The term "sleep paralysis" can refer either to the ordinary condition of REM atonia, in which our bodies naturally go into lockdown while falling asleep to prevent unnecessary movements, or else to the sleep disorder in which one becomes aware (often unintentionally) of this condition while on the verge of sleep or waking, and might be disturbed by it. It sounds like you've experienced the latter, but that you have become sufficiently accustomed to it that you are ready to begin making better use of these opportunities.
The best part about being conscious of sleep paralysis is that it gives you the opportunity to enter the dream directly, if you can figure out how to take control of your dreamed body without fully waking up or disrupting your real one. Instead of trying to prevent the feeling of paralysis, learn how to work with it more productively. Next time you find yourself in this condition, see if you are able to move in unnatural ways, like rotating or levitating. That way there's less likelihood of accidentally moving your physical limbs and waking up. Once you master how to gain control of your dreamed body, you can get up and start to explore the dream environment.
If you feel yourself becoming frightened, remember that nothing can harm you in a dream! The worst that can happen is that you'll wake up, which excessive fear will make you do anyway, so the longer you can keep from being afraid, the more time you have to explore.
Before I began lucid dreaming regularly, I would periodically have dreams where I felt a total loss of physical control, like feeling so weak and heavy that I couldn't even walk. This never happens anymore. The more you practice lucidity, the more your mind will instinctively learn that it can influence the dream state, so that eventually even your non-lucid dreams will benefit from greater confidence and control. Lucid dreaming is great because it provides a way of better understanding your own mind, as well as the opportunity to have experiences that are unlike anything in waking life.
Of course, this is just one point of view! There's a lot of very knowledgable people on this site, so if it doesn't help, maybe someone else can offer a more helpful perspective.
|
|
Bookmarks