Hello, i'm new. Some questions!

[Electronegative]

First off, I'm glad I registered and wanted to say hello to this wonderful community! In the past (before I was familiar about lucid dreaming) i've suffered through chronic sleep paralysis. These episodes would terrify me. I would have them a couple times a week and would often hallucinate terrifying stuff. Example: I once woke up paralyzed and saw a dark hooded creature look over my body. I'm 99% I wasn't dreaming since I could "see" around my room and even heard my brother snoring in the other room. After screaming (only air came out of my mouth) a high pitched tone overcame my hearing and I fainted back into sleep. I no longer have these episodes, and when I do rarely get them it's mainly me being paralyzed (which still scares me to death due to my past experiences). Recently, i've been interested in Lucid Dreaming. However i'm terrified about sleep paralysis which is unfortunate because the WILD technique really intrigues me!!! Any advice on how to get over my fear? Also, i've had a couple of lucid dreams in the past month but they don't seem that detailed. My lucid dreams are always fuzzy. I remember even rubbing my hands and saying "clarity now!" in these dreams. They last very shorty (i'm pretty calm in them too). What am I doing wrong? SORRY for such the long post. Can't wait to hear from you all. Sweet dreams

[Clovy]

Hello I am new too! So I guess I dont have the greatest advice since I am new to all of this as well, but I thought I would reply anyways. I dont have much experience with sleep paralysis, the only time I have really experienced it is when I was trying to. So it was more of a welcome interesting experience. I am sure if I ever hallucinated stuff like you say, then I would not have liked it very much. =x I am wondering though, if you knew that nothing could hurt you and you sort of welcomed the SP as a step towards LD then maybe you might not hallucinate the bad stuff. I think if you are expecting to see bad stuff then you probably will. But if you are not afraid then your mind wont create the crazy stuff. Not sure if this is true, but just my thoughts on it. Also you dont have to use SP to have a LD. I have had 5 so far and none of them involved SP. There are tons of methods and I am sure you can find one that will work for you!

[gab]

I also don't have any usefull experience with SP. I myself practice MILD and WBTB, and just started to try for some DEILDs, after accidentaly getting a DEILD the other night. If you like the WILD technique, you may want to try DEILD, which is a short WILD that you do, when you wake up from a dream. And in DEILD, you apparently skip the scary part of WILD. You can find lots of cool info in DV Wiki. Welcome to DV!

[Pops715]

Welcome to Dream Views!!! It's always strange for me hearing people talk about sleep paralysis because I've never had it happen to me. Sometimes I wish it would just so I could see what it feels like. Because since I've never experienced it, it feels to me like there's no such thing. I know that's not true but that's what it seems like.

[Juf]

I used to be terrified of SP and this is probably why. I tried to fight/ leave SP, as do you. Don't bother screaming or trying to move. Instead of trying to wake up, try to sleep. Relax, since you've entered SP you're pretty much set to WILD.

[Alyzarin]

I always find stories like this interesting. I wake up in sleep paralysis occasionally but I never just have a complete feeling of being stuck like that, I actually hallucinate myself getting out of bed for a couple seconds before I get snapped back into it. I also never really realize what exactly is wrong until I fully wake up, I think I'm just still dreaming too much for it to bother me. A couple weeks ago I had a fairly lucid one though, in reality my eyes were open slightly and I could see my ceiling fan in the top-left corner of my vision, but when I got up and stood at the edge of my bed (feeling strangely heavy and jello-y) I looked down at the floor and saw the ceiling fan spinning right there on the ground next to me. I said "Wait, WHAT?" and then my entire vision except for the fan replaced itself with just the image of my ceiling again and I woke up all the way. I haven't had scary hallucinations from it though, that sounds terrible. But if you want to use it to WILD or whatever I'd say the probably the only way to get over your fear is practice. Like has been said though, you don't have to do it to LD.

[Puffin]

Welcome to DV! The more you read up on SP and know what kind of hallucinations you could possibly get, the better. I also used to suffer from SP experiences that actually involved sharp physical pain, such as the sensation of being stung by a bee even though I'd never gotten a sting before. I did a lot of research on WILD and even did a few "test runs", lying in bed and relaxing as much as I could, then imagining myself getting hallucinations. I would practice deep breathing and staying calm. In other words, try daydreaming that you're getting these hallucinations. Every time I get SP, I always get scary hallucinations no matter what, but I've had enough experiences to simply ignore it. Being able to do this will come in time. As for the clarity of your dreams, I'd recommend taking a vitamin B6 supplement or simply starting up a dream journal (if you haven't yet). Dream journaling is extremely important because lucid dreams form in the same memory as regular dreams; I have forgotten about a good number of LDs just because I wasn't able to remember my regular ones that well. Recall can affect both the memory of the dream and even what you see when you're actually still present and aware in the dream itself. Maybe you've just had the bad luck of becoming lucid at the end of your REM cycles; in which case there's not much you can do about it, but hope that next time you won't wake up. Also, don't think of your physical body, or the fact that "you're actually asleep!" right now. Don't become too excited. If you have any other questions feel free to ask!

[Electronegative]

I appreciate all of your replies!!! Clovy: You're right, me telling myself the fact that SP will not hurt me is definitely helpful! However I still need to work on it, since I end up panicking most often than not. gab: I need to try DEILD! Pops715: haha trust me it's real! But maybe it's a blessing you don't get them. How often do you achieve self-induced lucid dreaming? Juf: Working on it Alyzarin: My eyes are usually slightly open when I have SP too! I will definitely keep practicing. And yeah I know I don't have to, but that method is the one that interests me the most! Puffin: Thank you for the knowledge and tips! Not thinking about my physical body is something I need to start doing. I don't get too excited, but I think I over think it which causes me to wake? I have vitamin B pills (which my dad takes haha) so i'll be taking those every night from now on THANKS for the welcomes! You all sound like a great, helpful and nice bunch!

[zebrah]

Sorry I'm here a little late. Welcome to DreamViews it looks like everyone's answered your questions. My advice to you is to focus on one technique and don't give up. For example try DILD for two-four weeks and if you don't see results try another technique. Good luck lucid dreaming!

[Electronegative]

Sorry I'm here a little late. Welcome to DreamViews it looks like everyone's answered your questions. My advice to you is to focus on one technique and don't give up. For example try DILD for two-four weeks and if you don't see results try another technique. Good luck lucid dreaming! Thanks for the welcome! And yeah i'm trying to tackle everything at once.. sticking to one technique would probably be good haha

[Mancon]

Welcome! Thanks for the welcome! And yeah i'm trying to tackle everything at once.. sticking to one technique would probably be good haha Haha yeah, that would be a really good idea. A lot of people try to do everything at once and switch techniques ever week. You need to stick to a technique for at least a month and give it time to work. Good luck!