Thread: Resisting the need to swallow

(No sex jokes please!)
I see this topic has been brought up a few times before, but I see no new posts since 2009. I've been feeling a need to swallow which is preventing me from WILDing. The need is always there, appearing only about a second after swallowing. In daily life, I don't at all have this problem. I think the problem arises because I'm thinking about so little, or for the same reason when I say "don't think about a giraffe" the first image that comes to your mind is a giraffe. The swallowing problem is even happening right now, because I'm thinking about it.

Originally Posted by Shadow27

For swallowing try tilting your head to the side.

I do and it makes no difference. There's a very small amount of saliva that I normally wouldn't notice because I'm not paying attention to it, that builds up in the back of my mouth only about a second after swallowing. I'm sure everyone gets it, but most people don't notice it until it builds up a lot more. It's just extremely difficult not to pay attention to it when I'm thinking of little else. I try to focus on other things like counting or breathing but the urge to swallow builds up until I have to do it, half involuntarily, as though I was trying not to breathe. I've tried not thinking about it, I've tried trying not to think about not thinking about it. Nothing seems to work. Any suggestions?

Sorry just remembered something else that works for me.
Try dropping your jaw. keep your mouth open and the air
will dry it out.

If you sleep on your back facing directly up, you need to sleep on your side.

What you need to do is focus on falling deeper asleep (also described as relaxing more deeply, or feeling like you're sinking into your bed). I find this works extremely well for me.
So basically your only problem here is focusing on swallowing, when in reality it's not a problem at all. You're essentially making a big deal out of nothing.

Spoiler for Additional tip:

...also, the best way to resist the urge to swallow is just to have a trash can nearby and spit instead. (Sorry, couldn't resist. x])

I find that if I lay on my stomach, instead of on my back, then spit won't pool at the back of my mouth and I won't have that urge to swallow.

Thanks everyone for the advice.

As I said, tilting my head to the side doesn't work, nor does lying on my side.

I will try to lie on my stomach next time and see if that helps. I've found that's the most uncomfortable sleeping position for me, but maybe it will work in this case.

I don't think keeping my mouth open would work either. I might try it to make sure, but it seems it would be too uncomfortable.

My mind is making a big deal out of nothing. It's not like I have more saliva than other people. My mind has just chosen to fixate on that very small amount of saliva in the back of my mouth. It's normal, it's supposed to be there, it's actually in my throat, not my mouth, so I don't think changing positions will help. But even now, because I'm focusing on it, I'm feeling like I need to swallow. I guess I need to keep practicing ways to ignore it. At this point, it seems I'm only having the problem because I expect to. I'll continue to try different methods, as I really want to succesfully WILD.

I have the same problem. But what is relle preventing my from experiencing sleep paralysis is that I get excited to much, when it strats. For now, since I can not overcome the urge to swallow, i just let it happen.

Regards
Lorgarn

Yeah sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and
swallow with as little movement as possible. :/

I got 6 hours of sleep tonight then stayed up for 2 hours to go to school and had coffee, so I guess it was more a nap than WBTB. What surprises me is how quickly time goes while trying to WILD, being in a calm relaxed state. Somehow, an hour and a half passed when it had felt like only half an hour.

I experienced a slight falling sensation a few times, and vague imagery started to turn into actual images that seemed to be physically appearing in front of my eyes. I was getting a non-ignorable urge to swallow about every minute now, instead of every 10 seconds. It seemed every time I swallowed, the feeling of being almost asleep would disappear a bit, but not completely, so within only a few seconds I was back to feeling really calm and seeing imagery. Maybe swallowing occasionally is okay, and the urges lessen as the body gets closer to sleep.

Originally Posted by Dianeva

What surprises me is how quickly time goes while trying to WILD, being in a calm relaxed state. Somehow, an hour and a half passed when it had felt like only half an hour.

When doing WILD the whole procedure should not take that long, as far as I know (please correct me, if I am wrong). I ether fail by falling asleep, or feel my first sensation after abour 20minutes, which is about the time it should take according to a tutorial I read somewhere.

Regards
Lorgarn

Originally Posted by Lorgarn

When doing WILD the whole procedure should not take that long, as far as I know (please correct me, if I am wrong). I ether fail by falling asleep, or feel my first sensation after abour 20minutes, which is about the time it should take according to a tutorial I read somewhere.

Regards
Lorgarn

You're probably right, but this time I was up for over 2 hours first, so it was more a napping WILD than WBTB. 2 days ago when I tried WBTB, staying up for only about 20 minutes, I fell asleep really quickly (but lost awareness). My mind needed a lot more time to relax today because of the coffee and being up for so long. I probably shouldn't have bothered, and I probably won't try to WILD again without WBTB because it takes way too long, and maybe it was doomed to fail.

If the urge does come up, you're probably a lot better off just swallowing and giving no thought to it than to trying to resist it, which is just a distraction and arouses you mentally. If you just let it go automatic and pay it no mind it should have little effect.

Hm I practice it even when I go to sleep. It is because I am very courious how sleep paralysis feels like. I do not expect do become lucid just afer 6 weeks of trying. I stick to DILD and Wake back to back to achive lucidity, but I do not think attempts do experiens how Wild might feel are wasted.

Regards
Lorgarn

Originally Posted by Lorgarn

Hm I practice it even when I go to sleep. It is because I am very courious how sleep paralysis feels like. I do not expect do become lucid just afer 6 weeks of trying. I stick to DILD and Wake back to back to achive lucidity, but I do not think attempts do experiens how Wild might feel are wasted.

Regards
Lorgarn

Hey, I've only been attempting WILDs for a couple weeks and I've just recently hit the sp transition.
Can't wait to try again. You should never underestimate your potential

I know this is off topic, but if you're getting excited when you hit sleep paralysis you should focus instead on relaxing more deeply. I know sometimes I succumb to the excitement and the labored breathing sometimes gets me too, but my successful attempts have always been when I solely focus on relaxing more deeply when sleep paralysis starts.