Effects of Lucidity?

Hey everyone! Some of you may know me by now, others of you not so much just yet. So Hi!

I was talking to my friend about Lucid dreaming. She raised a concern that piqued my intrest, so I figured I'd ask it here.

Dreams are supposed to be times for the subconcious to process, sort, and organize information from the far and diverse realms of your brain. But lucid dreams on some level tend to involve parts of the concious mind. Does anyone know if there have been studies done on the effects of regular lucid dreaming on the mind, then?

I know lucids are common enough that most people have experienced lucids naturally before ever trying to induce them. I suppose useful studies would involve comparing people who naturally lucid frequently and those who do not in areas of memory and learning speeds and such. We know there are benefits to the concious mind to having lucid dreams, but does involving the concious mind effect, either positively or negatively, the job the subconcious mind is doing during dreams?

Just curious, and asking for my friend as well. Even if you don't know of a study, your opinion on the matter would also be useful, as I know some of you regularily lucid. Thanks!

Where did you learn that: "Dreams are supposed to be times for the subconcious to process, sort, and organize information from the far and diverse realms of your brain."

And who assumes such a view?

I just cannot grasp why people chose to limit themselves like that.. I find it almost funny! ;)

Well, that's why you're dreaming in the first place. I love my dreams, read my DJ and come tell me after that that I limit myself to near tragicomedy :| I think you'll find my dreams are both very involving, entertaining, and often random and out of the box.

But the mind is a functional thing at its basis, and it just doesn't do things without purpose. Dreams exist for a reason. Part of that reason is that they're really awesome. :) Another part is that the brain actually is sorting both informational and emotional data during your sleep. I don't personally think lucid dreaming effects the subconcious processings during dreaming, but that's based on my personal lucid experiences. My friend raised an interesting point, I was just curious to see if anyone else had already looked into this or thought about it before.

EDIT: and what the result of those thoughts were.

EDIT: also, I wanted to be able to give her an answer as, truth be told, I don't know. I'm pretty darn sure, but I can't back up my opinion with pretty darn sure. That's what facts are useful for.

EDIT: I figured something like this would be on the main page under "Common misconceptions" but it wasn't, which is why I raised the question en forum. The closest thing that comes is...

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Dreams contain messages that are lost with lucid dreaming

Finally, many people take an intransigent stance against lucid dreaming based on their belief that our dreams are trying to tell us something, and we lose those messages by trying to alter our dreams. That’s a reasonable position to take, however, that idea is not entirely valid. First of all, most people that endeavour to have lucid dreams only have them occasionally—perhaps a few times a month. Some obviously will have them more often (perhaps several times a week or even in a night) but again for the most part, on average, those who attempt lucid dreaming still have more non-lucid dreams than lucid ones. Perhaps even more valid a point is that becoming proficient at lucid dreaming demands excellent dream recall. Thus, while practicing to become lucid in dreams you are also increasing your ability to remember your dreams, which as a by-product will provide you with more memorable dreams to sift through in search of hidden insight. Therefore one can practice lucid dreaming and still attain enough “regular” dreams so that he or she need not worry about losing something important.

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But its not exactly the same discussion, though I'm certain many points in this misconception could apply to the one I'm raising.

EDIT: (Woot for edits!)

If you narrow it like that, it will be narrow, like that! ;)

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Originally Posted by Forynia

EDIT: also, I wanted to be able to give her an answer as, truth be told, I don't know. I'm pretty darn sure, but I can't back up my opinion with pretty darn sure. That's what facts are useful for.

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Well. I can only tell what I think, and what I expereinced..

If one deem dreams as only being for that, one will only use them; for that!

:)

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Originally Posted by G0MPgomp

If one deem dreams as only being for that, one will only use them; for that!

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Obviously dreams can be more. That's not the point of the discussion. At the root of their existance, one of the main reasons you dream naturally, is to sort information. You can do all sorts of things with and in dreams, but you must also acknowledge their functional purpse as well to promote greater mental health. You speak as if I am simply limiting them as nothing more than some sort of functional mental tool only. I am not. I am simply acknowledging the fact that, whatever else they are or what you choose to do with your dream time, they are also still a functional mental tool.

And I was wondering if Lucid dreaming either helped, hindered, or did not interfere at all with the function of dreams when they are examined in the aspect of a functional mental tool.

GOPMgomp is right. There are many different theories for why we dream, "to sort out information" is one, but it's not proven. The reason we dream may be to become lucid. Who knows? But I do not believe lucid dreaming has any negative effects, or that it interferes with our natural dreaming processes.

There's no 'proven theory' for why dreams exist. However, psychologists teach in their college classes the most commonly and widely known theory that involves both biology and psychology, that dreams are either the product of your mind sorting information or dumping it. There are several others but they're rarely acknowledged anymore, as one or the other of the above theories is commonly accepted. It can't be proven for sure, but from what can be tested and scientifically analyzed, those are the theories that most closely match the facts.

I am obviously aware that it can't be proven. part of the whole "Dreams are supposed to be" part of the sentence. Under the pretext that dreams perform a subconcious function for the mind, I'm asking if someone knows of a study or has something to contribute under that if lucid dreams, if involving the concious mind, might have an effect on that theory. Not debate the purpose of dreams, as thats a bag of fish i don't want to open. Scientifically, its commonly accepted that dreams are used by the mind to sort information.

But thanks for your opinion on the topic. That's 2 for no interferance...

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Originally Posted by 27

GOPMgomp is right. There are many different theories for why we dream, "to sort out information" is one, but it's not proven. The reason we dream may be to become lucid. Who knows? But I do not believe lucid dreaming has any negative effects, or that it interferes with our natural dreaming processes.

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I thank you! You put in words what I too mean..

I dont really see how involving your consious mind in a dream stops your subconsious from sorting information. Lucid dreams are almost exactly like non-lucid dreams in how your subconscious generates your entire perceived environment. To a very large extent, your subconsious even decides how your 5 "physical" senses respond to your environment. A lot of the time, your subconsious is also deciding the course of events (who you will see when you turn the next corner, for example) in the same way it would in non lucids.

I would only expect your subconsious "sorting processes" to be disturbed when you are exercising dream control to the extent where you are deciding every single aspect of your dream, which Im not sure is even possible... its just too much information to process for you to consciously decide everything that will happen at every instant in time in your lucid dream.

Hope that helps you some ...

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Originally Posted by Forynia

Hey everyone! Some of you may know me by now, others of you not so much just yet. So Hi!

I was talking to my friend about Lucid dreaming. She raised a concern that piqued my intrest, so I figured I'd ask it here.

Dreams are supposed to be times for the subconcious to process, sort, and organize information from the far and diverse realms of your brain. But lucid dreams on some level tend to involve parts of the concious mind. Does anyone know if there have been studies done on the effects of regular lucid dreaming on the mind, then?

I know lucids are common enough that most people have experienced lucids naturally before ever trying to induce them. I suppose useful studies would involve comparing people who naturally lucid frequently and those who do not in areas of memory and learning speeds and such. We know there are benefits to the concious mind to having lucid dreams, but does involving the concious mind effect, either positively or negatively, the job the subconcious mind is doing during dreams?

Just curious, and asking for my friend as well. Even if you don't know of a study, your opinion on the matter would also be useful, as I know some of you regularily lucid. Thanks!

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Hi, the mind has a safety mechanism that prevents lucid dreaming when it needs to 'vent' out...hence U get dry spells. It's a natural cycle of having them everynight and not having them at all.

IMJ

Ah, thanks, those do help.

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the mind has a safety mechanism that prevents lucid dreaming when it needs to 'vent' out

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I hadn't thought of that, but it makes sense. XD There are usually mechanisms like that to prevent us from screwing up something too seriously, it would make sense that the mind would do so in Lucid Dreams, as well.

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Lucid dreams are almost exactly like non-lucid dreams in how your subconscious generates your entire perceived environment. ...

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That's been my experience. But there are different ways of getting lucid and different experiences, so I wasn't sure. Thanks for your input on that.

dreams are like defragmentation :)
you need your hdd to defragment sometimes..
but we have a real mess in ourself.. so we need to dream everynight :)