How does lucid dreaming benefit you?

Hey I'm just being nosey but... I am interested to know what everyone finds lucid dreaming is useful for (personally - because everyone is different :D )

I know that in my non lucid dreams I randomly wake up remembering useless things that I thought I had long forgotten, such as a really old song lyric, a phone number, or a peron's name from my childhood. This might be a wonderful benefit to lucid dreaming if you have the control to remember what you want. I also get ideas for my paintings from my dreams!

It allows me to express creativity. Also, it de-stresses me. I feel better about myself after having a good lucid dream!

Other than pure fun? :)

I like creating modifications for games. Small unofficial expansions created with tools released by the game's developers basically. I'm currently working on one for the game Oblivion. It adds tons of new quests for the player to do.

I'm planning to do another one for that game when this one is finished, and it'll be based on a dream I once had. It was just a small thing that happened in a dream which I remembered when I was awake. I wrote it down, changed it a lot and expanded on it, and now I have a nice story which I plan to use for that mod.

To me it feels great to be able to do that. Dream about something and (if not too difficult, crazy or simply not interesting) implement it in a game and share it with the world.

Benefits?
School:
Math-Study
Biology-Life creation
Chemistry-Atoms play time
Others-Re-creation of scenary
Daily Life:
Stress-Smash/destroy
Fun-Fights
Others-Induced FA
Gaming-Play the games in virtual reality!
And... thats all <.<

Entertainment really, or a measurement of what my subconscious mind is conditioned on for any topic.

My real work is done in theta state via image streaming....

thanks - this is wonderful! It seems that there are many uses for lucid dreaming that I never thought of :) It's realy interesting to see how advanced LDers seems to have such an in-depth relationship with thier LDs - I simply can't remember dreams vividly enough for this to happen to me, but I'm working on it!

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Originally Posted by OrionStyles

My real work is done in theta state via image streaming....

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Wow! What does this mean - Image streaming? Theta are brain waves am I right?

I'm new here - this will be my first post! But I've been into lucid dreaming for years. I've usually been too lazy to perfect my abilities, but I just had a whopper last night that lasted for quite a while. The alarm clock woke me! Rats!

But I spent the rest of today totally pumped. I felt totally in control with lots of energy. This is always the effect that lucid dreaming has on me. The day after a good night's experience, I never feel like life is dull or unexciting. Weird? Not really. My entire interest in lucid dreaming is as follows:

I've always had vivid dreams, and I liked to tell people about them, so I grew up sort of remembering my dreams to a certain extent. But as I got older I grew frustrated that my dreams always seemed to go in directions that I didn't like (naked in public, too shy to talk to a girl, etc.) It wasn't until later that I realized that my waking life was exactly the same! I wasn't unhappy, I just always ended up in places I didn't enjoy or missing out on opportunities. I thought, if I could have more control in my dreams maybe I could have more control in life.

This led me to look into dreaming, but I had very little success. I discovered that (for me) I had to get more control over my waking life before I could have any sort of control over my dreams. I can almost always start a lucid dream experience, but I almost always wake up immediately afterwards - no matter what I tried. Then I discovered my personal secret. It may not work for you, but:

I have to be aggressive in my dreams. As soon as I discover that "I'm dreaming" I get overly excited, start shouting and hollering, running around like a fool, waving my hands in the air. Sounds stupid, but it never fails. I quickly turn my head side-to-side" to force clarity. I gotta be loud and boisterous in my dreams, talk out loud, humm even. Never stop making noise, never stop moving.

I find that I've become more and more daring in real life. Not at all wreckless, and I don't run around waving my hands in the air, but I seem to care less and less what others think of me. I've become less self-obsessed, and that is a wonderful thing. I actually seem more interested in other people after waking from a lucid dream. I listen to them more interestedly (is that a word?) Lucid dreaming sates some sort of need I have to be in control of my life. It seems to indulge me this, loosening me up to be open to other people in waking life.

Sorry for the long reply. I can type fast and I often overdue my responses. Feel free to stop reading at any point...

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Originally Posted by Morelucid

But as I got older I grew frustrated that my dreams always seemed to go in directions that I didn't like (naked in public, too shy to talk to a girl, etc.) It wasn't until later that I realized that my waking life was exactly the same!

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You're naked in public in your waking life too? :)

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Originally Posted by Morelucid

This led me to look into dreaming, but I had very little success. I discovered that (for me) I had to get more control over my waking life before I could have any sort of control over my dreams.

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Well said :D

Personally, I use my dreams to explore design ideas and come up with that initial spark to fuel the creative process. It is so easy to generate ideas in a dream, it almost feels like cheating.

Yes! It's true - creativity comes so easy in dreams, it is like - 'where has this come from'!

MoreLucid, your technique sounds great - I will try totally flipping out one I realise I am lucid. I think this will work for me because it will keep my focus on the my involvement in the dream and off the real world. I think I'll try doing this: :banana:

I was lucid last night for a little while during a dream about an old friend and I remember thinking 'Right, I am dreaming so I must stay in this dream because I won't get to see this friend in real life.'

-Creativity works 100% inside-I love to take ideas back with me.
-When I got lucid, it let me feel pretty good next day.
-I used to face my fears in my very first period of LDing.
-LD's are a very good chance for enertainment if I need it.
-I think Ld's help me training both memory and attention.
-I see my LD's as a good moment to feel absolutely free.
-I think there must be a connection between my "brain structure" to see the world and the dream symbolism, in order to, if I work with some of those symbols during a LD, I'm changing my internal way of seeing life-It's just an Idea.

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Originally Posted by Box77

-Creativity works 100% inside-I love to take ideas back with me.
-I see my LD's as a good moment to feel absolutely free.

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That's so true! I would love to feel lucid enough to feel free in my dreams. That is my aim really..

I do it for fun now. I got into it to find something that I had misplaced in the real world. Occasionally if I lose something, then I'll try to use lucid dreaming to help me.

I like flying :P, but i still find myself walking the majority of the time :/.

for me I guess it's having an experience. It's always great, in waking life as well as in sleep. For me it pushes me to be more creative and in a way to be more thoughtfull regarding myself and what I do. Also I'm starting to find it make me more concentradet in waking state then before.

and of course not just having a numb sleep but maybe flying around and checking out some strange stuff, that is a great fortune I belive. :)

dancing banana's :banana::banana::banana::banana::banana:

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Originally Posted by shotbirds

I like flying :P, but i still find myself walking the majority of the time :/.

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That's a shame - do you lose lucidity and therefore control and end up walking, or do you just get bored of flying? I really want to fly and just run about being free, jumping really high etc!

I love exploring the physical environments that I find myself in, in dreams. Houses with rooms that go on forever, cluttered with interesting, rich objects - bolts of cloth, or boxes with opening mechanisms and things inside. Or sometimes landscapes where I can't get over the 'realism' of the grass, the hillsides, how real it all seems - whenever I become lucid, that's mostly what I focus on. Touching, exploring the physical things and being amazed by how real they look and feel. Like some others posting their replies it's the sense of control which is good, though I do have trouble giving myself permission to be in complete control and exercise the freedom which lucid dreaming gives.

I take lucid dreaming as a glorious curse that I'd gladly accept for the rest of my life:).