Thread: Sleep Paralysis - unpleasant

Originally posted by Tolin
my friends been having sleep paralysis problems
youve all probably heard about it, dark figures are watching you/you know theyre gonna do something evil to you
he says he cant move(obviously) but wants to and doesnt like it..umm need advice for him

i told him to relax and realize that its just a dream but i want to know if theres something else he can do

Thats happened to me once or twice. I actually keep trying to move, even though its holding me back, I constantly try and move and eventually youll break free and wake up.. =/ scary though... I dont want this to happen.

people who fear sleep paralysis don't understand it. i wish i were having "problems" with sleep paralysis. as far as "curing" it goes, the best path is to just relax and stop panicking, since there's nothing "real" to panic about. another method, which i used to employ a long time ago before i understood what sleep paralysis could be used for, was to focus all of my energy on moving a single limb or body part. it generally took about 10 seconds, but i was able to move my hand or foot and the whole spell was broken.

is he trying to lucid dream? if so, he shouldn't try to break sleep paralysis, as it is completely harmless, and an excellent way to enter a lucid dream.

i get the impression he isn't trying to LD though. in this case i will address the following:

dark figures are watching you/you know theyre gonna do something evil to you [/b]

well, obviously he 'knows' wrong. those dark figures are merely figments of his imagination. why be afraid of them?
actually, some studies suggest that getting frightened may actually prolong the SP, as the emotional center of the brain is possibly related to the portion responsible for SP. so by getting scared, he's only increasing the source of his fear.

i used to be really freaked out by sleep paralysis too. i've had demonic, guttural voices rasp and growl inches from my head, heard my name called, and loud bangs smashing my desk/doors slamming, etc.

eventually i got sick of being scared by my own mind, and calmly examined SP when it happened. now i love it when SP happens, as it gives me an opportunity to WILD. and even aside from that, its kinda fun once you real-ize it can't hurt you...

if you tell him anything, tell him that SP only occurs because chemicals are released into the body when we are in the dreamstate (to prevent us from acting out our dreams), and SP happens EVERY NIGHT regardless of whether he is aware while it is happening or not.
those 'evil' figures aren't real, they are essentially dream images which spill over into the state between waking and sleep.

basically it means he has one foot in the waking world, and one in the dreamworld. why wouldn't he want to step back into the dreamworld lucidly?

I have SP two or three times per week. Now, I will either go along with it and have a little fun or, if I'm not in the mood, I'll exit SP by quickly moving my eyes back and forth. It works everytime and seems to the best way out. I use to wiggle my toes but it takes much longer than moving my eyes. When I first experienced SP 20 years ago, it freaked me out like you wouldn't believe. I would wake up out of breath and always had huge goose bumps. The "old hag" usually appears either in the corner of my ceiling/wall above my bed or 2 inches from my face staring into my eyes. The noises of hissing, loud footsteps, and babies crying are usually present as well. After I learned more about SP and knew it was completely harmless, I started to "screw" with the old hag by saying "bring it on!" and stuff like that. Now, it's a lot of fun to challenge her. And it usually ends in more pleasant LD's. Sometimes, my wife has said that she could hear me talking to someone in my sleep. Unfortuantely, she has taken no interest in my dream issues so I have not spoken to anyone about this. I just found this web site and I'm looking forward to becoming part of Dream Views family. Thanks for listening.

hello, i try to WILD a lot, and i've managed to WILD 4 or 5 times, everytime i WILD i become SP, and somethime i freek out like you and try to break free, but when i stay calm, and try to focus, i start to feel mij dream body, when i do i rub my hands, i mosty of the time i become lucid, and my dream becoms clear.
maybe you could try this.

jupiler

you know what's really scary? when my brother and i were littler, we slept in the same room. My brother is older than i am, and this is what happened about 3 times.

We both went to bed, and like at 3 in the morning, i heard my brother whispering to me from the other side of the room, i walked over to him, and he told me to move him. Of course i was like "what do you mean??" but i moved his arm, and right as i did, he took this HUGE breath of air, as if he wasnt breathing beforehand.

He told me later than he was having a nightmare where some shadowy figure paralyzed him in the dream, but then he woke up, and the paralysis was still occuring, thus the cry for help. Just a tip, ive figured out that sleeping on your back can induce sleep paralysis more easily than anything else, because gravity is pulling down on your lungs, causing less oxygen to pump to your brain, which is usually why nightmares occur FOR ME.

It still freaks me out, and trust me, this is NOT a lie.



Just for the record, i plan on never lying on this website

-thx
Torrent

Try sleeping with the lights on.

Nobody should wish for a conscious experience of sleep paralysis. It's terribly frightening, and you don't really have enough willpower to tell yourself to relax. I tend to (and pretty much only) experience it when my mouth is under my covers and blankets. I guess the lessened circulation of oxygen alerted my brain. I panic, and believe I'm suffocating. This may sound weird, but I actually accept my death when I can't cause my body to move. Then I wake up at dawn and realize everything is ok.

I woke up in sleep paralysis this morning, I was able to see my hands and saw this light green aura around them. I kinda freaked out, I had sleep paralysis many times, but forgot to relax so I couldn't leave my body. It's just scary at times.

Originally posted by AirRick101
Nobody should wish for a conscious experience of sleep paralysis. It's terribly frightening, and you don't really have enough willpower to tell yourself to relax.

It can be frightening to begin with - but once you get used to it, it's one of the easiest ways to enter a lucid dream. As for not having enough willpower to tell yourself to relax - I disagree. It all depends on experience, the first few times can be horrific but once you realize no harm can come to you, you can adapt the same willpower as any LD.
I have had some of the most intense and vivid LDs through SP and would recommend anyone to experience it.
What doesn't kill you can only make you stronger

It's terribly frightening, and you don't really have enough willpower to tell yourself to relax. [/b]

its unclear whether you are speaking for yourself, or trying to suggest your experiences extend to everyone else...if the second case (as it appears), speak for yourself