sleep paralysis and my mom.

Hello all. My mother the other night (well almost a month ago) had a lucid dream. she told me about it, but then she described to me about how alot of times when in bed, she will feel her arm , but not be able to move it. she says it really scares her but then she tries to tell herself that it is alright. the other day, (about a month ago) she asked me a couple of questions. i had alot myself actually. so. sleep paralysis is when you are asleep right? so you if can feel your physical body paralysed, how do you move onto an ld from there? i know that if you wiggle your fingers and toes, that will help. but does it wake you up entirely, or just push you into the dream state? when you are in sleep paralysis, is your mind in a dream state, or a physical knowing state, or fleeting between the two?

thank you! please respond!

(by the way, i posted this in sleep disorders, but i assumed more people would see it and respond here.)

Ok then, I hope this clears it up a bit...

thank you. that helped very much. does anyone know how to get into a lucid dream state from sleep paralysis?

Lucid Dreamer wrote: thank you. that helped very much. does anyone know how to get into a lucid dream state from sleep paralysis?

I don't think there is a specific method, I think you just need to relax as much as you can while VERY slowly wiggling you second (index) and third (middle) fingers.

My most recent LD happened from a state of sleep paralysis. I realized that I couldn't move my body and instead of panicking, I immediately took action. I stayed calm and just very slowly pushed against the weight. I pushed myself into a sitting position, got up, did a reality check and confirmed that I was dreaming. Some might say this was an OBE, but for me, it seemed like a dream state because my scenery started changing once I walked out of my apartment and my body had classic signs of being in a dream state - i.e. my thumb was fused to my other fingers on one hand.

oo. that is creepy. but from what that sounds like, you became in a dream state even though you were aware that your physical body could not move. how did you transition into this dream state from a waking state of awareness?

Lucid Dreamer wrote: but from what that sounds like, you became in a dream state even though you were aware that your physical body could not move. how did you transition into this dream state from a waking state of awareness?

Well, I never noticed any change. I became conscious while my body was asleep - it was paralyzed - and in that same conscious state, I lifted out of my body and started walking around. I did a reality check by bouncing around and flying a little bit. My apartment and everything looked familiar, but after walking out and going down the stairs, I did another reality check - looked at my hands and noticed the weirdness - and while I was doing that reality check, I looked up and was suddenly in a completely different environment.

This was my first sleep paralysis experience since learning about lucid dreaming a couple of months ago. Before that, it happened sporadically many times in my life and was terrifying. I would panic and think that I must have had a stroke and would start to think that the rest of my life would be spent in full mental awareness yet in a veggie body. These thoughts would go on for a few mins until I would finally remember that this had happened before and that I just needed to calm down and go back to sleep. I never even knew there was a term for this until I started reading this website. Anyway, I've been planning that the next time this happened, I would use the experience to try to have a lucid dream since I've read that people here do that. So, what I described above is what happened with that attempt. And just a disclaimer...I'm no expert, and people may want to debate about what I experienced being something else - maybe an OBE, a false awakening, whatever. All I am certain of is that I was fully conscious, my body was paralyzed, and I lifted up and started walking around and flying and putting my hands through walls and talking to dream characters. Once I was out of my body, it felt just like DILD's that I've had in the past.

so what your saying is that the next time my mom gets this, i should just tell her to wiggle her fingers and get up and walk around? it is just by chance that she might move into a dream state or waking state. so she might get up out of her real bed and be awake. but she also might get out of a dream bed and be dreaming? it is just chance?

Lucid Dreamer wrote: so what your saying is that the next time my mom gets this, i should just tell her to wiggle her fingers and get up and walk around? it is just by chance that she might move into a dream state or waking state. so she might get up out of her real bed and be awake. but she also might get out of a dream bed and be dreaming? it is just chance?

It depends on what your mom wants to do...does she want to try to have an LD? If not, if it freaks her out, then the best thing she can do during sleep paralysis is deep breathe and try to go back to sleep, knowing that it's temporary and that she will be fine when she wakes up. But if she does want to have an LD, then yes, suggest those things to her.

If she's in a state of SP and manages to sit up and walk around, it will just be a dream...she will be consciously dreaming and she can test that by doing reality checks. Some people may say that it's an OBE...maybe it could be, but that hasn't been my experience because though my room and apartment may look the same, when I do reality checks, it becomes apparent that it's just a dream. Any realistic setting that I'm seeing (such as my room, apartment) is what my memory/subconscious is creating based on what I know to be real.

i did some research and understand it now. thanks for your help on getting me started!

I have had sleep paralysis, but every time, I was in a dream. It felt like I was awake, and during my early ones, I swore I was awake and wouldn't realize I wasn't until later when I truly woke up. So actually, if it happens often enough that it becomes a familiar occurrence, and you know you are dreaming then essentially you are lucid dreaming. You may not be able to move, and stuck in bed, sometimes with creepy voices or shadow figures, so it wouldn't be a very fun lucid dream, but technically, you are aware that you are not seeing waking reality, so therefore a form of lucid dreaming.

But how to end it and start a more pleasurable lucid dream?

One way is to try with all your might to stand up and leave the dream room. Whenever a shadow-guy would show up I would attack it and usually pop into a different surrounding and still lucid. Sometimes I use to float up out of bed and around the room, or feel like something malevolent was dragging me around. (Like the stuff demonic possessions are made of... but it's not ;) ) So sometimes I floated/got dragged outside my room or even the house and lucid dreamed with more control from there. I actually haven't had it for a while and think it was just a phase. The more I got use to it the less it happened. I actually kind of miss it. There's nothing like having the bejesus scared out of you before you start your day! :twisted: :lol:

But I still wonder if some people get sleep paralysis and are truly awake. If so, then it is a completely different story, and none of that would work.

huh. that is interesting. because i read on this website, "The experience of sleep paralysis occurs when your mind (in part) wakes up, but your body remains asleep. Physically asleep, you remain paralyzed. But mentally conscious, you may start to panic and the half-dreaming mind conjures up nightmarish images to "explain" what is happening" (worl of lucid dreaming). tht basically awnsered my most deepest and confusing question about your state of mind. but i also read that when you try to fight your sleep paralysis, it will just result in more demons and scary things because yyou will be so anicked about not being able to move.

Lucid Dreamer wrote: i also read that when you try to fight your sleep paralysis, it will just result in more demons and scary things because yyou will be so anicked about not being able to move

If you're panicked it may make it worse I bet, but whenever I fought it, I became extremely angry at it :x. It is a highly emotional state, and your own emotion can change things. Anger conquers fear.

Lucid Dreamer wrote: "The experience of sleep paralysis occurs when your mind (in part) wakes up, but your body remains asleep. Physically asleep, you remain paralyzed.

When someone has SP are their eyes open and see the true room around them, with a few hallucinations thrown in, or are they still fully asleep and only think they are awake? I actually don't know, because nobody was around me whenever I had it.

So here's another thought, another way to get out of SP: go to 'sleep' and have a WILD. Know that every thought you have may manifest itself, relax, and let it happen. Ignore any weird sensations like bed sheets getting pulled off or shrink-wrapping around your body -- those use to spook me awake, but with familiarity don't anymore. Just observe passively. You may see weird images and hear sounds, but eventually it will pop into a 3D dream world. And if not, it's still good practice to become familiar with all those weird sounds and sensations in this state of mind.

thanks! and i like your signature. haha.