Lucid Dreams/Paralysis dangerous?

I've had issues with sleep paralysis before... it generally takes me a second or two to know what's going on, but once I do the solution is simple - I focus on the image of "pushing" my consciousness back into my body and, generally within a few seconds, I'm able to sit up, shake my head, and go "wtf... ah well I'm hungry"... heh.

*shrugs*

At the same time, to those that have suggested it's some form of Astral Projection... how would you define that? I've had some interesting experiences I can only really attribute to AP, the most confusing of which actually happened on my school bus.

Back in high school, I was the last stop for my bus, resulting in an hour+ bus ride... same route every single day, and I always arrived home within a 10 minute period... so I became very accustomed to falling asleep to my CD player and waking up maybe 5-10 minutes before my stop. Usually I'd have some very... interesting... dreams, I'm assuming spurred on by the conversations around me.

One day, I fell asleep as usual... but my "dream" was very different - I was actually above the bus, watching it... I didn't feel corporeal or anything, just that I could "look down" on the bus and the surroundings.

What made it odd is that it had to take a different route home because of an accident - now, this was my 9th grade year, so I didn't yet drive and didn't know the alternate routes very well... yet I followed the bus perfectly as it turned down streets I've never been on before.

This must have continued for well over 45 minutes before the bus finally pulled up to my stop, facing the opposite way it normally comes. Soon enough, I see myself walk off the bus, across the street, and into my house.

I woke up shortly after that, standing in my living room facing the couch.

I asked my bus driver about the route home the other day, and she said that there was an accident, and that we had to take a different way home...

yeah... kinda creepy... I really don't know what to make of shit like that.

 

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Lucid dreaming is realizing that you are dreaming when you are dreaming. That does not qualify as a disturbance in physical or mental health / functions. It is a normal event that can happen when humans dream.

Similarly sleep paralysis correctly keeps you from moving around during the normal hynopompic state that can occur in humans when waking up. Again, this does not qualify as a disturbance in physical or mental health / functions.

edit: Sleep paralysis can also occur in the normal hypnagogic state that can occur in humans when falling asleep.

 

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I think there are many causes of sleep-paralysis. REM atonia is certainly one and is a natural part of the REM cycle rather than disorder.
But there are other causes, and as such sleep-paralysis can be a symptom of a disorder.

As for lucid dreaming - it's not a disorder - just a mental state while dreaming where one is aware that one is dreaming. It can lead to the ability to completely control your dreams, but I seem to wake up whenever I become aware that I am dreaming.

 

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Correct.

 

There is a good documentary on sleep paralysis on youtube, its around 5 parts or more. I had it pretty much weekly since i was late teens so i just learned to deal with it. Luckily they are much fewer but occasionally i still have them.

I think it is more of a part of the dream\nightmare process and once you have one you psych yourself into having others due to the fact they are scary but somewhat interesting. Learning about them makes them much less but they definitely feel supernatural. One particularly frightening one was hearing things move around my bedroom and feeling things walking past me. Funny thing was that when i woke up my GF asked me "did it feel like people were walking past us?" So i say that was just a coincidence.

 

ok.

 

.,.

 

i never new what it was called until i told someone about it. ive been having these wierd paralysis dreams or if they are dreams for atleast 6 years now. i remember the first time i had it after that day i kept having the same kind of problem every night for 2 years straight i was teriffied of my sleep i never told anyone hoping they will go away. things only got worser started seeing things and hearing voices speaking in tounges. now i was completly confused scared and hopeless. why me? it kept happening after that i always tried to fight then i was so used to it i am not scared no more i dont feel hopeless. one year ago i had this really wierd one my eyes always trying to open i can see people around me everything seems to be there all im seeing is real. im trying to wake up move my arms but trying not to talk cus when i do i really say things in my sp, anyways my hand feels stuck but all in a suddent my left arm feels free and i try to pass it in front of my eyes but i dont see anything but my hand feels like its there and moving, i was confused and scared i and go and touch something with my hand(invisible) and i really move something im looking at it move in this reality dream? did my hand really move it ? what was it ? was my mind playing tricks on me ? but how if everything im seeing is really there i ask my self was that as real as the dream im having. is everything i see and hear really there ? i think about it alot everyday ? i wonder if im the only one being tortured while i sleep?