Shocks in brain before sleep

[DaVinci2]

Since I think this is related to sleep, I'll post my concerns here in the hopes of an answer. This is basically what I went through a few years ago.

I would feel that my brain, near the back or behind my eyes, was in over-drive. My body was tired, I wanted to sleep, but it was like my brain didn't. The best way I can describe the feeling is like this: Have you ever started a new hobby, or done something new ALL DAY, and then knew you were going to be dreaming about it that night, and those dreams keep you up? Well, it's kind of like that only it starts before I go to sleep.

Then, as I fall asleep (Or try to) I get this electric shock at the back of my head. It sometimes feels that if I don't wake up that my brain will fry and I will have a stroke or seizure. This problem didn't occure on a daily basis. To be honest, it mainly occured when I would take a nap in the afternoon on work days. Only sometimes at night. I brought it up with my doctor back then, but he said it was likely side-effects from the Paxil I was on.

Fastforward to today. I've had similar, but less aggressive shock experiences...until today. Today I woke up after not sleeping well. I wanted to get back to sleep. But while being asleep or half-asleep, I felt a shock that left me almost paralyzed. I tried to wake up, move, but couldn't really. Then I was awake and moved around. It was pretty scary. If it was only the inability to move I would have thought "Well, I was probably asleep." However, I also had that shock feeling from the head down my backbone. So, there's something else happening. Can anyone tell me what this is? I see my doctor Friday and I hope he can tell me. I didn't miss a dose of my SSRI or xanax.

[Morning Glory]

Here is a link that may help.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_paralysis

[deadontheisle]

Recently I was experiencing the same shock-like sensation throughout my head, along with heart palpitations, extremely fast beating heart, or extremely slow beating heart. Around the same time as the shock-like sensation I would sit up terrified and feel like my heart stopped beating. I too had the same fear of heart attack or stroke from the sensations.

I used to frequently suffer from sleep paralysis, and hypnagognic hallucinations, which has now led to my fear of initiating sleep; some form of hypnaphobia or something...

But anyway, just wanted to let you know I have experienced the same thing and know what you're talking about. I don't know why it's gone away or why it started, but I'm guessing it's all anxiety related.

[lostnfound1961]

I have to chime in on this one. When I am REAL tired I will lay down and as I start to fall asleep, I realize my body is there but my brain is not. I can't move or make a sound, I can't open my eyes and I feel this feeling/sound rush over my head. It's doesn't so much feel like a shock as a loud rore. Sometimes I would dream people were holding me down but mostly I felt like I was mentaly awake and so every time I would start to hear the nois comming on I would wake my self because I was scared. Then one day I realized that if I just remained calm..... I would either finish falling asleep or could move and wake up.

I fell into one of those dreams yesterday afternoon adn slept for about 3 hours. Most of that time I spent trying to wake up. I am totaly worn out today.
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