From: david@edenroad.demon.co.uk   
      
   On Tue, 25 Sep 2007 17:01:13 -0700, LauraM wrote:   
      
   > Almost every single night I awaken at 3:30 am.  It's amazing how the   
   > clock is within 3-5 minutes of that time no matter where I'm sleeping,   
   > whether it's when I'm traveling or at home.   
   >   
   > A few times in the last couple years I've experienced "sleep   
   > paralysis" where I'm in my body trying to talk and trying to move yet   
   > I can't.  Finally I'm able to move.   
   >   
   > More recently I awaken (again at 3:30 am) to what I've been thinking   
   > are earthquakes.  I experience a tremendous shudder as if the room is   
   > shaking like an earthquake (I live in the Bay Area so I've experienced   
   > a lot of them).  Once the shudder is over, I ask my husband if he felt   
   > the earthquake.  The answer is always 'no'.  I would swear there was   
   > an earthquake, so the last time this happened, in the morning I went   
   > on the web to usgs.gov where they track earthquakes.  There was   
   > nothing negligible in my area.  (From my lifetime of living in the Bay   
   > Area, I'd say the "earthquakes" I feel are about 4.0 - 5.0 on the   
   > Richter scale, so they would surely be listed on usgs.gov.)   
   >   
   > Now I'm wondering if this is something that's happening because I'm   
   > returning to my body from an OBE.  I've never remembered an OBE during   
   > or after.   
   >   
   > Is anyone able to shed any light on this?  It's driving me crazy not   
   > knowing why I'm feeling all these earthquakes.   
   >   
   > Sincerely,   
   > Shuddering in California   
      
   You might be experiencing some confusion within your mental body image.   
   When you have been relaxed for more than about 20 minutes, the   
   proprioreceptors which normally tell your brain where each limb is lose   
   their calibration, and stop undating this image.   
      
   If you are still in a state approximating REM sleep (which you probably   
   are, as you are paralysed) then your eyes are probably moving.  Eye   
   position is another signal which is fed to the body image, so it's likely   
   there will be some confusion: your eyes are moving rapidly, and there's no   
   input from your muscles to compare those signals to.   
      
   Hence you may feel as though you are rocking, or swaying, probably quite   
   rapidly.   
      
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