Save Yourself From Sleep Paralysis With Lucid Dreaming

Imagine a disease that only affects the human race every night while they slept. It can target anyone, from infancy to old age, and it occurs every night- the body shuts down for periods of time, sometimes longer than 25 minutes. That is sleep paralysis. If you, like me, have had nights where you feel stuck in a waking nightmare, read on to

find out what I did to help ease the trauma of continual sleep paralysis.

So what is sleep paralysis really? Sleep paralysis can take place while you are falling asleep, waking up, or any state in-between. It usually only lasts for a short time, but it can be extremely terrifying. If you are transitioning to sleep, your muscles do not get an adequate amount of oxygen which causes nerve cells to react by denying sleep. All this occurs while REM cycles are still running very strong in your brain which causes hallucinations that happen during this stage of sleep. A lot of people who experience sleep paralysis end up having very visceral nightmares that are so bad they’ll finally snap them awake.

TL: DR In simple terms, your body falls asleep before your brain so you are conscious but you cannot move, while your mind plays tricks on you.

What causes sleep paralysis? While there are no conclusive causes, people who have trouble sleeping (insomniacs) or whose circadian (day- night cycle’s) rhythms are off (jetlag or night shifts), or people with underlying sleep conditions like apnea seem to be more prone to it. Psychological issues like anxiety can also be linked to it. For me, I found that when I stayed up for a night or 2 in a row, due to the work pressures of marketing in hospitality, the next time I fell asleep I would be more prone to paralysis, I assume because of how tired my body was from the lack of rest.

Okay so I have sleep paralysis, now what?

Sleep paralysis is a phenomenon where you feel like you are incapable of moving during sleep. The terrifying feeling is often accompanied by dreaming about panic inducing things like spiders crawling on your face. It’s best that the condition be treated correctly at the outset. The way I learned to deal with sleep paralysis was by one of the most popular methods, practicing lucid dreaming.

Lucid dreaming is when you aware, while sleeping, that you are dreaming. The best way to do this, and I quote the Christopher Nolan film Inception on this is to find your totem. This is some symbol that you can rely on within your dream to let you realize that what you are experiencing isn’t real. The totem I chose for myself is a watch which shows that it is 13 o’clock- clearly a sign that what I’m facing isn’t real. Once you realize you are dreaming you can mold the dream any way you want which is actually really cool. Imagine visiting any part of the world, knowing how it feels to fly or maybe even just kissing your celebrity crush- all possible via lucid dreaming. For more tips to experience lucid dreaming, click here.

TL: DR: Lucid dreaming helps beat sleep paralysis. Control your dreams and mold them to whatever you want them to be using lucid dreaming techniques.

“This is why lucid dreaming is often considered to be the safest route to go, as you are consciously aware of everything that’s happening to you”. The solution that worked best for me, dealing with this nighttime demon (cos it’s hella scary once you experience it) is lucid dreaming. Also, once you actively practice it, it becomes super fun.

Have you dealt with sleep paralysis? If yes, how did you cope? Let me know in the comments.