Thread: Why I have never experienced sleep paralysis?

I'm quite new in LDing, but as I have been reading and learning about different aspects of it and I have found a lot of info about SP, there is question that keeps coming back to my mind:
Being Sleep Paralisis REM atonia a natural phase in everyone's sleep cycle, why I have never experienced SP or at least REM atonia when, for instance, my alarm clock goes off too early or my wife wakes me up in the middle of the night or I hear a noise outside and had to jump out of bed to check? I know only two people who have experienced it not LDing (and both were scared to death), but why it is something almost only LDers experience?
What do you think?

i believe sp is a side effect of lucid dreaming, but yes you can get sp without practicing lucid dreaming, even if your just mediating you can get it, im sure that theres people out there who would get it naturally, them people should learn how to astral project

Originally Posted by dreambh

I'm quite new in LDing, but as I have been reading and learning about different aspects of it and I have found a lot of info about SP, there is question that keeps coming back to my mind:
Being SP a natural phase in everyone's sleep cycle, why I have never experienced it when, for instance, my alarm clock goes off too early or my wife wakes me up in the middle of the night or I hear a noise outside and had to jump out of bed to check? I know only two people who have experienced it not LDing (and both were scared to death), but why it is something almost only LDers experience?
What do you think?

SP does happen naturally, but only when we dream, so we don't act out our dreams. It start only after you start dreaming and it ends the moment you stop dreaming or you wake up. If you notice being paralysed before falling asleep or after waking up, that means that something went wrong and it kicked in sooner/didn't shut off on time.

Some people have this often, but for majority of population this is a once-twice in a lifetime thing.

You absolutely don't need SP to be able to lucid dream.

Here is a great WILD (sageous) tutorial.
SP explained

Lucid dreamer's suffer just as much from sleep paralysis as anyone else. It is extremely unlikely that one will become completely paralyzed when attempting WILD and is actually just feeling the side effects of NREM, you only reach SP once fully in a dream.
The only people who regularily go through SP are people who suffer from sleep paralysis disorders.

Thank you for all your answers!
Gab, that post "SP explained" it's just wonderful. Lots of useful info there. I like specially something Sageous said about SP, that seems to answer my question pretty well:

It is just a natural bodily function that you happen to notice because you possess waking awareness at a time when nature never intended you to be awake.

And I understand now that I was wrong in thinking that LDers suffer a lot more of SP compared to not-LDers.
On the other hand I think I will stick to begginers' stuff like DILD and MILD (maybe DEILD) by now.
By the way, I'm editing my question to make it correct regarding the whole SP/REM atonia confusion.
Thanks all again!

P.S SP is not something to suffer. Don't use the term to suffer. SP can actually be quite amusing when you take control of the hallucinations.

Originally Posted by L4xord

P.S SP is not something to suffer. Don't use the term to suffer. SP can actually be quite amusing when you take control of the hallucinations.

how does one take control of these hallucinations?

Originally Posted by ryuk8art

how does one take control of these hallucinations?

Since they are all thoughts projected by your mind, you can turn them into something else or tweak them around a bit, with practice of course. Just like how you would do in a normal dream. When you hallucinate, it's basically your dreaming mind being projected into the physical world. If you see/hear/feel something scary, imagine it turning into something nicer. Might take practice especially if you're naturally freaked out by those stuff, but once you understand how they originate and how they work, you'll know how to do it

Originally Posted by L4xord

P.S SP is not something to suffer. Don't use the term to suffer. SP can actually be quite amusing when you take control of the hallucinations.

No, it is something you can suffer. The majority of people who don't have a disorder will only get SP a few times in their life and will undoubtedly not really enjoy the feeling the first few times. The ones who do suffer from ISP etc are usually also suffering because they might wake up half way through the night paralyzed, on top of this one does not simply overcome a fear of the unknown, it is a trait held by a minority.
It can be amusing and personally the few times I've had it I used it to my advantage, but since the people who frequently get SP usually have a disorder they are suffering from it in some way, especially considering that it is beyond your control not to go into SP.

yea dutchraptor, ive herd of people, that whenever they go to sleep and relax they will get sp, and i have herd those who have it more than 1 time a night. honestly dont take it the wrong way but i im kinda jealous of them sometims. i fully enjoy my sp episodes. there are even entire forums Fully devoted to sp episodes. but honestly you can overcome the fear, maybe not every single time, but you can.

Originally Posted by DarkestHour

yea dutchraptor, ive herd of people, that whenever they go to sleep and relax they will get sp, and i have herd those who have it more than 1 time a night. honestly dont take it the wrong way but i im kinda jealous of them sometims. i fully enjoy my sp episodes. there are even entire forums Fully devoted to sp episodes. but honestly you can overcome the fear, maybe not every single time, but you can.

Can you describe your SP? Lot's of times there is a confusion, as SP used to be described as vibrations, feeling of heaviness, floatiness, movements, feeling that it would be hard to move. All of these you can get when you just relaxing and you start to fall asleep while keeping your mind aware.

But REM attonia is something that everybody gets every single night every single time when we start to dream. It paralyzes muscles, so we don't act out our dreams. You can't induce it just by laying still. Then I would be paralyzed everytime I chill on sofa watching TV. It's something that we have no control over.

If you falling asleep and you are very close to dreaming, or you waking up and you feel paralyzed, the name REM attonia changes to Sleep paralysis. It is a condition some people have chronicly. For majority of population it's a 1-2 a lifetime experience. When it happens, something went wrong. Attonia failed to disangage when it should have, or it kicked in prematurely.

But you wake up numerous times at night, many times straight from a dream and you are not in SP/attonia, because it worked exactly as it should.

Well u might not want sleep paralysis actually. In the beginning stages of my sleep paralysis episodes, I would have EXTREEME terror. Anyone who's had sp, knows what I'm talks bout! It's a hard task indeed to overcome fear. I fail the sp paralysis stages to this day. All of my sp episodes start, with me relaxing more and more in my bed.i almost never wake up, into sp. only when I was a child can I remember 2 occasions of such instances. One of which was quite profound, that now i think about, still bothers me today. But now I have come to love sp, and look forward to each event. Oh and btw if u really honestly want to get sp.....deprive your self of as much sleep,rest,and relaxation. Try running a mile or something. Go to bed and relax your whipped body and see what happens, try multiple times. Anyways have fun cheers!

YES! my sp starts with feeling heaviness/body relaxing to an extreme state(all during complete awareness, my eyes are not even closed sometimes)--->then vibrations--->OBE. If i try to get out before/during vibrations it is difficult. some body parts can get stuck!! lol.. and I'm tugging to get free. and sometimes when i get out too soon i can only move with the speed of a snail. seen my pops come downstairs one time to raid the fridge. have you had SP gab? its very hard to understand unless you have experienced it. floating and movements only come when you let the full procedure of vibrations run its course. alot of people get freaked out during vibrations, because it isnt just vibrations. some other sound are kinda imbedded in the vibration. its like a frequency. actually now that i think about it some of MY experiences kinda are similar to binaural tones. ive only ever woken up with sleep paralysis when i was a child, since then all the episodes have been going to sleep. sometimes i have a VERY difficult time seeing anything when i get out of body. its all black. i can feel my way around, and if i slow down, then i can start to see my room. but sometimes i pry my eyes open with my astral hand and they just shut imminently. I've herd of SP DVD's...yes i know DVD on SP! kinda funny....but its called something like black eye. but maybe it would be important to mention one of the times i resisted getting it due to fear. all i can do is try to move AS HARD AS I CAN. and usually its like wiggling a finger cause thats all i can do. it always gets me out of it but sometimes longer than others. i think the fact of the matter is that no one will ever know what SP is like until they have it, and take it as u will but there are some step people can take to achieve SP, and that is called Sleep deprivation. ive noticed if i sit up in a chair after i have been deprived i can OBE easier because if i lie down my body will fight me to try to FULLY rest. but a chair is kinda awkward. so it helps me stay aware. kinda like meditation thing, sitting up help u stay aware. now i will share something that is kinda personal to me but it may help others. sometimes when i Fail my sp episodes to fear, i get an overwhelming sense of something is in the room or something is coming. now please don't laugh but honestly ive noticed the same kinda fear in my dreams when UFOs and aliens show up. anyways hope this helps gab. feel free to aske me questions ive never been able to talk to anyone about this kinda stuff...frankly it feels good. thanks!

I did have SP, the true paralysis of whole body, twice. Not associated with LDing.

And I did have what you are describing, at least a hundred times. But that's not SP. Those are all signs of falling asleep, not paralysis. Those are not SP.

It is a common misconception, as it is explained in the article Sleep Paralysis explained, linked above.

Sorry gab but Im gonna have to disagree. I have talked to my sleep doctor, because i have sleep apnea and she says yes i have sleep paralysis. the characteristics of the phenomenon are not all set in stone for everyone. If someone experiences paralysis while trying to sleep or waking up from sleep it is SP. also the article i just read has not at all negated but support my belief that i have sleep paralysis.(A) Inability to move the trunk and all limbs at sleep onset or on waking from sleep. (B) Each episode lasts seconds to a few minutes. "You can't induce it just by laying still" this statement is wrong . yes it may not induce every time but time to time i have got SP by just lying on my bed. and yes i have no control over it. There are some people who have SP every night. my doctor says my experiences are normal. somehow the body is having a hiccup she said, and releasing the paralyzing chemical before it should. IF you would like to FULLY understand what SP is then i think u should just talk to a sleep doctor and or join SP forum. Now after i let the SP take its course and i get out of body i cant be sure if I'm dreaming or not.

Originally Posted by DarkestHour

Sorry gab but Im gonna have to disagree. I have talked to my sleep doctor, because i have sleep apnea and she says yes i have sleep paralysis. the characteristics of the phenomenon are not all set in stone for everyone. If someone experiences paralysis while trying to sleep or waking up from sleep it is SP. also the article i just read has not at all negated but support my belief that i have sleep paralysis.(A) Inability to move the trunk and all limbs at sleep onset or on waking from sleep. (B) Each episode lasts seconds to a few minutes. "You can't induce it just by laying still" this statement is wrong . yes it may not induce every time but time to time i have got SP by just lying on my bed. and yes i have no control over it. There are some people who have SP every night. my doctor says my experiences are normal. somehow the body is having a hiccup she said, and releasing the paralyzing chemical before it should. IF you would like to FULLY understand what SP is then i think u should just talk to a sleep doctor and or join SP forum. Now after i let the SP take its course and i get out of body i cant be sure if I'm dreaming or not.

Yes, when you wake up paralyzed, you have SP.

Vibrations, or other sensations, are not sign of SP. If you happen to get them at the same time, that doesn't mean, they are related. They just happened at the same time.

Yes, SP is a hickup, as you doctor put it. It's a disorder that some people get. If you get it just by laying still, you have a disorder. Majority of population can lay still for hours and not get SP, because they don't have this disorder. For majority of population, REM attonia starts after we start to dream and it ends the moment you wake up or stop dreaming. If it doesn't, you have SP.

yea...i guess i am one of the few..

Originally Posted by DarkestHour

yea...i guess i am one of the few..

Good thing you learned how to get LDs out of it