Thread: Sleep Paralysis and Lucid Dreaming?

Hi, JeeZii and welcome to DreamViews! I'm quite new myself, so bear with me!
The buzzing noise is part of hypnagogic audio (HA) that a person may hear during Wake-Induced-Lucid-Dreaming (WILD) attempts. There are an infinite amount of hypnagogic imagery (HI) and HA that one can experience while falling asleep. This buzzing noise doesn't necessarily mean you were in sleep paralysis (SP). The easiest way to check is to try and move. If you can't move, then congratulations, you made it! If you did move, well now you know that these symptoms aren't a part of YOUR experience. Everyone's different and you need to find out what happens to YOU in the attempts. Sleep paralysis happens to us every night, except we are usually unconscious by then. The function of it is to keep us from acting out our dreams.. If we were to run in a dream without sleep paralysis taking effect, we'd be moving our legs in real life and possibly wake up! It's nothing to be scared of, though it may take some time to get use to.
There are different ways to lucid dream besides WILD. There is also MILD combine with WBTB, DILD, DEILD, SILD, CAT, and others.. Google some of those and do some research. Pick one that's based on your sleep schedule. Also, remember not to switch to a method after only a night of no success.. Keep using the technique for at least 2 weeks.
I'm a christian, myself, but I don't think religion has anything to do with paranoia. Being paranoid is just a false sense of danger. Nothing spiritual. Haha.
I really suggest that you sign up for the DVA class on the forums!

What you experienced was a hypnagogic hallucination and not sleep paralysis. Not being able to move while either going to sleep or waking up is sleep paralysis. If you haven't experienced SP in your lifetime on a regular basis, then you wont get it while attempting to WILD. As you've already experienced, there's a possibility for HH and HI during the transition phase, and it can effect all of your five senses. It's really not that bad once you get used to it, and you should be able to break out of it if things get too intense. The best thing to do is to just relax and try to focus on a dream scene. You can also look through the wiki for other info. Wiki - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

Originally Posted by JeeZii

Hi everyone! As you can see, I'm new. And I made an account hoping that friendly people can help me achieve my first lucid dream.
I'm an atheist. I think paranoia has something to do with religion, but please correct me if I'm wrong!

You're wrong Anyway, you'll be glad to know that most transitions you experience when performing a WILD are very smooth, and certainly don't require you to worry about them. In fact, you'd be better to ignore any sensations/hallucination, because they only distract you from your purpose, which is relax and fall asleep. Like Auron said, it's not because you do WILD that you will start having these "horrific" experiences if you never experienced them before. Good luck!

Oooh thanks everyone! Those answers really cleared things up!

However I have more questions now :/ First about the buzzing (or HA?). If I had let it continue, would I have been successful? Or is there no guarantee?

Then it's my worries about the horrific hallucinations. Is there any way to ensure that I don't get them when attempting WILD? Under what circumstances may I get them for the first time? And about how the hallucinations aren't religious--most of the stories I read on the paranoia are about an old hag legend or demons; isn't that religious?

And I'm still confused on OBE/LD/astral projection... Help me out again please?

Welcome to Dreamviews!

Originally Posted by JeeZii

I've read some articles online about lucid dreaming yesterday and successfully reached sleep paralysis. That's when I heard a buzzing noise, freaked out, then opened my eyes.

The articles you have read are not entirely correct. Sleep paralysis (SP) is when you can't move your body no matter how hard you try. It's often accompanied with hallucinations of dangerous entity that's near you. It may last from minute to a few minutes. It happens later in the process, at the time you are already asleep.

Some people do experience SP before falling asleep, or upon awakening, but most of us don't. If you have not experienced SP so far during your normal sleep, than you are very likely NOT to experience SP while attempting a WILD. (type of lucid dream induction, during which SP is possible, but unlikely to experience.

We all do get SP, but most of us never know about it, because it happens later in the sleep. It is NOT necessary to move to see if you are in SP. Wheather you are or not, it doesn' matter. You don't need to experience SP in order to Lucid dream. You shouldn't be thinking about SP at all.

Originally Posted by JeeZii

I did some research today and found out that the buzzing noise is the transition between my waking state to dreaming state. Is that true?

That is correct. Buzzing is a type of auditory hypnogogic hallucination you can hear, as you transition between sleep stages. There can be different hallucinations you can hear or feel or even smell. But they are just that - made up by your mind. They can not hurt you in any way.

Now that you know about them, next time you will be ready and be able to stay calm. You may even learn to like them. They are truly interesting experiences.

Originally Posted by JeeZii

Also I've read some stuff on sleep paralysis paranoia and now I'm scared to try again. However, I really want to lucid dream. So is sleep paralysis a necessary step to lucid dreaming? If so, under what circumstances would there be paranoia? How do I freak out less during sleep paralysis paranoia? Is paranoia really worth experiencing for lucid dreaming?

NO, SP is not necessary for lucid dreaming. I have had about 30 WILDs and many more attempts and not once I felt the SP. Paranoia is unjustified fear of something. And there is SP paranoia, because it's mis-labeled. Now you know, that the buzzing you heard is not SP, but HH (hypnogogic hallucination).

Originally Posted by JeeZii

I'm an atheist. I think paranoia has something to do with religion, but please correct me if I'm wrong!

I don't think it has anything to do with religion.

Originally Posted by JeeZii

I'd also like to know the relationships/differences/similarities between the following: sleep paralysis, lucid dreaming, OBE, and astral projection

SP - Body paralyzed during dreaming. We all get it when we dream so we don't hurt ourselves acting out our dreams
LD - dream, in which you know you are dreaming.
OBE/AP - some people think it's just an LD, others think its something different

And to your question if it's worth it - heck yeah, it's worth it.
Beginners guide

Happy dreams

Originally Posted by JeeZii

First about the buzzing (or HH or HI?). If I had let it continue, would I have been successful? Or is there no guarantee?

Yes and Yes

If you let the buzzing be, stay calm, it will lead to lucid dream. But there is no guarantee.

Originally Posted by JeeZii

Then it's my worries about the horrific hallucinations. Is there any way to ensure that I don't get them when attempting WILD? Under what circumstances may I get them for the first time? And about how the hallucinations aren't religious--most of the stories I read on the paranoia are about an old hag legend or demons; isn't that religious?

I have never had any horrific HH. I have had some feeling of weightlesness, being moved around and twisted in a pretzel, once I heard a sound, but most often I feel like I'm flying at great rate of speed and that's very enjoyable. You never know what or if you gonna feel or see or hear. But if you already scared and have that on your mind, it's more likely to happen, because HH are made by your brain and if you think you gonna get them, you just may get them. So have happy thought.

The old hag - that is the SP part - when you can't move and having hard time to breath - long time ago when people didn't know how to explain it, they thought well, someone must be sitting on your chest holding you down, making it hard to breathe.

The floating in the air - once I woke up at night and I saw my dream body floating towards the window. Well, we do leave our body every night when we dream, or at least many people believe that. But that could have been basis for "alien abduction" stories.

One last thing - you can pick different way to have LD. WILD method is when you may experience HH. But with DILD, you fall asleep normally and become aware in your regular dream. Anyway, it's recommended to start out with DILD method, as it's not as complicated as WILD.

When u use dmt u hear the same buzzing noise. I like sleep paralysis it feels like you are surrounded by evil and it's exciting as hell.

Just become aware that the beings that you may hallucinate are vastly weaker than you are and that they could be befriended or defeated easily. The fear comes from not having that awareness.

Hi and welcome to Dream Views!

I'm a newbie in lucid dreaming too, although my post counts don't seem so. I've gotten into a lucid through sleep paralysis once to twice. I've never gotten any hallucinations so far from inducing sleep paralysis. I just feel my body vibrate and getting numb. Before attempting to transit from a sleep paralysis to a lucid dream, you need to have an image in your mind and that image will be the base of your dream.

When I am inducing sleep paralysis, I am actually able to move but if I moved, I'll lose the paralysis sensation. Inducing sleep paralysis shouldn't be as scary as getting sleep paralysis when you wake up because it's still weak. I've woke up a couple of times in the middle of the night unable to move my limbs when I was young. I need to exert a lot of force to change my position slightly to ascertain no unknown force was pressing on me. What I do when I induce sleep paralysis is to quickly strengthen it so I can get into a dream quickly. I'm not sure even if I'm doing it right!

Welcome! I'm an atheist as well, and my non-belief did not protect from the fearsome Sleep Paralysis. And this despite the fact that I know very well what it was and what I can expect from it. Fear overwhelmed me. I experienced it twice in my life, but they did not happen during WILD. Both happened during the afternoon, and I went back into a dream in the middle of the experience.

It's scary, but not deadly, I think.

I I have lucid dreams and sleep paralyse(sp) at first I didn't know it but every other night I would have a dream that felt like it was real if I got hit by something I really felt it or I thought I did but after a while I learned to control the dream and I have wright around 15 diffent stories from the dream and with sp it scares me every time it happens I force my self to wake up cause it really scares me and am 18 so hope it helps in the sense that Ur not alone in this

http://www.dreamviews.com/dream-yoga...explained.html
http://www.dreamviews.com/intro-clas...mpilation.html

These two links should help you out.
Also I can't recommend enough that you join Intro Class (OpheliaBlue RareCola CanisLucidus Chimpertainment Xanous)