It works as a great launchpad for lucid dreaming If you time an alarm clock to wake you up at the right point during your sleep cycle it can be relatively easy to remain in control once you start experiencing it, which then lets you slip straight into a dream while remaining conscious.

It would probably be possible to avoid it with the same method though. If you frequently have it, you could time an alarm to wake you up a bit before that stage of sleep hits. That way when you go back to sleep you should remain asleep through that deeper phase. It's when you wake up in that deep phase that sleep paralysis tends to occur, because it's an interruption.