Attaining Sleep Paralysis

[Shadow27]

So yesterday morning I got up at 5AM so I could work toward a WILD. I stayed up until midnight last night so that when I went to bed I would be dead tired. I set my phone to ring at 1:30AM and took the following vitamins with a glass of orange juice: B6 ( 100mg ) B12 ( 500mcg ) Mg ( 250mcg ) Melatonin ( 6mg ) I then crashed on my bed, everything set up for my WILD and soon after, fell asleep. I don't remember a dream but I woke up to the alarm at 1:30. I grabbed my phone and turned off the alarm. I then, not even getting up from bed, rolled onto my back, with the covers up to my waist, and began my WILD attempt. My mind was drifting but I managed to stay awake. I've gotten good at that. I was so tired that the experience could actually be described as "intense". It was a struggle to stay awake. My sense of time was pretty distorted but I think it was bout half an hour before I reached what I call Stage 3 Hypnagogia. The entire body is numb, including the chest, and feels detached from yourself or foreign. You start to feel a great deal of pressure all over and you start to be unable to feel the bed beneath you. You are disoriented and there is a sinking sensation. I reach this most of the time when I attempt an STB WILD but this was a little more intense because I was so tired. However, it never reached the intensity that I felt when I hit sleep paralysis that one time. What am I doing wrong? I don't want to get to much sleep before the WILD or I will not be tired enough. This was the most tired I have ever been in my entire life and yet I still did nothing. Any suggestions / Ideas?

[KingYoshi]

The problem is you are trying to keep yourself awake. Attempting a WILD is good when you are very tired like this. You want to allow yourself to fall asleep as fast as possible. The thing to practice/get good at is keeping consciousness. When someone says, "stay conscious" during the WILD process, its basically just being aware of everything around you. You still have to have your brain/body/mind fall asleep. The only difference, is you want to be aware that it is happening. You are witnessing/experiencing the sleep process first hand. You are "watching" yourself fall asleep with your "mind's eye", so to speak. Staying conscious and staying awake are two completely different things that tend to get meshed together when people are attempting a WILD. Allow yourself to fall asleep, just never stop "observing what is happening." Hopefully that makes some sense, lol.

[Shadow27]

The problem is you are trying to keep yourself awake. Attempting a WILD is good when you are very tired like this. You want to allow yourself to fall asleep as fast as possible. The thing to practice/get good at is keeping consciousness. When someone says, "stay conscious" during the WILD process, its basically just being aware of everything around you. You still have to have your brain/body/mind fall asleep. The only difference, is you want to be aware that it is happening. You are witnessing/experiencing the sleep process first hand. You are "watching" yourself fall asleep with your "mind's eye", so to speak. Staying conscious and staying awake are two completely different things that tend to get meshed together when people are attempting a WILD. Allow yourself to fall asleep, just never stop "observing what is happening." Hopefully that makes some sense, lol. I'm not quite sure how that works...

[Excalibur]

The problem is you are trying to keep yourself awake. Attempting a WILD is good when you are very tired like this. You want to allow yourself to fall asleep as fast as possible. The thing to practice/get good at is keeping consciousness. When someone says, "stay conscious" during the WILD process, its basically just being aware of everything around you. You still have to have your brain/body/mind fall asleep. The only difference, is you want to be aware that it is happening. You are witnessing/experiencing the sleep process first hand. You are "watching" yourself fall asleep with your "mind's eye", so to speak. Staying conscious and staying awake are two completely different things that tend to get meshed together when people are attempting a WILD. Allow yourself to fall asleep, just never stop "observing what is happening." Hopefully that makes some sense, lol. I've been pretty much searching around for 3 or 4 days looking for the information in this exact post. THANKYOU! but to prod a little: any quick suggestions on staying conscious?

[KingYoshi]

Most dreamers (myself included) use the term "anchor." An anchor is a particular "something" that helps keep your mind active enough to stay conscious, but in-active enough to fall asleep. I simply observe the darkness of my closed eyes (that is my anchor). No matter what other hallucinations I get, I simply ignore or accept them and basically pay no attention to them. If I start getting a lot of visual hallucinations, my anchor shifts from the darkness, to these visuals. Since your eyes are closed and you are working toward sleep, you aren't seeing these images with your actual eyes, but rather your "mind's eye." There are infinite amount of anchors you can use. I have heard of people sleeping on a marble, and that dull pain/pressure is used as their anchor. You can count, count breaths, imagine a particular scene, use the droning noise of a fan, some music on a low volume, the feeling of your bed, the temperature of the room, etc. You can create your own anchor and just try to see what works best for you. Remember, the idea is to have your anchor keep your mind active enough so that you don't lose consciousness, but not so active that you can't fall asleep. If you don't fall asleep, you can't dream .