Extremely scared of SP (to the point of no sleep)

[VampireLime17]

After joining this site and reading about pretty much everything, I've become completely terrified of sleep paralysis. Last night I couldn't even sleep in my own room. The though of waking up in my bed and not being able to move terrified me. I had to move to the couch. Where I still had trouble falling asleep.

Its not even just the paralysis. Its the hallucinations that I'm scared of. I don't wanna hallucinate, because I KNOW I won't be able to handle it. I will literally freak out. I just can't handle anything like that!
I don't really plan on trying any WILDS, so does anyone know how common it is to experience SP/hallucinations during regular LD? And what kind of hallucinations will often occur?


I know that if its common, I'm just gonna have to deal with it, because I wanna have LD so badly

[Supernova]

I myself have never actually experianced any level of SP or HH outside of a WILD attempt. You probably have nothing to be woried about. Just don't think about it too much and you should drift off with no sign of either.

[VampireLime17]

Okay, thats reassuring
I try not to think about it but I just can't stop. Its always been this way with me. Once something scares me, it scares me for a long time.
But I am going to take some Sleeping drugs tonight, and hopefully that will keep me asleep through my REM stage. I may not be able to recall any dreams I have...but theres a lifetime ahead of me to record my dreams lol

[hellohihello]

Meh, I was like you... exactly like you. I made sure I slept on my side so I would have the least chance of encountering it. The best thing to do is to go through it, little by little. I find it helps when you try to enter it in the morning, say 6:30, or whenever there is light outside. Once you experience it you shouldn't be afraid anymore.

If you do get a scary episode, just relax and take a deep breath and try to ride it out into a lucid, or wiggle your big toe and get out of it.

---

I get paralysis when I wake myself up sometimes... I'd say maybe 25% of the time. Of course, my hallucinations just are loud cracking noises and beeps.

[VampireLime17]

Yea I started sleeping with a light on which seemed to help... haha I'm such a child.
During the day when there is light, I find myself not afraid of it at all...like right now.
But at night I'm like "OMG what If some crazy hallucination happens tonight..." and then conitinue to scare myself.
So I'm just gonna try not thinking about it

If I do get an SP I will probably try to ride it out into Lucid...unless it gets to be to much.

[markman]

Originally Posted by VampireLime17

After joining this site and reading about pretty much everything, I've become completely terrified of sleep paralysis. Last night I couldn't even sleep in my own room. The though of waking up in my bed and not being able to move terrified me. I had to move to the couch. Where I still had trouble falling asleep.

Its not even just the paralysis. Its the hallucinations that I'm scared of. I don't wanna hallucinate, because I KNOW I won't be able to handle it. I will literally freak out. I just can't handle anything like that!
I don't really plan on trying any WILDS, so does anyone know how common it is to experience SP/hallucinations during regular LD? And what kind of hallucinations will often occur?


I know that if its common, I'm just gonna have to deal with it, because I wanna have LD so badly

Don't worry, Whenever I hallucinated, It was just shapes and colors. In fact, I couldn't even form a picture if I tried. Thanks, I'm depressed about my inabilities now

[mcbambam]

As far a hallucinations go I found that sometimes I've seen vague shapes and things moving around but its not like anything scary like out of horror films and stuff. Plus remember that your brain isn't completely alert so even images that you normally might find frightening will have almost no effect and you probably won't remember them like two seconds later...just like in some scary nightmares that in a real life sittuation you would be soiling yourself...remember that like a dream nothing is real

[VampireLime17]

Thanks guys I feel a lot better about it now
I actually feel kinda silly now haha.

[direanthony]

Originally Posted by hellohihello

I slept on my side so I would have the least chance of encountering it.

Does sleeping on your side help encounter it? The other night I was sleeping on my side, which I normally don't do, and then things got trippy.

[Gemetria]

Don't mean to scare you but i've had some pretty weird ones.

But im a weirdo so haah maybe its just me.

You have nothing to fear other then fear itself..
just know its hallucinations, not real and nothing can hurt you.

Good luck

[tommo]

Originally Posted by mcbambam

just like in some scary nightmares that in a real life sittuation you would be soiling yourself...remember that like a dream nothing is real

Just felt the need to mention this after reading that post.
I read the other day that the word nightmare actually was first made to describe SP. Mare means 'crush' and night obviously, night; so, crush in the night or something like that. Because heaps of people get the 'old hag' hallucination or similar, where something is stopping them from breathing.

But onto the point of this thread, as some people mentioned, it's not always scary. It really depends on your own preconceived ideas. Just know that it's not an automatically scary thing, and hallucinations can't cause any harm, especially when you're paralysed. And yeh you can pull yourself out of it. You just have to force a little muscle to move, tongue or toe or finger etc. and you will slowly get yourself out, if you want to.
Personally I'd love to experience it. I've never got it even while WILDing. It's not a given that it will happen. A lot of people while WILDing just get the nice floating or sinking feeling and eventually end up in a dream. This is also called SP here but it's different to when you wake up completely paralysed.

[VampireLime17]

I just read my post again, and I feel so silly!

At least I'm not scared of it anymore. Actually I'd like to experiance it, to see if I can get in to an LD!

[Demara]

SP tends to happen when you are lying on your back. Try front or to the side.

[Loaf]

I felt the same way. I didn't want to see a zombie standing at the end of my bed or get stuck so I couldn't move. But none of this has ever happened.

Best HI I get is feeling numb and having slower movement (sometimes when I close my eyes I see vivid images but they last for seconds).

[Knon]

you should just try laying down and telling yourself you will not hallucinate then get on the thought of something you'd love to do, like a great trip or the best day ever or some shit, eventually you'll dose off and have no problem with that shitttttt

[slayer]

Originally Posted by VampireLime17

After joining this site and reading about pretty much everything, I've become completely terrified of sleep paralysis. Last night I couldn't even sleep in my own room. The though of waking up in my bed and not being able to move terrified me. I had to move to the couch. Where I still had trouble falling asleep.

Its not even just the paralysis. Its the hallucinations that I'm scared of. I don't wanna hallucinate, because I KNOW I won't be able to handle it. I will literally freak out. I just can't handle anything like that!
I don't really plan on trying any WILDS, so does anyone know how common it is to experience SP/hallucinations during regular LD? And what kind of hallucinations will often occur?


I know that if its common, I'm just gonna have to deal with it, because I wanna have LD so badly

You have nothing to be afraid of. You've gone to bed before haven't you? What's so different about reading that you could experience hallucinations?

Heck, the paralysis part isn't scary at all. You may not even realize you're paralyzed. It could last for a couple of seconds and for all you know, you could be half-asleep!

As far as hallucinations go, you may not even experience anything scary. Not everyone sees a flying dragon in their room. Just because it's POSSIBLE to see, hear, feel things, doesn't mean you will always experience these things.

As I tell everyone else, if you start to experience hallucinations, don't be scared of them, as that could make it worse. Also, keyword there is COULD. Doesn't mean it will.

You have nothing to be afraid of. Go to bed.

[BeenThere]

I know that SP can be very daunting if you don't know what is happening. Fifteen years ago I was plagued by it for months on end. Now however, I enjoy it! The vibrations are exciting and I know that I can try to separate from my body which is even more exciting. I agree that the hallucinations don't have to be scary, they can actually be funny.

About a week ago I was trying to separate from my body - my dreaming body's legs and arms were up in the air spinning around while my head was still stuck in my physical body. All the while a redneck teenage boy was standing at the door laughing and pointing at me saying, "hey, he's actually doing it!" Now, that was a little annoying, but funny to me at the same time...

[Sora]

SP feels fucking amazing imo. Nothing to be afraid of. I have very few experience with it though. At first I was also kind of afraid of SP cause I didn't want to hallucinate scary thing, but in the end if you just know that nothing is real and it'll lead you to your dream world, just sit back and enjoy the ride.

The best part is when you feel your dream body detach from your body.

Anyway, YOU MUST NOT FEED YOUR FEARS!! Stop thinking about how bad SP can be and think about the positive sides or just don't think about it at all. and has everyone said, if you never had SP before why would you have it now?

[Armistice]

Throughout the day, tell yourself that SP is ok. Maybe relate some of what you heard to something that doesn't sound so bad. I know I see small white spots that grow into larger colored spots, maybe relate this to a bouncy ball. Pretty harmless

SOme people feel vibrations. Maybe relate this to a masage chair, vibrating and massaging all your knots and troubles away

I also get a feeling of being on a raft in water, or weightlessness. If you feel like this, imagine that you're relaxing in a pool on a floatie, or if you like space, or the Moon, imagine your in space looking down at Earth, or you're hopping around on the Moon

In Harry Potter, the one with Prof. Lupus, they do the exersize with the bogart. The bogart takes the form of what you're most afraid of, but upon saying "rediculus!" it changes into something that's funny. (One was a spider and the girl put skates on it. Imagine a spider trying to stand up on skates, haha)

Don't fret it, and turn those bad thoughts into good ones

[Idolfan]

Originally Posted by VampireLime17

After joining this site and reading about pretty much everything, I've become completely terrified of sleep paralysis. Last night I couldn't even sleep in my own room. The though of waking up in my bed and not being able to move terrified me. I had to move to the couch. Where I still had trouble falling asleep.

Its not even just the paralysis. Its the hallucinations that I'm scared of. I don't wanna hallucinate, because I KNOW I won't be able to handle it. I will literally freak out. I just can't handle anything like that!
I don't really plan on trying any WILDS, so does anyone know how common it is to experience SP/hallucinations during regular LD? And what kind of hallucinations will often occur?


I know that if its common, I'm just gonna have to deal with it, because I wanna have LD so badly

What I find is that my sleep paralysis episodes are scary at the time, but I simply remember them as if they were bad dreams. So at least you have the security of knowing you won't be scarred.

You could perhaps learn to condition yourself to think of happy things as soon as you know you're paralysed, or laugh in the face of any monster that confronts you because you know that they're not real.

[Theaternerd]

Sorry to drag this topic back up but I'm really confused. What exactly is SP? And how do you get hallucinations? I know those our stupid questions but I'm new to all of this & I'm trying to learn everything I can.