Thread: How to overcome fear of Sleep Paralysis to become lucid? (And other questions)

Hello overone, BRAND NEW here. I apologize for the VERY LONG thread that is about to ensue, but I have a few questions that I haven't seen on here. I see that a of people have the same fear I have. SLEEP PARALYSIS. I saw some threads about how to overcome the scary feeling of them, but I haden't seen much detailed information. I've never attained lucidity to my knowledge. I MIGHT have, but I'm not sure. The dream at question is I remember dreaming about having sex with some hot woman on a COD MW2 map haha. if you really care to know the map, and where exactly it was, just ask. Anyways, I remember the feeling was VERY vivid. I kind of felt like I was in control of some of the things I could do, but I didn't have complete control. I think it was just a very vivid dream, anyone think it was lucid though? One question I also have before I ask the main question of this thread is, is it possible to have the EXACT same dream twice, in seperate days? I swear i've had several dreams at least twice. One is I'm a superhero or something and I go to this house (it's actually my hosue in real life) and there's this girl who runs out and asks for my help. She's creepy as sh** so I fly away. here's kind of the weird part I guess as well, sometimes I feellike I'm SLIGHTLY in control of my dreams for seconds at a time. is that lucididty? For example in the dream I just stated, I feel be flying away from that creepy girl, but when she's in a certain range of me (she somehow keeps up with me) it's like I lose my ability to fly. Essentially she's my kryptonite lol. So when this happens, I actually in my mind try to fly (Like I'm in control all of the sudden) and then when I think too hard about trying to fly, it doesn't work. Then my dream takes over again and I can fly. So is this lucidity? And again, is it possible to have the same dream twice?

*Take a 10 minutes break ffrom reading *

Now my main question is, how do you get over the fear of sleep paralysis? To be more detailed, I'm specifically talking about overcoming the feeling of "Not being in control of your body" not the hallucinations part. I always sleep sideways, and somehow I ALWAYS face the wall whenever I happen to wake up in sleep paralysis. I find this to be a gift because if the first thing I see is a wall 2 inches from my face when I wake up in sleep paralysis, then i don't get all those demon hallucinations because my viewis immeditley blocked. Again, I HATE the feeling of not being able to be in control of my own body, so trying WILD isn't working. Just today before work at night I took a nap and I had a vivid dream of breaking up some fight between two people, and then I woke up, and all the sudden I started going into sleep paralysis (I guess again) and my hand started going numb, then my legs, and breathing got slightly harded. This feleing scares the sh** out of me. Also when I get sleep paralysis it feels like there's a crap ton of weight being placed on top of my head, so it feels like I'm being squished. And sometimes when I have dreams, I won't be able to move my neck in the dream ( and in real life) because of the sleep paralysis and i HATE that. So in my dream I'll be squished horizontally under a truck and I can't move my neck because of that, because in real life my neck is stuck in that direction because of the sleep paralysis. So because I know that I get that "Suqiushed body"/immobile neck feeling, I get scared of sleep paralysis. The numb hands to start, thw suqished feeling, harder to breathe, I jsut can't do it. But I want to VERY BADLY because I want so bad to have a lucid dream. How can i get over this? Also, I notice my dreams are a lot more vivid when I'm dead tired. Because i have two jobs, one in the morning to evening, and one the graveyard shift, I've pretty much become nocturnal. because of this, when I go to my monring job after my night job, I'm half dead because I don't get much sleep the night before, so I take naps during my work breaks. I work in a tall building, and on the lower floor there's chairs to st in, in the hall, that's the best place I;ve foind to sleep. Whenever I sleep there, I fall asleep IMMEDIATELY (Which I can never do at night) and I have VERY vivid dreams. Sometimes I wake up in sleep paralysis, or I feel I'm starting to go into it, and I have to twitch to get ouf of it, so I look like a fish out of water to people walking by in the building but it there anyway to take advantage of having vivid dreams and being able to sleep for only 15-30 minutes at a time? Is it better to lucid dream during these naps than when I sleep for 12 hours at a time. ( I sleep for 12 hours 3 days a week because the 3 other days a week I get maybe 2 hours of sleep each night, so I try to make up for it).

I apologize for the EXTREMELY long post, and the insane amount of questions, but i would love nothing more than to lucid dream. I've think I've woken up once or twice after dreaming of a place/ out space so beautiful that I couldn't hold back the tears when I woke up, and I want to experience this feeling on purpose, not accidentally once or twice in my life during a dream. So PLEASE help answers my questions. Or even just pick a question of two to answer or just the main question (overcoming sleep paralysis) and that would be just as appreciated.

Also forgot to mention that I THINK I used to have lucid dreams before because younger I would ALWAYS have dreams of running around pulling down womens bras (Don't judge me ). And I swear I could control whose bra I pulled down. MAYBE that's a lucid dream? I don't know.

Whewwww!

First and foremost, lucidity is achieved when you KNOW or REALIZE that it is a dream. Dream control is not the same a lucidity. There are many cases where we can have even full control of the dream, yet not be lucid because we don't really grasp that it is a dream, and to us, it is merely normal. So nope, I don't think those were lucid dreams, since you seem to only have control but not know it was a dream.

As for the sleep paralysis, have you tried relaxation techniques? You can just do the really simple ones such as focusing on breathe to calm your mind. Just like how our dreams can be affected by our physical body, our physical bodies, in the same way, can also be affected by our mind. Perhaps being in a better and much more relieved mindset can ease your sleep paralysis trouble? Or if you want, there are ways to get yourself out of sleep paralysis. Or perhaps find another more comfortable position, other than napping in chairs which may seem cozy, because it could have subtle negative effects on your body which may affect how you experience sleep paralysis. Moreover, I believe only you personally can deal with the problem of not being in control of your body. Since it is all in your mind, and you have your own views on it, it is more of a personal psychological process. We can help motivate you, but in the end, you yourself have to decide whether you want to face it or not. But I assure you, it may seem scary and discomforting to not control your body, but it won't pose real harm to you physically, and I assure you, it is very well worth it to go through that for the sake of lucid dreaming!

As for the naps: In my own experience, I found naps to give me the most vivid and weird dreams as compared to dreams I have throughout the night. I do not know why this could be, unfortunately. As per your question, you can definitely take advantage of those vivid dreams! When you have more vivid dreams, it is easier to get lucid because everything looks clearer, and you remember them better. I would suggest practicing more awareness throughout the day – try to really pay attention to yourself and your surroundings. Once you are more aware, it would be easier to notice things in the dream, and thus become lucid from it.

As for the reccuring dream: yes. I believe it is possible to have the same dream more than once. However, there is no assurance that it is EXACTLY the same dream down to the details. Perhaps the storyline and settings are generally similar. I think that since dreams are memories, they are subjected to constant change everytime we think about them. Everytime we recall them from memory, some little thing or aspect of it will always change, though we may not realize it. But yes, you can have reccuring dreams

Lastly, you can always try the other techniques, since you said WILD isn't working. I suppose you have good chances as well, since you can sleep up to 12 hours on some days.

I'm very sorry for the EXTREMELY long reply! i just wanted to share my insight, as it may help you in some way.
Good luck and happy dreaming!

I was the same due to severe nightmares i had when i was young, start by living the light on when you sleep (maybe dim it) so there is just enough light so yu can see. And just force it into your brain that nothing can happen to you, the fear mostly comes from the frequency that your brain/consciousness is operating in at that stage which causes you to feel nervous/anxious/fear only because your unfamiliar bieng awake while operating at that frequency. Fear comes from uncurtainty. So keep pracctcing and see how long you can last and every time you gain more confidence and go little bit further. You will eventually realise even if you see scary things it woint matter because it cant do anything to you, but if you do for e.g (scary charector/demon like creature shows up) just show geniuene love to it as if its your mum and it will no longer be scary and either dissapear or become friends with you, its the same in the dreams, i learnt this awhile ago. Anyhing scary is a manifestation of your fears etc so if you loose the feear in you and replace it with love what you see changes.

If you really love to Lucid Dream and you get there using SP like i do,then as soon as SP kicks in your so happy your about to go Lucid,your mind is already in a good place so there is no scary part

I agree with Mrsf0011. Fear does come from uncertainty. I was scared shitless when I first read about people's experiences while going through SP and having hypnagogic hallucinations, but the first and only time I went through it I managed to calm down and let it happen.

You know when something really great happens and leaves that fluttery feeling in your chest and you can't help but smile throughout the day? Try to hold onto that feeling when you go through SP. Not the memory itself, just the feeling. Don't think about how you're not in control, or how it's possible that you'll see/hear some scary stuff going on. Think of how this is a great thing you're about to accomplish and the awesome feeling it'll give you when you wake up and think to yourself, "I freaking did it!"

Hope it helps! Keep us posted.