Thread: First attempt at LD through sleep paralysis

I fear you may be thrown off by a very common misconception of terminology. Actual sleep paralysis is a fairly rare disorder that causes your body to be fully paralyzed upon waking up. Usually you can't cause it - it's just something that happens from time to time when you wake up, and it actually only affects a small percentage of the population.

However, the "sleep paralysis" (notice the quotes) that most people (erroneously) associate with lucid dreaming is actually an event called REM Atonia - a process in which the body shuts down your muscles as you fall asleep, thus preventing you from unwittingly acting out your dreams in your sleep. REM Atonia happens to everyone every night, whether you're aware of it or not. However, some people seem to associate it with lucid techniques like WILD, simply because performing WILD sometimes keeps you aware throughout the REM Atonia process as your body falls asleep but your mind stays awake. And since REM Atonia naturally causes paralysis, this is why confusion arises as to the terminology. REM Atonia paralysis episodes can (but do not always) include fairly scary hallucinations, though these are caused by the fact that you are usually already dreaming by the time you hit this paralysis, so a simple awareness of this fact is enough to transition into a lucid dream. You can read more about the misconceptions of Sleep Paralysis here: http://www.dreamviews.com/dream-yoga...explained.html

I can't really tell by your post which is the case - whether you're acknowledging that you have actual sleep paralysis upon waking and are trying to utilize it to get lucid, or if you're trying to induce REM Atonia for the sake of WILDing. If it's the former, I don't have too many tips, except maybe to just try to ignore the paralysis and focus on slipping back into the dream, almost like a DEILD. If it's the latter, however, I would strongly suggest that you don't try focusing on achieving REM Atonia in your WILD attempts, as this will usually just cause you to lie awake in waiting - which is obviously counterproductive since you have to fall asleep in order to dream. I've had about 50 WILDs, and only in 2 of them have I had any sort of paralysis feeling. Instead, check out some of Sageous's tips in his WILD class, or perhaps try a method like MILD that is usually easier for beginners and doesn't require as much pre-sleep awareness.

I have narcolepsy, so I do know that I have sleep paralysis at times, far more than other people. It used to be chronic, but is better with medication. I go into altered states of consciousness easily, hence why I want to learn more about how to lucid dream.
I agree that your probably right though, it sounds like it was more of the natural state of atonia that I was experiencing.
Do you have experience with sleep paralysis? I thought, since I hallucinate vividly during these episodes, that I might be able to control the hallucinations to lucid dream. Perhaps the is an entirely different thing that WILD though. I cannot make myself enter sleep paralysis, I was waiting 3 weeks for it to happen.
I believe I am just not well informed enough about WILD and lucid dreaming methods, in fact I'm completely confused. I will have to read up on this site, and on the link you provided. Thanks for the ideas and tips.