Can lucid dreaming trigger sleep paralysis?

[lucy]

So... I have had the odd spontaneous lucid dream at random points in the past, which is why I'm interested in learning how to make it happen more regularly... however, I've also had major problems with sleep paralysis for some time. For the past five or six years, I have regularly experienced sleep paralysis (probably on average at least once a month) and I really hate it. I know it's just a natural part of the sleeping process but every time it happens I have extremely disturbing auditory hallucinations and an huge sense of paranoia and fear. It often lasts for ages and I feel as though I am constantly struggling in vain to wake up. Then when I do wake up I always have a horrible pounding headache and sense of fatigue that lasts for a long time afterwards. Anyway, I'm just wondering if anyone has found that waking from a lucid dream increases the chances of waking into sleep paralysis? The reason I ask is because sometimes when I become partially lucid in a dream, I start to feel physical vibrations and a sense of pressure very similar to the feelings I get during sleep paralysis...

[Gwendolyn]

I don't know about LDs causing sleep paralysis. It could go the other way around though. Sometimes sleep paralysis is sometimes caused by irregular sleep schedules or stress. Try regulating the strees levels in your life. Try taking a bit of melatonin before sleep...Excercizing regularly might also lessen this.

[Neruo]

Perhaps. LD's do increase the chances of FA's. Maybe becouse some part of your brain is allready active when you have an LD, it's just a small step to be aware of your body, while still being paralised.. However, I don't know this for sure. Never had SP too

[wombing]

i've felt SP type sensations while in a partially lucid dream as well. i don't think LDs 'trigger' sleep paralysis, as your body is paralyzed whether you are lucid or not. however, we are usually not aware immediately after waking from a dream, and so we never experience SP if it happens to persist for a little while. whereas if we were just aware within a dream before waking up, we are more likely to consciously experience SP. we all get SP everynight, we just don't consciously experience it. i know how disconcerting it can be, and have had some bizarre auditory hallucinations while in SP as well. have you ever tried surrendering to it calmly, and allowing yourself to fall back into a lucid dream? i have yet to hear anyone say that frantically fighting it does anything but prolong it, and make them fully wake up feeling out of sorts. once i learnt to calmly accept SP when it happens to me, it went from an ordeal to something interesting. and now i actually want SP, as it is an awesome opportunity to re-enter a dream lucidly. i mean, if we can feel SP within a dream before we wake up from it, why should it be any different to feel SP before (re)entering a dream? you have one foot in the dream world, and one in the waking...why struggle to return to the waking when its inevitable anyways? hope you figure it out in a way that you're happy with, but honestly, try to calmly accept it the next time it happens, knowing any hallucinations are essentially just dreams spilling over to the 'in-between' state between waking and dreaming. chances are excellent you will reenter a lucid dream. as well, once i confronted my fears of SP, the hallucinations decreased in intensity and frequency significantly. good luck

[lucy]

Thanks for all the replies... Yes, it does make sense that having a SP episode would be a good way to go back into a lucid dream. I just never seem to be able to manage it. I don't know why I still get so panicky during sleep paralysis, I have known about the physiological aspects for a long time and that it's a perfectly normal part of sleep, and yet this doesn't seem to stop the paranoia/fear feelings... Is it possible to actually control the imagery/sounds you experience during sleep paralysis in the same way you control a lucid dream? I have often wondered this but never really tried it (because my reaction is always to panic and struggle to wake up). Perhaps if I could control it a bit more I would be able to relax and go back to sleep more easily... : )

[wombing]

^ only one way to find out ^

[wisp]

Once in high school i read about SP (about which i knew nothing), and the next morning i experienced an SP! So that about "proves" that conscious stimuli can trigger SP. On the other hand, i have sometimes experienced an impossibility to wake up, along with LDs about sensorial deprivation (i was blind, and deaf, and i hardly remember having tact, while trying to get up of my bed).