Sleep paralysis is often accompanied by hallucinations, and though it can be a frightening experience, this is not always the case. Israeli researcher Yair Lavi surveyed 216 people to find out if people’s experiences with sleep paralysis change over time and if they become more positive or negative. Sleep paralysis became more pleasant for 41.7% of respondents, while the opposite was true for 11.6%. Meanwhile, 46.8% reported no change in the pleasantness of their experiences.
According to these results, if changes occur in one’s experience of sleep paralysis, such changes are usually for the better. To a large extent, this is because people gain the ability to control episodes over time. Specifically, they learn to stop episodes or prevent them before they happen. Some people who experience positive emotions from sleep paralysis even learn to intentionally induce episodes. Conversely, an inability to influence the situation leads to negative experiences.
Therefore, it is imperative that patients suffering from sleep paralysis learn to overcome their feelings of helplessness and gain control over the situation. Breathing exercises, meditation, and the practice of other phase states (lucid dreams and out-of-body experiences) may be suitable for this purpose. If a person can turn sleep paralysis episodes into lucid dreams or out-of-body experiences, they usually enjoy the experience.
Can you intentionally induce sleep paralysis?
The master’s thesis is available on ExLibris.
Get all the latest news about lucid dreams via our channels on Telegram, Facebook, Twitter
