I’m sure you have heard of sleep paralysis many times. Just to clarify; I am dreaming and I wake up, but I can’t move anything. I see the real world environment, but I hallucinate figures. If I force myself to get up, its like wrenching the soul out of the body, and eventually I teleport back into my sleeping position.
I have realized that I can choose to fall back asleep if I calm myself down and then I will know I am dreaming, but usually it fades away from lucidity.
Or I might wiggle my toes and awaken for real.
I don’t sleep on my back out of fear of a sleep paralysis experience. I have witnessed some terrifying figures.
I guess my main questions would be whether or not you have you ever had experiences with sleep paralysis in your dream explorations? And if so, how have you approached them?
Thank you
Hi,
I have had sleep paralysis maybe 5 or 6 times. I learned that if I could focus on moving my finger or toe, then I could break the ‘paralysis’, so that is what I normally did.
Then I learned this technique (to use sleep paralysis to become ‘lucid’) in Ryan Hurd’s excellent book, Sleep Paralysis. He recommends that once you find yourself in sleep paralysis, just relax and ‘imagine’ yourself flying over a nearby lake or park — as you imagine and imagine flying over the lake or park, then suddenly you will realize that you are flying, and having a lucid dream!
In this way, you can use your imagination in sleep paralysis to ‘construct’ a pleasant environment, and then lucidly find yourself there. Sadly, many people do the exact opposite — they find themselves in sleep paralysis and then imagine someone is in the room, or worse, and these ‘imagined’ events begin to appear around them. Instead, use the sleep paralysis state to ‘imagine’ flying over a nearby lake, and suddenly you will find yourself in a lucid dream, doing exactly that.
Now, it takes a bit of trust, especially the first time, but lots of people have done this and had fun. So if you can imagine that pleasant scene vividly, then you will find yourself there, lucidly aware. Let me know how it goes, okay? You can have an incredibly joyful experience of lucid freedom.
Stephen La Berge felt that sleep paralysis may occur when the mind awakes, but the body remains in normal sleep (and therefore seems paralyzed). I feel everyone should try and remain calm, and see the potential of this state to move into a lucid dream.