Hello everyone.

So in the last couple of years I've started experiencing sleep paralysis and now lucid dreams so I thought I'd do some research and see if there was any sort of online community - looks like I've found one!

I've found I can induce an LD if I wake up in the middle of night. If I intentionally lie on my back and concentrate in a certain way, I can maintain awareness at the point at which I fall asleep. When I do fall asleep, it happens very abruptly - as if someone has flicked a switch. Suddenly I will experience total SP, and will often experience auditory hallucinations. However I have learnt not to panic when this happens, and so I can breath normally and maintain the experience. I can't quite explain it but physically the SP actually feels wonderful - like my whole body is being electrified and I am totally weightless.

I will then dream that I am floating out of my bed, but I know it's just a dream, and so I can control where I float, leave the room, make objects appear etc... But I find it very hard to maintain, as the excitement often causes me to either wake up, or just lose the dream altogether and fall asleep. I am getting better and more confident with it though. I have found that imagining my body spinning quickly round and round helps me to sustain the experience. There is always an intense psychological feeling of euphoria and optimism that accompanies these experiences, which is the main reason I'm so keen to try and get better and better at inducing them.

Eventually, when I do fall asleep properly and lose all control, I will usually have relatively vivid dreams that I can recall later in very good detail. Furthermore, the euphoria usually continues to run through my dreams (even though the dreams are usually total nonsense), and upon waking in the morning I feel great.

I'm interested to read about others' experiences and will no doubt be exploring the forum over the next few days.

Cheers,
Dave.