Help with attaining sleep paralysis?

I lie on my back for about 20-30 minutes, completely still, as I have read you are supposed to do.
My eyes are closed, I do not move no matter what.

BUT I'm really running into some problems! I can't seem to keep myself from swallowing, even when I take my focus off my throat and focus on my breathing, I just end up swallowing involuntarily. : (

Also, I often tend to just fall straight to sleep after lying there for so long.

This afternoon, I tried to get to sleep paralysis after I came home from classes (since it's a great way to meditate and destress) and I ended up sleeping for 3 hours! D: I can't keep myself awake and when I try to resist sleep once I realize I'm dozing off, I flinch because I'm scaring myself awake, and that, of course, ruins all the time I've put into remaining still.

Any tips for resisting the urge to swallow or go to sleep? ANY help would be greatly appreciated!
23 minutes ago - 4 days left to answer.

for the swallowing you caneither lift your head up higher on a pillow or lie on your side and drool. Also if your trying to get into SP for the purpose of WILD'ing, I'd reccomend Jeff777's free fall tutorial because thats the one that most closely mimics how I have WILD's, I always get to a point where I'm pretty much asleep and right before that moment of slipping into a dream, I am woken and alerted by something I'm still not quite sure about (they call it an anchor, it can be many different things) and then I get the SP vibrations and transition into the LD.

If you need to swallow, just let it happen, the more you focus on it the more it will distract you from your goal of losing consciousness while retaining a thread of it to "wake" before dreaming. Also I would reccommend you try doing WBTB, as it actually helps a lot, because even the times when I try to WILD after WBTB, if I lose consciousness before SP, I usually end up becoming lucid in the dream anyway.

Hi nettlebeast, I see this is your first post so let me welcome you to the Dreamviews forum!

There's a couple things you should know about that could make or break your WILD attempt. Firstly, lying on your back supposedly increases the chance of entering SP, but unless you're comfortable being on your back (supine position), you should lie in the position you normally fall asleep in. If you're a stomach sleeper, try going on your stomach. Same for your side. I'm a stomach sleeper but cannot WILD on my back for the life of me, but SP comes very easily when I'm on my side. It's a matter of personal preference and there's no "designated" position to WILD in.

Secondly, SP takes a different amount of time to occur depending on how tired you are, and when you woke up. If you're WILDing during a WBTB, finding a time between 4-6 hours after falling asleep works, or 4-6 hours after waking up in the morning. This is just a guideline; I tend to have more WILDs only 3 hours after waking, because that's when I'm right in that spot between almost completely "awake" for the day but still have a bit of mental tiredness. This is when I find it easiest to relax, too. So the next time you wake up, try looking for this feeling and see if it fits somewhere in or around the 4-6 hour range.

Falling asleep during a WILD is a common problem, but can be solved by using an "anchor" - counting your breathes or your heartbeat, for instance. Keeping aware is probably the hardest part of WILD so don't expect to get it right at first. Like lawilahd has already suggested, I'd also recommend you read through Jeff's Free-Falling WILD tutorial. As we fall asleep, we start having really weird, illogical and totally inconsistent thoughts and daydreams. The guide goes into how you can use these thoughts to help reach SP.

Finally... Ah. The dreaded swallowing urge of doom...

The need to swallow is usually caused by a buildup of saliva. There's a few simple ways to fix that problem. The first solution (if not all too attractive) is lying in a position where the side of your mouth is tilted more downwards, so you'll drool onto the pillow. Or, if you're lying on your back, you can use an extra pillow to prop your head up, alleviating the problem of saliva buildup. Sometimes your mouth may just become dry; in this case, it's best to just ignore it. Drinking water beforehand also helps, as does keeping the room humid. If your throat is just becoming relaxed, then ignore it. Making a fuss about it will keep you too mentally awake, whereas the goal of a WILD is to ride that line between unconsciousness and consciousness, keeping attention away from your real body.

WILDing can take practice, but don't give up! :) If you need clarification on anything or have other questions, don't hesitate to ask.

Ooh, I shall look up this free fall tutorial and see if it helps me out! :)
I see, I'll try and use more pillows so I'm not so flat. It's gross but I feel like I'm just lying there drowning in my own saliva. yuck. D :

Yesterday when I attempted SP, I had been lying completely still for about 20 or so minutes, and gradually I started to feel as if the entire room was tilting!
Imagine some kind of inverted spinning ride at an amusement park, in which you lie flat on a platform, while it shifts and swivels with you on it. That's exactly what it felt like! Really bizarre! It was very intense! I had my eyes closed of course, so I don't know what was happening around me. I ended up moving and opening my eyes so I ruined it before I could find out what was going on...
Also, my fingers kinda twitched of their own accord, I feel I might have almost gotten to LP? I was fully conscious though, so I don't know.
Do you know what this experience could have been?

Thanks for your help, by the way, I'm brand new here as you can guess! :)
PS - what does WBTB stand for?

Here's the Dreamviews Wiki page on WBTB, or "wake back to bed". It's essentially what it sounds like: waking up in the middle of the night and then going back to bed shortly afterwards.

That definitely sounds like you were close to SP! Be sure to pay no attention to the hallucinations - it can be tough because they're ridiculously realistic and interesting to observe, but you want to start thinking of your dream body.

Everyone on here is so helpful! :D Thanks so much for your welcome~!

I see! The way I usually fall asleep is curled up on my side with my arm tucked under a pillow, haha! But I'll keep trying on my back, since I don't mind that either!

I know what you mean about the inconsistent thoughts! Today when I was attempting SP, I slipped into a dream while thinking, and was unaware that I was falling asleep. I dreamed very briefly that I was jumping off a pathway into a lake, very familiar to the one near my home where I often take walks; the minute I realized I was asleep, I jolted awake (my legs flinched as if I was preparing to jump, as in the dream, I guess it carried on into the waking world) and that's how I ended up losing the chance to SP today! I tried again and ended up just falling asleep. XD

Ohh, thanks for the link, I will check that out!
Also, I'll try the extra pillow! I'm going off to bed soon so I'm going to give it another shot then, armed with new knowledge! :P

Yeah, it was really realistic, I cold have sworn the floor was tilting and moving! I hear that some people think they see malevolent creatures/demons when they SP. Is this always true, and does anyone know why this is a trend in SP?
I find all this kind of stuff really interesting, so I always like to think about it. :)

I only recently started getting back into the whole LD stuff; I used to be a really active LDer when I was about 9 until I was about 13 or so. (I just turned 20) For some reason I can't recall, I just stopped doing it, and now I'm trying to remember how I did it so easily back then! I used to be able to do whatever I wanted in my sleep!

Why does the end say 23 minutes ago, 4 days left to answer? Are thread questions timed now?
And - Just swallow, don't pay attention to it.
Count to stop yourself falling asleep.

Those small glimpses at dreams in which you suddenly wake with a shock are called 'Hypnic Jerks' because of their nature being based in the hallucination, it's perfectly normal :)

The feeling of tilting and moving is quite normal! A lot of people feel as though they are falling into a bottomless pit, I always feel as though I'm on a ride which is gently going up and down vertically, it's comfortable and relaxing :)

Some people see shadows, feel presences in the room or a foreboding feeling, and for the most part can be explained by the hallucinations when in SP. Personally I don't see or feel anything evil, as long as you think positive you will be fine :)