# Lucid Dreaming > Attaining Lucidity > Lucid Aids >  >  Caffeine inducing sleep paralysis?

## Explode

Yesterday I drank half a pot of coffee and took a nap a short while later. It gives me energy but doesn't really prevent me from falling asleep. Anyway, I woke up in sleep paralysis for about two or three minutes or more. I knew what was happening and it's happened plenty before so it wasn't scary, but it it got very frustrating. I told my dad about it and he immediately asked me if I had caffeine before I slept. Apparently the same thing happened to him a few times when he was younger and scared him.  He drinks tea before bed but he avoids large amounts of caffeine for this exact reason. Is this a common side effect?  Also what do I do when I wake up in SP? I don't necessarily want to get out of it if I can shift myself into an LD  :Cheeky: . If I relax enough will I see hypnagogic imagery?

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## Astpro

Something like this happened to me as well a few days ago. I got up, did some things for about 2.5 hours then ate something and had a cup of coffee. After that I decided to have a lie-in. I fell asleep and after some time woke up. Then I started falling asleep again and suddenly I understood that my body is asleep (Dunno how to describe this feeling, it like heavyness). I got up, checked the reality and jumped out of the window)) I woke up several times, and went to SP each time, last time was longer and more memorable then the others)

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## whiterain

im glad i found this. i posted this dream to the journal earlier and the links between what i had been doing and what occured in the dream are making me even further astounded as to how the mind can work. i had a small coffee not long before bed last night, and i have been very sensitive to caffeine lately so this makes too much sense to be coincidence. the freaky thing is even though i was having a rare episode of night terrors, even in the dream i was showing myself why it was happening. odd beyond words... anyway in the bit in the dream i essentially went into a rage after having a red bull (caffeine energy drink) and was also very paralysed from the lower back throughout the dream. after having an amazingly positive lucid yesterday i came crashing down to earth with this one and have felt completely drained all day. anyone with tips on how to prevent things like this (apart from the no caffeine  :wink2:  would be greatly appreciated. i suppose if i look on the bright side if i keep having episodes like this it will force me to sort my diet/life out a bit. heres what i wrote up earlier. 


had first bad dream for ages last night. weird thing was it started as soon as i fell asleep. started with a kind of paralysis where i was trying to walk, but i couldnt get anywhere fast due to some massive weight that seemed to hang onto my lower back. had similar ages ago but never this vivid and mindfucking. 

anyway after that i was at some school event and afterwards we trashed a room. that room turned into my dining room. i drunk some red bull in the dream and i was 100% convinced that i had gone into some kind of freaky rage and trashed my house. so much so that i spent the rest of the dream putting everything back where it should be, constantly missing obvious dream signs of misplaced objects/furniture. woke up as i was picking bits of plastic up off the floor and i can still feel it now.

the lower back feeling has really made me think there is something in the idea of astral parasites, i cant think of another plausible explanation. i keep waking up with this odd feeling in my back, which isnt quite pain, yet is almost worse than having a pain there if that makes any sense. like the most extreme restless feeling that i just cant kick no matter what position i roll into

gone from one extreme to the other in the space of a day

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## WanderingMind

I think in some ways that could work.

The caffeine has the potential to make you more alert, and because the sudden heightened awareness can also be followed by a sudden drop in consciousness: It could help put you under as well.

I drink a lot of teas, but have never formally tried using caffeine for LDs. I've had some fairly vivid dreams when pulling all nighters and taking caffeine pills, but never considered making it a part of my LD attempts.

With the WILDs that I have I usually am aware of SP coming, and just let it run its course while focusing on a specific thought.

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## neomulemi6

I was on a metric ton of strong black coffee during my first and only LD, and had been up at least 48 hours without sleeping a wink.  Something to think about..

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## sandman1318

I have narcolepsy and sleep paralysis happens frequently to narcoleptics.  A sleep specialist doctor once told me how to come out it at will.  I thought I would share this since it can be a rather scary experience when sleep paralysis occurs.  

Although you are paralyzed, you can still move your eye balls.  Once you start moving them around, try spreading the movement to the area around your eyes. Then, try spreading the movement to your cheeks and other parts of your face.  Before you know it, you can spread the movement to other parts of your body.  Try it!

One other thing that narcoleptics tend to have are vivid dreams.  Practically every vivid dream I have ever had has been lucid!  Unfortunately though, for me, is that I take Xyrem before I go to bed.  This drug greatly reduces EDS (excessive daytime sleepiness.) But it also has all but eliminated the vivid dreams.  :Sad:

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