Sleep paralysis discussion

[liamforester]

As of late I have had a quite a few SP experiences and have both questions and answers that seems to me to be a phenomenon in itself.
One of the things that strikes me is that SP and AP seem to be both interconnected and totally unrelated at the same time. I've seen it been described as merely a stepping stone towards AP but the experiences in themselves, to me seem to warrant its own theories and discussions as I think that it is starting to effect more and more people on this board, particularly the beginners.
Now this is a point that I think should be addressed, more and more beginners are experiencing SP.... spontaneously. Not when trying to AP or trying the noticing technique, but after waking. Should SP be considered a natural progression to being able to AP? The reason of asking is that it has become much more common place over the past few months and it wasn't so common about two years ago when I first started watching these boards. Is it something that beginners are picking up and doing that wasn't done originally? (I may be wrong about this, maybe people are just discussing the subject more).

As I said before I have been experiencing SP at a much higher rate than I think is normal, but I feel something brought it one.
(For those of you that haven't read my earlier SP and AP experience then this is the link: http://www.astralpulse.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=21885
About 4 weeks ago, one night after I had SP during the afternoon, I had a dream; the dream was that I was in a hospital waiting room with a doctor sitting opposite me. He was holding a syringe. He was holding me by the wrist with his free hand, exposing my inside elbow (where the pulse is). He asked me if I wanted this done and warned me that after I had it done that it was permanent. I said yes. He asked again, again I said yes. He injected me. I woke up. I was in SP. Now this may seem to have nothing at all to do with the SP but it does strike me as odd. Perhaps my subconscious was asking me if I wanted to open myself up to this ind of thing. I don't know. Just a theory. To be honest I think that in the same vein as AP, once you open the door to these things, you can't go back. I have experienced SP roughly 5 times in the past 4 weeks.

A question that I wanted to ask was that, has anyone broken out from SP and then felt immediately like they could easily slip back into it? This is what happened to me last night:
I was having a dream, a dream in which I was in a very comfortable bed and I was seeing things, things that I knew I shouldn't be seeing, to be brief I was hallucinating in my dream and I knew it. I could also hear noises, noises much like you get with the vibs; pulsing, high frequency noises that are right in your eardrum. I began to realise that it was a dream and began waking up, the thing was, as I was waking up the hallucinations of flashing green lights and the noises weren't disappearing. I woke up in SP, I could still hear the noises and I was facing my bin. I watched the bin and it looked as if it had a fire in it, although the fire had know distinguishable shape or colour. I have experienced SP so much lately that I have developed my own technique for breaking out as I often am not interested in AP whilst I am paralysed. There is usually some small part of my body that isn't paraysed like my little finger, this time it was the tip of my tongue. I moved y tongue then immediately switch corniness to my arm so it moves. The problem was that this time it wasn't working. After a while of panicking and relaxing then trying it again I managed to break out though it took much longer than usual. After I awoke however I and sat up, I could feel it coming back. It felt like my mind still wasn't fully awake and that I could easily become paralysed again. I fought the feeling, though every time I rested in a certain position I felt the onset. Now I know what I should have done would be to let it happen and try AP but I was to tired and to scared. I sat up, tried walking around, had a glass of water, I even tried scratching myself to wake up out of what ever was happening. Nothing worked. Now I am honestly not one to panic in these situations, I can usually be very objective and can guide myself through without any worry but it just felt more imposing this time. Eventually I lay on my stomach and shut my eyes and slept without trying to move incase I discovered that I couldn't.
A very similar thing had happened before where after I broke out of the SP and turned over I would immediately be paralysed again and after about half a dozen positions and breaking out I finally got some sleep and the SP feeling disappeared. The difference was that last night it took ALOT longer to disappear, even when pacing my room.

This is just some views and discussion on the whole thing, I am by no means an expert in any way shape or form. I do feel however that this maybe something I have to live with for a while, maybe even the rest of my life so it would be good to know if anyone is going through something similar or has anything else to say on the subject.

Thanks in advance, Liam

[MisterJingo]

Hi Liam, I havent got time to reply in detail now, but do a search on my name and the term paralysis.
I've frequently had a form of sleep paralysis which I sink back into once I 'break' it.
Normal sleep paralysis, I work up the effor to move and it breaks. With the other kind it's like I have to fight to move my head off the pillow. I can move up around a foot and then the effort is too much and I fall back to the bed paralysed. The sensation preceding this form of paralysis is like a sinking in the body and mind.
Its not usually a pleasent experience for me and it can take a lot of attempts to break it before it fades. My partner has witnessed this, so it's not something I imagine.

[Sepultura123]

I was having SP really young.

The first time I was really scared but I think they are fun now. I dont fear them anymore and make fun about trying to get out of it, trying to move.

If you didnt awake from a SP , surely you will be sleeping and not experiencing SP like in 30 minutes...

But now its a long time that I didnt have a SP

[InnateBuddha]

i know exactly what youre talking about... as soon as i broke my sp i slipped into it at least 3 more times (that i can fully remember)....and now as i start to relax i can even feel it start to happen...it totally freaked me out and havent tried the relaxation tape since...

[Trancer1]

for me i seemed to have some weird condition and if i wanted to could  have it every night. its all under control though. but if i am struggling with
it all i would have to do is consume food. i find some fruits like maybe a banana or orange clears my sensitivity to it and i sleep like anyone else.

[CFTraveler]

It's my opinion that when you practice AP what you are doing is getting used to stay conscious when your body falls asleep, and training your body to do it.  So it follows that you will have more sleep paralysis, since that it what it is- your consciousness staying 'on' when your body falls asleep.
Maybe the effect of going back to it means that your body barely woke up in the first place but your mind stayed 'on.' Sounds logical to me.  I have had that happen only once, so I'm not a good example of this.
I think that people who are spontaneous projectors prob. get sp more than others anyway.
But that's just my opinion.

[cainam_nazier]

Just to through a wrench into things, as I am often opposite the considered "normal".

I have experienced SP a total of 3 times.  None of the experiences were any good what so ever.  The last one came just after a dream that changed the way I look at the world and stripped all the abilities I had at that time.

However, SP is simply put a condition of your cognitive functions being active while the rest of the body is still asleep.  This can and does happen for a multitude of reasons and is not a direct function of astral projection or meditation of any kind.  Typically it is from an uncontrolled traumatic or psychologically shocking experience that forces the mind to wake up first with many being unable to recall anything prior to waking up.  Now one can put themselves into this state but I am willing to go as far as to day that it would not be a true SP moment.  Much the same as some one inducing coma or a catatonic state.  As with all self induced states it is not considered a "true" state because the individual has the control to stop it at any point in time that they wish.

Now since most of the people who report this are doing so as a pre-curser to either AP, LD, normal sleep, and after long periods of meditation I would say that the SP is self induced and not a true form.  Basically since they are working towards a certain goal they are not really experiencing SP but are experiencing early stages of AP, LD, or normal sleep.  Which would be a normal progression of that goal.

Now I am not sure if many of the people are experiencing true SP, where in they are already asleep, and then wake up being unable to move, ect.  In these cases however they are experiencing some thing that is psychologically shocking enough to their system to wake them up in the wrong order.  What ever the case, a dream, a semi lucid moment, or even a brief projection, their mind either unwilling or unable to deal with the situation therefor creating the psychological response.

There is also the possibility that some of the people, more so for the ones that report frequent SP with out any goals, have an actual medical condition that is causing SP to happen more often.  I would almost point to sleep apnea right away, a condition where a person has trouble breathing at night when the body relaxes and the brain is forced to wake up to re-align the muscles so the air way can be opened back up.  Now where I am in Arizona, USA the air quality is in such bad shape this year that this explanation is not that far fetched, and even less so among asthmatics.

Edit--
I would also point towards a possible psycho semantic response to explain the sudden rise in reports.  You know, we start talking about it and then every one has the same problem.  I have seen it happen before.  Or even possibly you just didn't notice until you started having the same problem.  Just like some one you know getting a new car, next thing you know you see the same kind of car all over the place.

[MisterJingo]

Hi Cainam Nazier,

There must be other mechanisms for SP to occur than those given above. I say this as I remember my dreams in detail, and I rarely have what could be considdered a nightmare. I suffer from SP regularly, and it usually happens in the morning when waking up, or when waking from a nap.
I have on occasion experience SP when going to sleep after waking in the night, this usually takes the form of gettin involved in hypnogogic imagery, nearly a sleep and then the paralysis hits me.
I'm 26, and don't suffer from any medical condition (including sleep apnea). I've suffered from SP for aslong as I can remember (I remember episodes as early as 5).
Strangely, my father suffers from regular SP too - although he never remembers his dreams and has never had any 'strange' experiences in the SP state (to his memory at least).

I think on forums like this, the incidence of SP would be much higher than in the general populance, because they consist of mainly people who have had such experiences and use the net to look for explainations.

[CFTraveler]

I just pointed out that in some astral forum threads (maybe this one, I don't remember) there was a mention of the recurrence of SP in comparison to people that spontaneously project.  It seemed, as I recall, that people that tend to spontaneously project (as I have always done until I learned methods to induce it) seem to get more SP than people who don't.  It was also mentioned that people who do both also tend to be light sleepers.  Of course, there were exceptions to this, it being a forum and not a scientific experiment.  It seems to me that the mechanisms of SP and the methods used to induce trance have the same result, even though one is induced, and the other one is natural.  Then of course, it will not be identical.  I will say though, as someone who has always gotten them, that the qualities in pre-OBE-training SP episodes are pretty much identical to post training episodes-  the only difference is that the latest ones I knew what the dweller-on-the -threshold was and that I should be able to stop it with my thoughts.  Unfortunately it didn't happen, I suffered the same irrational panic (even though I knew it was irrational) and the only way I was able to make myself wake up was by getting totally ticked at the whole situation.  The rage is what broke it.
As to  

as I am often opposite the considered "normal".

:scratchy:  Who's normal?

[cainam_nazier]

Hi Cainam Nazier,

There must be other mechanisms for SP to occur than those given above. I say this as I remember my dreams in detail, and I rarely have what could be considered a nightmare. I suffer from SP regularly, and it usually happens in the morning when waking up, or when waking from a nap.
I have on occasion experience SP when going to sleep after waking in the night, this usually takes the form of getting involved in hypnogogic imagery, nearly a sleep and then the paralysis hits me.
I'm 26, and don't suffer from any medical condition (including sleep apnea). I've suffered from SP for as long as I can remember (I remember episodes as early as 5).
Strangely, my father suffers from regular SP too - although he never remembers his dreams and has never had any 'strange' experiences in the SP state (to his memory at least).
.

To me the simple fact that your father has the same problem even more so points to a medical issue.
So you don't have any problems that may impede breathing.
Asthma
Chronic Sinus Problems
Deviated Septum
Allergies
Collapsed Lung
----------------Other issues that can lead to similar problems.
Heavy or Deep Sleeper
Sleep Walking
Smoking
Alcohol
Drug Usage
Sleeping Pills

I know there are more, I will try and find them.

[MisterJingo]

To me the simple fact that your father has the same problem even more so points to a medical issue.
So you don't have any problems that may impede breathing.
Asthma
Chronic Sinus Problems
Deviated Septum
Allergies
Collapsed Lung
----------------Other issues that can lead to similar problems.
Heavy or Deep Sleeper
Sleep Walking
Smoking
Alcohol
Drug Usage
Sleeping Pills

I know there are more, I will try and find them.

Hi Cainam,

I agree it does suggest a common condition, one common factor I can think of is the need for less sleep. Such as my Dad is usually up at 5-6 am (he's retired,so he doesn't need to get up at that time), and I generally have 4-6 hours a night sleep. We are also both very light sleepers.
We neither suffer from those conditions you post above.

[cainam_nazier]

DO you wake up to an alarm clock or naturally?

Brief loud noises can create the proper setting for SP as they can interrupt your sleep cycle.  More so when it is just long enough to get your brain attention with out actually waking you up.

The only other thing that I can think of is that because you don't sleep for that long you either A) different cycle for sleep, or B) are waking up in the middle of your last cycle and it is not completing for some reason.

Do you notice about how long you have been asleep when this happens?  IE is it closer to 4 hours or 6?  It may be helpful if you can figure out how long you have been asleep before waking up and keeping track of that for the days you have SP.

The average cycle takes 1.5 hours, if I remember correctly, with the last half hour being when your body goes through the regeneration cycle.  That is when your body is "shut down" the most.  Typically if you interrupt a cycle and don't get to the last part a person tends to require more sleep.  It could be that your regen cycle is longer thus requiring less sleep and creating the higher potential for SP.

[MisterJingo]

DO you wake up to an alarm clock or naturally?

Naturally. This is also something I learnt from my Dad. That is, you can train yourself to wake up at a certain time, so if I need to be up at 6am, and I know this, I will wake up around 6am.

Brief loud noises can create the proper setting for SP as they can interrupt your sleep cycle.  More so when it is just long enough to get your brain attention with out actually waking you up.

The only other thing that I can think of is that because you don't sleep for that long you either A) different cycle for sleep, or B) are waking up in the middle of your last cycle and it is not completing for some reason.

Do you notice about how long you have been asleep when this happens?  IE is it closer to 4 hours or 6?  It may be helpful if you can figure out how long you have been asleep before waking up and keeping track of that for the days you have SP.

On average I would say it is closer to 6. I think another factor to take into account is if I have about 2-3 hours sleep at night, I will nap in the afternoon/evening for a couple of hours. So I have no set sleep routine, I sleep when I can.
To an extent my Dad is the same, although he generally has regular bed/wakeup times, he does nap (while watching TV lol) in the evening and seems to get SP then too.

The average cycle takes 1.5 hours, if I remember correctly, with the last half hour being when your body goes through the regeneration cycle.  That is when your body is "shut down" the most.  Typically if you interrupt a cycle and don't get to the last part a person tends to require more sleep.  It could be that your regen cycle is longer thus requiring less sleep and creating the higher potential for SP.

There coud be truth in this. I would have suggested environmental factors (Such as I grew up near the M6 - one of the busiest stretches of motorway in Europe - and could always hear the background 'roar' of traffic), but I shared a room with my brother, who would have the same conditions affecting his sleep, and he never has SP - nor do other family members.

[liamforester]

Sorry I've just noticed that I put the wrong link on the initial post, it's corrected now. Thanks for the input people!

[warn81]

I had a dream I was on a plane and it was going to crash into the ocean, I closed my eyes a few seconds before it was going to crash...I woke up in sleep paralysis and I felt sooo much wind around me and heard a roaring sound...pretty cool...it seems a light was coming from behind me, but I couldn't turn my head to see.

[ReceptviCanatvr]

I experience sleep paralysis several times a week.  It can be a very frightening and disconcerting thing.  It is more liable to occur when I've stayed up late the previous night, woken up and gone back to sleep.  I am at the point now where, if I wake up and find myself unable to move and a second or two of trying to move hasn't yeilded any results, I calm down, cease in my attempts to move and pray to God or Christ that they let the episode end and immediately I am able to move again.  I am so grateful for this because I am a person very much given to fear and anxiety (not to mention my claustrophobia) and if it were to go on any longer than it does I would absolutely FREAK! out.  

If I succeed in moving and don't immediately get out of bed, the paralysis sets in almost immediately.

I understand that sleep paralysis is very common in individuals with depression, anxiety, or a sleeping disorder, all three of which I have.

Oh, also, the hallucinations which you are describing are perfectly normal;  they are referred to as hypnagogic(occurs as person is waking) and hypnopompic hallucinations (occurs as person is falling to sleep) and frequently are accompanied by sleep paralysis, both of which are more commonly experienced by individuals with sleep disorders.  It is said that as much as 30% - 40% of the population will experience this phenomenon at some point.

[cainam_nazier]

For those who really don't like going through this you can also try wiggling your toes and fingers.  This helps wake up the nervous system and can help end SP more quickly.

[malganis]

I never had sp but i know one guy who says its much more efficient for breaking sp with moving a tongue than toes.

[warn81]

I only get it if I sleep on my back...but now i'm getting more interested in it...I'm going to try to astral travel more. Yeah, I was depressed and my s.p was so severe. Every time I go to sleep I would wake up in s.p. I had the halucinations a few times. I saw just an outline of a 3-D cube floating in my hallway, I ran and it followed me....I closed my eyes  then it was gone.

[kiwibonga]

I experienced something when I quit smoking pot...

A lot of people tend to say that marijuana is not addictive... But I'm pretty sure I experienced certain withdrawal symptoms...

After a brief period of not smoking pot after having it daily for about 6 months, I started experiencing weird things. I would be unable to keep my balance and would keep falling over, I even knocked a lamp out with my feet when I first woke up with the problem.

I stopped going to school (my source of pot) for a week, and then things got worse. My alarm clock rang but I didn't move. I would say I wasn't experiencing a passive sleep paralysis... It was an extremely strong depressive feeling that prevented me from getting up, I just didn't have the will to even try and move. I was in a shell, where nobody could do anything to me. My dad tried to wake me up, I didn't even feel him shaking me. My muscles were all stiff, they became very worried.

Having experienced the "passive" kind of sleep paralysis as a little kid... I think there is a big distinction to make...

"Traumatic" sleep paralysis is probably much more voluntary than we think, i.e. the body decides to shut off because of some kind of chemical imbalance, while the kind that comes "naturally" is perhaps just a lucky moment of awareness during sleep.