Thread: Never get sp any more

Sleep paralysis is when the “physical” part of you falls asleep while the “mental” part of you is still awake. In order to achieve this state on any sort of consistent basis, you need to understand how your body works so that you can set yourself up for success.

Ironically enough, night is not a good time to try to get sleep paralysis…and here’s why. When you first crawl into bed and begin to go to sleep (typically at night), your physical and mental selves are going from “awake mode” to “asleep mode”. This process, however, takes quite some time to do. The problem is that, by the time your physical self has relaxed enough to fall asleep, so to has your mental self. Or in other words, by the time sleep paralysis sets in on your physical body, your mental self is “somewhere else” and doesn’t even notice its happening.

The solution to this problem is simple. Instead of struggling against your body’s natural processes to achieve sleep paralysis, it’s much easier and more effective to work with your body. Let yourself fall asleep when you first go to bed, but wake yourself back up around 4 am. What this does is give your mind plenty of time to cleanse itself of the business of the previous day, and it also allows your body enough time to have become so relaxed that it could “fall asleep”.

At this point in time, you no doubt could easily go back to sleep...which is good. Your body is rested but still tired (which is exactly what you want) however your mind will be groggy (which is not what you want). To refocus your mind, you need to stay awake until the grogginess of waking up has gone away. This can take 30-60 minutes. During this time do not watch TV, go on the internet, or do anything that will clutter your mind. You’ll know when its time to go back to sleep is when the frequent yawning sets in.

At this point, lie back down in bed in a comfortable position (on your back preferably) and stay still as possible. Your body may create sensations of uncomfortableness, but ignore them. This is merely your body testing itself to see if it’s safe to fall asleep. If you respond by shifting positions, this will tell your body that you are not “mentally” ready to fall asleep just yet. This process will continue to repeat itself until you are no longer responsive to those uncomfortable sensations, at which point sleep paralysis will finally be allowed to set in. Thus, the goal is to trick your body by staying focused and not moving after going back to bed.

I hope this helps!

Originally Posted by ethen

At this point in time, you no doubt could easily go back to sleep...which is good. Your body is rested but still tired (which is exactly what you want) however your mind will be groggy (which is not what you want). To refocus your mind, you need to stay awake until the grogginess of waking up has gone away. This can take 30-60 minutes. During this time do not watch TV, go on the internet, or do anything that will clutter your mind. You’ll know when its time to go back to sleep is when the frequent yawning sets in.

Just a question, but can you do this with a nap without doing WBTB?

Originally Posted by Toastypleez

Just a question, but can you do this with a nap without doing WBTB?

That's a good question (and sorry for the delay). This question has relevance for me as well because, given my new schedule, I now find myself waking up at 4:30AM but getting home early enough to allow for a nice nap before dinner/wife coming home/etc. The only issue I foresee with this type of approach is that, depending on what you were doing before the nap (and how long you were doing it), even if you are physically tired and able to go to sleep easily, your mind may not be in as preferable of a state as compared to just waking up after a few hours of sleep. You may still be distracted with thoughts of work/school/etc which will make it more difficult to just slip into sleep paralysis.

But the short answer is yes. It's just not as easy that way by comparison. Keep in mind that attempting this during a nap will most likely be easier than trying it at night, however. There is something about sleeping during a time when you normally wouldn't that has a tendency to spark LDs and sleep paralysis.

ethen,

You said that your mind could be distracted with thoughts of work/school/etc.... Other than thinking about staying still, what should we focus on in order to pass over to dreamland? Do we set ourselves up for the type of dream we want to have? Or clear our minds completely?

Thanks,

Daniel

Originally Posted by activedreamer

ethen,

You said that your mind could be distracted with thoughts of work/school/etc.... Other than thinking about staying still, what should we focus on in order to pass over to dreamland? Do we set ourselves up for the type of dream we want to have? Or clear our minds completely?

Thanks,

Daniel

Work on deep breathing. Relaxing every part of your body. Meditating. And yes, you could think about what you'd want to do in your LD. Just don't get to overly excited thinking about it. But if you feel you are dozing off, just keep thinking "I am dreaming.. I am dreaming.."

Good luck.

Also a very good question. The one thing you want to do is make sure your mind doesn't "drift off". This is why it's important to not be thinking about random things while attempting to enter sleep paralysis. If you do, you will most likely end up in a regular unconscious dream (if you even manage to dream at all, that is). However, without some sort of focus, such as if you are trying to keep your mind blank, it is very easy to loose lucidity because there is nothing for you to be "lucid" of.

So what is a good way to maintain your lucidity? The short answer is to simply exercise your awareness of what is going on. Periodically refresh your memory of where you are and what you are doing.

In addition, I find it helpful to exercise my awareness of my surroundings. I do this by visualizing what my room looks like, what I must look like lying in my bed, what it would look like to be walking down the hall, into the kitchen or living room...and so forth. At first it may be hard to maintain a nice stable visualization, so do not worry about getting too detailed when you first start. The main thing is to be able to keep a consistent stream of visualization.

However, once the visualization seems pretty complete and stable, start noticing the littler details in your surroundings, and not just what things look like, but also textures, sounds and smells. Sometimes I will imagine myself getting up from my bed, what it would look like, sound like, and feel like. I will take note of what the carpet would feel like on my feet as I begin to walk around. As I pass objects like dressers, tables, walls...i will run my fingers along those things to feel their textures. I will begin to remember other details as well, like how I will usually have a glass of water on my bed stand, or a shirt I left lying on the floor. I then imagine what it would look and feel like to pick those things up...

But remember, even when doing this you have to periodically remind yourself of what is really going on. The visualizations are good for creating your dream-scape but at the same time they can lure your attention away from the task at hand. So, it's a matter of being able to keep awareness on the fact that you are lying in bed and trying to get SP while, at the same time, being able to picture what is going on in your surroundings. Thus, during your visualizations, periodically "walk" back to your bedroom and check on your sleeping self.

I have never get into SP by myself.

I started to pursuade lucid dreaming yesterday, and I have been in SP twice.
I found a mp3 on this site witch contains theta waves. It's 12 min. long and when I play it trough in-ear headphones, I'm in SP before the end of the song.

I haven't tried going into SP without the sound. I bet I can't because I have felt SP only randomly for short time before.

My trouble is that my dreams don't start when I am in SP. I only tried before naps. Last night I thought I'd try DILD but nothing, I actuly did a reality check but I belived it. Everything was so logical and even if think about it right now I would still beleve it