Lucid dreaming, semen retention and anti depressants

[LordOfDeath]

At the end of april I went to doctor for problem of running thoughts and depression and he prescribed me "BETEALA 20" Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) 20 days course and it did work but whats the relation with lucid dreaming ? It started occurring more in beginning and it was strong around end of course like 3 4 days I had strong lucid dreams those were long and I had strong hold on them, I used to wake up at 9am and then go back to sleep for straight 3 hrs and I remembered each and everything from lucid dream so lucid dream for almost 3 hrs heck yeah in this period I started NoFap in march ending and still doing it so 40+ days but after my tablets got over I completely stopped having lucid dreams. Instead I'm having vivid dreams strong ones I used to get 2 / 3 lucid dreams a week but now only vivid dreams Now what should I do to have lucid dreams back?

[DarkestDarkness]

It's difficult to say what you should do, because there are things that are always applicable to some degree, such as memory and intent training. I think you need to provide more context of what your lucid dreaming experience or practise has been prior to this. When you say you used to get 2/3 lucid dreams a week, I'm not sure whether you're referring to the duration of your medicated period or prior to it. Although it's possible it may have some impact on dreaming due to hormonal stuff, without looking further into it, I'm not sure what the relevance of not masturbating would be here. Could you clarify? Are you providing this information just for additional context of a current lifestyle choice?

[LordOfDeath]

It's difficult to say what you should do, because there are things that are always applicable to some degree, such as memory and intent training. I think you need to provide more context of what your lucid dreaming experience or practise has been prior to this. When you say you used to get 2/3 lucid dreams a week, I'm not sure whether you're referring to the duration of your medicated period or prior to it. Although it's possible it may have some impact on dreaming due to hormonal stuff, without looking further into it, I'm not sure what the relevance of not masturbating would be here. Could you clarify? Are you providing this information just for additional context of a current lifestyle choice? About nofap I'm doing it for leaving porn addiction and I've noticed in past that practicing it made chances of lucid dreams higher for me, I started lucid dreaming in 2018 when I had 1st sleep paralysis and due to strained routine of college I had more of SP during that year then after searching what is it I came across lucid dreaming and then started practicing it randomly and started getting lucid dreams 2 / 3 times a week This was first time I was on medication prior to that I haven't done anything for mental health

[DarkestDarkness]

Ok, that makes sense, thanks for explaining a bit more. I'd like to ask you a few questions to try and help you. Firstly, do you keep a dream journal? If you do, how often do you make note of your dreams, and do you make note of lucids and non-lucids or just lucids? If you don't use a dream journal, how is your memory of previous dreams? Secondly, what is it that you typically enjoy about dreaming lucidly? Even if you were just to ask yourself the same questions, I always feel these few questions are important, because they get you thinking about what is important about dreaming for you and therefore they can help you see what might really motivate you. For most people, being motivated is a very helpful factor when practising anything related to lucid dreaming. Also, could you describe your typical process of becoming lucid? Do you use any techniques or methods in particular? It might be an idea to think back and go step by step to see what you used to do that was leading you to have lucid experiences. Perhaps you haven't realised it and have stopped doing something that was actually helping you with becoming lucid.

[LordOfDeath]

Ok, that makes sense, thanks for explaining a bit more. I'd like to ask you a few questions to try and help you. Firstly, do you keep a dream journal? If you do, how often do you make note of your dreams, and do you make note of lucids and non-lucids or just lucids? If you don't use a dream journal, how is your memory of previous dreams? Secondly, what is it that you typically enjoy about dreaming lucidly? Even if you were just to ask yourself the same questions, I always feel these few questions are important, because they get you thinking about what is important about dreaming for you and therefore they can help you see what might really motivate you. For most people, being motivated is a very helpful factor when practising anything related to lucid dreaming. Also, could you describe your typical process of becoming lucid? Do you use any techniques or methods in particular? It might be an idea to think back and go step by step to see what you used to do that was leading you to have lucid experiences. Perhaps you haven't realised it and have stopped doing something that was actually helping you with becoming lucid. 1. No I never kept any dream journal 2. I like the realization and control I gain over a different reality while I'm at sleep in a real world Ok so I never practiced anything in real world like any of the methods known except the hand checking throughout the day, I just sleep with a motive that I have to lucid dream and once in a dream I tell myself "You are in dream" / "you are dreaming" / "this is your dream" etc similar stuff and then quickly see my hands in front of my eyes in the dream in past I have had experiences where I hopped into same lucid dream thrice just by making hand moment in front of my eyes in the dream after it faded I'm still doing hand reality check like I started doing in the beginning but now it's not working my current dreams are strongly vivid and real life related that I can't tell myself that I'm dreaming inside dream or get any hint of unusual thing in the dream that will make me realize its a dream

[DarkestDarkness]

Okay, so it sounds like you have a decent natural ability to become lucid, though your reality checks and intent-setting seem to be important factors to me anyway. Your motivation for dreaming lucidly also sounds fine, really. I think it would be worth keeping a small dream journal even if you only use it infrequently. At the moment especially, because if you want to be analytical as to why you're not realising you're dreaming as often as you were. It might help you notice some kind of pattern, like a recurring distraction or something else that is not making you question reality as often. You say that at the moment your dreams are being strongly related to real life too and I'm getting the impression this isn't too usual for you, please correct me if I'm assuming too much. This will obviously depends on how you are as a person but this would make me think that something in your life might be demanding more attention than you're willing or able to give it at the moment, and in my mind it's possible that by addressing some recent stress, concern or problem, you might be able to return to something more typical for yourself. It's also worth bearing in mind that even experienced lucid dreamers sometimes go through lulls for their lucid dreaming, so it's possible that this will go away on its own anyway. Considering that you just came off SSRIs recently and that they do affect sleep, your body may still be adjusting to not taking them anymore. I know it has been about a couple of months now, though the half-life of common SSRIs can be a bit long and these things do seem to vary between individuals anyway. This would make some sense to me if we consider that the medication somehow influenced your dreaming to be stronger or more vivid, as you might be basically coming off that anomaly at the moment and just still settling back to how you were.

[LordOfDeath]

Okay, so it sounds like you have a decent natural ability to become lucid, though your reality checks and intent-setting seem to be important factors to me anyway. Your motivation for dreaming lucidly also sounds fine, really. I think it would be worth keeping a small dream journal even if you only use it infrequently. At the moment especially, because if you want to be analytical as to why you're not realising you're dreaming as often as you were. It might help you notice some kind of pattern, like a recurring distraction or something else that is not making you question reality as often. You say that at the moment your dreams are being strongly related to real life too and I'm getting the impression this isn't too usual for you, please correct me if I'm assuming too much. This will obviously depends on how you are as a person but this would make me think that something in your life might be demanding more attention than you're willing or able to give it at the moment, and in my mind it's possible that by addressing some recent stress, concern or problem, you might be able to return to something more typical for yourself. It's also worth bearing in mind that even experienced lucid dreamers sometimes go through lulls for their lucid dreaming, so it's possible that this will go away on its own anyway. Considering that you just came off SSRIs recently and that they do affect sleep, your body may still be adjusting to not taking them anymore. I know it has been about a couple of months now, though the half-life of common SSRIs can be a bit long and these things do seem to vary between individuals anyway. This would make some sense to me if we consider that the medication somehow influenced your dreaming to be stronger or more vivid, as you might be basically coming off that anomaly at the moment and just still settling back to how you were. All things yo said are right, makes sense of what you said so I'll just go with the flow and it I'll start making a dream journal Thanks a lot for replying hoping to learn more from you

[MisakaMikoto]

I personally didn't notice any difference between before and after antidepressants when it comes to my lucid dreams. Maybe some antidepressants/antipsychotics did increase frequency of natural lucid dreams but imo it had zero effect on technique induced lucid dreams (DIlD/DEILD/WILD ones etc.)

[Lucidfist22]

I want to say that your relapse of nofap may have reset your lucid counts, if that's what I'm reading into. Going into and out of nofap throws everything off balance, in my opinion. I also try nofap now and then. Obviously, the medicine may have enhanced your lucid dreaming ability too. But if you stay on nofap long enough, it will definitely help with lucid dreaming too.