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Posts: 10995
Joined: 05 May 2002
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Location: behind you
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| 9 Ways to Wake Up From Sleep Paralysis (By Ryan Hurd) |
 Posted: Fri 10 Sep, 2010 |
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Written by Ryan Hurd of DreamStudies.org, republished on LD4all with permission.
9 Ways to Wake Up From Sleep Paralysis
April 29, 2010 by Ryan Hurd
Sleep paralysis is the terrifying feeling of being held down after just waking up or going to sleep. You can’t move or scream, and sometimes this paralysis is accompanied with the certainty that someone –or something — is in the room. Quite simply, sleep paralysis is one of the most horrifying experiences in life, because we know we’re awake but can’t believe what appears to be happening to us.
The truth is, sleep paralysis is a biological event and it can be often prevented by attending to lifestyle choices, but making new habits can take time. So how do you wake up from sleep paralysis tonight? There’s not a lot of information available. Below I compiled 9 ways to get out now.
Note: Because this is such a personal thing, some of these tactics will work for you, and others won’t. Choose the ones that make the most sense to you intuitively. Think of these strategies as tools in a toolbox to bring out when the conditions are right.
1. Don’t Fight
If you feel like you are being held down and you can’t move, do not fight back. This actually will intensify the experience. Not only is fighting back likely to increase the feelings of being held down (so much that it may seem like you are being crushed), but fighting back will also increase the fear, thus triggering the emotional centers of the brain and strengthening this lucid nightmare. Controlling fear is the most important skill during these moments.
2. Surrender and Go with the Flow
Instead, try to relax when you notice SP starting to happen. Prepare an affirmation like “This is SP and I am okay.” If you feel pressure on your chest, see if you can “go with” the pressure rather than against it. It’s like winning a fight by having no resistance. For example, for me, I often feel like I’m being pushed into the mattress when I have SP. I let myself go, and mentally “pull” in the direction I am being pushed. What happens is I then “pop” into a full-on dream, or I can wake up directly.
3. Wiggle your Toe
Another excellent tactic that works for many people is to try to move an extremity, such as a finger or a toe. Most of the feelings of paralysis are in the belly, chest, and throat. So focus all you attention on the toe and try to move it back and forth. In many cases, this will break the paralysis.
4. Clench your Fist
This is a variation of the toe wiggle method. Clench and unclench your fist.
5. Focus on your Breath
An easy way to stop these nightmares is to do some controlled breathing. Controlled breathing does several things at once. For starters, it lessens the feelings of chest pain that sometimes accompany SP. Breathing is autonomic like the heart’s beating or digestion, so it’s not paralyzed like the big muscles in our arms, chest and legs. But breath can be controlled with attention or be affected by severe fear, which may be why SP sufferers “forget” to breathe when under attack. If you can control your breath, you can control your fear. Simply draw your breath in at a normal rate, and exhale fully, using all of your lung capacity. Notice that you can breathe fully without obstruction. This technique will keep you calm as the SP runs its course and then you will wake up without any trouble. A few moments of focused breathing with a strong intention to wake up is effective.
6. Lean into Love to Find Courage
Now is also the time to lean into unconditional love. For many, the surest path is in religious or spiritual beliefs. Regardless, focus on a figure that you admire and love. Think of someone who calms you down—someone who you associate with peace, love and safety. This could be Jesus, the Dali Lama, or someone you know personally. In my first SP nightmare when I was fourteen years old, I thought about the love and respect I had for a girl in my class. Embarrassing but true! It worked: the feelings of oppression and evil dissipated immediately. In this case, true love really does conquer all.
7. Getting Help from your Sleep Partner
If someone shares your bed, you can tell them about your SP attacks and what to look for when you are having a nightmare. For example, my wife used to shake me awake whenever I began to breath heavily and irregularly in my sleep. As it turns out, she was waking me up each and every time from an intense SP nightmare. Now when this happens, I tell her not to wake me up, because I actually use SP to go into a lucid dream.
You could also have your partner respond to a verbal request. This only works some of the time, because some people cannot speak in paralysis. But some can. Choose a short word that is easy to say. “Help” is a good choice. When you’re in paralysis, focus your attention on your throat and say “Help.” Don’t try to say it as loud as you can; what may happen is that your imagination will take over and you will only say the word in your dream. Instead, say it forcefully but without screaming.
8. Coughing for Help
A variation of using your voice is to try to cough into wakefulness. Like breathing, coughing can be autonomic or consciously regulated. By coughing on purpose, you can jar yourself awake.
9. Write out the Plan
The suggestions above all have helped hundreds of people get out of SP and get some sleep. Not every tactic will work with you. But having too many tactics in your mind can actually be counterproductive. So it is important to make a plan, almost like the fire escape plan you may have for evacuating your family home in case of emergency. Write it out; this will cement the plan in your mind and make it easier to remember when the paralysis comes on strong.
10. The Ultimate Method
I know — I said 9 ways, but this is the single best way to wake up from sleep paralysis and it’s really in a class of it’s own. When you realize you are in SP, scrunch up your face. In other words, make a face like you just smelled something bad. Snarl and squint. Do this two or three times in a row and the paralysis will break IMMEDIATELY. I’m not sure why it is so effective, but unlike the pinky wiggle, this method is foolproof.
After you wake up, get out of bed immediately and turn on a light. Wash your face with cold water. If you just stay in bed, the chance of sliding right back into sleep paralysis is pretty high.
Ryan welcomes discussion of this article and will be dropping in to reply to your comments.
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25 |
Posts: 9
Joined: 04 Jan 2011
Last Visit: 07 Jan 2011
Location: Sarajevo
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| Posted: Wed 05 Jan, 2011 |
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M8 respect for your effort, but I've experienced this many times, and with time, I've learned how to stop it, in most of cases, I'm using this 10th metod(something like that,I just wait a "chance" and then "hit", other words, when this happens, when I find out that it's smaller than before, I put all my energy to make that look >.<)
It happened me last night, and 3 times in a row I've broke paralysis in beggining.
Also, there's a topic about it, I didn't saw this topic.
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23 |
Posts: 1176
Joined: 16 Oct 2008
Last Visit: 12 Jul 2015
LD count: D:
Location: There. Right there.
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| Posted: Wed 05 Jan, 2011 |
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Haha, I love this article.
Honestly, i wish there was stuff like this when I joined... I used to be paranoid of SP to the point that I didn't want to dream...
I think I was a little bit worse than normal, but I mean, I still remember asking a lot of people about it with none of the answers I sought...
These are the answers
Now just to send this article back in time.
Thank you to Ryan Hurd, I still haven't had sleep paralysis in my now 3 years of my focus on dreaming, but I will make sure that if it does happen to scrunch up my face (probably after the methods that make more sense to me) Still unsure if they'd work for me, but one doesn't know until it happens, correct?
Current LD goal(s): Erm... have one.
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25 |
Posts: 9
Joined: 04 Jan 2011
Last Visit: 07 Jan 2011
Location: Sarajevo
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| Posted: Wed 05 Jan, 2011 |
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Is normal, while SP I hear heavy sound in my ears, it's unbearable ?
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28 |
Posts: 2004
Joined: 01 Oct 2010
Last Visit: 31 Oct 2018
LD count: 118
Location: Croatia
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| Posted: Sat 27 Aug, 2011 |
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Great article, but I don't think of SP as an scary experience, it's very interesting and I just love pulling sensation, just like described in article feeling of being pulled toward mattress. I would describe this sensation like there are a billion little hooks attached on my body and someone or something is pulling me down with strings!
Just awesome!  Oh, and the best part of all this when I woke up whether is just SP or LD the feeling of my heart racing, it's like my heart would like to come out of my chest, like there is no enough place for heart beats, I don't know, it just make me feel ALIVE!
Current LD goal(s): #Find/Meet Dream Guide#
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25
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Posts: 2067
Joined: 09 Oct 2009
Last Visit: 18 Mar 2019
LD count: 332—19/03/17
Location: I'll give you a hint: it's got a blue background with stars, and it's a forum...
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| Posted: Sun 28 Aug, 2011 |
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I agree alot with dB_FTS. I enjoy SP. And as you mentioned, it can be a tool to easily step into an LD so under no circumstances would I wish to break SP.
Current LD goal(s): Find and chat with Cardia again
Link to My DJ: ld4all.com
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Posts: 265
Joined: 26 Jul 2011
Last Visit: 19 Feb 2015
LD count: ~50
Location: PNW
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| Posted: Sun 28 Aug, 2011 |
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I experience it last night and it was awesome! I was vibrations like some crazy phone and then all of a sudden I was floating.... good time 
Current LD goal(s): Master lucid dreaming
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28 |
Posts: 2004
Joined: 01 Oct 2010
Last Visit: 31 Oct 2018
LD count: 118
Location: Croatia
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| Posted: Sun 28 Aug, 2011 |
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| Scipio Xaos wrote: |
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And as you mentioned, it can be a tool to easily step into an LD so under no circumstances would I wish to break SP. |
Yeah, about breaking it... I sometimes do that on purpose just to relive it again, I know that's crazy because the goal is LD, but still!
Current LD goal(s): #Find/Meet Dream Guide#
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Posts: 5
Joined: 21 Jan 2012
Last Visit: 28 Jan 2012
LD count: 0
Location: Ashtabula, Ohio
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| Posted: Sun 22 Jan, 2012 |
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dB_FTS, First I want to say that you have been really helpful with this start of my journey and I am going to see if I can get into SP again tonight and stay in it so I can attempt to have a lucid dream. I don't think it is gonna be that easy but I am just hoping that I can become Lucid by staying in SP. If this works I will be so siked and happy. I have been skeptical about Lucid Dreaming and just want to get it to work. It will  so much if I could just have like a test dream like here's your test of a LD now go learn and have many more.  This would be very helpful and make me confident with learning how to perfect it. 
Current LD goal(s): Get out of SP!
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Posts: 23
Joined: 31 May 2011
Last Visit: 26 Jan 2016
LD count: Many.
Location: Ontario, Canada
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| Posted: Sat 03 Mar, 2012 |
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I do number 5, except instead of focusing on my breath I simply hold my breath. It has worked every time so far, and has also worked for when I wanted to awaken from my lucid dreams.
Current LD goal(s): Increase lucid dream vividness.
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55 |
Posts: 16
Joined: 27 Sep 2011
Last Visit: 02 May 2012
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| Posted: Sat 03 Mar, 2012 |
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Yeah, I'm with Beeclock, just hold your breath and you wake up. I used to struggle to move a limb but too many times i would be in such an awkward position (Legs crossed and laying on my arm) I had to find another method.
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24 |
Posts: 105
Joined: 02 Jun 2012
Last Visit: 19 Dec 2013
LD count: 9
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| Posted: Sun 10 Jun, 2012 |
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Well this was certainly worth reading, and I'll keep it in mind.
I had my most intense SP ever this morning. What happened was I was about to fall asleep and I thought about lucid dreaming and how one should stay calm, because I felt my heart beating very fast. That triggered me noticing my SP. I knew what was happening and was pretty happy with myself for not freaking out. I was thinking "hah! How ridiculous that all those people seemed to think it was a scary experience". I remember moving my lips and moving slightly. I sort of felt as though I had broken it.
So I opened my eyes.
Bad idea. I felt I deserved it afterwards though! Thanks for the article.
Current LD goal(s): SSILD/ADA/RCing throughout August
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Posts: 7
Joined: 08 Jun 2012
Last Visit: 21 Jun 2012
LD count: 1
Location: In the clouds
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| Posted: Mon 11 Jun, 2012 |
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When I'm in SP I can't pick up my head (or move my body obviously.) When I struggle I can't break it but when I relax I can. I never knew it was SP before I found this site. (And this thread.)
Current LD goal(s): To have a LD√ To walk through a mirror. Create Dreamopolis.
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Posts: 111
Joined: 14 May 2012
Last Visit: 28 Jun 2013
LD count: 26
Location: (Sweden)
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| Posted: Tue 12 Jun, 2012 |
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Why wake up when it can give you a lucid dream?
Current LD goal(s): Eat apple pie , spray web like spiderman
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Posts: 55
Joined: 07 Feb 2012
Last Visit: 12 Jun 2015
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| teleporting |
| Posted: Sat 28 Jul, 2012 |
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We have had this disussion before but recently I read a forum piece on teleporting. When you have the "thing behind you" or "walking it mud or tar" feeling...just teleport. Dreams are jumpy anyway so we do it even when we don't want to some times. Waking up is good but as some have said "why?". Just try teleporting to someplace else.
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