Do Lucid Dreams affect Sleep Quality?

As much as I enjoy LDs and the prospect of controlling my dreams, I would not like LDs to affect my sleep quality. For those of you who don't know, it's not so much the quantity of which you sleep but the quality of your sleep. i.e. even if you sleep for 8 hours a night, if you have poor sleep quality, you'll always wake up tired, and feel lethargic for the rest of the day.

So my query is: Are there studies that show the affect of Lucid Dreaming on sleep quality? Before I stumbled upon LDs, I noticed that after a heavy night of vivid dreaming, I would always wake up a little more tired than usual. Frequently waking up in the middle of the night etc unintentionally. Now that I'm used to attempting MILDS and WILDS,etc, I find myself waking up several times a night EVERY NIGHT (which I know is the basis of most methods of LDs). Has anyone noticed themselves waking up more tired because of LDs? Less tired? No difference? I go to bed at 11 at night and wake up at 730 in the morning and it's getting really hard for me to get out of bed these days (hitting snooze 3 times in a row, etc). But then again, winter in Australia is just beginning and it could just be my body adapting to the weather.

I always feel really energized and happy after a great lucid, but it might be more of a mental thing because I am so happy that I was lucid. I have never really noticed myself feeling physically tired because of vivid dreams.

Usually when I wake up from my dreams, the last emotion I felt from that dream would determine how would I be feeling afterwards; more tired, somehow "ill", sad or I would feel more energized, happy and more comfortable trough the rest of the day. Based on the strength of the emotion, after I woke up, it would determine how long would it affect my mental state. For example if it was a really strong one, it would last trough the whole day, but if it was quite weak, it would last for a half an hour or so. It also varies if it was a lucid or non-lucid dream. If I had a lucid dream with poor vividness and control, I would usually try all my best to make it better, but if I try too hard I would somehow lose my "energy" and wake up very tired afterwards. However, If it was the opposite, in which I would have complete control and high vividness, I would not need to exert too much will thus my feelings would also be at a very high state, and I would wake up with that beautiful feeling you get after a great dream (it's very hard to describe but I'm sure you know what I'm talking about). If it was a non-lucid dream, as I said before, the last emotion I felt from that dream would determine how would I be feeling afterwards.

There is no research existent today to say that they do.

It doesn't affect my sleep quality. :) At least as far as I know, so I assume it doesn't because I will feel rested after "normal" amount of sleep no matter how many lucid dreams I have that night.

3 - 3 - 3 - 3,

... - looks like I made it a tie again :/

As for me, I don't really pay attention to it.

Yes that's an interesting thought. Instead of just "Lucid dreams make you tired etc" it's the type of lucid dream you have. But like I said, the less vivid dreams I have a night (i.e. where I can hardly remember them even when I woke up) the more refreshed I am in the morning. I don't know....Lucid Dreams are just that: you need to be thinking during your sleep. But I don't know how different that is from just letting loose and going with the dream. I just figured the more "analytical" people are during their dreams and controlling them, the more tired they'd be from thinking all night. But then again, maybe it's the same amount of thought or type of thinking involved in vivid dreams so.....:?

After waking up from lucid dreams, I am so incredibly excited and energized!! The quality of sleep is exponentially greater, even if the amount is reduced. I once woke up at 5:00 instead of my usual 9am because I'd just had a lucid dream and wanted to write it down thoroughly and was too excited to go back to sleep. I spent the whole day more awake than I had all semester. That happens every time I have a lucid.

Such interesting results. Half of the people that polled say they're less tired. Either due to their excitement of attaining lucidity during the night, or their quality of sleep increases when having a LD. I haven't really woken up excited from a LD, apart from that the first time I had one which was a WILD, so that was kinda cool. Maybe I should do more crazy things in LDs to get me more excited. Seems to work for some people! :banana: