Staying calm during SP?

[Kaylium]

Ok, I just finished reading Ms. Turner's article on SP, and it actually seems scarier than I remember. If I saw a cloaked figure in my doorway, I would have a heart attack. So, do you have any tips on how to stay calm during SP?

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[lucidinthe sky]

Don't worry about SP, despite all of the interest and talk about it on this forum it's very unlikely that you will experience it. IT IS NOT a stage that you must go through in order to successfully lucid dream. I've had over 100 now and only had SP once and that was AFTER waking up, not during the transition into sleep (by the way, after waking is the most likely time it will happen anyway)

Most of the SP hype on this forum is from people with little or no experience with lucid dreaming and I think there is a lot of imagination going on here about SP so take the claims that you read here with a grain of salt.

So if you think you are experiencing it, just relax and don't be afraid. You probably aren't but the fear of anything is what gives it power over you. That fear is what a lot of people are experiencing, not actual SP.

[HAGART]

Technically sleep paralysis is just muscle atonia and is usually just innocuous vibrations felt in the body, and a slight sense of falling, or even feeling like your body has become a limp rag doll.

However, I had a sleep paralysis nightmare on the 24th of December. Or another definition I like to use is: a false awakening with an antogonistic dream character in the room. They are rare for me, and my last was in April of 2012 and had countless lucid dreams in the mean time with out it. (I blame it on holiday stress, worrying about Christmas dinner I prepared, and sleeping in a shared room with my cousin, knowing in the back of my mind there was another person in the room with me).

How to conquer the fear is hard, because it seems to come from deep within without any logical reasoning. I got angry at the dream person and fought them and asked questions, treating them just like any other dream character I ever met. (You can still move most of the time, but in the past I couldn't when it first started)

So anyway, I don't know how to stop the fear if I tried. I just happened, and no amount of logical lucid thoughts could make it stop at first. But anger gives courage and experience diminishes fear too, so I beat him up and walked away quite proud of myself!

[Xtreme_Walrus]

I just had sleep paralysis this morning. I realized I was in sleep paralysis so I just kept my eyes close, but when I did I visualized an alien. It wasn't scary though, I sort of wanted to open my eyes. But I chose not to. If you want a quick way out if you are scared, start breathing in a weird pattern, that will let your body know that you are dreaming.

[Peter]

just like emotions SP can be a tool or a barrier so dont freak just take charge and use SP as doorway to a lucid state by calm acceptance. Easy to say and hard to do but that is what you have to do and after the first times it becomes easy

[taniaaust1]

Don't worry about SP, despite all of the interest and talk about it on this forum it's very unlikely that you will experience it. IT IS NOT a stage that you must go through in order to successfully lucid dream. I've had over 100 now and only had SP once and that was AFTER waking up, not during the transition into sleep (by the way, after waking is the most likely time it will happen anyway)

I agree with what lucidinthe sky is telling you here... The ONLY time Ive ever had sleep paralyses was after waking up. I dont go throu it to LD. You are better off not even thinking about it other then knowing how to break it if it ever occurred to you (just then focus on trying to wiggle one toe).

............

The only time its probably more likely to occur is if someone has been thinking about it and has entered a dream state and now starts dreaming they are paralysed and not realising its not their real physical body they are feeling. So on those grounds its not a useful state if the person doesnt even realise they are dreaming this.

Its like anything with LD, what you are thinking about, if you enter a LD it is quite likely to occur. So Im going to say its a possible self inflicted state if Im using that logic. (just like people who are scared of some scary thing going on if they LD probably will get that happening as their mind and emotions creates it). So dont even focus on SP, I suggest not to read books on this. Focus on your goal..that is just being to LD and work with the various techniques people use to achieve it.