The other night, I had a DILD, which inspired me to actively pursue another lucid dream.
So last night, I planned on trying a WBTB/MILD combo, but still tried doing some counting/etc. as I was falling asleep. I ended up giving up because it was just keeping me awake.
I ended up waking up an hour and a half before my alarm was scheduled to go off, but decided to just make that my time to get up and read for a bit instead. I got up, got on here and read for about half an hour and went back to bed. I lay there for a while, repeating in my head “I’m going to dream and I will remember my dream” while envisioning the last bits of my dream I had had previously that I could recall. None of this seemed to be working (I think I was trying to hard) when suddenly my mind randomly drifted to something… I think it was me and some of my friends talking to a famous soldier or something, I don’t know. Then my tinnitus got very loud and I felt like I was sinking and I believe I felt the “vibrations” everyone talks about… and I freaked out and forced my eyes open even though it was very hard to do so. I ended up trying to do the same thing again either shortly thereafter or later that morning when I had woken up again, but just ended up freaking out again. I was so close 
How can I keep myself from freaking out? The main thing I’m afraid of is the sleep paralysis… that idea seems really scary.
And I’ll just throw this question in here - does it matter what position you sleep in? 'Cause I mostly like to sleep on my stomach and I wondered if that’s a problem.
Sleep paralysis isn’t something you need to fear. 
In fact the fear of sleep paralysis is what causes the bad experiences. We have an instinctive reaction to being paralysed, we get afraid, since in the past; it would have made us vulnerable. That reaction is now redundant, our mind can get us out of the state in mere moments should the need arise.
From what I know more bad experiences occur when people wake up into sleep paralysis. This is because you are disorientated as you have just been dreaming. It is also quite a sudden change for the mind to take in. Whereas when you are going to sleep it is a gradual process. To my knowledge Lucid dreaming doesn’t affect the chances of you waking into SP. Unless you try WILD you are also very unlikely to encounter whilst falling asleep.
When you hallucinate because of being in a semi-dream state, we have as much control over what we see, as we do in dreams. After all we hallucinate because we are between dreaming and waking. To stop yourself having the bad experiences you can remember that nothing in a dream can hurt you in reality. The hallucinations can be a friend too, you can use it by transforming whatever is scaring you into a guide.
Depending on your beliefs and personal feelings you could try a number of things, asking Dream Guides/Spirit Guides to come, getting angry with the hallucinations or even just laughing at them. Those are just some of the suggestions I have read, there are more.
No, the position you sleep in will only affect your chances of lucid dreaming, if it affects your chances of sleeping. I have heard that sleeping on your stomach can have an interesting effect on your dreams, but not that it makes it harder as such.
I’m not really sure what technique I was doing at that point… something just kind of “happened”. I assumed I must’ve been WILDing 'cause of the “symptoms” I experienced, but then again I just read when someone tries to AP they hear a high pitched noise, maybe like the one I heard (though I do have tinnitus, it just became really loud and intense). So maybe I was trying to have an OBE? Lol hell, I dunno.
Is it possible to do it when it’s getting light out? I think it would be a lot less scary my first time if it wasn’t pitch black in my room. ><
Couldn’t have said it better, Dragon73. 
This is really important, I believe. Just knowing about SP gives you an increadible advantage. If you ever have it you can just think “oh, so this is SP I guess” and remember you can “think things away”, instead of "What is this!? AM I dying!? 
"
You get use to it too, the whole experince (if it happens to you, I mean). 
EDIT: just saw your last post… I’ve gotten pretty far with WILD when there was sun coming through my window. I guess it helped my mind stay awake…
If it freaks you out, you need to get used to it. I had that plan myself, but I couldn’t produce the situation often enough to get used to it. The plan is to simply try to go further each time.
Sleeping positions. I find that sleeping on my back seems to have a good effect on my awareness during dreams. But I can’t fall asleep on my back in the evenings. But really i don’t know if sleeping positions really do anything. I have heard that the old hag is more common if you sleep on your back, when you usually don’t, so. I guess there could be something to it.
Hmm… well maybe I’ll wait 'til this weekend so I can go to bed/get up later. I’ll probably try again tonight anyway but I might end up “bailing out” again… The vibrations/intense ringing/fear of being paralyzed forever gets to me. lol >.>
I knew about SP already, and I almost think it’d be better if I hadn’t known about it… the anticipation is what did me in…
@krakatoa: I was thinking the same thing. I figure if I do it enough I’ll just get used to it and eventually it’ll be no big deal.