Stuck between Paralysis and a Dream

[Immersion]

To begin my dreaming experience appears to be slightly different from most individuals. I don't go to sleep until 3am because I am a bartender. So anything before that and my body will not fully go to sleep. I have been attempting WILDS for the past 3 nights and have progresses each time I have done them but I feel that there is something that I am not properly doing. Last night, I fell asleep watching movie around 1am and I awoke after it was finished around 4am. I then stood up, use the bathroom, drank a few gulps of apple juice and went to bed. I started attempting my WILD and I began to slip into sleep paralysis. I felt my body going numb from the crown of my head to my toes but not a heavy feeling. I began to see a light show and I passively watched. During the light show, very faint pieces of images cut in and out. These images were outlined in the colors of the light show. They were hard for me to make out but I continued to sit there as my body stayed in sleep paralysis as I continued to watch the show. Almost 30min went by and the paralysis was definitely setting in but I just kept watching a lightshow. I wanted to give up twice but I persisted due to the time I spent attempting my WILD which made me closer to doing one. The third time, I did give up. I felt my body come out of sleep paralysis and I decided to go to sleep. I did dream last night but it wasn't lucid or any more vivid than an actual movie. I know I may be missing something in regards to obtaining lucidity and I am personally looking for some help to obtain that missing link. I am here to listen and learn if you can share some words or ideas with me. ~Immersion~

[bridgebuilder]

I had this exact same problem this afternoon. I crawled onto my bed when I was very sleepy (crap sleep the night before), pillow over the eyes to get things nice and dark, and eventually induced sleep paralysis. The SP made my limbs feel distant and in different positions than they actually were, I felt very small in proportion to my body, and there were waves/vibrations through my body that seemed like i could intensify them at moments. I kept getting flashes of imagery, but they would dissipate. I couldn't seem to 'sink' into a dream, although I was conscious . . . how do others get into a full dream from SP? I know I could have had a lucid (I was very aware at that point) but its like there was a wall or maybe a mental trick I haven't learned or read about to get me the rest of the way . . . had to give up for the time being . . . please help . . .

[Rathez]

To begin my dreaming experience appears to be slightly different from most individuals. I don't go to sleep until 3am because I am a bartender. So anything before that and my body will not fully go to sleep. I have been attempting WILDS for the past 3 nights and have progresses each time I have done them but I feel that there is something that I am not properly doing. Last night, I fell asleep watching movie around 1am and I awoke after it was finished around 4am. I then stood up, use the bathroom, drank a few gulps of apple juice and went to bed. I started attempting my WILD and I began to slip into sleep paralysis. I felt my body going numb from the crown of my head to my toes but not a heavy feeling. I began to see a light show and I passively watched. During the light show, very faint pieces of images cut in and out. These images were outlined in the colors of the light show. They were hard for me to make out but I continued to sit there as my body stayed in sleep paralysis as I continued to watch the show. Almost 30min went by and the paralysis was definitely setting in but I just kept watching a lightshow. I wanted to give up twice but I persisted due to the time I spent attempting my WILD which made me closer to doing one. The third time, I did give up. I felt my body come out of sleep paralysis and I decided to go to sleep. I did dream last night but it wasn't lucid or any more vivid than an actual movie. I know I may be missing something in regards to obtaining lucidity and I am personally looking for some help to obtain that missing link. I am here to listen and learn if you can share some words or ideas with me. ~Immersion~ You most likely were not in sleep paralysis. There is a feeling you get that I call the 'gooey' feeling. This is when you lay still for a long time without moving. It feels like parts of your body sort of detach from the rest of you, and you get a really warm numbness. It is very common to get this confused with sleep paralysis. Sleep paralysis is very noticeable and when achieved, it is actually quite easy to transition into the dream world. I couldn't imagine anyone being in sleep paralysis for 30 minutes without falling asleep or entering a lucid dream without being some sort of trance-inducing master. Sleep paralysis will onset when your body thinks you have gone to sleep. If you stay still and pay attention to the changes to your body, you will not enter sleep paralysis. You need to lay still with a blank mind, and try to drift into sleep, but stopping yourself from falling asleep. This will take some practice.. one thing I noticed when I started doing this right was I would drift off into dream scenes like I was falling asleep, then would all of a sudden snap out of it and come back to reality and regain all my external senses. You will feel your senses turn 'inward' if you are doing it right. It will feel like you are going inside your head. Just lay in bed still, don't force thoughts in, don't force thoughts out. If thoughts or scenes enter your eyes, just be passive and let them take their course.

[bridgebuilder]

I think my problem was that I was too far away from a REM cycle, and perhaps I had been paying too much attention. I tried to zone out, but I remember getting a little excited in my head once the wave of SP had clearly begun to settle in. This excitement may have contributed to lack of dreaming. I did have a faint 'dark' dream image of a man with a mullet holding ribs in a Sears, I think he wanted me to buy the ribs, but I snapped out of that too quickly. Any tips on 'giving yourself over' to a dream scene and getting fully immersed? Thanks.

[Rathez]

I think my problem was that I was too far away from a REM cycle, and perhaps I had been paying too much attention. I tried to zone out, but I remember getting a little excited in my head once the wave of SP had clearly begun to settle in. This excitement may have contributed to lack of dreaming. I did have a faint 'dark' dream image of a man with a mullet holding ribs in a Sears, I think he wanted me to buy the ribs, but I snapped out of that too quickly. Any tips on 'giving yourself over' to a dream scene and getting fully immersed? Thanks. You don't want to fully immerse yourself in the dream scene if you haven't entered SP yet. This will mesmerize you and make you go unconscious, falling asleep. However, if you are in SP and see these images, you need to imagine moving into the dream, or doing a front roll into the dream (summersault). Its very difficult to explain, but have you ever laid in bed and had the feeling like you were rotating, but you actually weren't? This is the type of feeling you need to project in SP to help disconnect even more. Just persistently apply this moving forward or rolling forward feeling and you'll get sucked into a dream.. literally.