Hi, first of all. It's nice to be here. I think I might have lucid dreams and sleep paralysis but I'm not sure, and after a bunch of Googling I figured this would be a good place to ask. While I'm very interested in the idea of lucid dreaming and would love to start doing it properly, as it is I'm pretty freaked out by what's happening and sort of want to know if other people experience the same thing, and if there's a way to stop the paralysis part and continue (and improve) the rest.

Over the last month (December, not just January) at least nine or ten times I've woken up and haven't been able to move. I think the first time I had sleep paralysis was almost a decade ago, and I've had it a few times since then, so the first time I wasn't that surprised, just annoyed. I'm never sure if it's actually sleep paralysis though, because from what I've heard of that you genuinely cannot move at all. For me, I feel like I'm sinking deeper and deeper into something, and I feel like that if I just let myself sink I'll die. I realise logically that's probably not going to happen, but it freaks me out no end, although I am a bit curious about what would happen if I just let myself go. I wiggle my toes and the feeling fades a bit, then comes back when I stop. I've had the 'hallucinations' (whispers, on one occasion I thought someone was lying in the bed with me, once I thought my housemate was in the room when she wasn't) too.

Sometimes, after all that, I'll go into a semi-unconscious state, where I dream, and know that I'm dreaming. I don't have a realisation during the dream, as lucid dreamers apparently do, I just know I'm dreaming. I can't exactly control the dream, either - I try to, but a lot of the time what I want to happen doesn't, or it does but not in the way I want it to. What I can do is wake myself up, sometimes into another dream, sometimes back into reality. Sometimes I 'wake' into what I think is reality, then realise it's actually a dream. I can also wake up a bit (enough to check the time) then go straight back into that dream, or another 'lucid' one. I've woken up properly, been completely awake then gone back for a nap and ended up experiencing this too, but more often than not it only happens after the paralysis thing.

So, is this lucid dreaming/sleep paralysis? Can anyone give me some advice?