Sleep Paralysis: An Unpleasant Side Effect of Lucid Dreaming
Introduction
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Lucid dreaming is the awareness of being in a dream state and taking control of the dream itself. Some people lucid dream to stop nightmares, increase dream recall, or to practice things required of them in normal wakeful reality - like a job interview or speech. However, the most common reason for lucid dreaming is simply for the experience itself. Words cannot accurately describe the sensation of full control and freedom over ones reality and waking up in a world that your mind has created, where the only limitations are the imagination itself.
The world of lucid dreaming is a world in which you can meet anyone or do anything. Whether it’s flying, walking through walls, visiting distant planets or fulfilling some sort of personal fantasy. The only limitation is your own mind.
Though the experience is typically pleasant (if not incredible), there are instances when it can be unpleasant or even downright scary. Sleep paralysis is an example of a scary situation that can occur while trying to lucid dream, and that is the focus of this article.
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Sleep Paralysis
Sleep paralysis is a feeling of being awake but being unable to move and it typically occurs between the stages of a regular sleep cycle. Many people today experience sleep paralysis and the chances of it occurring increases slightly when a person is trying to lucid dream. For that reason, I believe that it is something to be aware of so if it does occur, the person does not get frightened or panic.
Generally, when a person falls asleep and enters the REM stage of their sleep cycle, their body becomes paralyzed. It does this as a protective measure. For instance, if a person dreams about jumping out of a window, they wouldn’t want there to be any sort of possibility of them actually jumping out of the bed. So to protect us from moving around too much while we are sleeping, the body relaxes its muscles to a point in which a mild paralysis occurs.
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Sleep paralysis occurs when the person is in a deep REM sleep and the body is paralyzed but for some reason the persons eyes randomly open and mind awakens. In such cases, the persons mind is awake and their eyes look around, but their body remains paralyzed.
Some people also remain in a dream state when this occurs and they have hallucinations that they believe are real. In this state, people often report feeling as though they were being choked or held down by an outside entity. Sleep paralysis has also been linked as a possible explanation for alien abduction encounters.
Do Not Panic: It will be over Soon
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Sleep paralysis is a very uncomfortable experience and can last up to a full 20 minutes depending on when it happens within a typical REM cycle. However, the realization of what is going on and remaining calm can be helpful if it occurs.
I have experienced sleep paralysis once, at a time when I was heavily involved in lucid dreaming. During the encounter, my body was paralyzed and I was unable to move but my eyes were open and I felt fully awake. I luckily wasn’t dreaming at the time, which I think would have added to the discomfort.
The most distressing part for me was the fact that my jaw was locked and my teeth were clench together and I could not separate them no matter how hard I tried.
However, I was aware of what was happening and I told myself that it would be over soon. This allowed me to stay calm and the experience ended after about three minutes. Afterwards I felt completely fine.
I believe being aware of the experience helped me a lot in the situation so I thought it would be a good idea to share it with others.
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Thanks for Stopping By
Feel free to share your experiences with lucid dreaming or sleep paralysis. I’m always interested in what others have to say.
Thanks for sharing your experience with us @leaky20.
I don't know if you have been following the multiple article series I am writing on the subject of lucid dreaming, but our article sure touches on some of it thus find many crossovers.
The sleep paralysis occurs in the intermediary state between full sleep and all the way till your have fully regained body awakening. The practice of Dream Yoga and the such helps one to realize that it is your spirit that is in limbo at this point and not fully aware of the state it is in while being in the "in-betweens", a.k.a. bardo, in Tibetan, or barzakh, for the Sufi. IT is a place one can visit during a certain depth of meditation or as one either falls asleep or comes back from their oneiric travels.
When in that state, your eye are not open, though you sure feel like they are as you can see the exact same things you would, if you were in your body, behind your eyes! At this point, you are still floating above the body and, not being fully awake yet, one can come across all the dream planes and spiritual planes...
With little practice, one can very easily get in and out of this sleep paralysis. I personally practice being in the in-betweens, they offer the key, a doorway so to speak, to the ultimate connection between all worlds.
Thanks a lot, again for an excellent quality article. It was much appreciated on this end.
Namaste :)
That's very interesting. You sound very knowledgeable on the subject, well beyond my experience. I have never heard that explanation before - "in between states" and such. I find that all very interesting. Thanks for sharing that. I'll have to check out your blog.
It has been a while and I have yet to write a new article about Dream Yoga, which followed the Lucid Dreaming articles, about 7 or 8 of them so far. They underline techniques, experiences and philosophical mind-sets to practice becoming aware that one is dreaming, then becoming fully conscious within the dream, then practice using one's will to dissolve the illusions created by the everyday living within the confines of the body and it moves towards opening one's eye of awareness to all of consciousness realms... I hope you'll enjoy.
Here's a link to the first few articles:
1- https://steemit.com/life/@eric-boucher/life-will-seem-like-a-dream
2- https://steemit.com/life/@eric-boucher/turning-dreams-on-off-like-your-iphone-to-becoming-oceanic
3- https://steemit.com/life/@eric-boucher/7tuanr-lucid-dreaming-the-art-of-summoning-dreams-to-the-surface-of-one-s-mind-and-know-that-you-are-dreaming-part-1
After that, it is very easy to find them within the blog... I still can't wait till the moment Steemit will separate the actual resteeming from our own writings.
Namaste :)
Very cool. Its such an interesting topic. The power of the mind and the mystery of consciousness makes it very fascinating.
Very interesting post about dreaming. I remember almost every dream and also the details of the dream. Some of my dreams give me some how hints of the future. Sometimes after I dream, I want to wake up, but it feels something is holding me so I can not wake/stand up. That feeling I have is the same on that image in this post. Very scary! (3 months a go I made a post about my dreams in the past: Dream Diary.)
Sounds like you have experienced sleep paralysis which can be very scary.
Thats impressive that you can remember every dream you have. I can barely ever remember my dreams except the very vivid ones or if I am actively trying to lucid dream.
That sounds very interesting. Can you explain further?
I had once a dream of a man holding a piece of paper with numbers 84 written showing it to me. next day I bought a lottery ticket and won 100 euros. I also dreamed that I was at the airport but didn't fly yet, just waiting with my suitcase. this happened 3 times.... apparently is was my thesis being rejected 3 times. after a few weeks I dreamt that I was finally sitting in the airplane.Next day I got an email from my lecturer saying my thesis has been approved.
Wow that is very cool. The power of the mind is incredible.
Maybe those are instances of clairvoyance?
I am not sure @leaky20, but I have these dreams occasionally. Would be nice to have it more often hehehe...
By practicing dream yoga and meditation, such dreams will occur more and more and will even start showing up in your daily awareness too... ;)
Namaste :)
ooowwww , good to know ;-). thanks for the tip!
You are so welcome, if it can help, I'll be glad... Namaste :)
yeah that would be good. Especially the ones that result in winning lottery tickets!
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Sleep Paralysis can last for 20minutes? I will probably just die. I actually thought of writing along this line about the same time you wrote. Sleep Paralysis is scary. As a kid, it was believed by adults around me that it was caused by "evil spirits". Lol. Its terrifying lying there and just hoping someone would come and wake you up. At a point when I shared a bed with my younger brother as a kid, I would try to call him and beg him to wake me up (it's crazy). The best feeling is always when you eventually gain control, usually, the legs first. and it's true, I believe it is linked with lucid dreaming and especially out of body experiences. There was a point in my late teens when I would have spontaneous OBE immediately after a terrible paralysis. I still get it as an adult but without the OBE or lucid dream. I have somehow learnt to stay calm and let it pass away but you can never get used to the feeling of being held down..
Learning to stay calm and rest within the OBE, especially as it starts gives you a powerful experience allowing many devils to stay away from your fears... ;)
With practice, this state can last forever and one can use it to practice many highly advance "meditation" techniques. This is a doorway one must learn to experience in order to become more aware of the distinction between being within the confines of the body by opposition with being outside of it. As soon as you are outside of it, even if it is only a millimetre above your eyes, your entire body is apparently paralyzed, unless you have had enough experience to feel that you aren't within the confines of the body anymore. Still, with tons of experience, it is still a bit confusing to hear that your body was actually snoring while you think you are silently observing the person getting ready to come to bed with you. LOL!!!
Namaste :)
Learning to stay calm within the OBE is great but within paralysis is a bit hard as the instinct is to panic. paralysis also involve the feeling of being unable to breath which is even worse than that of being unable to move.
I believe one can last in any out of body state with practice when the attention becomes stable and can lead to deeper states of introspection. I never had enough time to try it. My attention fluctuates and cuts out less than 30seconds.
Lol about the snoring part/ Sometimes I would hear myself do that while trying to be as conscious as possible while falling asleep.
Hearing the snoring is one thing and, as far as I have experienced, I can't help but believe that it is one of the main triggers of sleep paralysis too, along with blankets in one's face and situations like it that actually prevent one from breathing properly. It is such a powerful and useful mechanism that our body has to recall the spirit back to itself to make sure one doesn't just die because they have started to swallow their tongue or half of one's hoodie is over their face! ;)
Thanks for the great comment! Namaste :)
Lol. I think this is usually the case. I will be checking your blog out for related articles.
I believe a normal REM cycle is 20mins so if you open your eyes at the beginning of the cycle and become conscious then you would be in it for a long time. Its probably very rare though. Yeah I have heard that a lot of people believe that they are evil spirits. People make comments such as "it was like someone was sitting on my chest" or "it was like I was being choked by something."
Your experiences sound pretty intense. Wow. The OBE experience would be fascinating. I've never had that. I agree that staying calm and letting it pass helps. If you try to move and talk it makes it scarier because your body doesn't allow it which amplifies the discomfort. But if you just lay there then its just like laying in bed with your eyes open.
I think that lucid dreaming increases their occurrence because, you tend to wake up a lot more during the night when you lucid dream (thats the case for me at least) and you tend to remain more conscious throughout the night. Your mind is constantly trying to wake up so if it does in REM and your eyes happen to open, then you get that weird combination of paralysis from REM and somewhat dreamy state.
With practice, this state can last forever and one can use it to practice many highly advance "meditation" techniques. This is a doorway one must learn to experience in order to become more aware of the distinction between being within the confines of the body by opposition with being outside of it. As soon as you are outside of it, even if it is only a millimetre above your eyes, your entire body is apparently paralyzed, unless you have had enough experience to feel that you aren't within the confines of the body anymore. Still, with tons of experience, it is still a bit confusing to hear that your body was actually snoring while you think you are silently observing the person getting ready to come to bed with you. LOL!!!
Namaste :)
It's true the rem cycle is 20mins but I also think 20mins of paralysis is rare or maybe those who experienced it never woke up to tell. 20mins in that state will be a terrible experience.
At this point, I can't tell if my experiences back then were influenced by the type of materials I read back then, or if the experiences lead me to the books I read but I experienced funny things like sound of water rushing in your head after coming off paralysis them flowing into a short obe. I had a nice lucid dream trigger as a kid, once I saw paintings of mary(we were catholics) in the sky. As a teenager, once I sat in an exam and don't know the answer, I just realized I must be dreaming. It was a recurrent nightmare.
I never made the connection but I guess the mind trying to wake up is the cause of lucid dreams and paralysis but why doesn't it happen for everybody?.
yeah you are probably right about 20 mins being extremely rare.
I don't think that sleep paralysis only occurs because of lucid dreaming , I think it is just one aspect to it, like it can be an unwanted consequence or side effect of trying to lucid dream. I'm sure there are many reasons that people experience sleep paralysis. Sorry, if my statements seemed very matter of fact, that wasn't my intention. I'm certainly not an expert on this stuff - more of a student with a few personal experiences to share lol.
So i'm not sure why it doesn't happen to everyone or why it only happens to some.(??)
I understood your statements, I was just pointing out a few things and asking a question at the end. I would want to believe it's a side effect of lucid dreaming too.
I know no one can answer these questions fully. lol we'll all just keep observing and learning.
There are multiple cultures who have observed and lived and still practice being in these states as they are a key to the full unification and understanding of the plane of existence we are mostly living in and with. (See the first comment I just left for leaky20. There are much more.) The sleep paralysis is a natural part of the process of becoming fully aware, thus a bit of a side-effect of learning to lucid dream, as one thing, but also a side effect of meditation, when one gets to a certain depth...
Namaste :)
Yeah, this is true and Leaky20's post supports that too.
ok gotcha :)
Yes I agree that we are all observing and learning
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