Sleep Paralysis and Lucid Dreaming
Sleep Paralysis and Lucid Dreaming
Sleep Paralysis is a bit of a misnomer because it is actually what happens when you are awake following sleep but your body is still paralyzed as it would be during REM-sleep. The physical paralysis of REM-sleep inhibits your skeletal muscular system from acting out dream movements (which would be a bad idea! By the way, sleep walking is almost always not accompanied by dreaming/REM-sleep, and sleep talking is usually not occurring during dreaming). Normally, when you wake up from sleep naturally (without an alarm clock or sound) you are waking up directly from a dream - whether recalled or not. Along with this awakening, the paralysis of REM-sleep is supposed to end, but sometimes it doesn't. Sleep Paralysis may result from an abnormality of the individual, or be due to drugs or waking stress. Sleep Paralysis can also be very scary, especially if you don't know what is going on. Because Sleep Paralysis is indicative of a highly active dream generation system - so active that it won't shut off even after awakening - we would expect a carry-over of strong dream material into the awake yet physically paralyzed condition. And what have we already determined to be indicative of a highly activated dream system? - Threats! Hence, Sleep Paralysis is often accompanied by scary noises, a frightening presence in the room, the feeling of being held down, etc. One way to get out of this scenario and regain control of your muscles is to direct your breathing - calm your breathing down and focus on relaxation. However, Sleep Paralysis can be used as a gateway into lucid dreaming. Rather than trying to push the paralysis away, you may be able to enter back into the dream state (you are already halfway in it!) and maintain waking-like consciousness (lucidity). This would essentially be a WILD, or actually, a SPILD! Not everyone is prone to Sleep Paralysis, so for most people this is not an issue. But attempts at lucid induction (including sleep disruptions, nootropics, frequent dream journaling, dream incubation) tend to increase the frequency of Sleep Paralysis, so it would be useful to rehearse in your mind what you would do should you find yourself in this situation. And remember, if scary things are happening, that's just an artifact of the highly activated dream generating system - that's what it does (and this was for evolutionary success for our ancestors, so don't be mad at it).
The breathing technique used in sleep-paralysis to gain control of your skeletal muscles can also be used while dreaming to wake up from a dream (although most people have the opposite problem and want to be able to wake-up IN a dream). If you are dreaming and what to get out of it - and this would work even if you were not fully lucid but remembered to do this anyway - slow down your breathing and stop moving. If you've ever watched someone in heavy REM-Sleep, or even a dog for that matter, you've seen that the breathing is rapid and uneven, just like it would be if you were panicking in real life. And for dreams to remain active your body has constantly got to be doing something. By smoothing out your breathing and disengaging from acting, the REM system becomes deactivated and you will wake up.
This is important information for how to REMAIN in a dream, or a lucid dream, as well. Staying stable in a lucid dream requires not getting OVER EXCITED (that's why many people wake up after just a few seconds of lucidity) and conversely, not being UNDER-INVOLVED. To maintain lucidity you should be attempting to achieve some goal or else the instinctual threats will grab your attention and pull you out of lucidity, or, not activating your motor cortex through dream movement of your body will result in the dream fading. You can not stand still for long, or close your dream eyes and just "be." To guard against this, especially when you are just exploring the dream environment with no real objective you can do things like talk out loud (yes, that involves a lot of motor activation in the brain) or rub your hands together while walking around.
The breathing technique used in sleep-paralysis to gain control of your skeletal muscles can also be used while dreaming to wake up from a dream (although most people have the opposite problem and want to be able to wake-up IN a dream). If you are dreaming and what to get out of it - and this would work even if you were not fully lucid but remembered to do this anyway - slow down your breathing and stop moving. If you've ever watched someone in heavy REM-Sleep, or even a dog for that matter, you've seen that the breathing is rapid and uneven, just like it would be if you were panicking in real life. And for dreams to remain active your body has constantly got to be doing something. By smoothing out your breathing and disengaging from acting, the REM system becomes deactivated and you will wake up.
This is important information for how to REMAIN in a dream, or a lucid dream, as well. Staying stable in a lucid dream requires not getting OVER EXCITED (that's why many people wake up after just a few seconds of lucidity) and conversely, not being UNDER-INVOLVED. To maintain lucidity you should be attempting to achieve some goal or else the instinctual threats will grab your attention and pull you out of lucidity, or, not activating your motor cortex through dream movement of your body will result in the dream fading. You can not stand still for long, or close your dream eyes and just "be." To guard against this, especially when you are just exploring the dream environment with no real objective you can do things like talk out loud (yes, that involves a lot of motor activation in the brain) or rub your hands together while walking around.