My very FIRST sleep paralysis!! woo!

The biggest misconception about SP

As expected, it turns out that I (and many others) have been afraid of trying WILD because of the famous phenomenon of Sleep Paralysis. This morning, I finally decided to stop being a pussy and give it a try.

First of all. The wikipedia article is a liar! (well sort of) It tells about the sleep paralysis in the viewpoint of a REGULAR sleeper who accidentally finds himself/herself in a SP and starts to panic! Of course your mind tries to give you reasons why you cant move and generously gives you a hallucination of satan sitting on your lap, roasting marshmellows over your head.

The forcefully caused SP is a whole different thing altogether! the state is as "bendy" as the yoga mentors bum. You can mold and bend the hallucinations all you want, imagine forcefields, telekinetic powers etc. if you feel a need for such things. I was happy to find out that my sleep paralysis was not scary at all! Instead, it felt like an adventure into your mind. Here's my memorandum about the past three hours.

I had woken a lot of times during the morning and I remember a few short dreams, I went to use the toilet, came back to bed and started checking for news via my cellphone. I didn't plan to sleep anymore, but after a few boring news articles, I thought that I just could try to sleep again. At this time I had a random thought that "Hey! I could try to WILD now. I feel like being in the zone now."

I relaxed... After few minutes I started having these... I don't know how to describe them, "odd jolts with soundFX passing by". It's reallyREALLY hard to describe. For some reason, I thought that I was sort of moving around a giant hypotethical wheel which tuned my consciousness like a radio signal. (Seriously, has anyone else experienced this too?) The correct dream state was when my body passed the frequency of that jolty+whooshy sound. I imagined myself slowing down to it, the Jolt became longer and that's how i know i had slowed down my movement around the wheel. And JUST WHEN I managed to stop myself into this jolt+noise.. I went into a sleep paralysis. First noticeable thing was the sudden numbness of my limbs and my body. For my grief, I had my hands on my lap and as they "turned into lead", breathing felt harder, but I ignored it. My right leg rested normally, but the left was... I don't know how to say it in english... eh.. kinked/hooked upwards. Very soon after the SP, my left leg started slowly drifting forwards. At this moment I tried to move my body, only to find out that I really couldn't move at all, it felt funny, just as I imagined. It was like waking up at night and finding that your arm had gone numb... except this time it's your whole body + the lead feeling.

I started to hear a hypnacogic male voice rotating around my head in counterclockwise direction. It wasn't scary. I tried to listen to what it said, but I also tried not to pay too much attention to it. I don't remember much what he spoke about but it was the same old hypnacogical gibberyish nonsense. Then I felt that my body slowly tilted to the right side (sinked into the mattress), as if someone was pulling my leg, it was not scary... rather funny actually. Then my body tilted back to normal. I tried to change the hypnacogic male voice into something else, using my mind. I imagined it being a female voice as it somehow felt better to me. The voice distorted into a slow blur, and then "jumped" into a female voice.

As these things kept on going, I finally tried to enter into a sleep. I began seeing a pattern of a circuit board (hypnacogic image)... nothing else. I tried to imagine myself into a different dreamsettings and I only managed to receive minor sensory input from these locations. The dreamstate didn't suck me in. After a few minutes, I gave up and decided to experience how hard it is to get out of sleep paralysis... first attempts to signal my body to move was a failure, but then I snapped out of SP and could move. I don't know if it's normal but it seriously was just a second when I got out of it. (Maybe intentionally caused SP is easier to get out of than the one where people accidentally wake up into?)

Just for the kicks, I tried to get back into SP... I felt the invisible wheel again and got into SP easily. (I didn't have success of entering a sleep this time either). and again woke myself out of it very easily.

The whole session of Sleep paralysis felt oddly familiar to me. It was not an alien feeling as I imagined it to be. If you have any anxieties towards entering sleep paralysis. You should stop letting you lie to yourself and try it already.

I feel like I just had an adventure!

Try it out!

Tonight!

Sincerely and with much luvs
ADEzor

Sleep paralysis CAN go bad, if you have no idea what is happening to you. If you know how the process works, then it's easy to change that fear into excitement. The first thing i always tell people on this site about sleep paralysis is that there is no need to be afraid, because this happens every night to you! The most important, and fun element about sleep paralysis, is that you are able to get a lucid dream from it.

"odd jolts with soundFX passing by". It's reallyREALLY hard to describe. For some reason, I thought that I was sort of moving around a giant hypotethical wheel which tuned my consciousness like a radio signal." Do you mean vibrations, and static noise? Yes, that's very common.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylBcCFdV0jo

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Sleep paralysis CAN go bad, if you have no idea what is happening to you. If you know how the process works, then it's easy to change that fear into excitement.

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Yea it can. It followed the same rule as in my dreams and nightmares "what you expect to happen, will happen", that's one of the fundamentals of dream control, wasn't it? :)

I started this thread because I was very afraid of WILDing due to SP. Sites like 9gag and wikipedia turned me even more away from attempting it because of scary SP. The internet in general seems to be aimed towards the terror of SP, so I wanted to do my share and give people a boost in another direction. Now that I finally gathered enough guts to finally try it, it wasn't half as bad as I thought so earlier. The most soothing thing was that it really wasn't that alien of a mental state.

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Do you mean vibrations, and static noise? Yes, that's very common.

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Those hypnic jerk-like/vibrations were funny, I'm quite sure they happened just seconds before SP. I could somehow align/tune myself into them. :)

that video is interesting. Those sounds were similar to mine and the vibrations had similar "radioy" thing to it. That video is yet another example of the "terror-oriented" viewpoint of a SP though. To add... In a half dreamy state I didn't respond to those noises/sounds in the same manner as I would respond to them now. I hope that's true to everyone else too.

I've taken quite a break in trying to LD and have since not had SP in a very long time, but when I was actively trying to LD I got it around 10 or 11 times. Each time was both fascinating and fun. Oddly enough, every time I have experienced SP, I could not see (my eyelids might have been paralyzed too, idk, I just know I always experience in total blackness). That being said, some of the sensations I had during SP would probably be considered frightening to most people, including one time in which I would have been in quite a bit of pain if I did not know what was going on. It felt as though I were tipped backwards on my bed and my limbs started to shake violently and felt as though they were being ripped from my body. It felt like something had a wrench around all of my teeth and was trying to twist and yank them out, and I could taste blood. However, I was utterly fascinated and amazed at the same time during the experience--I could feel the pain but it didn't actually hurt, it was like a very washed out pain feeling, I knew it was supposed to be pain but it wasn't (difficult to explain).

The only time I was remotely scared during SP was when one time I did not expect to get it (I was not trying to LD or anything) and it sounded as if a semi-truck with a blaring horn was about to come straight through the wall of my room and hit me. It was more startling than frightening, I came out of SP instantly and was just like "what the fuck?" lol.

The more experienced I got at WILD and DEILD I started to experience SP less and less, and this fact actually saddened me a bit. I really liked the experience, I always thought it was really cool. Not to mention I had personally mastered how to get into a dream from the SP state (I would simply imagine a vortex near my head or my feet and I would feel as though I got sucked in, my body stretched all over the place for a moment and then I was in my dream).

Thanks for a reply Snoop!

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The only time I was remotely scared during SP was when one time I did not expect to get it (I was not trying to LD or anything) and it sounded as if a semi-truck with a blaring horn was about to come straight through the wall of my room and hit me. It was more startling than frightening, I came out of SP instantly and was just like "what the fuck?" lol.

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I've had something similar happening to me too... but it was not in SP. I tend to have Hypnopompic hallucinations which are really odd at times... the last one i had was a dark figure of a man sitting on my computer chair. Oddly enough I'm usually too dreamy to get startled by these hallucinations. He was just minding his own business afterall. That experience scared my gf alright! :D

I think every "out of this world" experience enriches us in our lives!

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(I would simply imagine a vortex near my head or my feet and I would feel as though I got sucked in, my body stretched all over the place for a moment and then I was in my dream).

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Hmmm, thx for the tip! Might try this tonight...if i achieve SP that is :D

It's interesting to hear that SP can be so... benign... to people who know what to expect before ever experiencing it, although I've known for a long time that the worst of SP comes from not knowing what it is.

I've always had mixed experiences with SP (by which I mean each individual experience is a mix of good and bad), but I did start having SP back when I was a "regular" sleeper (my SP experiences, once I had a name for them, eventually led me to discover LD techniques). For me, SP is stressful (and sometimes uncomfortable) and at the same time, it's really interesting and weird and intriguing and maybe a little fun. Even my very first SP experience was just kind of fun and weird before it turned heart-poundingly scary (which happened, predictably, after I started worrying about why I couldn't move--my mind provided an explanation in the form of a gigantic spider).

WILD is actually one of my favorite techniques, even though SP tends to be somewhere around mildly unpleasant for me. If I decide that the SP is more annoying than I want to deal with, though, I just wake myself up.

Welcome to WILDing my friend :lol:
Sometimes it's funny as you said hahaha but if you just have a bit of fear you'r gonna have a bad time. For me sometimes my hands and legs aren't just paralyzed, I'll explain, can you move your fifth hand? NO because there isn't a fifth hand, it's the same I feel that I don't have hands neither legs :cheeky:
Also usually I'm dragged from my legs or under my shoulders, feels weird :D

I'm in great gratitude for the abundance of lengthy replies. I remember that I had one moment where I woke myself from sleep paralysis because my mind slipped into thinking that "something scary happens soon" (you know, like when you are about to have a normal dream turn into a nightmare). I got out of SP with ease. Then went back in and everything was fine.

This is something I'd like to find more answers though. I mean, I found it surprising that it was so easy to get out of SP... Yet I read about some posts, where people tried to scream and wake themselves, without luck.

Is it normal to wake up from SP, with somewhat slight effort?

I was lying there in the dark completely still and after a while that high piched sound you hear when its quiet started to turn lower to it was like a deep bass.

then i felt a slight pressure on the hole front of my body.

after that i think i noticed my swallow which caused me to be pulled out to just lying there :P all in all it took about 10 minutes i think, but was this the start of entering SP? if i hadn't been dissrupted by my swallowing, would i've entered SP?

Sounds like it would've turned into a sleep paralysis soon after the swallow... but for me it's hard to say heh... When I entered SP though, I noticed the pressure and transformation very clearly. I was certain I was in sleep paralysis when the pressure hit me. I didn't pay much attention to my thought processes, but I can remember being in this oddly "drugged state" when I was in SP. They way I thought things were different.

and what do you do to enter SP?

just lie there? I do that with an alarm that beeps every minute so i won't fall asleep :p

I have had SP too but I didn't heard any strange noises. My whole body was numb and it was really hard to breath, it felt like a pressure in my chest. I couldn't move but then I woke up. Maybe it wasn't SP after all, I didn't have any hallucinations and couldn't achieve the WILD.

Well in my experience there are two different kinds of SP, the kind of SP you suddenly wake up in, and the kind of SP that you get as your laying in bed trying to fall asleep after waking up early in the morning. The falling asleep kind I find the scariest, I am usually totally paralyzed, and scary things and feelings are more likely to manifest, this kind of SP is hard to induce, and only happens randomly, also I find it very difficult to get into a dream from it, if I break out of it I end up in real life, and then even if I roll over, I usually get it again almost instantly, I have no idea what causes it, but I never have got it by WILDing/DEILDing, it's always an accident. I've experienced scary things in it, random sensations, laughing clowns, zombies eating my flesh, whatever happens tends to echo my last thought, which is usually, oh no, what if x happens. My body usually feels pretty heavy, and warm, I can tell I'm going into it before I even try to move, so I usually break out of it and give up the potential ld.

Oddly I never get the first kind of SP well attempting WILD/DEILD. I always zone out during WILD only to appear in the other type moments later, and the paralysis is lighter, and I am able to stimulate a dream easily from within it, and if I try to move hard enough, I will usually end up in a dream. I might get audio experiences during it, like I'm listening to a radio, or my dog barking. There is a floating sensation, like my bed is very light, I can't get a good sense of my body. Note that about 75% of lucid dreams will end back into this kind of SP, so as long as you don't move right away, I don't think there is a real way you can wake yourself up at will unless you get your heart racing.

I know it sounds weird that there would be two, but I've experienced SP probably a over a hundred times in my life, and this is what I have found. And SP can definitely be a very scary experience. My guess is that the 1st type is caused by the body falling asleep, but the dreaming brain has not been activated fully yet.

By these odd jolts of energy you describe, I think i have them too, only its more based in my head. I feel like i have both stood up too fast, and i have pressure on both sides of my head. Its only for an instant, and isnt painful, if anything it feels pretty good. Is this what you have, or something different?

ADEzor, and everyone here on this thread, I have two questions about WILD and SP.

- First, what's the connection between WILD/SP and Lucid dreams: I can't grasp the relation between those. What do paralysis and hallucinations have to do with lucidity? Am I already dreaming when I reach SP? I really can't understand.

- How exactly do you guys reach the SP? Is it from just lying there without any movement at all? I already tried it but could not resist the urge to move my eye or to swallow. How can you stay still for a long time? The only time I think I got any result was one time when I tried it with some relaxing music (J.S Bach) on a very low volume setting. That one time I felt my arms and legs very warm and heavy...But whenever I moved, even if just a inch, it felt like a step backwards from the whole process.

THanks!

I'm not a pro so I might get a thing or two off. :)

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First, what's the connection between WILD/SP and Lucid dreams: I can't grasp the relation between those.

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When attempting to WILD, one has to go trough sleep paralysis to get into the dreamworld.

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Am I already dreaming when I reach SP?

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Sleep is not an on/off thing... People transition into dream, so you are actually both awake and sleep :D

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How exactly do you guys reach the SP? Is it from just lying there without any movement at all? I already tried it but could not resist the urge to move my eye or to swallow. How can you stay still for a long time? The only time I think I got any result was one time when I tried it with some relaxing music (J.S Bach) on a very low volume setting. That one time I felt my arms and legs very warm and heavy...But whenever I moved, even if just a inch, it felt like a step backwards from the whole process.

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The aim is not to be... Uhh... Unmoving.. But you need to empty your thoughts and relax.. The least conscious effort you give to an event, the less it harms your attempts to fall asleep.

The most important thing in lucid dreaming... Is actually to fall asleep :P

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Originally Posted by ADEzor

I'm not a pro so I might get a thing or two off. :)

When attempting to WILD, one has to go trough sleep paralysis to get into the dreamworld.

Sleep is not an on/off thing... People transition into dream, so you are actually both awake and sleep :D



The aim is not to be... Uhh... Unmoving.. But you need to empty your thoughts and relax.. The least conscious effort you give to an event, the less it harms your attempts to fall asleep.

The most important thing in lucid dreaming... Is actually to fall asleep :P

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I see. But emptying my thoughts and relaxing might not be enough. If I end up moving too much I'd ruin the whole process I think. Did you not have the urge to move your eyes or swallow the saliva?

uhh to think of it... no, not really... I didn't actually plan for sleep paralysis... I was going to just sleep after taking the dog outside for pee and reading for few news articles. Maybe the thing is that I didn't put any thoughts into "do not move" nor "i feel itchy". I just found myself in SP :)

Wow, this thread has me really confused. I always thought sleep paralysis was experiencing an inability to move directly before waking. How can this be turned into an opportunity for LDing? Can one experience this directly before falling asleep too?

Sleep paralysis occurs naturally ever single night we dream.. Its your bodys natural defense mechanism to not hit your spouse when you dream about boxing. :D during normal nights we are no longer conscious when the sleep paralysis occurs, but during WILD attempts, we have to go trough it consciously, as we try to remain conscious during the whole dream.. I think there's a few methods to pass sleep paralysis by but I'm not well informed about such.

You don't need to be afraid of sleep paralysis though... I think SP is mostly just weird... And rarely scary. Its even less scary now when you know what to expect! :) there's an old African saying. "No man is afraid of what he has witnessed grow up"

Oh, and the happy thing about SP is that if you reach it... It means you are doing things right and about to successfully WILD if you can keep up to it! (remember not to rejoice, when you are going trough it, you'd just end up ruining it)

What I find with awake SP only happens when am comfortable and tired, then I just kind of slip into it, starting with the weird voices that turn to gibberish and then I would get some sort of discomfort like a pressure sometimes in my shoulders or legs and once I relax into it I feel like am between the waking world and the dream world feels really weird. Fortunately I don't see any scary figures on the the side of my bed or anything. And I also find smoking Marijuana increase the chance of SP personally not suggesting u should smoke weed to LD for those of you who are against it, I just think there may be a link ^^ happy Lucid Dreaming
I guess weed would help solve the swallowing problem and help u relax ^^