Are REM possible before sleep?

A while ago I woke up after 8-9 hours of sleep. I had nothing to do so I wanted to try WILD ( I have never had a lucid dream yet).
I think that I started having sleep paralysis and I felt tingling sensations which started on my legs and slowly spread. However, at some point I felt like my eyes started moving very fast like it was REM. I also felt like my eyes were about to open but I kept them close.
Although I read about SP I have never heared that the REM stage begins while I am still awake.
Is it normal?:(

Tingling sensations don't mean SP - they're very common just from lying still for long enough. A lot of people mistake it for SP though.

I've experienced the same kind of rapid eye movement I think you're talking about - in my case when I was meditating. Really bizarre, isn't it? Yeah, technically it could be called REM, since it is rapid darting side-to-side eye movements, but you're not asleep, so I don't know how it connects with REM during dreaming. By any chance are you fairly sleep deprived? I'm pretty much permanently sleep deprived, and I think thats why it was happening to me. Lol it was really weird though, I couldn't stop it no matter how I tried!

If it does result from sleep deprivation then it's quite possible you could fall directly into dreams when you go to sleep - I know I can sometimes. It's thanks to REM rebound.

About the SP you are probably right- I read more about the subject and it was just usual tingling probably.

About the eye movements, I actualy don't think I have sleep deprivation. However, it accured to me that it did happen to me once or twice before when trying to meditate or when I listened to binaural beats. It just freaked me out because I might have some minor but probably harmless neurological issue according to my doctor, and I am afraid that the eye movements are somehow conncted.

Anyway, thanks! I will keep trying the LDs and if I get to a certain conclusion I will post it :)

Yeah, I'm not sure if mine was from sleep deprivation or not, it was just my best guess. And now I can't remember if I had got enough sleep the night before or not. I posted a question about it at the time, hoping some experienced meditator would be able to tell me something about it, but nobody did. It hasn't happened to me since then.

Anyway, you're noticing a lot of the weird states of consciousness that happen when you're falling asleep, which most people usually aren't aware of. That's good - keep it up!