The ‘climbing stairs’ visual isn’t a part of old hag or SP - it’s a technique to help people keep their mind and imaginative senses active while WILDing.
I’ve had old hag a few times years ago (it really confused me, had no idea what it was). There was no hallucination of a figure in the room, just SP and extreme anxiety.
Remember, this is all in your head - you can snap out of it at any time, you just need the will power.
It does sound like something scary, but it isn’t something that should keep you afraid of WILD. I’ve only had sleep paralysis once, but it wasn’t scary for me because I had already read about it here. I wrote about my experience in this thread, so if you can find it, that would keep me from having to write about it again. For some people, it is just a cool experience, and that’s all it was for me.
the old douche bag has never given me any trouble even though I get SP almost every time I WILD and I kinda want to see her.
Topic merged
I experienced sleep paralysis while conscious early this morning. I awoke from a rather long dream during which I almost became lucid. Suddenly, I realized I couldn’t move a muscle. It was pretty bizarre, but it didn’t frighten me as much as I would have expected. I think I eventually got my hand to twitch, and then my whole right arm could move, so I brought it up to my face and used it to turn my head to the side. That brought back some feeling to the nerves and started reminding my brain okay, you’re awake now…time to let me move again… It was pretty weird, although it seemed pretty similar to the accounts I’ve heard from other members. I feel even more sorry for quadriplegics now.
Just felt like sharing. 
Am not entirely sure but I think I may have experienced sleep paralysis as well. I was trying the WILD technique two or three nights ago, and I felt a weird weightless sensation as though I was floating. While I was looking up LD’s on wikipedia today, I found a link to sleep paralysis, which said this could be one of the less-common side-effects caused by sleep paralysis. I’m not sure if I could move or not though, because when I try to get to sleep I try not to move anyway.
Anyways, here is link:
By the way, what are quadriplegics…?
Thanks, Kay. 
SP isn’t that scary unless your brain tricks you into thinking it’s dangerous. That happened to me before I found LD4all and it was weeeeeird. I was half awake/half asleep and thought I was going into a coma. 
Every five seconds I would try to shake myself awake, then fall back into the SP state and freak out.
Just felt like sharing. 
I wanna experience SP! I’ve never felt it before. Had plenty of LD’s though.
It ain’t that great, Wyvern. If you’ve read about it, you know it’s harmless. Then again, what if you awoke in a state of SP with your room on fire…
Actually, in a case like that, your brain would probably be motivated enough to instantly break down the barrier shielding the areas of your brain that control motion. Not something to worry about. Still, while it’s happening, you can have thoughts like that.
I often experience a lesser form of SP as I’m falling asleep. I can move, but my brain is very reluctant to allow me to do so. Hard to explain. But this was different last night. I told my body to move and it flat-out refused. Weird stuff. But I should be thankful for it, because who knows what kind of harm could be caused by physically acting out our dreams without awareness of our real surroundings…
^ Hey I think I get that too! That’s when I know I’m really starting to fall asleep.
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