Lucid dreaming disturbs rest?

[CaptainDoe]

Hello there everyone. I'm doing a project about Lucid dreaming for my school and I've been asking myself some questions about it and one thing that I really feel that I need to know is this, by being mentally conscious during your sleep, do you really rest as well as you would normally during sleep?? Why or why not? Thanks, David

[MrBeelzy]

I feel as rested on nights that I lucid dream as those that I don't. If anything I feel more energized because of my mood. Dreaming mostly happens during REM sleep anyway, and that is only about a quarter of the time you're usually sleeping.

[Mes Tarrant]

Yeah I agree with Awesome-o there. I used to ask this same question, but I never noticed any sort of difference. I was more energized if anything. I think this is because the parts of our brains that need the rest DO get the rest. It only takes a very small part of your brain to gain awareness in dreams and... yeah.

[Amelaclya]

I find myself less rested after a night of heavy LD'ing than when I don't do it. I don't think it has anything to do with not getting as much rest when you're aware of the dream, but I do wake up in the middle and have to re-enter the dream, and also get a lot of FAs so I think that it can be very disruptive. Not enough of a pain to make me stop though

[Mes Tarrant]

Hmm. I think it's important to distinguish between LDing with WBTBs, waking up a bunch of times during the night, that sort of thing... from LDing in the middle of an uninterrupted sleep.

[Amelaclya]

Well I never actively try to WBTB. However, any LD that I've ever had (that I recall anyway!) has lead to me waking up. And then of course I always have to try to DEILD because it sucks to wake up in the middle of a cool dream!

[Who I Am]

Maybe it has more to do with what you do with your lucid dream time, than the time itself... In other words, if you spend your time chasing and fulfilling childish and adolescent fantasies of the flesh, you may wake up tired. On the other hand if you spend your time in search of truth,… and the meaning of life, wisdom and knowledge,... you will wake up refreshed.

[Kromoh]

Well, Lucid Dreaming itself doesn't not disturb sleep. A natural LDer should have no trouble concerning it. And even if you consider it: we are not dreaming during most of our sleep - a few minutes of slightly higher brain activity does no harm. What may disturb rest are the techniques for attaining lucidity, since many involve waking up in the middle of the night, adapting your sleep schedule and so many other things. So I'd say LDing can, indirectly, disturb your rest. Not that it is any problem though: most people don't bother to try consuming techniques daily anyway. And you must also consider LDing is great for your mood (you really wake up hyper after a lucid dream), so I think the lack of rest may go unnoticed by most dreamers.

[CaptainDoe]

Thank you everyone for your responses. I'll take all of this in to account when I do my project. Thanks