Please Help

[Thea]

It all started back in May. I went to sleep, and just before I fell asleep, I would find myself unable to open my eyes, sometimes unable to move my legs and arms too, and my head would shake uncontrollably and some sort of vibrating would go from my head to toes. I'd struggle to open my eyes for about a minute or less, completly aware of everything an yet unable to open my eyes up. Sometimes, I'd sit up and move in my bed and still be unable to open up my eyes. I would manage to wake up only when my eyes got opened. Once I tried not to open them just to see what would happen but vibrating went crazy and my head started hurting really bad. It's driving me mad, and at first it had happened every two or three months, but since 2 months ago it happens every two or three nights in a row. What should I do?

[Goldney]

What you are doing is the beginning of a WILD (Wake-Initiated Lucid Dream). Look up one of the tutorials on this site and read it. You'll be surprised at the similarities. Also, WILDs lead to lucid dreams so if you can start them this easily then you've already got a step up in learning how to lucid dream at will. Many people would be jealous of your talent. Oh and welcome to the site.

[Thea]

Thanks for the answer and the welcome, I'll read that.

[Ev]

As goldney have said, you are experiencing a WILD transition phase or sleep paralysis (SP). Since you are not consciously attempting WILD technique this could mean some kind of sleep disorder, I dont remember the name of it. What you should do when these sensations appear is relax and ignore them. Go with the flow, dont be afraid. Fighting the sensations or attempting to wake up would only make things worse/nightmarish. Remember, that by attempting to wake up you are going against your body that is trying to shut down and fall asleep. As the body shuts down it "detaches" your mind by shifting it's perception to the dream and cutting off conscious muscle control(That's why you cant open your eyes, some people cant move any part of their body). This transition is accompanied by a wide variety of hallucinations as your mind misinterprets the shifts in perception. The most common ones can be described as "vibrations" that overcome your body - you may suddenly become aware of the blood flowing through every single portion of your body and/or your body may start to tingle. You may also see through your closed eyelids, hear sounds/voices talking to you, fall through your bed and other things. This is normal and lasts anywhere from 10seconds to two minutes. And yes, things may get pretty crazy, but you shouldnt worry about it. If you ignore the hallucinations and go with the flow you will find yourself in a lucid dream. If you ignore them and the vibrations disappear after a minute or two(but you are still in bed) , open your eyes and look at your digital clock and look back. If it changes unexpectedly or fades away you are dreaming. The bedroom and everything around you is a dream and you may continue performing RCs to fully convince yourself or just do whatever you want. WILD onsets/SP tend to come in "chains" - that is if you fail to enter one WILD another one will overcome you within a few minutes. That is because your body really wants to fall asleep no matter what. So if you struggle really hard to wake up from one onset you may experience it again. This sure can be fightening if you are not prepared/dont know what you are dealing with. Sometimes the vibrations follow you in the lucid dream, thats why you either look at a digital clock or pinch your nose to check if you are dreaming or awake. If you are dreaming, the hallucinations are pretty easy to shrug off. I hope you understand what you are dealing with now and you may even turn this condition into lucid dreams. Please tell us if your onset is unlike the one that i"ve described as it may be a medical problem.

[Thea]

My onset is completly alike to what you have described. Thank you very much.

[PNG_pyro]

Cool! Welcome to DV.

[bro]

Darn, I wish I could experience this so easily. I only twice in my life experienced SP, none intentionally. But as someone said, you defiently do have a step up compared to other people.

[NEORaven667]

I've had that problem, and after ten years I still do at some points. It only last seconds for me, but it does make my heart race a little. LOL. Anyway, the sensation will fade, and you should be able to sleep. Now, if you are the kind of person that wants to trigger this, or just know what it feels like once...here's what you do...while you are trying to get to sleep, think about tripping. Tripping over anything at all. Eventually you'll will experience WILD. Weee I'm all shook up!

[Thea]

I've had that problem, and after ten years I still do at some points. It only last seconds for me, but it does make my heart race a little. LOL. Anyway, the sensation will fade, and you should be able to sleep. Now, if you are the kind of person that wants to trigger this, or just know what it feels like once...here's what you do...while you are trying to get to sleep, think about tripping. Tripping over anything at all. Eventually you'll will experience WILD. Weee I'm all shook up! [/b] Tripping? Hmmm, I'll try that. I've had no luck since I tried WILDing for the first time after I found out about it all. I'd only fall asleep or wake up. How did you come up with TRIPPING?

[NEORaven667]

wierd thing!!!!! I was trying to sleep. This was after I had tripped and fell down the stairs earlier that day. I kept reliving the experience in my head on how stupid i was. Finally I almost got to sleep when my body shook something awful. I hadn't the slightest clue what had happened or what I did to cause that. I looked around the room thinking that someone was shaking my bed, but nobody was there. Two weeks later I was thinking about AFV: America's Funniest Videos, and they had a lot of people falling and tripping over crap. As I almost fell asleep it happened again. This time much worse. So I tried to test my theories on the toughts of tripping or falling, and it works every time for me. (NOTE: IT HELPS IF YOU DRINK AN ENERGY DRINK RIGHT BEFORE BED. That, or a pepsi, it don't matter)