Thread: I am so close!

After many attempts at trying to LD via sleep paralysis, I always end up waking up due to the pressure applied on my chest causing my breathing to go abnormal thus waking me up. My focus tends to be drawn to my breathing rather than the visualisation. Could I possibly enter sleep paralysis on my side?

Yeah, definitely! I do it on my side all the time as I learned to do it that way first. You might want to get your breathing checked out by a doc, though. It's not normal...Kinda obviously.

Is the fast breathing physical or actually psychological? I have read that it is all in my head due to fear and lack of control if the sleep paralysis occurs without the sleep apnea.

It could be either. Sometimes if a person has too much body mass on their chest it will deteriorate their breathing. Maybe you snore without knowing it and when your body starts going dormant the breathing seems unnatural to your conscious mind and you freak out. Or you could just be freaking out because it feels weird. It sounds a bit more physical than psychological to me, but I seem to be missing a degree in this field.

I'm assuming that by lucid dreaming via sleep paralysis you mean WILD. I'd just like to make a quick note that sleep paralysis isn't too-too common and not required for WILD. I wouldn't recommend focusing on trying to get into SP as this can throw many people off. See here: Sleep Paralysis Demystified - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

To answer your question, you can enter SP and/or otherwise WILD in any position. Guides will usually tell you to lie on your back, but the truth is you really just want to do it in whatever position you already find most comfortable when sleeping. The focus is to fall asleep while still remaining conscious, and if you're not comfortable, you won't fall asleep!

As for your breathing, it's possible it's only psychological, but no guarantees. My recommendation is, if you see it as a concern or a problem then to see a doctor about it, but if you don't think it's any big deal then try to ignore it. Try thinking about something else when falling asleep; focusing too much on your breathing can keep you from successfully completing the task.