Thread: Does being lucid stop you from resting.

Well, from what I know, the mind doesn't need rest. Although, of course, if you decide to live out a second life, THEN you might go insane.

But my answer is: That's why we don't have lucids every night.

EDIT: Just read the FULL post

Imagine, someone became so good at lucid dreaming that he/she would be lucid through his/her entire sleep, would it be harmful to the reason that each day we sleep: Resting/ recovering/ Reload our energy... ?

Well, while you're dreaming, you're using your SUBconscious, and the regular conscious is resting. You use your regular conscious throughout the day. It's like running on two different gas tanks, you can refuel one when you're using the other.
At least, that's what I know.

First of all, it's physically impossible for you to lucid dream all night because you are only dreaming during REM. As I understand it, most of the actual resting takes place during deep sleep.

Also, you're going to dream regardless of whether or not you're lucid. That means your mind is inventing a vivid world and running around in it. Compared to creating a whole environment, knowing that you're dreaming seems like nothing.

I don't know whether the whole conscious/subconscious mind thing makes a difference, but some people (natural LDers) do have only lucid dreams, and I've yet to hear a single story about them being more tired than the rest of us.

Originally Posted by Hidden

First of all, it's physically impossible for you to lucid dream all night because you are only dreaming during REM. As I understand it, most of the actual resting takes place during deep sleep.

I read that there is evidence that shows people do sometimes dream in non-REM sleep, just not as vividly as REM.

Originally Posted by Noodles

I read that there is evidence that shows people do sometimes dream in non-REM sleep, just not as vividly as REM.

Oh right, I forgot about that... Still, dreams are mostly in REM. Darn exceptions. =P

I must say the curiousity of this subject has struck me a couple of times, but considering what we know about the REM cycle it wouldn't be possible to do unless you inexplicably managed to alter the various dream stages, prolonging the effect of the latter.
Then again I don't think it would be exactly healthy to carry through.

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TL;DR answer:

Yes, yes it does. Research tells me this, and other things.

Hm, I'd say no. After all, it's more of your physical body needing to rest than your mind. It's active practically all night, especially when you're dreaming - it's still hard at work.

Well, the way I think about it is, it wouldn't be enough to make a difference. I mean, your body is resting regardless, and your mind is resting during non-rem sleep. Your brain might be a tiny bit more active during a lucid dream than a regular one, but it shouldn't affect you much at all.

I would believe that some lucid dreamers find ways to extend their REM sleep. I have found myself wondering about whether it is unhealthy to spend too much time in REM, and not enough in the other phases? Perhaps if it got to a point were you REM for 7 hours and then all the other phases take only an hour or so combined, that would be unhealthy. Who knows though?

I dont think so, because your sub concious mind is always doing something all the time. Whether your dreaming or not. But as someone has said, trying to live a second life in your dreams all the time, might make you go a bit insane.

Seems like once you get into a dream, you could do all the tweaking to your dream cycle that you wanted.
Or does your subconscious fight back?
But I do have to agree with Portalboat: Your mind is still resting, and as someone else pointed out, you will dream regardless of whether or not you are lucid.

Originally Posted by Portalboat

That's why we don't have lucids every night.

Speak for yourself.

It is entirely possible.
Everyone who is LDing likes to tell people there's no way it can harm you, even though there's not a lot of research out the proving that to be true. They assume becuase they've never personally gotten sick that LDing can't ever be harmful.

I know that personally after a night of Lucid Dreaming I -always- feel more tired. In fact I feel more tired just from having super intense dreams even if I'm not entirely lucid. In fact I always take breaks from practicing LDing because my body isn't well suited to keep it up without going a little loopy during the day. If you're fine though, I wouldn't worry too much about it. Different people are differently affected, I would think. But I'm pretty sure it does take away a certain element of rest from EVERY person, just some people have it on a small unnoticeable scale and others on a larger scale. I mean think about it, some people can function perfectly on 4 hours a sleep a night, oddly enough. So even if Lucid Dreaming does disrupt rest (and I'm sure it does) some wouldn't even notice or feel it.

And people saying your mind doesn't need rest are RIDICULOUS.
Your mind is everything you are, how you function, how you think properly, bodily AND mentally.
When we sleep, (and this hasn't been proven but many scientists speculate) there are many different options for why we need sleep mentally. And their main lead is that our memories and events of the day are being sorted out while we sleep, ect. If we're still busy thinking as hard as possible even while we're asleep then that gets disrupted. Not only that, most people report having better rest after a night that seemed dreamless. If being mostly in our subconscious when we sleep wasn't in some way important, then it wouldn't be a natural occurrence. Lucid Dreaming is not natural, even though we do it by accident sometimes, the extent practitioners of LDing take it to is not natural for our minds. I love Lucid Dreaming but people tend to just say its 100% healthy just because they don't want to believe their hobby could ever harm them in any way.

I know at least two people who are lucid in most or all of there dreams every single night, and they both seem to get enough rest. Anecdotal, I know, but I don't believe being lucid intereferes with your rest.

[QUOTE=Yume.no.ato;1234913]

I know that personally after a night of Lucid Dreaming I -always- feel more tired.

Not only that, most people report having better rest after a night that seemed dreamless.
QUOTE]

That's funny because its the complete opposite for me. Whenever I wake up from an LD and wake up, I feel so energetic that I can immediately jump out of my bed while normally, I find it very hard to get enough energy to sit on my bed when I just woke up. And also, last night, was the only day since a month that I haven't remembered any dreams (and if I say 'since a month' is that I haven't recorded my dreams before that so I wouldn't know but I've always remembered a lot of dreams), so I was saying, last night I didn't remember any dreams but that's because I had the most horrible night since a while, I was insomniac or something.

But your right, I actually don't like the fact that you've said that it was sort of harming, i don't want this hobbie to be harming to me, well, actually, I sincerly feel as if it is healthy for me.

However I do not think that lucid dreaming is 'unatural'. It is simply a skill of awarness. I see practicing lucid dreaming as practicing my mind to be more aware a bit like soccer players practice their legs to be quicker.


Thanks for your responses, all of you.

Does anyone have some scientifical explaination, though? 'Cause, I feel as if this is all your opinions which isn't bad but the people I'm trying to prove that lucid dreams are real and good do not want opinions.

lol...

That's funny because its the complete opposite for me. Whenever I wake up from an LD and wake up, I feel so energetic that I can immediately jump out of my bed while normally, I find it very hard to get enough energy to sit on my bed when I just woke up.

I agree 100% with this.

In the scenario described, think about NREM sleep. You couldn't be lucid dreaming 100 percent of the time. Its impossible.

You could be lucid dreaming for 100% of the dreaming time, which is what I believe people are saying.

Originally Posted by Loaf

You could be lucid dreaming for 100% of the dreaming time, which is what I believe people are saying.

You can't be lucid during NREM right? You still get rest when your sleeping but not dreaming right?

Originally Posted by Kraftwerk

You can't be lucid during NREM right? You still get rest when your sleeping but not dreaming right?

I get rest when dreaming.

Sometimes I won't dream all night then I have a lucid dream a few hours before I start the day.

I am wondering if any of you have experimented with waking yourself INTO a Deep Trance state, from a dream... just randomly thought of it.

If you did that then went back into your dream, you could get some realllly relaxing sleep.

Even if it does, I think its worth it:

Moo

Our hearts generally beats almost one time per second. Our brain never is totally asleep. LDs shouldn't be much of a problem, since we just awake another part of the brain...