Sleep paralysis and lucid dreaming

As a kid I always fell asleep with a pleasant feeling like my bed was floating gently up and moving back and forth in the air. Then it just stopped permanently and I realized falling asleep without it was difficult.

For a year or so, I was very interested in training myself to intentionally enter lucid dreams, partly because I thought it would help open my mind's eye, and partly because I thought it sounded cool. I made sure to recall my dreams every morning when I woke up & tried all kinds of mental tricks to keep some control while falling asleep. I never managed to pull that off, but I did finally notice I was in a dream at one point. It still wasn't lucid though, and I didn't have real control over anything; it actually felt a lot like extreme depersonalization.

I remember reading that even if you've actively trained yourself to dream lucidly, there's a chance of sleep paralysis & night-terrors, which was intimidating. They sound pretty horrible. I've never experienced sleep-paralysis, but I occasionally get the opposite, where a dream suddenly frightens me awake and I jump out of bed or yell out.

under ice wrote:As a kid I always fell asleep with a pleasant feeling like my bed was floating gently up and moving back and forth in the air. Then it just stopped permanently and I realized falling asleep without it was difficult.

I don't do this often, but even as a grown-up, I do sometimes. It's a very soothing mindset.

I experienced them both. They are really cool (except the paralysis, it scared the $#%^ out of me: it was someone staring at me and I got scared and then I realized that ''it was my mum'').

I've experienced what I believe to be astral projection... not intentionally. Had this since I was a little kid. Where I sometimes feel as if I'm beside my 'self', observing myself, but not with my eyes... blackness. Obviously, because my eyes are closed and it's dark... and I feel very mortal. Seconds slip away off the counter of my life... and I am watching it happen...

The farthest I got was probably two yards upwards... but it was more of a feeling of separation from self, than a physical "check me out I'm having an out of body experience". I was sick at the time with some virus.

I have mostly in-sane dreams- I don't need drugs.

Sleep paralysis

Only once. I saw my parents moving around the room but couldn't move nor say anything.

lucid dreaming

Didn't experience yet. I don't even remember my dreams anymore.

Hallucinations when going to sleep or waking up are normal. lucid dreaming is normal. Sleep paralysis is also normal. on occasion, that is. Stress, poor sleep and other factors can increase the incidence of these, but on their own there nothing to worry about.