Do Dreams really improve your Quality of Life

[Thatperson]

Do dreams really have a net gain on your Quality of Life? I'm sure many of you have felt than bad feeling in the morning after some great dreams which is a kind of a downer, but the main thing is long term effect. If your dreams are consistantly better than your real life then surely you will start to get used to it and your waking life will seem bad even if it is ok, because great dreams have become the standard.

[Super FZL]

If I have a good dream, I tend to feel better when I wake up.

[Thatperson]

yeah i know what you mean as i often do, but if the dream was especially good and the next day is going to be a bad one for whatever reason. the main point i was making was about the long term of dreams making your real lfie seem worse in relation to good dreams

[ZmillA]

If anything I feel like my quality of life is somewhat lesser than what it was before joining the site.

[Ubinifex]

Most likely, but a better Quality of Life is more influenced by what we do in the Waking World rather than in the Dream World. Though if having good dreams means sleeping better then yes, Quality of Life increases.

[i make it rain]

If anything I feel like my quality of life is somewhat lesser than what it was before joining the site. Must have been a tough 5 days.

[Grunkie7]

I suppose it may depend on if you view lucid dreaming as an asset of your waking life or an escape from it.

[RBee]

Depends on the dream and the dreamer, I guess. I've had dreams that put me in a SERIOUS good mood for a week. If you consdier anything that puts you in a REALLY good mood and makes you really happy like that for days after 'improvement in life quality' then I'd have to say a resounding YES!

[Astral__Explorer]

This is what has currently happened to me. So many impressive things has happened in both dreams and astral projection... ...It had got to the point where I felt so fufilled in this life that I need nothing and even willing to die now... ...I only live now to experiene life, as if this was a dream, I have no fear of death and actual wait for it...so now I just enjoy life... Something I notice now though is if bored I will slip into trance and start flicking in and out of dreams every 5secs and the eeling is so good almost feels like a drug...I honestly can't do a thing in that stae of mind... But all these experiences have caused the physical world to feel dull and I'm now seeing if I can feel the intense feelings in this world like in dream or astral world.

[Bechillbro48]

If I have a good dream, I tend to feel better when I wake up. I\'m the same way - but for me it\'s any kind of vivid dream that helps me start the day well, not just good ones.

[Neville J]

In this book I read (probably Laberge's), a tibetan monk explains what happens if you really master the art of lucid dreaming. The difference between waking life and dreamlife will fade away (not in a bad way) and as you are constantly aware of being in a dream while lucid, you will have increased awareness in waking life. Tibetan dream yoga isn't about the content of our dreams. In fact, dream yoga is really about our waking life. - Lama Tsering Everest

[JollyRoger]

Must have been a tough 5 days. Now I shouldn't be laughing... yet I am

[ZmillA]

Must have been a tough 5 days. Indeed. It really all comes down to if Im as happy as I was before. If the answer is no than to me, technically the "quality of life" is worse.

[ZmillA]

Must have been a tough 5 days. Im 100% positive you and I dont have the same definition of quality life. I and was probrably feeling down when I made that post anyways.

[Shady]

Dreams in general have defiantly left me happy/sad/excited or whatever the morning after if they are very vivid.. But obviously nothing long term, its nothing new.. no different then some days when you remember something sad/happy or whatever. Im 100% positive you and I dont have the same definition of quality life. I and was probrably feeling down when I made that post anyways. Im pretty sure your "mistaken" about what quality of life is if you seriously believe something on this website has had enough of an impact in a few days to seriously affect your life in a bad way. If anything you had a bad day in real life and felt down, and even then.. shit happens. I dont mean to be an ass, could have been something serious.. but yeah. Theres a whole lot more to quality of life then being more/less happy then you were a few days ago. I do agree thats a large part of it, and really everyones going to have a different "definition" of what quality of life is, its a very situational state. However, I really dont believe that anything on this website has anything near the potential of turning around your life beliefs, or ruining real life for you. If it does the same information can be found all over the internet, and is nothing new. No one is forcing beliefs on you here, I can pretty much guarantee that, its just a collaboration of beliefs/ideas. Realistically, lucid dreaming shouldn't kill your quality of life unless you want it to. Im sorry but dreaming not perfect, yes LD'ing is a great experience, but life is better. If you cannot realize that then I dont think this website or any others really needed to be here to have an impact on your quality of life. You've already convinced yourself that life sucks. Life is what you make it, not what you dream about it being like. There are ways to improve your life by achieving goals, getting your degree, first car, maybe buying your first house.. having a child, whatever really matters to you; and these can provide a emotion or sense of satisfaction I have yet to experience in any dream. Its just not the same when you can make it happen out of nothing in an instant. Im sure other people feel differently.. but snowboarding down a mountain with friends beats lying in bed WILD'ing away alone.. anyday. Sure I could be flying off that mountain instead of boarding.. but that tends to get boring really fast. Yes I realize theres more to LD'ing, but the end result of whatever Im doing usually has a very similar aftereffect.

[Thatperson]

An example: I have never been to america but intend to go over the summer, lets say before i went i had a dream where I was in america, when I did actually go in real life would this not make me less exited as I had already expereinced it before? Lets say i had 5 dreams about going to america it would get less and less exiting each time. Even though it will still be great wouldn't it be better if i had never been there in my dreams in the first place. Say my dream version of america is better than the real thing, when i go there for real i will be let down. thats bascially the jist of what i originally meant.

[Shady]

The thing about it is it isnt going to be anything like you dream like if you've never experienced it. Whether its better or worse completely depends on what you imagined. You've got to understand even if you didnt dream you would have the same predictions or anticipation before you went, and you may still end up overwhelmed or disappointed.. Dreaming just gives you the option to play around, not everything is normal in there no matter how hard you try. You wont be experiencing America in a dream, you will be experiencing what you already think/know about it in a more visual and vivid experience. And like I said if you dont know what your experiencing, you wont be. It would be nothing more then what you think it is, and thats not the real thing at all.. If that makes any sense. Sure you will think its real, you could try to imagine going to a popular place.. but its not that same. Alot of people wake up before hitting the ground when falling in dreams, or similar experiences wake up right before impact because their brain just farts because it doesnt know what should happen next. Think about all your dreams you remember, Im sure alot of them will be based in home towns or familiar areas etc. Sure you can go wherever you want to, but its just really not the same. Theres more to the experiences in real life then floating around talking to yourself in the form of dream characters. If you want to see what America looks like google it. If you want to experience it go there. This goes for anything.. dreams just really aren't a proper substitute imo. Not really comparable for a first time thing. Btw I dont mean to "sell" America, personally I dont think America's all that fantastic or whatever, but its because its just normal for me.. Brazil on the other hand is defiantly one of the top 5 places I want to visit. Difference of perspective but hopefully you see what I mean. They are wonderful for going back to places you love, and stuff like that. Lots of stuff you think of off the top of your head in a dream will be fun to mess around, but I really dont think it can compare with a first time real life experience. Obviously not alot of people want to jump off cliffs in real life and you cant fly.. so its great to do the 'impossible' stuff.. and you can still have a great time.. but again its only as good as you think it will be. I find myself snowboarding off mountains, jumping from cliff to cliff etc in dreams, but quite frankly its just more exhilarating in real life.. even if I cant be superman here. I dont think its made the event itself any better or worse, its just made my nights a hell of alot more fun!

[ZmillA]

Dreams in general have defiantly left me happy/sad/excited or whatever the morning after if they are very vivid.. But obviously nothing long term, its nothing new.. no different then some days when you remember something sad/happy or whatever. Im pretty sure your "mistaken" about what quality of life is if you seriously believe something on this website has had enough of an impact in a few days to seriously affect your life in a bad way. If anything you had a bad day in real life and felt down, and even then.. shit happens. I dont mean to be an ass, could have been something serious.. but yeah. Theres a whole lot more to quality of life then being more/less happy then you were a few days ago. I do agree thats a large part of it, and really everyones going to have a different "definition" of what quality of life is, its a very situational state. However, I really dont believe that anything on this website has anything near the potential of turning around your life beliefs, or ruining real life for you. If it does the same information can be found all over the internet, and is nothing new. No one is forcing beliefs on you here, I can pretty much guarantee that, its just a collaboration of beliefs/ideas. Realistically, lucid dreaming shouldn't kill your quality of life unless you want it to. Im sorry but dreaming not perfect, yes LD'ing is a great experience, but life is better. If you cannot realize that then I dont think this website or any others really needed to be here to have an impact on your quality of life. You've already convinced yourself that life sucks. Life is what you make it, not what you dream about it being like. There are ways to improve your life by achieving goals, getting your degree, first car, maybe buying your first house.. having a child, whatever really matters to you; and these can provide a emotion or sense of satisfaction I have yet to experience in any dream. Its just not the same when you can make it happen out of nothing in an instant. Im sure other people feel differently.. but snowboarding down a mountain with friends beats lying in bed WILD'ing away alone.. anyday. Sure I could be flying off that mountain instead of boarding.. but that tends to get boring really fast. Yes I realize theres more to LD'ing, but the end result of whatever Im doing usually has a very similar aftereffect. I dont mean to be an ass, but nothing you just said really hasnt any relevance to what I meant(well maybe thats a little exagerated). Words and how they are put together mean different things to everyone and you took what I said in a direction I didnt mean. Even if I had made an appropriate post it wouldnt have really conveyed what I ment.

[Shady]

*Sorry to clutter your thread Thatperson. * Okay, well maybe this time I do mean to be a little bit of an ass but let me break this down for you, so maybe you can understand what im saying. First of all, lemme remind you that the OP of this post said nothing about the relevance of quality of life and this website, it was dreams in general.. So I want to thank you for your original reply that really didn't have a whole lot to do with this to begin with. Sure the website has stuff to do with dreaming.. but you really didn't answer or say why, or anything. If anything I feel like my quality of life is somewhat lesser than what it was before joining the site. Second of all, only a little portion of my post was directed at you, but we already know you have trouble taking in or responding to information based on your first reply. Heres what was directed at you. Please note the word seriously, almost immediately after the word if. Im pretty sure your "mistaken" about what quality of life is if you seriously believe something on this website has had enough of an impact in a few days to seriously affect your life in a bad way. If anything you had a bad day in real life and felt down, and even then.. shit happens. I dont mean to be an ass, could have been something serious.. but yeah. Theres a whole lot more to quality of life then being more/less happy then you were a few days ago. I do agree thats a large part of it, and really everyones going to have a different "definition" of what quality of life is, its a very situational state. However, I really dont believe that anything on this website has anything near the potential of turning around your life beliefs, or ruining real life for you. If it does the same information can be found all over the internet, and is nothing new. No one is forcing beliefs on you here, I can pretty much guarantee that, its just a collaboration of beliefs/ideas. I lied, this kind of is too, dont know how that one got in in there. If you cannot realize that then I dont think this website or any others really needed to be here to have an impact on your quality of life. I believe that reply (based on what you said in the quote) is much more relevant then you few you had made.. considering we are not all mind readers. I realize you said later you were probably just "down" when you typed that, but you still typed it. Text can have a hard time coming across as sarcastic when you assume people are actually trying to answer a question. Sure I misunderstood you, my bad for assuming you posted something to contribute to the topic, not random noise to get your post count up. Keep on double posting to answer the same person twice by the way, that will help.

[ZmillA]

dude dont pay any attention to me, I dont even know what im talking about anymore I didnt even realise I had double posted until just now.

[psychology student]

Do dreams really have a net gain on your Quality of Life? I'm sure many of you have felt than bad feeling in the morning after some great dreams which is a kind of a downer, but the main thing is long term effect. If your dreams are consistantly better than your real life then surely you will start to get used to it and your waking life will seem bad even if it is ok, because great dreams have become the standard. I suppose, but they can also distract you from reality.

[Exhalent]

After having a bad dream I appreciate the way I live in reality.

[ChaybaChayba]

Everyone dreams, always, it's only a matter wether you remember them or not. So if you get into lucid dreaming you will remember them, therefore, your life will have more value anyway. If you don't remember your dreams, you have one life. If you do remember them, you have two lives. That's how I see it. Not remembering your dreams is like forgetting half your life Good point tho, that if your dreams are so great, that your life might suck in comparison.. but it's like saying if videogames are so great, real life will suck in comparison.. thats not the case for me. My dreams are like real life anyway, but a lil more exagerated. Besides, you will dream always! The only way to escape dreams is forgetting them.

[Shift]

I worry about this a lot because I tend to be pretty depressed and my life really isn't that exciting. I was always the kid who was buried in fantasy novels and in love with video games, superheros, and flying. I'm not a natural. I only got my first LD 5 years ago, and it has only been in the past two months that I've really gotten the hang of LDing (by my standards, anyways). So I don't think of LDing as something miraculously better than waking life that dulls it, although it sometimes does feel that way when I am down. Instead, I feel like I've been given a gift. I have the ability to do this amazing thing when I go to sleep! I can be in a world of my own creation. If I feel bad about my real life because it's not as exciting as LDing, I make myself stop and recall the times when this whole experience was not available to me because I had no idea it existed, and realize how incredibly lucky I am (that we all are, that humans are able to do this). So the only way LDing has reduced the quality of my life is when I waste an entire day sleeping in attempts to have an LD, but don't, and wake up hours later with a day lost. But on the other hand, I have a new hobby that I am seriously interested in, and now spend a large majority of my waking hours thinking about LDing, observing reality, questioning reality, speaking about dreaming and LDing to some close family/friends, etc. When I am bored, I think about lucid dreaming. It's increased the quality of my life in more than just quality/amount of sleep After having a bad dream I appreciate the way I live in reality. And then there's that.

[i make it rain]

In terms of just comparing waking life and dreaming it should actually help. I heard from this guy that studied dreams that actually the majority of dreams are negative in nature. Either you are trying to do something and it won't work or you are being chased or something. These are more common than those awesome happy dreams. Of course LDing can throw that all off. But I don't believe in the comparison of dreaming and waking life. After a really good LD, I feel like I accomplished something that was amazing and fun.