Sleep Paralysis

Narcolepsy is such an unpredictable illness, in that you never know what symptoms will pop up when. While EDS is a constant, you just never know when a hallucination might strike. For some, exploding head syndrome can hit at a moment's notice. Cataplexy, well that is just a whole other ballgame. You also have the ever scary sleep paralysis.
While sleep paralysis is not exclusive to Narcolepsy, it is likely to be much more common if you have Narcolepsy. With that being the case, a PWN (person with Narcolepsy) is much more likely to have heard many of the ridiculous theories associated with sleep paralysis. I myself have heard, "Just pray about it." or things like you need to block those evil spirits. It is amazing that so many people don't realize that there is a perfectly valid, physiological reason people suffer from sleep paralysis.
Here is a simple explanation of sleep paralysis. During the process of falling asleep, or waking up one of the sleep cycles your body goes through is REM, or rapid eye movement. It is during this cycle that vivid dreams are experienced. The brain shuts down the muscles to keep the body from acting out those dreams. Typically, a person will be unaware when this happens because, well they are asleep. Unfortunately, in some cases, a person might remain completely aware during the process of those muscles shutting down, rendering them completely unable to move or speak. Sounds scary, doesn't it?
Well, I guess all the talk I have heard in the past of demons and sleep paralysis finally caught up to me. Last night I had sleep paralysis for the first time in a while, and I just kept thinking about demons on my chest. As it became harder to breathe, I just kept feeling the overwhelming weight  in my chest as I imagined some unseen force trying to drain my very last breath from me. I know sleep paralysis has nothing to do with evil spirit, but in that moment, all I could envision was some malevolent force pinning me into position and stealing the very voice I was so unsuccessful in calling upon. In that moment I just wanted to yell for someone to come in try to snap me out of it. I heard my cousin come in, I think, but couldn't move to knock on the wall. In my head, I imagined forcing myself to lift my arm, but in y head was the only place my muscles were budging.
It felt like I was that way forever. To top it off, since I was in that between state of being asleep and awake, I also felt myself slipping into some weird dream. Imagine, a nightmare inside of a nightmare. Eventually, I was able to fall asleep completely, but I could still feel the residual effects in the morning.  I woke up, still feeling out of breath. That is actually very unusual.
Luckily, sleep paralysis is not a regular occurrence for me. As I said, this is the first recurrence I have had in a while. It is just one of the many unpredictable, not so joyous symptoms that I have to look forward to at any given time.