Is this sleep paralysis ?

[MalickWat]

It use to happen several times, but it was long ago. I never knew what it was, and I start to wonder if it could be sleep paralysis. Here is what happen : I'm about to fall asleep and it's looke like i'm plunging into my bed. My eyes start closingthe same idea always cross my mind when it happen : If you let yourself go, you will never wake up. So I try to move my arms, my legs or to shake my entire body, but i'm blocked. And finaly i manage to move my head and i'm free to go.

[Ekyu]

I'm not sure if it was sleep paralysis. I never had the plunging into my bed, but then again, there are quite a few things that you could experience in sleep paralysis. I usually get vibrations through my entire body, hallucinations for 10-20 seconds, and it's really hard to move my body. In my opinion you will know when you're in sleep paralysis, because it's a really unique experience. You said "I'm about to fall asleep". From my personal experience, sleep paralysis doesn't happen that fast, unless you had some sleep prior to that. (Like a WILD) You where probably just falling asleep, because my body tends to get numb when i'm about to fall asleep. If you had some sleep prior to that, then it was probably sleep paralysis. I think many members will agree with me, that you will know when you're in sleep paralysis. Hope this helps you out!

[gab]

Guys, vibrations, falling sensations, hard to move are not SP. Please read this post #136, which is a recap of the thread http://www.dreamviews.com/wake-initi...ml#post2022600 And the whole thread is really worth reading.

[Scionox]

Also in case you are attempting WILD, SP is not related to WILD in any way, WILD is just about falling asleep while being aware, i strongly suggest checking out those tutorials: http://www.dreamviews.com/induction-...cid-dream.html WILD

[Ekyu]

Guys, vibrations, falling sensations, hard to move are not SP. Please read this post #136, which is a recap of the thread http://www.dreamviews.com/wake-initi...ml#post2022600 And the whole thread is really worth reading. Are you sure that vibrations couldn't be part of sleep paralysis? When i wake up from a lucid dream and i find myself in sleep paralysis, i usually get vibrations, hallucinations (quite heavy ones aswell) and an extremely difficult time to move (Close to impossible). Maybe it could be that the vibrations are just a hallucination since i expect it to happen, but i'm pretty confident that what i'm talking about is sleep paralysis. I get that it's also a part of NREM, but i think it's a little bit silly to say that nobody could experience these things in sleep paralysis. Not saying that you're all wrong, since quite a few of you have a lot more experience about lucid dreams then me, but i'm pretty sure i know the difference between NREM and sleep paralysis. Don't take this post in the wrong way, it's just that one detail that doesn't seem to fit with me. I agree with the other stuff in the thread though.

[gab]

... and an extremely difficult time to move (Close to impossible). Don't worry, we won't take your qestioning in a wrong way. I completely understand where it's coming from. If you have read all falling asleep sensations thrown together with SP into one bag, it's not easy to reorient to a different idea. Our body puts us into muscle paralysis called REM (atonia) after we start to dream, so we don't act it out and kick the wall or start punching around and hurt ourselves or someone around us. After we start to dream. And paralysis means not being able to move if your life depended on it. Not hard to move, or close to impossible to move. Our body is pretty good at hiding this possibly frightening condition (not being able to move) from us and that's why it waits to turn it on after we are asleep and after we start to dream. And it's same efficient in turning it off the second we are awake. I mean, I woke up plenty of times directly from a dream due to some sound or being scared from a nightmare. And I was never paralyzed, so REM (atonia) got turned off on time. Now, sometimes you may wake up and you realize you trully can't move, no matter what. This condition, when REM (atonia) didn't shut down on time is called SP - sleep paralysis. For some reason your body failed to either notice that you woke up or for some other reason failed to turn REM (atonia) off. For most of the people this may happen once or twice in a lifetime. For some, it happens more often. Since it's more of an exception than a rule, it's called a disorder. Most of the people don't get it. I have had it twice, each time when waking up in the morning and this was many years before I even heard of lucid dreaming. It trully has nothing to do with lucid dreaming. Next time when you feel vibrations, move your hand. You may think it will be hard, because you are extremely relaxed and it's more comfortable to not move than to move. If you start paying attention to sensations, you may notice vibrations just seconds after you return from restroom, or as you falling asleep normally, not even WILDing. Normally, nothing of this would matter. Because no matter what sensations you do/do not experience when WILDing, you can WILD and enter LD. This becomes important to sort out only because of some tutorials, that tell people "you must reach SP before you can have LD". No, you don't need to be in SP before you can have LD. In fact, you can't induce SP at will. SP it's something our body regulates, we can't turn it on and off when we want to. Then it wouldn't be a disorder. Then normall sleeping would be a disorder. Now, weather you believe this, or something else, please know, that paying too much attention to sensations of any name can slow down your WILDing attempt. It keeps your focus on your body. When you should be losing track of your body. Here is an excellent WILD (sageous) guide. Good luck and happy dreams

[Darklord1515]

Wow, you guys are experts!

[Ekyu]

Don't worry, we won't take your qestioning in a wrong way. I completely understand where it's coming from. If you have read all falling asleep sensations thrown together with SP into one bag, it's not easy to reorient to a different idea. Our body puts us into muscle paralysis called REM (atonia) after we start to dream, so we don't act it out and kick the wall or start punching around and hurt ourselves or someone around us. After we start to dream. And paralysis means not being able to move if your life depended on it. Not hard to move, or close to impossible to move. Our body is pretty good at hiding this possibly frightening condition (not being able to move) from us and that's why it waits to turn it on after we are asleep and after we start to dream. And it's same efficient in turning it off the second we are awake. I mean, I woke up plenty of times directly from a dream due to some sound or being scared from a nightmare. And I was never paralyzed, so REM (atonia) got turned off on time. Now, sometimes you may wake up and you realize you trully can't move, no matter what. This condition, when REM (atonia) didn't shut down on time is called SP - sleep paralysis. For some reason your body failed to either notice that you woke up or for some other reason failed to turn REM (atonia) off. For most of the people this may happen once or twice in a lifetime. For some, it happens more often. Since it's more of an exception than a rule, it's called a disorder. Most of the people don't get it. I have had it twice, each time when waking up in the morning and this was many years before I even heard of lucid dreaming. It trully has nothing to do with lucid dreaming. Next time when you feel vibrations, move your hand. You may think it will be hard, because you are extremely relaxed and it's more comfortable to not move than to move. If you start paying attention to sensations, you may notice vibrations just seconds after you return from restroom, or as you falling asleep normally, not even WILDing. Normally, nothing of this would matter. Because no matter what sensations you do/do not experience when WILDing, you can WILD and enter LD. This becomes important to sort out only because of some tutorials, that tell people "you must reach SP before you can have LD". No, you don't need to be in SP before you can have LD. In fact, you can't induce SP at will. SP it's something our body regulates, we can't turn it on and off when we want to. Then it wouldn't be a disorder. Then normall sleeping would be a disorder. Now, weather you believe this, or something else, please know, that paying too much attention to sensations of any name can slow down your WILDing attempt. It keeps your focus on your body. When you should be losing track of your body. Here is an excellent WILD (sageous) guide. Good luck and happy dreams Thank you for the reaction gab! It's been a while since i've been on dreamviews, and back then it was always you need to reach SP, before you're able to enter a lucid dream. I'm personally not really a WILD kind of person, so i probably confuse certain things when it comes to SP. This post and the thread changed my viewpoint on SP quite a bit. Thank you!

[melanieb]

I really like threads like this, when things come together and make sense. Thank you gab and Checker666!