As background, sleep paralysis occurs to prevent body motions in the context of a dream: Having our legs churn while we're dreaming of running would be not so good.
In general, sleep paralysis can be 'cured' by wiggling an extremity. Trying to move the large muscles will almost never succeed, but wiggling toes, the nose, blinking an eye are all worth trying. Almost always, these small motions help trigger the body to realize it's no longer sleeping and should do the biochemistry to stop paralyzing the large muscles.
I suffer from sleep apnea as well and often when I wake up paralyzed I honestly feel like if I don't force myself to move that I am going to die from lack of getting enough air. It almost always feels like I'm barely breathing.
This doesn't work for me, at least not directly. However, I find that if I relax for a few moments and then make a full body effort to do a short-sharp shake of, well, everything, I can normally wake myself up. Trick then is to keep moving so I wake up fully and don't fall back into it :/
It's quite possible than I'm just twitching a finger or toe when I do that initial effort though :)
This is my trick too. I have to build up the mental energy and then absolutely lay into it. Like I'd be wildly flailing around if my body wasn't switched off. Then when I'm moving I have to try to stand, or I'm just going to get drawn back in. Most of the time I don't bother anymore and just allow myself to fall back asleep.
Interesting. I've never experienced sleep paralysis; my body tends to err in the other direction. I have woken myself up before because my muscles accidentally do still move while dreaming, most often because I will physically flinch when surprised by something.
In general, sleep paralysis can be 'cured' by wiggling an extremity. Trying to move the large muscles will almost never succeed, but wiggling toes, the nose, blinking an eye are all worth trying. Almost always, these small motions help trigger the body to realize it's no longer sleeping and should do the biochemistry to stop paralyzing the large muscles.