Thread: Hard to move in my dreams?

Can anyone help?...

This all depends upon what exactly is happening to you. It could be a form of sleep paralysis. If that's the case, don't fight it. Struggling against it is what anchors you in it. I hate to say it, but if you can't move, give up. That is, don't try to move. Instead, just relax some more. Close your eyes, clear your mind, do not struggle. Often, just surrendering to the paralysis will instantly break it. Of course, this would mean you would probably wake up. If it is sleep paralysis, I suggest you try to dive inward rather than get up from the bed. Close your eyes and go into your mind rather than trying to get up and explore your room.

Otherwise, if this is indeed a dream which merely takes place in your bed, then you may simply be limited by your own expectations. What we prepare for and what we expect are fed into our experience of the moment we're in. If you feel as if you can't move, and you're lying there in bed with a lifetime of experience which tells your mind that you cannot indeed float out of bed... then you're probably not going to get that far. You've got to fix that, luckily, it's easy.

Your position in a dream is the location of your perception. That sounds odd at first, but when you consider that you practically ARE your mind's eye while you're dreaming, then it starts to make more sense. While you still have the sensation of the bed beneath you, you are anchored to your bed. You want to try to stir up sensations which are stronger than the sensation of lying in bed. If you simply recall what it feels like at the peak of a jump, that moment of weightlessness, then that can go a long ways. If you've ever flown in a dream before, try to recall what it felt like to propel yourself through space. Some people imagine sinking into the bed, which works really well because it doesn't rely on the denial of the sensation of contact with the bed. I sometimes find that working up a sort of oscillation feeling helps. That is, I will "visualize" movement in one direction, then the other, and back. I repeat this until I'm practically vibrating or spinning. The sensation eventually becomes so strong that it overcomes the sensation of lying in bed and then it's almost as if the cord holding me in my body snaps and I go flying. Sometimes, however, it's too strong and it wakes me up. It's all about finding what works for you.

Your vision might also be anchoring you in place. So closing your eyes and focusing on visualizing where/when You want to be while you activate the sensation of movement could trick your brain into thinking that you're moving to that location. Once there, you might not be still lying in bed, and therefore wouldn't have to worry about being stuck.

Ive had a similar problem often when obtaining lucidity often. SuperOhm has some good advice and seems consistent with my theory. For me it seems that sleep paralysis or the highly relaxed state of your actual body is entering into your dream translating into your dream body being groggy and difficult to move.

I had a recent situation where I was in my dream bed, upon realising it was a dream I felt very relaxed that it was difficult to move, but managed to rub my hands together in order to deepen lucidity enough to try and move out of bed. after hand rubbing it was still very dark in room and I was trying to twist my body to get out of bed which was difficult but managed to. After standing up I decided to spin to increase lucidity further, which I managed although a bit wonky, upon leaving the room, the rest hallway and other room I entered was bright and it was easy to move and see my body.

Another situation, I became lucid and could walk aright, but i found it difficult to talk and my mouth felt weird, I realised it was the same feeling Ive had before when being semi awake and having sleep paralysis whereby my mouth wouldn't move and could only make groaning noises. So part of my sleep paralysis was entering into my dream. I used hand rubbing and spinning techniques to deepen lucidity and would temporarily take away the weird feeling and inability to talk in the dream.

So maybe try and use the techniques to deepen lucidity, even if it is difficult as it should increase the disconnect between your actual body and dream body. If you cant move at all, maybe try and say things likes "deepen lucidity" etc.

Hello Viva & SuperOhm! Thank you so much for replying to my post, as it motivates me a lot to try and overcome this. I've been trying to seek help and was struggling but now with some help I
feel a very happy sensation and sense of excitement to dream more.

@SuperOhm & Viva.

I sometimes wake up in walking life, and realize that my mouth feels funny, and I can't move, and as you said can only make groaning noises. I have a 18 year old brother, and our sleeping arrangements has us sleeping in the same room. When this happens I get sort of.. afraid of what's going on. Because now that I have been exploring the forum, and messing with my dreams. This "sleep paralysis" I believe is occurring sometimes and it freaks me out. Some people say don't be scared, and just let it happen. Anyway, when it does. I try to say my brother's name.. and the first couple times it's just mumbling, or nothing at all. After a couple of try's his full name is said and he usually wakes up so I can tell him.

Sleep paralysis has been described as one of the most terrifying experiences a human being can experience. I'm not sure who decided that one, but supposedly it's out there as such. The thing is, it can't do you any harm. I experience sleep paralysis almost every time I take a nap during the day. I'm still kicking just fine. The thing is, I'm incredibly aware most of the time, so I can monitor my own internal states. My breathing and heart rate are all nice, even and relaxed, even if I'm internally completely freaking out, struggling, and trying to fight with every ounce of will power I've got. When I found out that the struggle was what rooted me in the paralysis, it solved the issue for me. Now, it still takes me a little while to become lucid during sleep paralysis, because our mental state is locked into nightmare mode where awareness is lower. However, when I do become lucid, I just relax. I cease to struggle. I calm and clear my mind. Once I am no longer struggling, I can often feel the moment when the paralysis ends. I then open my eyes with a calm and clear mind, able to get up and move freely. It's almost poetic when you think about it, that it is our struggle which paralyses us. I feel like there must be a zen teaching somewhere hidden in this.

Read this article on Sleep Paralysis, it will expel any myths that you have. If you are in a dream, then you are not being affected by Sleep Paralysis. Your "dream body" is not affected by it at all. Your dreams work solely off of your expectations, so if you continue to expect that you will wake up in Sleep Paralysis when you enter a dream, then you will continue to do so, and nothing will change.

All you have to do is relax yourself, and remember that this is your dream, you control it, and everything that happens is up to you. Remember and expect that you have total control, and it will happen

Originally Posted by realdealmagic

Read this article on Sleep Paralysis, it will expel any myths that you have. If you are in a dream, then you are not being affected by Sleep Paralysis. Your "dream body" is not affected by it at all. Your dreams work solely off of your expectations, so if you continue to expect that you will wake up in Sleep Paralysis when you enter a dream, then you will continue to do so, and nothing will change.

All you have to do is relax yourself, and remember that this is your dream, you control it, and everything that happens is up to you. Remember and expect that you have total control, and it will happen

That article only talks about the misconceptions of trying to induce SP for a WILD. It doesn't mention anything about sleep paralysis as you wake up. Its my experience (and has been accepted understanding for years!!) that you can experience sleep paralysis in a false awakening - if you are actually near waking.

Why? Simple. Real life can always bleed into the dream. Maybe you're hearing your pet kitty in real life, but your dream interprets it as a crying baby instead. We've all experienced something like that.

When the dreamer is waking up their brain naturally draws the attention back to the physical body - instead of the dreaming body. Normally this makes you feel the dream is "fading out". Maybe you're dreaming of a waterfall and its very vivid - but then suddenly you can't feel the water anymore and it feels as though you're looking through a dimmed glass. Why? Because your waking up and you're physical body isn't experiencing any waterfall, the dream ends.

Waking up is naturally a 'process' - we need alarms to work around that and instantly wake us up instead.

Now imagine the same waking up process is still happening, but your body is still in sleep paralysis. Real life bleeds into the dream and the dreamer is all confused! They confuse their sleeping limp body for their dream body. This usually ends up in a FA where you are stuck on your bed and you can't move. You can't seem to force yourself awake either.

Forcing yourself to wake up only creates more problems too. You can get caught in endless FA after FA. Or terrify yourself and create an even worse nightmare.

But of course the dream body isn't stuck at all, its free to move about! If you remember that. The easiest way to end a waking sleep paralysis - is to fall back into the dream. If you're in a FA - just close your eyes and re-dream. Enjoy your dream and give your body the time it needs to wake up.

Remember that you only have your awareness in a dream. So you actually don't have a dream body or dream senses as long as you don't focus on them.
And thanks for reading my old dream recall thread, I am glad that it have helped you.

I know the dreamy feeling you are describing, it's like an intuitive feeling and you know that if you just fall asleep you will dream and you will hopefully become lucid.

However with a little new knowledge you might be able to use this feeling even more to your advantage.

Every morning, when I have the time, where I wake up and feel this intuitive feeling I know that I will enter a lucid dream.

And that is because of this: http://www.dreamviews.com/wake-initi...-daytime.html*

You see I have a different view of what a dream really is. When a regular joe or plain jane hear the term, they might think of a dream as something that only occurs in the night and that it's only a dream when it's fully vivid and feels like a somewhat vivid experience.

But this is to limit oneself! A dream to me is a non-physical experience, and just a single thought or a visualization is a non-physical experience, I mean it's not physical anyway! And when you dream you don't move your physical body right? You move your awareness. For more information look up that thread.

But anyway when I feel this intuitive feeling upon awakening, instead of waiting for some process to take over and make me transition, I focus on the non-physical visualization that is fully in my control and pretend that I am already lucid (because in a sense I am!), it's just not self-sustainable yet. But the more I move my awareness into that visualization the more stable it becomes. What does this remind you of? DREAM STABILIZATION!

Pretend that you already are in a dream and that you want to stabilize it.

This sounds advanced in theory perhaps but it's really simple in practise. All I do is to imagine that I am holding a bottle or my iphone or use any sense you like and when it sticks and is stable, you can just get up because you are by then in a non-physical focus (dream.) This can be done while already in the dream as well, which probably the majority of my WILD attempts actually are (A false awakening where I attempt to WILD...)

Anyway just imagine using your senses and you can control it easier.

Every non-physical experience can also just be an experience of yourself and your fears etc. So it is possible that this is an experience showing you that you are not feeling that you are in control. If that is the case I hope my advice help you feel in control again.

Good luck!