Sleep paralysis and medications

Has anyone here who has experienced sleep paralysis also taken medications such as Gabapentin in their life?

I was in a workplace accident in my early twenties that caused a severe amount of nerve pain and after being released from the hospital a month later I was prescribed Gabapentin for the pain. Other than nightmares, I had never experienced anything unusual during my sleep.

The first night I took these pills I had a lucid dream for the first time. The next day I was taking a nap and experienced my first sleep paralysis episode. After fighting through it and finally waking up I felt dizzy and sick for hours. On the 3rd night I had an evil visitor in my room that knocked me out cold with fear.

I stopped taking the pills the next day and went almost a year without any weird things happening while sleeping. However, over the past decade the frequency of sleep paralysis and having brief hallucinations upon waking up has been increasing.


Is it possible for these weird pills to screw a persons mind up for the rest of their life or could it just be dealing with pain for prolonged periods of time of that could do it?

reply to post by Soboro


Well I have been having sleep paralysis since being a teenager and at one stage I was eating Prozac... And I have to say that I probably had less of sleep paralysis experiences at that time than normally. So I would think that antidepressants at least make sleep paralysis less likely?

Hey There...i was googling Sleep Paralysis and came across this board.

I was looking for a definite cause to my episodes, so I thought I'd try and help your question along.

Well, I had never had a sleep paralysis episode my entire life. Until I had ACL reconstruction in late 2006. I was taking Tylenol T3's with codine, AND I had to sleep on my back (which I found out increases the likelyhood of SP)

My worst episodes are when the "dream" I'm having takes place in the bed where I'm sleeping.......But something is just "off" about the room, and that's when I realize whats going on and I panic to wake up because I feel something bad is about to happen. It takes alot of strength and struggle to wake up....to the point where I have to give up for a few seconds to regain my strength and try again. And once I finally wake up, I feel dizzy, like my brain is spinning in my head, and im unbalanced...but more than anything....I want to fall back asleep and I feel like i'm being sucked back into the 'dream'

And last night, I accidentally took a tylenol with codine (my g/f's, oops i didnt know what it was)...and it happened again for the first time in about 9 months. I remember trying to yell and scream at her to tell her to wake me up....they are so real.She was worried cuz its the first time shes ever been with me while one has gone on. So i just told her that I need to get up and go on the computer or watch tv or something. Then an hour or so went by and I went back to bed and everything is fine.

I have had a few others , but they werent as traumatic, and didnt take place in my room....so thats how at least I knew I was dreaming. One was me and my g/f moving into a new place, and I had a feeling the place was haunted....So I told my g/f that we shouldnt stay there, and that we should pack up our stuff and leave....and while she was packing up, I saw a ghost walk by and stand in the kitchen (once again, not my home)....I tried telling her but I couldnt get the words out of my mouth.

The next morning she asked me what I was dreaming about because I was going "mmm! mm! mmmmm!"....which was exactly what was happening in my dream as I was trying to tell her about the ghost.

I've had sleep paralysis on and off for at least 10 years. I'm 38 years old and have been dealing with a broken back for 15 years. I just started taking gabapentin for nerve pain, and ever since, my sleep paralysis has totally increased. Last night it happened several times and I swear I heard growling. It scares me to death because I try fighting it and cannot break free from it. I searched for gabapentin + sleep paralysis and found your note. Weird!

I was unfamiliar with this drug, so I did a little research on it. None of the reported side effects or even psts about the drug from website visitors reported sleep paralysis. Although being a drug that is supposed to treat epiliptic seizures among other things, I can see how it may. Have you tried calling your doctor and see what he says? I know when I was first prescribed ambien and valium for my clinical insomnia, I had sleep paralysis a couple of times, along with sleepwalking, so the doc pulled me off of ambien and it was all better.

reply to post by djvexd


Sleep paralysis isn't widely reported as a side effect of anything, in large part because it isn't widely understood. Any disruption in brain chemistry (which includes chronic pain) can trigger cycles of sleep paralysis. Another way pain can lead to sleep paralysis is by reducing REM sleep.

Hey, I've had sleep paralysis since my teens, but mostly when sleeping on the soffa during the daytime! Maybe once or twice in my bed but only in daylight...?

I've never been on medication..

I'm 37 btw.....

I have had sleep paralysis episodes in my teens.

I have also been on Gabapentin following surgery for 2 slipped discs.

Gabapentin didn't have much of an effect on me. No sleep paralysis. Although it did give me very vivid dreams.

hello i know this is old , but sleep paralysis is the onset to an out of body experience. it is a very important stage if you can get into it great. its not something to fear although many do because they do not understand it. your consciousness is manifesting the reality instantaneously when you are in that state, because you are in 4th dimensional awareness or an astral realm and your fears manifest instantly, however with practice and control you can actually get up and out of your body and go exploring the infinite, just like the matrix. no lies. i take gabapentin and other psychotropics for this reason alone... (to induce sleep paralysis)