
732198
I'm a nurse and probably could answer this more medically.  But, the kind of sleep state that you are experiencing is really not well described in science, in my opinion. So, bear with my fluffy talk about it.  It seems to me that different sleep states are kind of like different states of matter . . .gas, liquid and solid. There's a "twilight" sleep state when we first start to fall asleep sometime that is a little "gooey".  It feels like we are awake and yet we aren't.  But, that's not what you're talking about.  That state that you are experiencing, when it has happened to me, seems like another "state of matter" altogether.  It's like the fourth state of matter called plasma. Fire is mostly plasma, a high energy form.  This sleep state, when it happens to me, is like a burning, churning flush of energy. I noticed that I was blowing off a sugary breath, like a diabetic. So, it may be metabolic related. I changed my diet off empty sugar foods then and it seemed to help, though, I won't ever give up all my candy and sweet junk food. I've also noticed that this kind of sleep state occurs when my life is going along at a hot and heavy clip, like sailing into busy shipping lanes full of confusion and quick decisions, with all the adrenaline rush of navigating such perilous waters.
665060
It's called a myclonic jerk. \nThis term denotes a common experience with  sudden contractions of the big body muscles while falling asleep. This mostly causes a feeling of stumbling,  falling or similar and subsequently  waking up again.  The exact  cause  is not  known, it probably  is   some disturbance in the brain's functions  in the first  stage of sleep.  Surely it is common, and does not cause serious problems unless it  stops you from sleeping (but then you have general sleeping problems as well).
513047
do you mean like sleep paralisis? at night, if you wake up and find this happening, don't panic, it is normal. sometimes when we have bad dreams, our bodies produce hormones which keep us from thrashing and hurting ourselfs in our sleep. if we wake up to early, we find ourselfs unable to move for a period. go to webmd for a rewally good artical on it
136194
Don't feel embarrassed, It has happened to me several times. I think your mind is still awake in a certain sense and you have trained your body that when you fall, to reach your arms out and catch you...so your brain reacts to that and does so.
565707
You may have symptoms or Restless Leg Syndrome. Only a Dr. can diagnose it, not people on Yahoo. If you feel like you have to move around alot, it keeps you, feels wiggly and crampy this may be it. It could also be a lack of potassium. Try eating some bananas before you self diagnose someone. BTW RLS is a sleep disorder, so if that's they way you look you need to see a sleep specialist.
717361
I'm no stranger to this problem...\n\nIt feels like you are walking around in a fog, like nothing is truely "real" as you would normally feel it.  You feel like you could pass out at any second but at the same time you can force yourself to go on for quite a while without doing so.  It really takes a lot out of you and takes a lot to recover from.  You'll need quite a few good solid nights of sleep to completely get over it.