Causes of sleep paralysis awareness

Good evening all!

I have a question to put out to everyone who has ever experienced awareness in sleep paralysis (especially those who were born with this special ability and did not have to learn it.)

Have you ever noticed a connection with awareness in sleep paralysis and anything about diet or lifestyle? I know stress is one factor that contributes to this. What about sugar or greasy foods? When I was growing up, I had always noticed that if I ate so much as a handful of plain chocolate m&m's, I was 99% guaranteed a "sleep attack" as I used to call it as a kid.

I'm just curious if anyone else has any of their own connections to be made.

[Egadanadage]

I don't think it ultimately matters. I've been experiencing sleep paralysis since childhood, but always in tandem with either lucid dreams or astral projection. I've never experienced it outside of those two occurrences. Half the time it's a false awakening. These days I never experience more than the first few seconds of it before I'm either astral or lucid. Rarely do I have false awakenings anymore. Actually when I was a kid I hardly ever felt more than a snippet either. Mostly when I experienced sleep paralysis was when I first started meditating. I would go straight to either an astral or lucid state when meditating, but I found at other times when I would lay down for a nap or to go to sleep it would just happen consciously. Not sure what that was about. Anyways, I've never noticed a difference based on diet, but everyone is different.

[Morpheus]

This was just discussed, here. http://www.spiritualforums.com/vb/showthread.php?p=977910#post977910

The question was about why there seemed to be so much of the issue of sleep paralysis prevalent in Victorian times. If the reason was dietary.
The person who started the thread was posting about "decalcification" by use of Idoine, and, we were wondering if decreased Calcium in the diet was a reason.

[Egadanadage]

I don't personally think that diet matters for sleep paralysis generally, although I'm sure there are always exceptions to the rules. I can at least speak for myself and say that for sleep paralysis diet doesn't matter nearly as much as sleep patterns. As far as the Victorian era goes, it would be more appropriate to call it Everything Before Electricity Era because you see references from all cultures/eras that are the same. If I had to take a guess as to why any society, not just the Victorian era, would have experienced a higher rate of sleep paralysis, it would be less about diet and more directly related to the fact that people's sleep was biphasic. They had two deep sleep cycles instead of one. In literature you see reference to this biphasic sleep patteren going back as far as Homer. Before electricity people went to sleep earlier and would wake up in the middle of the night for an hour or so. During that time they'd do things such as visit with neighbors, have tea, read, or simply stay in bed while awake. After this nightly break people would go back to sleep. With two sleep cycles the chances of sleep paralysis would double, and above and beyond the extra opportunity for paralysis the very act of what we now refer to as "waking back to bed" increases the chances of experiencing sleep paralysis even more. It's a really good combination, having two sleep cycles and waking in between. It's practically the golden ticket to lucid and astral experiences, the wake back to bed method, and before electricity people slept that way every night. Because of the access to an electric source of light 24 hours a day, people stopped going to bed early. We as human beings switched to a monophasic sleep cycle. We don't wake back to bed naturally anymore in the night. Considering that in the grand scheme of things we haven't been sleeping in a monophasic cycle for very long as a species it doesn't surprise me that we aren't as connected or aware when we sleep. I relate sleep paralysis with being conscious in sleep. If you're consciously experiencing sleep paralysis you're doing something right. For me it's the simple combo of mind awake, body asleep that makes lucid and astral experiences possible. So anyways, it's just a theory of course, but I find a lot of truth in the fact that humans don't sleep as well as they did before electricity and perhaps due to our changed sleeping patterns people in the Victorian Era (and beyond) had the ability to experience higher rates of sleep paralysis because of these circumstances I've mentioned. This certainly isn't to say that food couldn't have played a role, but I think the way people slept was the biggest contributing factor for elevated levels of sleep paralysis. Something to consider, anyways.

[wstein]

Originally Posted by dped88

I have a question to put out to everyone who has ever experienced awareness in sleep paralysis (especially those who were born with this special ability and did not have to learn it.)

I am unaware of any reason to 'learn' sleep paralysis.

In many books on OBE/astral travel it is mentioned as a way prelude to getting out of your body. Sleep paralysis is not required to do so. If you happen to be in sleep paralysis already, it can be easier to exit the body. Most advanced OBE travelers no longer experience sleep paralysis or exit vibrations (related to sleep paralysis).

As to correlations: sleeping in a position were my neck is not supported is the only time I have sleep paralysis.

[Egadanadage]

I agree with you that you don't necessarily have to experience it. When I meditate I don't experience it either, save for the first inklings. Whether or not I experience it, I'm in it. Your body enters a phase called REM Antonia, also known as sleep paralysis, so whether or not you actually experience the sensation it always happens. For myself, through meditation right before I'm about to either lucid dream or astral project my body will give me a distinct signal, either an intense itch, an uncontrollable urge to yawn...something. If I ignore it in a matter of seconds sleep paralysis will set in. If I fall for the signal and react to it I have to begin again. I can either experience the sensation or not, and I usually choose not to and at the same time that paralysis sets in, I'm already entering either a dream or astral state. I will say for myself that I can't experience astral projection or lucid dreams without sleep paralysis. It doesn't mean I have to experience the paralysis, but I do need to be in it. You can't have REM sleep without it to my knowledge, or at least it would be unusual.

[Morpheus]

Mb, in the other thread on Iodine for the purpose of decalcifying the Pineal Gland, stated that it seemed to cause sleep paralysis in him.

I know that if one is deficient in another mineral, Potassium, they will tend to get more "Charly Horses", or, muscle spasms.

The only two foods I've been told of that can cause lucid dreaming are cheese and rice...

Not together, necessarily, but each, apparently, can cause your dreams to be at least more vivid and memorable (maybe fully lucid) when eaten just before sleeping.