Sleep Paralysis Help!

Hi guys,

first time poster here, I was wondering if anyone could help me out with some clarifications and Identifying way-points in the process of inducing sleep paralysis for the purpose of lucid dreaming and OBE's.

From what I've researched, the best time to induce sleep paralysis is after recent sleep, usually in the early AM hours. At this time I have relaxed my body completely, and given time for my body to relax. when I feel a sense of deep relaxation I then lie flat on my back with my arms along my side, palms down on the bed and close my eyes. During this time I lay completely still without moving at all with the exception of two things. 1, I find myself moving my eyes, not quickly or often, but I find it almost impossible to keep still. I find myself sometimes crossing my eyes or moving them as I imagine random thoughts. 2, I find my throat feeling EXTREMELY dry and the urge to swallow. After fighting the temptation, Involuntarily my body forces my dry throat to swallow. A lot of what I've read says when they say completely still, they mean COMPLETELY. They also say knowing your in full sleep paralysis is an unmistakable feeling.

-Heres my progress, am I anywhere near reaching full paralysis so I can take on the next step of lucid dreams or OBE's?

-First sensation is that of relaxation, i feel relaxed, usually thinking random thoughts or focusing on counting breaths or heart beats.

-Second, I feel for only a short period of time an increased amplitude of heartbeat, not faster but stronger. My head almost pounds with every beat and it becomes easy to count my heartbeats cause theirs so unmistakeably felt. this then fades.

-Next, I feel an almost numbness over my whole body. My hands, fingers, legs, toes, and face starts to involuntarily twitch. Almost like small muscle spasms that I cannot control. This is the last of the sensations I feel. I can lie in this state for hours without advancing anymore, and fading in and out of dreams but quickly awake moving my body and possibly ruining the process of inducing sleep paralysis?

My question..
Are these states any real steps in the process of sleep paralysis?
do other people who successfully induce themselves go through similar steps that i have experienced?
and last, does anyone have any tips for me?

Thanks,
Mike:D

Another note:
Only once in my last state(the twitching and numb state) I have felt a sensation of having an unbalanced weighted disk inside my head wobbling almost rocking my whole body with it. the more i focused on it the more it started to fade until it disappeared.

Welcome to Dreamviews! :content:

When you're getting into sleep paralysis, it's not imperative that your eyes stay completely still - I move mine around quite a bit and still manage to get to SP. If the dry throat feeling gets bad enough, it can be worse for you than simply not making a big deal out of it and swallowing. It's no big deal if you swallow, as long as you don't bring it to the front of your mind and let it bug you.

It sounds like your body is relaxing, and you're fairly close. At the onset of SP, often one feels vibrations, heaviness, floating or rocking sensations, and may experience hallucinations or hypagogic imagery - strange patterns and colors behind their eyelids. Their eyes may go into REM and move around involuntarily. You can also have the feeling that your heart is beating much faster than it should, or stronger, which is merely a hallucination (unless of course, you're very excited to get into SP).

I get lots of small twitches too; I'm not sure what causes this but I'm guessing it's just from relaxing your body enough.

All I can suggest is to not focus on the hallucinations. Getting too involved will impede the dream formation process. Just keep relaxing. Try stretching or meditation before bed, if you feel like it's taking too long to get to SP after relaxing like you've described. Once you get the sensations listed above, imagine a dream forming around you and continue to relax into the SP. Imagine the sensations in the dream, including touch, sight, and smell. Imagine the feeling of walking down a road, if you want to end up on a highway.

If a dream starts to form but goes away, try again. You can always risk getting up and seeing if you've just entered a false awakening, but I wouldn't suggest this unless you're absolutely positive you're in a dream. It'd be best not to move and try using dream control - imagine someone walking over to you and saying something specific, such as "come on, wake up!" If you're in a dream, something like this will happen. If not, it doesn't matter because you haven't moved! So, you can try entering a dream again.