did i just have a sleep paralysis??

**skinkie** · 10-26-2014 11:42 AM

All i know that i was vibrating and suddenly it got very very cold and it was hard to move but i could move a bit with my head. I looked and saw that i was in my own room and it was pretty dark.
It felt weird and i felt like oh no i am going to see some demons so i moved my head back and closed my eyes so i could be in a lucid dream but it didn't work and a while later i woke up.

When i first woke up it felt like a dream but the more i think about it feels it like a sleep paralysis. the only things that are weird is that i could move my head (it was very hard tough) and it was very cold and never heard of anything like that?

**Burke** · 10-26-2014 10:54 PM

It sounds a lot like sleep paralysis. The fact that you could move your head a little bit makes me not 100% sure on it, but the rest of the description matches SP a fair amount. Did you feel any heaviness in your chest or did it seem like it was hard to breath/someone sitting on your chest? This is a common symptom of SP and if you did experience it, then I'd say that it was SP. If you didn't, then it may have been either SP or just a weird dream/FA.

**skinkie** · 10-27-2014 12:40 AM

uhm i wasn't really thinking about my chest but everything velt really heavy couldnt move my hands or arms. yea you are right maybe it was just a weird dream. thnx for the comment

**SinisterDezz** · 10-27-2014 05:21 AM

*cough* HI & REM atonia *cough*

It's my new goal in life to cleanse this site of misinformation.

But to actually answer the topic, it sounded like HI or REM atonia. Next step is attempting WILD. Goodluck.

**Burke** · 10-27-2014 06:28 AM

Originally Posted by SinisterDezz

*cough* HI & REM atonia *cough*

It's my new goal in life to cleanse this site of misinformation.

But to actually answer the topic, it sounded like HI or REM atonia. Next step is attempting WILD. Goodluck.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't REM atonia the mechanism through which the body is "paralyzed" during REM sleep, while SP is the conscious experience of this while awake? The difference being REM atonia occurs all the time, while you have to be awake and experiencing it for it to be considered sleep paralysis.

**StephL** · 10-27-2014 05:14 PM

I don't want to be nitpicking, but both terms are being used in medical literature - for the unconscious, "normal" phenomenon as well as for the conscious one, while SP is more often used for the conscious experience. But I really read both terms used outside of the context of the LDing community, in scientific papers. Just in the community, the term SP seems to have taken on a rather notorious life of it's own.
The point, in my eyes, is not to re-name a phenomenon, but free people of the fixation, that they would need SP, need to consciously experience it, in order to have a WILD. Going by reports from people with lots of experience - this is only happening for some people and some of the time, and you don't need to be aware of it setting in, in order to transfer from waking into the dream.

But to do as if it wouldn't exist, or wouldn't have any relevance to LDing whatsoever is also incorrect in my view. Some people do experience it after all, and can make use of it as a signpost, that they are close, or already in the dreaming state.
You shouldn't ever rely on it, though, even if you had it once, otherwise you might miss out on having entered already, waiting for it, believing you are still awake, while it's a false awakening in reality.

As to the OP - unusual to be able to move the head, when I have it, I really can't move anything except breathe. But might well have been SP anyway. Please don't fixate on that, as said above, what you want is an LD, not a paralysis, that's not what you're doing it all for.