Sleep Paralysis can be scary. There is no denying that fact. But did you know that some people have been able to turn chronic SP into something intriguing and almost enjoyable? It can take a lot of practice – but with some patience and a little insight into what SP really is, you can transform your negative experiences into something else.

safe-dreaming

Strange, Floaty Sensations

When we dream, our muscles are paralyzed thanks to some of the chemicals within our brains that trigger this paralysis. This is called REM Atonia. Atonia is just a scientific word for loss of tone/movement. REM atonia makes it so that we don’t act out our dreams physically and hurt ourselves during sleep.

When we wake up before those chemicals that trigger atonia can signal our muscles to move again, we experience sleep paralysis. The combination of being awake but also being paralyzed sends our brains into a sort of panic mode. Usually, this prompts us to try our hardest to move. However, many people have learned that if you relax your muscles and resist fighting or tensing up, the result can be some pretty strange floaty sensations. Many people can then prompt themselves to feel as though they are moving around the room or floating above their body. Of course, this isn’t actually happening, but that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t feel pretty real!

Lucid Dreaming

When someone becomes aware that they are dreaming while they are still in a dream, this is called Lucid Dreaming. While many scientists assert that lucid dreaming isn’t dreaming at all, but more of a partial wakefulness, it can still be an intriguing experience. During lucid dreaming it is possible to control your dream and the environment so that you have control over it and what happens within it. A large amount of people who experience sleep paralysis claim to be able to lucid dream as a result. They claim that the key to lucid dreaming is to relax during sleep paralysis and try to fall back into a dream. Once they accomplish this, they claim that they are able to control their dreams due to their partial wakefulness thanks to the sleep paralysis. They can then do whatever they want such as fly, see loved ones and manipulate objects in the dream.

When Scary Hallucinations Happen – What They Can Tell Us About Ourselves

Frightening hallucinations are common with sleep paralysis. They are reported much more frequently than positive and neutral hallucinations. It’s probably for the same reason we hear more negative reviews about a company than positive ones, or why the news seems to be dominated by negativity. Fear is a strong emotion and if you don’t understand what SP is, it can lead to some scary conclusions. However, it’s important to remind yourself that these hallucinations aren’t real and they can’t hurt you. But why do we get them and what do they tell us about ourselves? Perhaps with some critical thinking, we can learn about our deepest fears through our SP hallucinations and maybe even grow a bit as a result.

Many children who get SP have claimed that they see scary monsters and cartoon-like characters. It’s no surprise that this happens, because these things tend to be most prevalent in children’s shows and scary stories. Demons and evil creatures often plague sufferers of SP regardless of religious affiliation because lets face it – they’re extremely frightening in any context. Our biological fear of the dark and the unknown really manifests within these creatures. Alien abductions and sightings in bedrooms are also a common SP hallucination. Unfortunately, these can feel so real that they create false memories in a person and they become convinced that they have been abducted or have seen aliens at their bedside. This may be a great fear within these people and something that they have been conditioned to dread due to our pop culture.

Perhaps if we take a look at our scary hallucinations, we can learn more about ourselves and take steps to dealing with these fears in the future.