Question:
Did I have a mini seizure?
Last night I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't fall back asleep. I was pretty drowsy, but every time I felt like I was just about to fall asleep I got REALLY dizzy, like my head was spinning and I felt panicky and just weirded out. I would jolt awake and then get really really dizzy and panicky again; this happened several times (more than 5, I'm sure). Then I closed my eyes again and saw like flashes of light behind my eyelids, my ears started ringing super loud, and my jaw started clenching and un-clenching all by itself, like I was biting or something. I felt super panicky/scared and like my thoughts were getting drowned out if that makes sense, just way out of it like I was about to pass out but I'm pretty positive I was conscious the whole time. For the rest of the night I felt really anxious and scared but luckily it didn't happen again. I don't have a history of passing out or anything weird like that, I wasn't on drugs or medication or anything, nothing out of the ordinary happened to trigger it. I'm not super worried right now, but I don't know if I should be or what could have triggered that? Thanks in advance for your time and help!
Answers:
No that doesn't sound like a seizure. It sounds more closely related to sleep paralysis. There are a variety of related things that can cause these symptoms. If it were a seizure you would be unaware which leads me to believe this was something similar to sleep paralysis. During these episodes, some of your brain is awake, and some of it is asleep. It is in this state that people can have really weird physical sensations like being dragged out of their body and being unable to return, sensation of falling, seeing dark images or semi dream images and so on.