Thread: Am I Lucid Dreaming or experiencing Sleep Paralysis?

Hi, This is my first post here and I am new.
I have been stumped the last while to figure out what I am experiencing while sleeping. This does not happen every single night, but the odd night it does happen. Usually the whole thing begins when I wake up from sleep and try to go back to sleep. I am fairly sure it is when my REM sleep is disturbed because the minute i try to go back asleep I get a feeling in the back of my head, a sensation of some-sort and I have read up a bit on Sleep Paralysis and Lucid Dreaming and it does not say that you get a feeling in the back of your head. Anyway, I do experience the paralysis(not able to move and talk..I often try to scream but nothing happens) and small, blurry hallucinations. One of them I was at the top of my stairs looking down. There was also a time this happened (hallucination) in my room and I could feel paws from a cat walking up my bed in between my legs. I'll never forget the feeling!
Within the last few months it has gotten more intense. The feeling in my head lasts longer, about 2 to 3 minutes. I got an outer body experience one night while asleep on the couch, I felt as if I was asleep vertically and at an angle falling downwards toward the ground but I was actually lying down on my couch with my head on a cushion and I was not after moving at all but I thought I had moved.The feeling in my head was also present.
Lastly, I woke up from a dream with this feeling in the back of my head(numbness is what I describe it as.) and I thought I was falling off of a chair. While in the dream it was a small room, brown room, brown wooden dining table styled chairs and I started humming. This got louder and I literally felt the feeling in the back of my head get more intense as I started falling, but never hit the ground, then I woke up.
I'm not too worried about it, and it does not effect me from sleeping, just curious to find out what it is that's happening!
Thanks.