I've always gotten these. Always, always, always. I'm not sure exactly what gives -- what makes certain people more likely to have them than others. But it's incredibly frustrating & makes me lose desperately-needed sleep. In the one I had last night, the feeling of panic was especially severe, but that might be partially due to being on meds that increase my dream activity. It ****ing blows.

In my dream, I had just woken up & it was starting to get a little light out, but was still mostly dark. So I got a snack & put on the TV to keep myself occupied. But then I suddenly went blind... It felt like I couldn't open my eyes. I kept trying to pry them open but they kept shut. And I was a little worried, but I was mostly fine.
But then my body kept contorting against my volition & I was laying down on my sofa. Then my body just started sliding off. I couldn't stop myself... Then when I was in a kneeling position on the floor, I fall backwards & my skull smacks hard against the tile. My ears were ringing, I could feel the wetness of blood/brain from my head injury, & my body went completely limp.
In my mind, I could "see" myself even though I couldn't open my eyes still. Like I was outside of my body. And my head was sticking out of my neck at a horrific angle -- I think I had broken my neck really bad. That's why I was paralyzed. The ringing in my ears got louder, the image of seeing myself kept spinning rapidly, & fear grew heavy in my chest. My heart was pounding.
I kept screaming, hoping that my screaming would wake up my boyfriend so I could break out of the dream. I screamed until I got dizzy. And FINALLY, after what seemed like hours of screaming & panic, I was able to wake myself up.

I had only been asleep for a little more than an hour, so this dream must have been incredibly brief. Most of my nightmares are like this. Extremely short but made to feel much longer in terms of the amount of content or the perception of time skewed by fear... ****ing hell, though. Is there any real reason for dreams like this? I can't think of any.

[Thunder Bow]

The dream could be your mind recalling a repressed memory. Try to find a time and place for it.

A repressed memory of waking up & going blind & breaking my neck? Hmm, you'd think that was something one couldn't block that easily. The mind is a tricky & fragile thing.

I went through periods of awful nightmares, some PTSD related but a lot wernt. They'd be vivid and real and sometimes it would take me a long time to realise it was a nightmare and not real life when I woke up. I went on prazosin and it cured me. I still have nightmares very occasionally but nothing like I used to have.