I’ve been doing a lot of research and can’t seem to find any solid answers. I’ve had brain zaps for as long as I can remember, but they only happen when I’m extremely exhausted. Usually, as I’m lying in bed ready to fall asleep, I’ll close my eyes and suddenly feel multiple zapping sensations, which often jerk me awake.
After the zaps, I feel energized—almost the opposite of exhausted—for about 5 seconds, before I feel like I could crash again. These zaps don’t usually hurt, though there was one time where it was so sudden and intense, I felt it over my right eye. My eye watered, and my head throbbed for about 20-30 seconds after it passed.
These zaps eventually started pulling me into lucid dreams. The dreams were usually the same—I’d feel like I was being flung through a tunnel, with wind against my body, a pressure pulling me, and my heart pounding in my ears. Then, I’d wake up gasping for breath, shaken, and out of sorts. They’re not usually terrifying, but there’s always something unsettling about them.
Around 7 months ago, I started having major sleep issues. For about a month and a half, I was averaging only 2 hours of sleep each night. It was incredibly frustrating. As soon as I felt tired, I’d rush upstairs to try to fall asleep, but I’d feel energized instead. One night, I was so tired I could barely keep my eyes open, but I ended up lying in bed for 4 hours and never fell asleep. It felt like I lost time, but it didn’t feel like I actually slept.
This went on for weeks, and I was so desperate for a proper night’s sleep that I started crying. Medication didn’t help, and I even tried staying up for 2 days straight to tire myself out, hoping I’d pass out by the third day. I did eventually sleep, but it was only for a couple of hours. That month was a nightmare.
Something else I’ve noticed is that when I experience these brain zaps, they pull me into lucid dreams so suddenly that I don’t realize right away I’m dreaming. One time, I was lying in bed, staring at the ceiling, waiting to fall asleep when suddenly the walls started to bend, and I felt like I was being pulled into my bed. I couldn’t breathe, and then I woke up in the exact same position I was in moments before. You can imagine my surprise when reality seemed to warp, and I had no idea I was in a lucid dream.
Eventually, the zaps started triggering sleep paralysis episodes. At first, nothing much happened during the paralysis, but over time, I started hearing voices, sounds, and even feeling sensations like a creature screeching into my ear while shaking my bed. It was clearly just sleep paralysis hallucinations, but it felt real.
I also started waking up to large spiders over my head, which would vanish moments later. Oddly, this helped me get over my fear of spiders. One time, while staying at a friend’s house, I saw a bunch of cats during a sleep paralysis episode, and even heard them meowing. It wasn’t scary, just strange.
After that, I started experiencing a lot of false awakenings, where I’d get up, only for my body to be sucked back into sleep. This happened repeatedly, maybe 20 times, until I finally woke up for real.
Recently, the zapping episodes have become even more intense, with one sleep paralysis episode following another. However, this time, the zaps were barely noticeable. In each episode, I felt a crushing weight on my chest, which kept building until it left my stomach aching for the rest of the day, like I had been hit in the stomach.