Lucid Dreaming without trying?

Hi my name is Emily, I'm 21 years old and I'm new here. I've experienced what I think is sleep paralysis for about two years now. It's not frightening anymore but I have a hard time waking up or I will enter it when I fall asleep. Lately I've been realizing I'm dreaming because I notice things don't seem quite right. (My friends house looked very different and it seemed "haunted") Realizing I'm dreaming usually puts me into sleep paralysis and I eventually wake up.

I'm curious about why lucid dreaming is so great and what I can do to prevent paralysis and becoming frightened and waking up instead of staying in the dream.

Lately it's gotten very confusing. I have sleep paralysis in my dreams and dreams about having dreams and they seem so real and time just slows down so I hardly know whats real anymore. (Basically I have dreams about having it and then actually experience it) Can anyone help?

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.

As it was shared above, sleep paralysis is something harmless and if you experience it naturally, you will have an easy avenue to lucid dream through WILDs.

Just remain relaxed when you experience sleep paralysis and visualize yourself being conscious during the transition and visualize a dream forming and enter it fully lucid :)

Welcome to Dreamviews!