Don't tell me this was sleep paralysis?

[Crashyy]

So last night I randomly woke up at 3am. I wrote down a short dream I had. Then I went back to sleep. I was laying on my left side and I didn't move for a while. I wasn't attempting WILD though. I was just observing the shapes and colours I saw with my eyes closed. After a while I could see different images like dreamscapes. And it felt like my head was about to explode (it's hard to describe). Then everything turned black and I rolled over. I don't know what inducing sleep paralysis feels like. If it was sleep paralysis how come I didn't feel numbness/vibrations and if it was SP was I close to becoming lucid? Because I have no idea what I experienced last night.

[littlezoe]

Doesn't really sound like SP to me... but it's not too sure with this short description...

[Iapetos]

What you are describing sounds like an unaware DEILD. Either that or a false awakening where you dream that you woke up. If this was a DEILD then what you did was that you woke up, wrote down the short dream and then you got into the dreamy state, since you describe it as vivid it sounds like you were dreaming, and when you dream your limbs gets paralyzed and vibrations did occur, but since you wasn't aware of your physical body you didn't feel it. If this was a FA then you simply dreamt that you did a DEILD. Although don't bother looking for sleep paralysis or the feeling of being paralysed, this only happens when you already dream or you have a DISEASE called oh what a surprise "Sleep paralysis". It does occur to healthy people sometimes, but if you get it often you have the disease Sleep paralysis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. So don't look for sleep paralysis look changes in your awareness and the dream! And yes you were really close to becoming lucid. So keep up the good work! And here is a description of a successful DEILD attempt and the sensations I usually feel. I wake up and feel that my awareness is different somehow can't describe it, but it doesn't feel as it usually do. I do a reality check to make sure that I truly am awake, then I lay completely still with closed eyes. After about 10 seconds I notice that my thoughts feel really vivid, and I start to daydream, I zone in a bit on the daydream from time to time, until I notice that it's not a daydream anymore. I am there! I make a reality check and I am sure that it is a dream. Sometimes it doesn't last for long and it can turn black and I wake up. So see! You were close just don't forget to reality check...

[Darkmatters]

And it felt like my head was about to explode (it's hard to describe). By any chance was this a sensation that sort of surged up your spine and then expolded in your head, and any ambient sound in the room seemed excessively loud, and it only lasted for a second or two? If so, it sounds like 'exploding head syndrome', which I experience every night just before I fall asleep, or when I reach a certain level of relaxation very close to sleep. Sometimes it sort of jars me back awake though. Here's an old thread about it ( a few totally off-topic posts though): Violently loud sleep paralysis/exploding head simple solution. Also check the Wiki page on it: Exploding head syndrome - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (posted in Nina's OP). When I discovered that thread it laid a lot of my fears to rest - I had never understood what was happening, and couldn't find anything about it. But I definitely went through long periods of sleep deprivation in my life, and that's a factor. Nobody really knows what it is, but at least I feel better knowing it's a fairly common thing many people experience, and it isn't a symptom of some terrible disease or anything.

[Ladusence]

To me it sounds like a pre-SP state, I don't know anything about the exploding head thing but darkmatters's post above me makes sense of that, but sometimes I do have the dream scape like images when I try to reach SP, it usually distracts my focus and then I turn back to black/back of my eyelids afterwards as you described.