An interesting book on the topic is Journeys Out of the Body by Robert Monroe.
I'd been having the loud noises (terrifyingly loud like a freight train of static), feeling myself floating upwards, passing through ceiling and roof of my house since childhood before I drank. The paralysis and nightmares got worse the longer I drank, but I have always had many lucid dreams. Maybe there is more to what sleep is than we know, and maybe our addictions have a negative effect on what we experience. Since I stopped I rarely have night terrors any more but still some OOB and lucid dreams. Just much better ones than before.