[TAEdarus]

Sleep Paralysis
I've encountered sleep paralysis three times in my life and basically the short of it is you wake up, however the mechanism where your brain 'disconnects' from your body (to prevent you acting out your dreams and potentially injuring yourself) doesn't stop.

So people wake up without control over much other than their eyes and breathing.

Coupled with this having just awoken during a REM cycle (thats when it happens) your brain is still hyper-active and semi-dreaming, leading to hallucinations and other sensory perceptions which are false.

Most people experience a "presence" (the feeling you're being watched / someones in the room with you) and also feelings of chest compression, fear and hopelessness in more extreme cases.

The fun part is trying to call out and not being able to do more than very quietly moan, then trying to move and realising you can't do anything cept look around in the dark room with your eyes. I usually cure this by falling back asleep and letting my body work itself out.

Lucid Dreaming
As for lucid dreaming i've only had it four or five times... Protip how to shortcut to lucid dreaming? Nicotine patches worn overnight (daytime full-strength ones).

For some reason (and there have been studies into this but I forget the reasoning) leaving a patch on when you go to sleep allows this. Theres even warnings on the packets saying something like "wearing while sleeping may induce vivid / lucid dreams in some individuals".

Nothing like taking a boring dream from watching a family dinner to goin all Dragonball Z on their asses and blowin' shit up