found some pretty fascinating techniques for keeping your mind awake while falling into sleep. the physical paralysis while conscious can feel pretty terrifying. not sure if this is dangerous to do
Discussion
It's one method for going into astral projection. It's scary, but not lethal.
There are many techniques for this, and a great place to start is liminal dreaming-exploring the states of hypnagogia and hypnopompia.
I will post about this but for a deep dive, I can highly recommend this book:

I became interested in lucid dreaming as a teen but only succeeded in my twenties. Two things helped:
- Keeping a dream journal.
- Wearing a “totem” as a reminder to regularly ask, “Am I dreaming?”