Everyone comes across those lucid dreaming myths. Telling you certain things that are completely fake. Sadly a lot of big media companies and YouTubers believe in some of them, and that makes this a lot harder to not believe in this.
Sleep paralysis
Sleep paralysis has a lot of myths and misconceptions. I will go over each of them and explaining what should be the case and what causes these myths and misconceptions to happen.
1. Sleep Paralysis is always scary.
This is the most common thing. Sleep paralysis is scary when you don’t know what is happening. People who looked up sleep paralysis are not getting an easy answer. Wikipedia even shows a demon sitting on a girl who is sleeping. Sleep paralysis is in fact not scary at all. Sleep paralysis is a state where you are hallucinating and unable to move. You can decide what is happening in this state. You can even make it a lucid dream!
2. Sleep paralysis can hurt you.
Sleep paralysis can not hurt you. Every night you will experience sleep paralysis only you are not aware of it. People say that you can get physically hurt by the experience and that the “demon” did this to them. Yes, it is possible to hallucinate a demon, but when you are able to move again the demon disappears.
3. Unable to move in sleep paralysis.
Some people get into a sleep paralysis that is less strong than others. This can mean that you are able to move easily. People who struggle with heavy sleep paralysis are still able to move some part of their body. This means that sleep paralysis is not as harsh as people say it is.
4. Lucid dreaming increases the chance of getting sleep paralysis.
This is another myth. You always have a chance to experience sleep paralysis even when you are not trying to lucid dream. Some experts told me that they have never experienced sleep paralysis before, and they have been practicing for over 15 years. People who wake up a lot in the middle of the night have an increased chance to get sleep paralysis, not the people who practice lucid dreaming or waking up after a lucid dream.
5. Sexual abuse in sleep paralysis.
I have read stories about demons sexually abusing them, but this is in fact a hallucination. You are in control of your hallucination and nobody else.
You can read more about sleep paralysis: Lucid dreaming and sleep paralysis.
Wake Induced Lucid Dream (WILD)
I feel bad for the people who are practicing WILD. WILD is not an easy method, but the explanations are misleading and giving people the idea that it has to go this way and this way only.
1. I am not allowed to move.
This is another myth. Most of the WILD guides online are guides that are based on an old guide created by someone who had a lot of success with WILD. This person explains that he does wild while laying on his back, and trying to not move. This person gained a lot of success with this, but everyone is different and this way of WILD is 10 times harder than the other way. WILD should be performed where you are laying in your sleep position and trying to stay aware while making your body fall asleep.
2. You are not allowed to swallow.
You probably heard about this one a lot. This is another myth that has been created by the media. You are definitely allowed to swallow as much as you want. However, in REM sleep you automatically swallow a lot. Doing this in REM is as normal as breathing.
3. WILD is only possible in the middle of the night.
I have met people who believe that WILD is only possible in the middle of the night, and this is another myth. You can do WILD during the day or before you go to bed. However, doing this outside REM is a lot harder and requires you to be able to focus for a long period of time.
You can read my wild guide: How to do WILD the right way.
Reality Checks
Even in reality checks, there are myths. People believe that reality checks should always work in dreams and it doesn’t affect them in any other way. Reality checks work in a wonderful way. They are able to give you more awareness in dreams and maybe give you a Dream Induced Lucid Dream (DILD) without you doing a reality check.
1. Reality checks can not fail.
Reality checks are able to fail multiple times. That’s why you have multiple checks to prevent this from happening. You can also ask yourself what you were doing in the last 5 minutes. If you don’t know the answer to that question, you are dreaming.
2. Reality checks are not working.
Reality checks work in different ways. They are giving you more awareness in dreams and are giving you another way to become lucid by checking your reality in a dream. People instead think that a reality check only works if you do the reality check in the dream itself. However, this is not the case. The reality check works already without you doing it in a dream. You are gaining awareness that can cause you to have more vivid dreams and sometimes even better recall.
You can read my reality check guide: What is a reality check, and how to use it.
Dream Journal
Even in a dream journal are myths. Dream journals are amazing and I would suggest everyone use these. They not only give you more recall, but they also give you more awareness in dreams and this can lead to more vivid dreams and a chance to become lucid randomly.
1. Dream journals should be detailed.
People love writing their dream journals and make them detailed, but writing detailed dream journals can take a long time. I have tested this with a couple other lucid dreamers. We came to a result that if you write something down that makes you remember the dream, that is enough to get the same results as a detailed dream journal.
2. Dream journals are not helpful.
There is a big group out there believing that a dream journal is useless. Those people are people who are able to lucid dream and remember without a dream journal, but lack recall and are able to forget lucid dreams easily. A friend of mine is not using a dream journal and he is always jealous of my recall. Now he started using a dream journal again and started remembering 4 dreams a night instead of the 1 or 2 he could remember without writing them down. He also has more lucid dreams than before. This concluded that dream journals help a lot.
3. Dream journals only work when written.
This is not the case. With dream journaling, you have dozens of ways. You can use a recorder to record yourself telling the dream or you can draw it. These have the same effect as writing one. People prefer writing more because they maybe don’t want to go through dozens of recorded dreams, are not good at drawing, or takes too much time.
You can read my dream journal guide: How to write effectively in your dream journal.
Final conclusion
You can see that there are a lot of myths and misconceptions out there that you may be believed in. Don’t believe in the first thing you see. Instead, do your own research and try stuff out yourself. You can learn more about these topics by checking the site.
