Lucid Dreaming/ Sleep Paralysis

I've always heard about what lucid dreaming is but I wasn't really sure about what it is. Yesterday, my friends wanted to try doing lucid dreaming. One of my friends, however, said that when you're in a lucid dream, you have to wake yourself up voluntarily. This scared my friends since being in a lucid dream is like being in paralysis.

I decided to first do some research on what lucid dreaming actually is. With a little bit of digging around, I found out that while in a lucid dream, you can't always control everything. It takes a lot of practice to bend everything to your will. Lucid dreaming is being aware that you are in a dream but not necessarily controlling your dream. This peaked my interest and decided that maybe I should try being more aware of my surroundings so that I may one day experience lucid dreaming. Many people do lucid dreaming to find themselves spiritually, physically, etc. or to get over a traumatic experience or fear. 

I tried to do some research on whether lucid dreams cause sleep paralysis. I found out that most people actually use lucid dreaming to escape from sleep paralysis. So the fear of not waking up while in a lucid dream is really just a myth. I look forward to hopefully reaching a lucid dream hopefully one day.

Hurd, Ryan. "What Is Lucid Dreaming?" Dream Studies Portal. N.p., 02 Sept. 2009. Web. 15 May 2016. http://dreamstudies.org/2009/09/02/what-is-lucid-dreaming/