Should I notify my anesthesiologist about my disorder? "
What I found out was : " Sedation is not general aneasthesia. Sedation will put you in a deep sleep state and you will be simultaneously given pain killers for pain relief.
General anesthesia would involve paralysing your respiratory muscles and putting in a tube in your wind pipe for artificial ventilation. Dont worry, discuss all this in detail with your anesthesiologist and surgeon. All your doubts should be cleared so that you are not very anxious prior to the procedure. Goodluck."
What Is Sleep Paralysis?
It is a transitional state between wakefulness and sleep, characterized by muscle atonia (muscle weakness). It is often accompanied by unusually powerful and terrifying hallucinations to which one is unable to react due to paralysis, and physical experiences (such as strong current running through the upper body). These hallucinations often involve a person or supernatural creature suffocating or terrifying the individual, accompanied by a feeling of pressure on one's chest and difficulty breathing. Another common hallucination type involves intruders (human or supernatural) entering one's room or lurking outside one's window, accompanied by a feeling of dread. [Wiki]
What Is Anesthetic Awareness?
Under general anesthesia, a patient is given medications intended to cause unconsciousness and relieve pain. If the medication to render the patient unconscious fails, awareness occurs. In other words, the patient wakes up, becomes aware of certain events occurring during the surgery, and may recall some or all of the events. Further, if the medication to relieve pain fails or is inadequate, the patient may feel pain while awake.
Finally, cases involving general anesthesia often require the patient to be given medication intended to prevent movement. In very rare instances, the sleep and pain medications fail while the paralytic agent does not, making it virtually impossible for the patient to communicate this dire situation to the anesthesia providers.
I used to have this problem when I was in my early teenage and as much as I remember it was somewhere near class sixth or seventh. At some nights I used to wake up just after 10 mins of sleep and find my self motionless and till the time I got the control back on me, I would be badly breathing, puzzled and haunted.But, this time it was different! I was returning back to my home town by road from Faizabad and was sleeping next to the driver seat with seatbelts on. Suddenly, I woke up and I was in the worst state of paralysis only my right leg could move about an inch. As the window of car was open, dust from the road was directly going in my mouth and I was still unable to close my own mouth. But, the brain was active and decided to hit my left leg with right and some how after struggling for over more than 15 minutes I slowly got the control back on my body. I will like shouting Wake Up, Wake Up to all my body parts.
Each time it happens, exactly one body part remains in the voluntary control of my mind and helps to wake up other parts of the body. ( Once it was the lower jaw).
Lastly, towards the end of this surgery, I completely felt exactly only the last two stitches even though I was under local anesthesia.
When I told about this to my parents at that time, may be they thought that I was trying to draw attention or boasting or whatever but was never heard seriously. Yesterday, one of my friend told me the term and I was shocked that yes, I know this and I have been though this condition.
"I sleep too much." - Everyone tells me this.
While introspection, I found out that I am expert Lucid Dreamer and just to extent the pleasure of dreams I extend my sleep durations . The only target is to complete that particular thought sequence. I can even resume my dream after a 10 minutes break.
Are these 3 things connected? A question that will now always haunt me.
And the non scientific hypothesis about demons etc. can never win my trust. So what exactly is it???