Hi, I’m new to the boards and the fairly new to Lucid Dreaming but i decided I wanted to give it a shot so i’ve been watching the boards for a while. I seem to be one of those lucky people that had a few lucid experiences before i even knew what they were or how to do them, i’ve probably had mayb 10 minor and 1 or 2 major experiences in the last 3 years. I started keeping a journal a few weeks ago, and i already had a good ability to remember my dreams so it worked out nicely. The downside is that I have a slight case of nacrolepsy. Basically my sleep patterns are very strange, i’ll dream even if i am only getting three to four hours of sleep, and all of my dreams are in color every time. My narcolepsy causes me to wake up every once in a while, and see things, and not be able to tell the difference between dreaming and awake. Most people with it see images of people, i see an image of a lady in a white dress, some people see the same except in black. It is just about as realistic as you can get to seeing a real person. I’ll wake up and talk to her, mostly tell her to go away, and itll take me about 10 minutes before i realize im not talking to anything. Now to the real point. I was at my girlfriends today taking a nap, except i was uncomfortable because the light was right in my eyes. I basically stayed conscious, or so i thought. At some point i realized that i was seeing images behind my eyes, like patterns that were splashing and turning into figures and forms. I kept getting this feeling that i was sinking into these patterns but i was fully awake. When i would sink it would feel like i was being sucked into the images but my body would be paralyzed entirely, even my breathing. I’ve had this befoer when i’ve fallen asleep i feel paralyzed and cant move or breathe and it only happens when im uncomfortable. I get a rushing feeling and just sort of “slip” into it, and to wake up i have to FORCE myself to move. I realized though that if i stayed away from these images i coul dmake very very realistic dream sequences, yet i wasn’t part of hte dreams, and couldn’t be. It was more of having an omnipotent feeling, watching myself have the dream but not being able to enter it. I was also fully aware of my body, 100%, i could breathe, move my arms, legs, tongue, everything except my eyes. I was caught in a limbo almost. What i need to know is if anyone knows what this feeling of being trapped in your own body and paralyzed may be, and how would i enter my dream through what i did, to the point where i am NOT aware of my outside body as this ruins the experience for me because i can’t focus on the dream, only on the fact that my body is uncomfortable. I’m quite sure that what I had was hypnogogic imagery, but i couldn’t grab hold and enter them because if i did i became paralyzed and stuck and couldn’t get any farther without worryin about if i was breathing and why i couldnt move. Any help from anyone or even better pro’s would be greatly appreciated, and from reading post’s i know many of you on here are extremely helpful and open, so i know someone out there has to have answer. Thx alot!
Hi JanuaryCorporate! Welcome to LD4all! 
This feeling of being trapped into your body and paralyzed is called the “sleep paralysis trouble”. In some case, it’s associated with strong hypnagogic hallucinations. SP trouble + strong hypnagogic hallucinations is often called here the “Old hag” syndrom… though very few people see an old hag indeed! 
Sleep paralysis trouble is very often associated with narcolepsy (about 50% of the people who are subject to). You can find info about this on these webpages:
Narcolepsy
SP trouble and narcolepsy
And above all, there is a absolutely great site about sleep paralysis trouble and hypnagogic hallucinations here:
Sleep Paralysis and Associated Hypnagogic and Hypnopompic Experiences
You can enter a LD through SP trouble by inducing a mental movement. A friend of mine increases gradually a rocking movement then he can enter a LD.
I hope I answered all your questions. 
Thanks alot! It’s actually amazing because up until about a week ago i thought i was crazy! I would try to explain to people what I was seeing or sometimes what I was feeling. Then one day i happened to watch a show on narcolepsy, and it detailed three people. And next thing i know, bam, there’s this guy there and he is exhibiting every single symptom i’ve ever had. It was a relief to see it, simply to prove that I wasn’t crazy. Yah when i have the paralysis trouble its scary simply because its so real. Sometimes i’ll get it and i’ll be able to see everything even though my eyes aren’t open, other times i will get it when my eyes are open, but I’ll see things differently, like I will be sleeping and my bed will be in a different place than normal. It’s very interesting to learn that this is also a sign of narcolepsy. I will try the mental movement next time i have this. If i could find a way to use this to enter a lucid dream it would be amazing because I have these sleep paralysis attacks around 7-10 times a week. One last question, does anyone know how to avoid the part where i am almost lucid, except I’m not in my dream and can actually feel and be aware of my surroundings? It’s extremely frustrating because I feel like I’m so close, but once i know i can feel my bed and im not actually feeling the dream, it ruins it for me. It’s fun to play out scenario’s but that’s what imagination is for, i want to be able to experience them.
Your comment is very interesting, cause I’ve talked on forums with lots of people who are subject to the sleep paralysis trouble and they generally can’t say whether their eyes are really open or not. So you are sure that your eyes are open sometimes?
SP trouble is not really a symptom of narcolepsy. It’s often associated with narcolepsy. But lots of people have it with being narcoleptic. It’s said that 1 person on 6 experienced SP trouble at least once in their life.
Amongst LD’ers, this state is known as the “black void” or the “intermediate state”. For instance, during a LD, it may happen that you suddenly lose the visuals. In a LD, the main techniques are rubbing your hands or spining around your axis (twirling). When you experience this in practicing WILD, the advice is generally given to spin around your axis. I hope it can help.
Good luck! I hope you’ll learn soon how to transform your SP into LD’s! 
It depends. Sometimes I am DEFINATLEY sure that I am opening my eyes, although I am never able to open them fully, only very slightly. This may be from the fact that when I sleep I actually sleep with my eyes partially open (wierd habit I know, it freaks alot of people out, my girlfriend has pictures of me sleeping and it looks like I am posessed). Other times I think that my eyes are open but then when I force myself awake I find they aren’t. Other times when I force myself awake there is no flash between sleeping and awake, it’s just as if I all of a sudden regain control of my body and then I open my eyes fully. Thanks for helping me on the intermediate stage, I’ve tried to do actions that focus or increase my lucidty in dreams, but never in that state before only because I always assumed that I must be awake if i can feel my body, I’ll give it a shot next time. Thanks for all of the help!
The intermediate stage (state? I don’t know how to translate correctly the french expression “état intermédiaire” 
) had been defined by the 2 great french LD’ers Christian Bouchet and Florence Ghibellini as a state between wake and sleep in which you’re convinced you don’t sleep (your mind works like you were awake and sometimes you believe you feel your physical body) though lots of things prove you are asleep and quite dreaming.
It differs from the hypnagogic state because your sensations are already those of your dream body. It may be considered as a deep hypnagogic state. In a certain way, this state, though it’s not well defined, is well known by WILD’ers cause it has specific sensations and WILD’ers generally use it to enter a LD.
Good luck and please tell us your progress!