First time sleep paralysis

Before this, I’d been dreaming about rather mundane things.

Later, I was slowly waking up, but it is still night time and pitch dark. My bed appears to be in the corner of a room, and I am facing a window on the opposite wall, with faint light coming in. There appears to be a kitchen to the left of that, much like a studio. Whatever, I am kind of tired, so I want to fall asleep again.

This window actually exists in real life, and belongs to my bedroom IRL. However, that kitchen is non-existent! It slowly dawned upon me that this is a hallucination. I momentarily opened my eyes again, suddenly remembering what my real bedroom looked like (I had to think for a few seconds lol). Now I am looking at my actual bedroom without any visual hallucinations attached. I am also hearing the air conditioner. This sounds like I am pretty much awake, right?

Well, something still felt off. I’ve had my fair share of LDs so I know what dreaming / sleeping feels like, and I’ve also read a lot about SP. At this point I’m pretty certain I am experiencing SP. A small rush of excitement occurs, because this is all pretty new of me. If I pay attention, I can sort of experience sensory and auditory hallucinations.

Now here is the fun part: I try lifting my left arm, while also trying to say something. My speech was slow, and the audio was very faint. Also, my arm was incredibly heavy, and was shaking more strongly than the rest of my body which was also trembling. I don’t think anything actually moved IRL, but it felt convincing at the time. After this little experiment, I closed my eyes again because I know that SP tends to quickly become scary especially for beginners. I thought about random stuff, and woke up for real a few moments later.

So here is the more dramatic aspect. While the SP didn’t last long, about 20 seconds, there was a clone of myself lying next to me in bed. He slowly uttered the words “I am not real”. Feel free to interpret this because I honestly don’t know :stuck_out_tongue:

Overall this was actually a cool experience. Not particularly awesome or frightening, mostly just intriguing. Another state of consciousness that was unknown to me before. I actually hope I’ll be getting these more in the future, because I’d love to explore their connection with lucid dreaming.

I’d love to hear how this compares with your experience.

I never experienced sleep paralysis but your story sounds really interesting. I’m actually jealous :stuck_out_tongue:

Did you do anything in particular that got you into this state?

I haven’t been actively busy with lucid dreaming lately, so I definitely didn’t do anything in particular to induce any special state (LD or otherwise) whatsoever.

However, my daily life has been very busy and stressful (don’t worry btw, it’s only temporary). I know SP tends to be associated with stress, so I think this might be related. I’m actually glad to see it as a positive and not a negative side-effect :wink:

20 seconds seems longer than most of my SP experiences. I can imagine how that could be disturbing, luckily you know what it was! Reading about SP here must have prevented so much fear in many people. 8)

I usually get SP if I wake up quickly from the middle of a dream, or at the end of a dream before the sleep cycle is over. Did you get woken up in any unusual way?

Reading about SP here must have prevented so much fear in many people. 8)

Exactly! Having access to all these resources definitely helps.

I usually get SP if I wake up quickly from the middle of a dream, or at the end of a dream before the sleep cycle is over. Did you get woken up in any unusual way?

I had been vividly dreaming before (probably REM) and do not remember anything unusual, so I think it simply happened at the end of my 3rd or 4th sleep cycle.