How can I get sleep Paralysis?

Trust me you do not want to experience sleep paralysis

Its not a nice thing at all
Its happened to me more than 5 times in last few years

Ive noticed it happens to me when ive had a late night or been out clubbing, the following day im really tired and i am lying on my bed watching TV and start to fall asleep during the day,
My body is tired but my mind tells me its daytime and i shouldnt be falling asleep.
So it causes my mind to awaken while my body is asleep!

The worst times are when ive been lying on my belly/side with my arms straight down next to my body but under my body!

This means when i wake up my arms are dead because i have been leaning on them but also because i cant move them because my body is paralysed its 10x worse!

It feels like its very hard to breathe, like a huge weight on my chest, i concentrate on doing short breaths and try to tell myself to wake my body up!
Its even worse if your face is facing down on the bed because it makes breathing even more difficult because you cant move your head to the side to breath, instead it feels like you are being suffocated.

Infact i think i was suffocating because its only when i feel as if i cant beath anymore and lack of oxygen that my body finaly wakes up!

I try to cry out HELP to parents in the house but no sound comes out of my mouth due to my vocal cords being paralysed!

Its the most horrible experience ever and the first time i thought i was dying!

Its not somethin you want to try induce yourself! Its bad enough it happening naturally but to try and force it is just plain stupidity!

Originally posted by sync1
However, the most amazing thing that has ever happened to me during SP was when I was a teenager. I left my body and passed through my bedroom wall and was floating on my back in my front yard. I remember some sort of string or something that was attached to me and my physical body. I had no idea what was going on... was I dying??? Scared me enough that I snapped back into my body like a rubber band. Never had that kind of experience since.

P.S. This has always happened to me while I was sleeping on my back...

Cool and can I assume you didn't read up on this cord/string thing before it happened?
I don't know if you know already but if you research OBE/AP the cord thing is something that comes up a lot.

I've never noticed it thou.(yet)

I can understand why people DON'T want to experience sleep paralysis.

But I can say if you induce SP yourself, then you are in full control and the feeling is very different you can exit it instantly with will. Infact it's easier to lose the SP than stay in it, that's the main difference.

And to those who say they can AP/OBE without SP, maybe so, but I'm willing to bet that many people don't even "realise" they are in SP/trance just before they leave their body because they are focusing on not moving their body in the first place.

To those who can't understand why someone would want to induce SP? there are many reasons that it is desirable.
One reason: Do you know how amazing it is to FLY!?

Originally posted by lukepev
The worst times are when ive been lying on my belly/side with my arms straight down next to my body but under my body!

This means when i wake up my arms are dead because i have been leaning on them but also because i cant move them because my body is paralysed its 10x worse!

I HATE THIS!!! I wake up to dead arms all the time. Two weeks ago I had this dream, it was just me walking down the street, and a blonde woman walking the opposite direction pulls out a gun and shoots me in my right arm, I go down and she's standing over me with the gun pointed at my face about to finish me off. Whole dream was probably 5 seconds or so, but I awoke and was on my right arm and not only was it dead but it took the longest I could recall for feeling to come back. My brain was telling me to wake up before my arm fell off, lol! I also had one occasion where I managed to deaden BOTH my arms in my sleep (real life Ace Ventura situation!)

reply to post by PeanutGallery


I also get this all the time, I NEED a new matress.

i sometimes get sleep paralasys, i think it happens mostly when i'm over tired.
when you've been awake too long and your mind just won't switch off, when you get this just lie on your back until you finally fall asleep, this way often gives me sleep paralasys so i try to avoid doing this.

to awake from sleep paralasys i try to breath faster and more heavily and concentrate on just moving one arm so it falls off the bed, works everytime.

the first few times i had sleep paralasys i found it scary, everything black and unable to move.
now when it happens, i know what it is and don't find it scary at all, to me it's just something that happens sometimes. many people say they feel a presence near them of feel like they're being moved or held down, none of this happens to me, it's just black.

reply to post by lukepev


I know that the experience may be horrible, but I've also heard stories from people who have good expierences with it.
I know there is chance I get a bad expierience, but I am willing to try it because I might get a good experience and I don't want to miss that.

Everyone has SP while they dream. It is a natural defense mechanism that keeps you from hurting yourself while you dream. However, ever now and then one might mentally wake up during SP, and if you don't understand what is going on it can scare the hell our of you.

It happened to me several times over the years. I also am a sleep walker. But, after I researched the pathology of SP and sleep walking, the SP stopped. It has been several years since I've had an incident. I thought the sleepwalking had stopped too, but a couple of months ago I was really drunk and low on sleep and my wife tells me I was up walking around like a zombie trying to go out the windows.

OBE? I've tried with no success. I even smoked Salvia Divinorum without any effect. If you figure that one out let me know.

I get the feeling that some think Astral Projection/Out of Body experiences are the same as Sleep Paralysis but I don't agree.
I know the feeling of flying, walking down the street and remembering the "dream" afterwards, the Sleep Paralysis experiences that I had and still have are VERY different to Astral Projection which is enjoyable. SP is terrifying, there is always a feeling of a very real danger, of a malevolent energy/entity threatening my life.
The experiences with SP which I have had were all in shades of grey or black. The only sounds which I could hear were the moans which I myself was making trying to call out for help, which were the very sounds which eventually "woke" me up. The paralysis is total and frightening. You can make out a figure but it is never clear what it is, male or female, animal or human, there but not there, just out of reach. But the feeling of absolute terror is always present during my SP epsiodes!
I cannot equate Astral Projection with Sleep Paralysis, they are worlds, or nightmares, apart to me!
That at least is my experience, I can't prove or disprove my point!

lucid dreaming and OOB are totally different.

I lucidly dream most days now and have got used to the feeling of knowing you are asleep while still being fully immersed in the dream.

Ive never had OOB and only ever woke with sleep paralysis a few times, like many have said before me, its a very confusing and disorienting experience. The funny thing is that even if you are lucid dreaming and know you are asleep you can still wake with sleep paralysis and be supprised!

This is how i get sleep paralysis (not intentional, i want to stay the hell away from it... i saw what was sitting on my back..).. try to stay up late little longer each night, until you would want to take nap as soon as you wake up... for example you wake up at 8am.. than take a nap at 10am..of course you need to have a lot of stress... i usually get that when i have exams.. where i pull an all nighter trying to cram chapters up in my head.

So pretty much... Sleep deprivation + Stress > Naps

I think some people really must have failed at reading comprehension in school. There are twenty or more posts that completely disregard the OPs original post in favor of sharing their own scary experience.

"Why would anyone want to experience this!?!?!?"

It's been clearly stated several times, but let's get that out of the way right now. He want's to experience it because it is a significant stepping stone towards an OBE. Someone said something about relaxation being needed for astral projection. How much more relaxed can you get than your entire body being asleep? Sure, your mind is freaking out, but that is irrelevant, the body is completely asleep, at that point your consciousness is independent of your body, which makes it incredibly easy to leave it. For most people, reaching that deep a level of meditation is impossible, so if you can learn to induce paralysis, the need for that kind of meditation is eliminated.

And as I mentioned before, the Lucidology 101 videos (Nicholas Newport's techniques) are valuable. They are very detailed, but clear and easy to understand, and will help a lot in being able to recognize when your body is getting ready to paralyze.

Also, The Monroe Institute has been promoting sleep paralysis for decades. They call this Focus 10, or the Mind Awake, Body Asleep state. I'd say they are as reputable as it gets when it comes to the subject of OBEs.

reply to post by Jauk3


Have someone smack you in the head with a bat while sleeping that should get you there !

Here's my thoughts on the issue:


Firstly I believe (based on repeated experience) that SP can be quite alarming and overwhelming, but on the flip side it can be quite close to OOBE's, lucid dreaming and such.

My advice: Study lucid dreaming as opposed to SP, SP can be alarmingly disjointed, suffocating and very unnatural feeling and not even in a rebellious masochistic experience type of way either, it just feels like you're living a nightmare for a few moments and then have disturbed sleep.

If you must know how to go about it, I suggest a lack of sleep, caffeine, stress and mild intoxicants such as alcohol and such, plenty of rich food before sleeping and possibly whilst suffering from a cold.

But, if you wish to experience something much more wonderful and insightful, ignore the above advice, get plenty of good sleep and try and focus on the point you slip between consciousness and unconsciousness, meditate on this - and an even better tip, if you wish to have some deep and powerful dreams, I suggest waking up in the morning, pottering about for ten minutes, have a sip of water or something and then go back to sleep.

The break in the sleep cycle is temporary but enough to carry you over to a dream-like state once you go back to sleep and thus increases your chances of having a conscious lucid dream based on the fact that your brain was alert for a few moments but now seeks the solace of sleep.

Trust me it works.

Forget SP, try lucid dreaming. I've had some wonderful dreams.

I told you it wasn't going to be a popular post, but it will give you the horrific experience you wish to put yourself through. At least you've read what I wrote so I can explain a bit. I've had sleep paralysis my whole life. The first experience I can remember I was at my grandmothers house in my mom's old room which is now completely stuffed to the walls with antique dolls she collects. I know creepy enough for a 7 year old boy. I'm not going to tell you the experience because you've requested no horrible experiences, but it was typical old hag.

Back to how I have recognized this reaction. My girlfriend of many years was complaining about allergies and insomnia when I discovered she takes Benadryl TM. as well as SleepEze for sleep, these both contain the same active ingredient which I will not name or condone as apparently regular old medication is a T/C violation, Irregardless, I told her to stop taking that crap all the time, so she did. After a few days she started complaining about tinnitus as well as a feeling of being paralyzed but awake and how terrifying it was. I Immediately explained that what she was experiencing was sleep paralysis and got really excited as she had now experienced what I experience on a somewhat relative basis, related to stress as well as high periods of physical exertion and sleep deprivation. How ever, when I asked her if that's why she has trouble sleeping, she said no she just started taking meds to help her sleep at a young age, and the symptoms went away after the first couple days. This is how I know this, again I'm not trying to promote this but some medications cause this effect. I should change my name to punching bag. Jeez.

I get it all the time. Most of the time it's more of an annoyance than anything. I just focus up a bunch of energy and sort of push it all out at once - tough to describe. I had it last night, though and it was more frightening than usual. There was another presence during the paralysis. I don't know what it was because I couldn't see it. All I could see was yellow. I don't remember much, but it was frightening enough that I screamed at the end of it and woke my wife up.

reply to post by Morgenstern89


Thank you Morgenstern89 for your post.
I will watch lucidology 101 tonight.

reply to post by lukepev


I've experienced the dead arm thing more than I like to think about.

Also, almost every single time feel like my mouth is being forced wide open and pulled away at an unnatural angle - like this ...


It does happen more when lying on my back, and if I've been sleep deprived (which is a constant thing for me) and when I try to take naps through the day. Happens almost every time. So OP, if you want to get it, as others have suggested, try that. Or the lucid dreaming technique that I listed before.

I really think there is more to it than being awake whilst our body is still asleep, sleepwalking is the opposite and we manage to move around plenty whilst sleeping then.

Pronto presto: www.mindpowernews.com...

Let us know how you fare!