Is this sleep paralysis?

[Occultist27]

When I attempted to try to astral project by meditation I didn't move for at least twenty minutes and then '
my chest started feeling heavy and then it spread to a feeling of numbness in my arms, hands, stomach, and legs.
And then I apparently fell asleep.
Was that the beginning of sleep paralysis?

[CFTraveler]

Dear Occultist:
I believe that focusing on body sensations to gauge whether you were in deep trance is a mistake if you're trying to induce an out of body experience.
The object of attaining this state of consciousness is to be able to disengage your senses from your body completely, so that you can then move away from it, as a point of conscious awareness, and the act of waiting for body sensations (or the lack of them) defeats this purpose, because it centers your consciousness smack in the middle of your body, and that is counterproductive.
What some people call sleep paralysis is what happens when you wake up from a dream and find themselves paralyzed. What you want to achieve is trance, that is, the state in which your mind is completely awake and aware, and your body is paralyzed (asleep). This is not sleep paralysis, this is trance, also known as 'waking paralysis', as Robert has called it in the past.
This is the point in which your body has fallen asleep and you can then try to exteriorize your consciousness.
Yes, there are physical symptoms (numbness, and sometimes vibrations) but expecting them is not the best way to decide whether you're ready, especially if you wiggle something or other to see if it'll move.
The best way is to see how your consciousness has changed- are you seeing through your eyelids, seeing things, hearing things, etc? Then you may be ready to either do some energy body loosening, phasing or trying an exit technique or two.

[wstein]

probably, but if you body awareess is not that good, it could have just been you losing waking awareness [of your body]