Thread: Research: How does LD affect sleep?

I'm a psychology student, at at the moment I am doing some research on sleep and dreaming, more precisely on lucid dreaming.

We want to know how lucid dreaming affect the sleep of the dreamer.

Do you feel more rested after lucid dreaming?
Or maybe you feel lest rested?

Please tell your experiences.

Thank you.

Personally after most of the lucid dreams when I awaken I feel energised, excited and really happy. This mood follows me throughout the entire day - I find I've got more drive and passion in day to day things and more energy to get them done.

I'm going to go with that it makes no difference. I think it's just how much sleep you've had throughout the night, how long your WBTB is, and however your WBTB affects your sleeping pattern.

It does make me tired..however I can't say that I'll be happy without it.

I second what Dark_Merlin said.

I don't feel any difference, sometimes I'm doing boring things so I feel like normal, sometimes I will do something exciting, so of course I will feel energized and all that stuff, but it isn't because I'm better rested, it is more the psychological effect of being happy at the dream content than anything else.

When I wake up from a lucid, even more so an exciting one, I'm happy and tend to be content the rest of the day. I suppose you could call it a "high" of sorts, like I'm floating on a cloud from a great dreaming experience.

Well, after I had my first WILD, I was pretty happy and excited that day to finally have aced a WILD. I haven't done anything that exciting in LDs though

It depends, if it was a long exciting LD, I'm happy and energized but if it was a LD where I woke up shortly after becoming lucid, I'm angry and groggy.

I have a B.S. in psychology. It happens when you're in REM sleep and either way, you'll still be dreaming. The question is whether you remember it or not. When you LD it just means you're conscious, it doesn't matter whether you are or are not, you still get the REM sleep that your brain needs to feel well-rested.

As soon as I start lucid dreaming, I begin to wake up. If I try to hold on to it, I can, but it makes me feel as if I'm in a "twilight" state of sleep and when I wake completely, I don't feel nearly as rested.

I feel more intent to go to sleep, hence I sleep more, so overall I would deffiently say it has made dreaming a more positive experience.
Also, my dream recall alone has improved so much that just non lucids on it's own is well worth it.

Energy wise, I feel the exact same as I would if I didn't have a lucid dream.
Emotionally, when I wake up I feel great and like I just conquered the world.

Originally Posted by Mancon

Energy wise, I feel the exact same as I would if I didn't have a lucid dream.
Emotionally, when I wake up I feel great and like I just conquered the world.

Same here. I don't feel any difference biologically or mentally, but emotionally it's a different story!

I would say there isn't a change. Perhaps if you achieve a good lucid dream you'd might have a better quality of sleep as you'd have to be in that certain REM stage which usually would suggest a relatively good nights sleep, however otherwise its probably just a placebo or a feel good factor from having had fun in the dream world. There isn't any reason really that lucid dreams should improve sleep.

For me there isn't really a difference. On occasion, I do feel a little more tired after an LD, but I think that's neglectable. I'll agree with Loaf on the whole.

I feel great emotionally.
It will be right if this question is thrown to polyphasic sleepers, because they jump other stages of sleep except REM

I can't really explain the feeling, but I tend to feel more rested. But, I have tried WILD twice, and I was sleep deprived, which I have to be to achieve sleep paralysis.

a bit tired and (can be very) confusing for me