I’ve only had SP once that I can remember. It was a strange occurance, but for me it wasn’t too bad. Instead I just tried to close my eyes and go back to sleep. It probably just didn’t seem so bad because I had just woken up from a scary dream, so a little bit of SP doesn’t seem so bad compared to that. I still wouldn’t want to do it again, though. 
This topic has now been split - the discussion continues in Part III