Lucid Lover

About Sleep Paralysis and Lucid Dreaming

Hello readers,

Chapter 2 is about ready to go; I’m at the final editing stage.

Before I go ahead and post it, I want to give a bit more explanation on lucid dreaming and sleep paralysis since they are two things described briefly in the story.

Sleep Paralysis

So, when Gu Hai is going through a nightmare-like state, he’s actually experiencing sleep paralysis.

Sleep paralysis is something I’ve dealt with since I was a teenager, and I assure you, it is absolutely terrifying.

What is sleep paralysis? Basically, your body falls asleep but your mind is still active and awake. As we go through the different stages of sleep, there’s a point in the sleep cycle that our body isn’t supposed to move. This stops us from hurting ourselves while we are sleeping. When you are experiencing a sleep paralysis, your mind is still fully aware of its surrounding but cannot respond or react. People often hallucinate during this phase. It is commonly reported to sense an “unwanted presence in the room” and feel like there’s something pressing down on your chest.

In my own experience, I’ve been attacked by a teddy bear during sleep paralysis, had strange creatures sit on my chest and make it difficult to breathe, been attacked by a ball of light, been attacked by a bat, had evil creatures laugh at me from the corners of the room and so on. Obviously, none of this is actually happening, but the key to sleep paralysis is it feels REAL and the fear is REAL.

Now, with some research, I’ve learned that one way to have lucid dreams is actually to enter them through sleep paralysis. So, if you are experiencing sleep paralysis, rather than try to desperately get your body to move to no avail, if you can stay calm and allow yourself to drift into sleep, you can have a vivid lucid dream where you can exert some level of free will over your dream. I guess the logic is that you’ll be aware of the fact that you are dreaming.

Lucid Dreaming

The key to lucid dreaming, is knowing that you are asleep. That’s why in my mind it makes sense that Bai Luo Yin would be a prime candidate for lucid dreams. We all know Bai Luo Yin can sleep just about anywhere but also is alert (he’s also a great sleep faker, haha).

I can’t claim to be an expert on Lucid Dreaming, but I do find it fascinating and have experienced it to various degrees.

The true lucid dream I remember having was in highschool when I was flying through the building and changing the colours of the walls by pointing at them. It was so much fun.

Sometimes also when I have a nightmare, I’ll realize I’m sleeping and change the narrative, but the tone of the dream will remain dark.

The last time I experienced sleep paralysis, I tried falling asleep like I had read instead of struggling to get up. It was much more comfortable and less frightening than the usual sleep paralysis scenario I have.

It was a weird dream though where the world was inside a large dome-like cage.. But it was kinda neat.

Well, I hope this makes sense and maybe helps explain things a bit better. Let me know if you have any questions about lucid dreams, sleep paralysis, how it ties into the story or just your thoughts in general.

See you soon in chapter 2.

Oh… and it might not be smutty now… but we’ll get there ;)

-Zhaoul