Thread: Can easily get to 70% SP, can't get further

First off, this is my first post here, and I would like to say hi to everyone. I've been trying to Lucid dream every night for at least 2 weeks now, and have had progress, but haven't really had a lucid dream yet.

I didn't know whether I should post this here or in the noob forum, but I figured that this was a specific enough question to post here. I apologize if this question has been already answered; I did a search on Google and didn't really find information that pertains to my question exactly.


In any case, with some help from this, and some practice, I can now easily get myself into a sort of paralysis. I have experienced complete sleep paralysis before I began experimenting with lds, but for some reason when I try I can only get my limbs to be paralyzed, and the rest of my body only quite slightly paralyzed. Really, my limbs aren't completely paralyzed, but it takes a lot more effort that would feel very unnatural to move them, it feels like unless i really try hard, they are stuck in place (if I move them a lot, I lose paralysis entirely). I am able to reach this state in just about 5 minutes, and I can stay in that state as long as I wish, mind completely awake, and body almost completely paralyzed. Sadly, I've been unable to go anywhere past that.

I've only really tried to WILD at night as I go to sleep, and not in the early morning like many seem to suggest. I figured that if I am able to enter a state of near-complete paralysis so easily at my normal bedtime, I should be able to WILD then too. Is it incorrect to think so?

Last night, I stayed in my 70% paralysis state for perhaps even an hour, and nothing seemed to happen. No hallucinations of any sort, no change in mindset (other than an increasing amount of boredom and mild frustration). Everything was simply normal, no matter what I tried. I was completely conscious and awake the entire time, just paralyzed. I eventually got fed up, and got myself out of paralysis and decided just to sleep normally and hope to achieve lucidity with MILD (which was unsuccessful as well).

I was wondering if anyone else here experienced anything similar, and if they have any suggestions for getting past that stage and into a dream. Is my problem related to the time I choose (am I wrong to think that if I can achieve paralysis at that time, I can WILD?)? What can I do to complete my paralysis (if necessary) and transition into a more dreamlike form of consciousness?

I will be very grateful if you have any suggestions or advice to offer.

I'm no pro, but i think rem sleep comes after you start sleeping, so you need to sleep some before you can wild. I think its possible to do it like what your talking about, but i've heard it's hard.

Originally Posted by jmanjohn

I'm no pro, but i think rem sleep comes after you start sleeping, so you need to sleep some before you can wild. I think its possible to do it like what your talking about, but i've heard it's hard.

Isn't sleep paralysis part of REM sleep though? I assumed that if I can get into sleep paralysis at that time, I could get into REM...

Again i'm not 100% sure, but i think rem(rapid eye movement) sleep starts after the body has already slept several hours. Hense the wbtb procedure.

I am new here as well, but I have done much more research than you, so allow me to help. Quite simply, you have a MUCH greater chance of having lucid dreams in the morning during your longer REM cycles than at the evening. This is nothing to take lightly...you need to realize that if you want to have lucid dreams, you need to wake up early in the morning, then go back to bed (look on this forum for a bunch of techniques from that point). I have found major success with the timer technique found on lucidity.com. I'm not trying to throw a plug in there for that site or anything, but honestly, the info I got there from the videos and the timer I used was extremely helpful. I am new to lucid dreaming as well, and using the timer after waking up 6 hours into sleeping with 1 hour focused on lucid dreaming before going back to bed, I had lucid dreams the first 3 nights I used the timer...pretty amazing results if you ask me. Why do you think I am replying to you at 5:45 in the morning right now?! I am not a morning person, but I bank on the going-back-to-bed part to get me through it. Also, the lucid dreaming is so awesome that I am motivated to do so.

By the way, I used to think I could get into paralysis quite easily as well, but when I truly experienced it I realized it was something much more powerful than I was experiencing. I'm not saying you don't know what it is, but I am suggesting you do more research on all areas of lucid dreaming. It IS possible to LD at bedtime, but for the sake of argument, you are not going to have your first LD at night.

Another point is that I had to let go, that is, relax before I had LD's. For example, I gave up on trying to WILD right away and forgot about getting into sleep paralysis...guess what, I still got lucid using the timer set on Ramp 4 from lucidity.com. Nick Newport over there seems to be onto something if you ask me. But like I said, if you've done more research you will quickly realize that trying to LD in the evening is not the way to start. There are many variables that go into it, one being the melatonin your body produces and how it affects your REM sleep. I am no expert, but there are many things going with your body and sleep cycle that you are unaware of...so read up and take the advice of the members on this site that are much more experienced than myself.

Originally Posted by matt1039lp

I am new here as well, but I have done much more research than you, so allow me to help...

Thanks a lot for your help! Though you are mistaken to assume that I hadn't done much research. I have indeed done extensive research on the topic.

I have experienced true sleep paralysis, before I even knew what it was. It was indeed incredibly powerful, and I remember the feeling well. The reason why I said that I get 70% paralysis is because it seems like I get the same sort of thing, just slightly more mild than the complete paralysis I have experienced, but I am near certain that it is on the right track, as it is powerful. I think that if I hadn't experienced the full thing before, I would have thought that I had achieved full paralysis.

I am well aware that it is recommended to lucid dream in early morning, but I figured that a combination of brain entrainment and sleep paralysis may allow me to WILD at night. This last night, I tried WILDing for about 30 minutes (after a long period of brain entrainment), and I seemed to get closer than normal. Though I wasn't as successful with the paralysis (only had a mild 30% ish feeling this time for some reason), I experienced a small taste of hypnogia. I had to wake up at 6:35 this morning, so I gave up after 30 minutes (besides, laying in even mild paralysis is so uncomfortable!).

I ended up waking up from a dream at 4:30 this morning, and it was near lucid (I found out that I was dreaming in the 10 seconds in between the dream ending and me waking up. I began to question probably in the very last second of the dream, or perhaps a little after). In any case, I tried to WILD after that, trying to recall that dream, and I was just about as successful as I was the evening before.

So I don't know, I'm thinking that a combination of brain entrainment and sleep paralysis can potentially simulate the mindset that I would experience in the morning. Perhaps I will try to set an alarm in early morning this weekend, but I don't intend to try it when I need to wake up at 6:35 am...

For now, I think I will just entrain and WILD attempt for about 30 minutes before sleep every night, and continue doing regular reality checks throughout the day so that if/when my WILD attempts fail I will still have a reasonable chance at DILDing. It seems like I am slowly but surely getting closer to achieving both. I remember having two dreams this last night, but I can only remember what happened in one of them at the moment (I know, I should really write these down...).