[waltwalther]

During my late twenties and throughout my thirties I had bad sleep paralysis. It was terrifying for the first couple of years. I would wake up (or I would think I was awake) to being suffocated, unable to inhale or exhale, unable to move at all, and with a feeling of impending doom. I could open my eyes and move them back and forth, and I could hear. Most of the time I would see a menacing dark figure moving toward me, and I could hear loud static in the air or popping noises all around me. I genuinely thought I was going to die.

I researched it, and learned that it wasn't going to kill me. It was still terrifying, but after some time I learned that if I didn't fight it and struggle to wakeup by attempting to move my pinky or attempting to grunt to alert my wife, I could "drop" into a lucid dream.

In order to do this I would have to convince myself that I wasn't going to suffocate to death, and I had to fight the urge to breathe. This wasn't easy, and it didn't always work, but when it did I would drop into a dream where I was totally aware that I was dreaming, and I could do almost anything.

As I got older it began to happen less frequently, and eventually I stopped having sleep paralysis, and I stopped dreaming. It was fun while it lasted though.