Frequent lucid dreamers, what does it feel like to have a dream life and a waking life?

[kamenriderbaron]

What does it feel like to have the two of them?

[Hitokage]

What do you mean? Dream is a playground, nothing more.

[OneUp]

It feels like you're living two lives. Dreams are what you make them. I wouldn't consider dreams a playground considering that, while dreaming, your brain is more active than it is while awake in this reality.

[Hitokage]

...your brain is more active than it is while awake in this reality. Well of course, it needs not only to perceive the world around you but also generate it after all

[Clidu]

My life involves work and play mainly but what keeps me happy in general apart from the obvious things in life is practising things such and meditation and awareness as it helps your life in many ways apart from lucid dreaming. When i do have a lucid dream it makes me so happy that im able to have them and the freedom you have inside a lucid dream is so exiting.....and i also class my boring normal dreams as an accomplishment just because i remembered that dream =D

[dolphin]

It's like the same virtual reality simulator you experience in your dreams every night, only it's on manual control rather than auto-pilot.

[Clidu]

Good response dolphin.... im terrible with wording things lol

[Sageous]

What does it feel like to have the two of them? It feels pretty good. I also have never felt like I was living two lives due to the time I spent LD'ing. Instead, it's all been just my one life, only with some of it spent in very different and interesting places doing very interesting and different things.

[Spock]

Feels great! I do agree that it feels like the same one life - after all being lucid means becoming more like yourself while dreaming (unlike in NLDs where you are a fragment of yourself). But it does feel like living a desner life with more experiences in the same 24 hours.

[splodeymissile]

Like simultaneously creating and playing the most immersive video game imaginable almost every night. Its an art form for me.

[Rothgar]

It is more like two realities. In my dreams I sort of "wake up" to the dream reality when I become lucid. Then I wake up again to the waking reality. But it really feels more like transitioning when I wake up from being lucid since I dont lose consciousness...I just switch environments.

[oneian]

For me, my nightly lucid adventures is going on a holiday / vacation. I honour the night.

[Sensei]

As others say, it is one life. It is just an addition, not a separation. I haven't seen many people that don't enjoy life that are good at LDing. Usually people that enjoy life enjoy dreams. I really like how long nights are now. It feels like much longer than the brief pause of darkness that it used to. It is like having more time for fun than everyone for life.

[Occipitalred]

What stands out the most for me is rather the effects of frequent "dreaming" in general rather than lucid dreaming specifically. I find that dreams have their own atmospheres and I can still feel that atmosphere when I wake up. Much like places and events in our life also have atmospheres that we may like or not. When not frequent dreaming, I wake up normally without any "atmospheric feeling" and start the day from nothing.

[VivianVector]

My waking life is play and my dreaming life is work, but not in a gruelling way. The satisfying kind of work, like learning how to play an instrument or developing a physical skill. By day I dance and sing and enjoy the regularity of the physical world, a foundation that I am rooted to. I spend time with my friends or at my office. By night I strive ever onwards to push the bounds of my own experience of existence and the worlds that then open up to be explored. The day is for indulging in human experience in the company of my family, the night is for discerning truth on the edge of the unknown. The beauty in the paradox is the way they blend together.

[Dreamwalkwr]

I feel like my two realities overlap just enough to make the waking life one dimensional and boring. I know it's neccesary and that we can't live locked away in our dreams but I feel that we are missing a deeper truth too what reality really is. I'm not exactly religious but Jesus taught his deciples that what they command here in this world would be done if only they had the faith of a mustard seed. It's like having makic in your blood and not knowing to make it work for real.

[Hukif]

Like everyone has said already, you don't have two lifes. Rather, you have one awesome one in which to take two routes; one for when awake and one for when asleep. Learning to enjoy both parts of your daily life is, IMO an important part of getting down the art of lucid dreaming.

[Bubblebee]

Ive been asking this exact question a lot lately, seeing as i just started my journey into LD. I havent experienced any LD yet. These answers are magnificent tbh, just what i was hoping for. Thank you all