Lucid Dreams v. Reality

I'm not a very experienced lucid dreamer, and I don't know if this topic has been covered before. But I want to acknowledge the possibility that this might not be an overly healthy hobby for some people if it is not treated with respect. I find that so far my lucid dreams have been very therapeutic, but I already have a tendency to dissociate from reality as it is. I also have a very addictive personality. Do any of you more experienced LD'ers have experience with this stuff as it pertains to mental health, dissociation and perception of reality? Just like a drug, LD seems like something that can be easily depended upon to escape from reality. This may seem a little dramatic, but I would like to gather as much information and perspective about it as possible. Awareness is as vital to reality as it is to lucid dreaming lol.

Lucid dreaming is self-limiting, because it's only possible, or at least practical while in REM stage sleep. It's not like a drug that you can just keep taking day and night or a video game you can play until your eyes fall out.

My experience is that since getting into lucid dreaming my perception and awareness in the waking state has improved right along with my perception and awareness in the sleeping state... both of which, by the way, are "reality." The only difference is that during sleep sensory input is turned off.

Niall

I see what you mean about there not being an "instant reward" response that is one of the primary factors in drug addiction. At the same time it is my experience that LD's produce something much more powerful than any sensation a drug ever has for me. And that is not for lack of trying either lol.

anyway im fairly new to the community, but I do lucid dream frequently enough to make it something i anticipate, and I enjoy it enough that I can see how one may become caught up in it. I guess by "experienced LD'ers", I meant people who have the ability to do this on a regular enough basis for it to affect them in a psychological way. this is likely not the case for most people, but I would describe myself as having a little bit of an affinity for it. the more i practice, the more frequently it happens, the more likely it is to become a problem and so on and so forth.

btw this is nothing more than an exercise in caution on my part as most of my hobbies or outlets of release in the past have turned out to be...not so constructive. haha so thank you I definitely appreciate your input Nailler

I haven't exactly had my first lucid yet, but here's my 2 cents.

Lucid dreaming is like a drug, but it also isn't. Like a drug it can be a nice way of "escaping" your waking life, and it can, like you mentioned, be very therapeutic. However, UNLIKE a drug, it's not an instant gratification. You can't just go to sleep one night and bam start having a super awesome mind blowing LD (if you can then you're obviously a magician) without any sort of WORK, which is the biggest distinction between comparing LD to a drug. You have to actively work to build up awareness, build up your recall, etc. Then, when you actually MANAGE to have a LD, you have to work on awareness some more, work on actually controlling your dream (some people find things like flying or even hovering to be hard or impossible in their first few LD's). The fact that you have to go through days, weeks, even months of discipline to even achieve an LD makes it feel like more like a therapeutic self finding journey, than a mind numbing, reality escaping crutch.

When you're in your LD, there's so many constructive things to do. You can try conversing with your inner self and your many different dream characters. You can find an endless pit of creativity and imagination. You can use your dream characters to talk out your WL problems and stresses, often times being able to play out your insecurities in a safe environment for you to overcome. You can even practice WL activities inside your dream, like sports, music, anything you want really. In the end your dreaming life is only what you make it, but I believe that the amount of work involved, and all of the constructive things you can do in your dream make it feel much different than a drug.

I find the distinction between reality and dreams to be illusory in the first place. Now you probably think I've gone off the deep end you're talking about. But dreams are a part of life that no one goes without, your waking life leaks into them, and your dreams leak out into your waking life. You're developing as a person around the clock in response to images in your head. Sure dreams are only represented as neuron impulses, but so are your thoughts, feelings, and memories. All of these things together become your reality.

Even if you could stay in LDs all day, which you can't, I don't believe that would necessarily be a bad thing. You would fail to live up to all of these external expectations, ok, but when it's time to close your eyes and die, how many lives would you have lived?

It's a valid concern to have, that people might start to rely on lucid dreaming, and spend more time asleep than awake if they could. We can't lie that it's tempting: to spend more time in a world where you control everything.

That lucid dreaming can become addictive, well, I can tell you that the problem with addiction lies not in the substance, but the person themselves. 9/10 times this escaping behavior is being applied to other areas of life. Even social networking can become addictive if you're not careful.

What really messes people us in this is that they don't know some things can be addictive, or they just don't care enough about themselves to be careful. You already have that covered, so I wouldn't worry. Since lucid dreaming can help you in problem-solving, rather than looking it as your escape tool, look at it as something that can help you improve your waking reality. That's the main reason why I want to learn lucid dreaming: how to help myself in real life in ways I wouldn't be able to before.

I hope that helped clear up some confusion.

That's the thing is I'm pretty much at the point where I prefer being in a dream state, whether its lucid or not, to reality. but hey I'm surely not the only one who has ever felt like that so I guess I'll try not to worry too much about it unless it starts to clearly affect my life or my mental state in a negative way. appreciate all the replies, I figured this would be a topic that would make for interesting conversation lol.

You may say I'm a dreamer

But I'm not the only one

I hope someday you'll join us

And the world will be as one