I scare easily.

[JimReaper]

Hello everyone, nice to meet you. I've always been good at recalling dreams, and have had lucid experiences in the past even at very young ages, though I never really questioned it. Naturally the prospect of being able to control your dreams entirely appeals to me. The problem here is that I'm a very paranoid person, and reading some of the stuff about sleep paralysis is kinda putting me off. Knowing things aren't real/ can't harm me has never stopped me from being afraid. Even some of the dream signs (distorted reflections/ lights not working) creep me out lol. In short, I have this gut feeling that all my LD attempts would just descend into vivid nightmares. Would it be wise for me to attempt LDing? On the one hand it might be a good oppurtunity for me to start conquering my paranoia... on the other hand I'm too paranoid to start trying.

[Cacophony]

Lucid dreaming can really help you overcome your fears! I've got issues with anxiety/panic attacks and they've definitely helped in that aspect... Sleep paralysis (in my experience) is rare. It's something that you may never even experience... although there is a chance you will. My advice is to read up on it more, and know that it's something your body goes through every night, is perfectly natural and also can't harm you. Welcome to the forum!

[Robot_Butler]

Don't worry about it. Chances are good that you will never experience sleep paralysis. Some people get it frequently (myself included), while others never feel a thing. From my experience, it is only frightening for the few seconds while it is happening. I remember all my sleep paralysis experiences as extremely memorable dreams. They are a cool experience to expand my understanding of consciousness.

[JimReaper]

Thanks guys. I've been keeping a journal for a week now, and I'm already recalling my dreams much more easily. Plus there have been a couple of times where I almost became lucid - for example last night I had a FA and problems with my laptop made me suspicious that something wasn't right. However the dream pressed onto other things and I forgot all about it before I could figure out that I was dreaming. >.< Is this common at first?

[Cacophony]

Definitely. I still get dreams where I almost go lucid quite regularly, I just don't end up realizing that's what's happening. Good luck!

[Loaf]

I remember at least 1 dream every night, usually they are particularly long, or I have 3 to 4 that I remember fully. I usually get lucid a few times a week (although I haven't been doing to well for the last month) and I consider myself an expert in lucid dreaming, as far as personal experience goes. I've been lucid dreaming all my life, but started focusing on it when I found this site. - I have never had terrifying SP. Once I saw a face while my eyes were closed (as I was falling into the dream) that was rather freaky. But I have never hallucinated freaky things while awake. - I once hallucinated when I was much younger. I could see tables and chairs stacked on each other in my bedroom. They went away quickly. All of these scary tales of people seeing zombies in their room, and being stuck in SP and unable to move, are not as common as you might think. Lucid dreaming can easily be accomplished without all the strange SP side effects. If you really want to avoid SP, stick to DILD and DEILD.