Thread: Cant Complete Sleep Paralysis

Originally Posted by Examination

As soon as I feel the vibrations and my body being sucked into my bed, I try to relax and let my body do the work but the feelings go away after about what seems to be 30 seconds.

While I haven't yet even attempted to properly WILD, I have spent a good deal of time experimenting with the onset of SP. I had the same problem at first, so I may be able to help.

I was looking into SP exit strategies, and all of the different sources had the same thing at the top of the list; change your breathing pattern. Because breathing is both a voluntary and involuntary function, you have should have control of it through even the deepest onset of SP. The idea is, taking slow deep deliberate breaths will cause the body to recognize the brain is awake and controlling your lungs, and then snap out of SP. The more I thought about it, the more the idea that there was a fundamental link between SP and the body's breathing pattern seemed to make sense.

Back to the problem at hand. At first, I'd be laying as still as possible, waiting for my body to fall asleep while trying to keep an internal focus. After a while, I'd feel vibrations and heaviness in my feet. I'd recognize that this was the onset of SP, and two things would happen. The first is I'd try to explore the feeling as thoroughly as possible. I'd pay attention to how it made my legs and feet feel, it's progression to the rest of the body, if I could still feel the socks I was wearing, etc. What this did was change the nice internal focus I had worked so hard to achieve to an external one, which may not entirely ruin SP, but it doesn't make the process any easier.

The second thing I was doing was giving my body a very stern "Relax" command. When I send myself the cue to relax, I concentrate on releasing any tension in my muscles, and taking slow deep calming breaths. As counter-intuitive as it seems, I found this to be what was keeping me from inducing SP.

Chances are good that if your body is relaxed enough for SP to begin to set in, you don't need to tell yourself to relax any more than it already is. Doing so may even alert your body that your brain is still functioning. Everyone is different, but for the most part, the sleeping body takes short shallow breaths spaced at even intervals. It draws just enough breath to satisfy the body's need for oxygen, and no more. Deep breathing can be a cue to your body that your brain is still awake, thus reversing the onset of SP. My advice to you would be to completely ignore the SP as it sets in, and keep that internal focus.

NOTE: the shallow breathing thing was really hard for me to replicate. I tried to consciously replicate my sleeping breath rate, but breathing shallow got me a bit panicky, which really set back the SP. The trick is not to concentrate on breathing at all, which can be tricky. What ended up working for me was counting heartbeats. This technique ended up not being disruptive enough to take me away from my internal focus, but just enough to distract me from thinking about breathing all the time. The brain lets go, you switch from voluntary to involuntary breathing, the body thinks the brain is asleep, and badda bing, you've got yourself some full bodied SP. Again, I'm no authority, but this really worked for me. Hope it helps ^ ^

i highly agree dire, i have trouble because i panic with the shallow breathing.. i will try the heartbeat trick

Originally Posted by ah19

i have trouble because i panic with the shallow breathing.. i will try the heartbeat trick

The trouble with the heartbeat trick can be that many WILD techniques require that you count breaths. Your heart typically beats a lot faster than your body naturally draws breath, so some adjustment may be in order. My quick fix with that was to count every other, or sometimes every third heartbeat.

Another problem I've run into is when you concentrate on your heart in your chest, it can feel as if it's beating a lot harder than it actually is, which can be pretty distracting. Like all things good, it'll require some time. After spending a while counting heartbeats, I've consciously gotten used to shallow breathing while still awake, so I rarely use the technique anymore. Good luck to ya.

Yes I tried the heartbeat trick but its impossible to ignore the suffocating feeling.. What can I do?????????????

Nevermind, for any one else having trouble you just have to SUCK IT UP and focus on other thoughts and dont worry about your breathing.. like someone else said, your brain is a complex biological computer and it's primary objective in life is to keep you alive so just trust it.

Well said. If you just ignore what happens in SP and go along with it everything will be great.

-CV

I find it interesting that a thread about SP is not accompanied by stories of horror, Old Hag references, or anything of that nature. Have you all simply not undergone such experiences? Or is negative SP sort of old news for this website? I myself have devoted hundreds of hours of research into negative SP and have regrettably attained little credible knowledge.