Could lucid dreaming be bad for you?

[mykleech]

Hey, everybody. This is my first time posting. Thanks for having me. I used to have fairly regular lucid dreams when I was a kid and then again a handful of times in college. Now I'm trying to train myself to get lucid as often as possible. The only thing holding me back is a fear that too much lucid dreaming might be bad for my mental or physical health. There must be a good reason why we all dream, so I worry that by monkeying with my normally unconscious dream life I might miss out on its natural benefits. I also worry that too much lucid dreaming might drain my mental energy or leave me feeling less rested. Could anyone with a lot of lucid dreaming experience comment on how their health has been affected, negatively or positively, if at all? Thanks.

[Flycat]

No, it is not health damaging at all, it is the same as dreaming (which doesn´t hurt you, right?) but with you knowing you are dreaming (dream control is a bonus). The only thing is that you may feel a little tired sometimes. I dont know about that though, i´ve had just three but they haven´t damaged at all. Good luck!

[Rothgar]

I doubt that you will need to worry about that. You dream 4 or more times a night...if you could get lucid even one out of 10 times you would be in a rare class of extremely skilled LDers. That, and the fact you can choose to stop if you want and probably your subconscious would stop you from over doing anyway. My only ill effect is that really good LDs get me "up" so much I have a hard time sleeping well that night. But then usually I cant LD for several nights afterward as I am too tired for awareness to be high enough.

[ParadoxOwl]

Maybe you could get hurt mentally by dreams, such as becoming depressed due to having a dream you wish was real or sometthing along those lines.

[melanieb]

There are no known health effects from lucid dreaming. You need not worry. On the positive side...I enjoy my dreams even more.

[006]

It's a choice of having controlled dreams, doing whatever you want, whatever you can imagine. Less rested, well might happen but it's rare. You won't mess up with anything natural, it's just like starting to work out. Your free choice whether you want to begin it or not. It will surely affect your health however, but in a good way .You'll see some "bad" things for sure, but surely more awesome things. Probably just like the majority of lucid dreamers, I neither regret starting lucid dreaming. One, only one single dream can make you happy for weeks, one can sweep away every other "bad" one. I was also wondering about bad things, now I'd go for it without a single doubt. Go for it, don't be afraid, the more lucidity, the more fun, the more experience!

[Sageous]

I think if LD'ing were bad for you, I would have been feeling the effects by now. And as far as I know, I'm fine. Yes, long LD'ing sessions have often had me waking up more tired than I was when I went to sleep, but that fatigue had zero overall effect on my health. Don't worry about interrupting your brain and body's maintenance activities either. Though LD'ing feels pretty damn impressive, your conscious activity is barely scratching the surface of your unconscious activity, and -- even in dreams where you feel in full control -- your actions really won't have much of an effect, if any, on your physical machinery, and you would have to really try to successfully throw a wrench into that machinery. So fear not, LD'ing is basically harmless, and its benefits far outweigh its modest potential physical effects.

[mykleech]

Thanks everyone. You've put my fears to rest. Last night I had a dream that someone was telling me how to lucid dream, but I wasn't actually lucid. So close...