Thread: dangers of lucid dreaming?

Hy, I made an account a while ago, but this is my first forum post. just recently I found an online article which listed problems about lucid dreaming. they were things such as depression, alienation, adiction(?), and others which I dont remember. My question is if these are true, and if so, are they common? Maybe later I might be able to link the article.

i dont think lucid dreaming could ever make you depressed. It always uplifts me to the highest degree when i wake from a lucid, to the point where i have a huge cheesy grin on my face for the rest of the day!
Addiction? - not unless you have an incredibly addictive personality, but then again, if thats true, everything is a risk.

I dno about alienation, i guess it could in the way that you wanna share with people what youve dreamt about, lucidly, but some people just dont believe a word you say. Which is a little bit lame.
I dont think lucid dreaming can harm you in any serious way Id love a link to that article though!

Your dreams are heavily influenced by how you feel in real life. Dreams can never be a subsititute for real life experiences.

I would like to see the source's research. None of those symptoms are even remotely associated with Lucid Dreaming.
Anything whatsoever can be claimed to be psychologically addictive. I've never heard of it happening, nor is it common at all. Along with the other two "dangers."

Like above posters, nothing to worry about.

Your dreams are an interpretation of your feelings, so the only thing that you should be afraid of is simply you.

I would assume the person who wrote the article doesn't know alot about what lucid dreaming entails, or is skeptical on the matter. People using lucid dreaming as a means of escapism or become addicted to them most likely already have a pre-existing psychological issue such as depression. Lots of my lucids are way better than real life but I'm not addicted, even though I've been practicing for a couple years now. Some people have been doing it their whole lives.

Nothing to worry about!

If anything it will make your life better, relieve stress and explore yourself (no pun).

If you stop dreaming, YOU DIE. This is like saying oxygen is addictive.

You are going to dream, no matter what. Might as well enjoy it and make the most of it.

Caution on Hacking Your Dream - Lucid Dreaming here's the link. Thanks. I wasn't incredibly worried, but wanted to check anyways. Also, looking at the comments, people do seem do disagree with it, and looking at it again, I realize that most of these "dangers" are pretty ridiculous

People are afraid of the unknown. You can't really blame them to come with this negative view on lucid dreaming. After all, there are so many things that were thought to be harmful for the human being, later to be discovered as quite beneficial.

We are touching the subconscious. Few things are more mysterious than that. Some of us are still afraid of the dark. So it's in our hands to carry the flashlight and bring lucid dreaming as one of the most amazing and positive experiences a person can experience

Yep, I can see a valid argument to a majority of the listed 'controversies'.

Exhaustion upon awakening is very uncommon; I personally always wake up more energetic than normal and I'm sure many others are the same. If one is trying WILD or WBTB, it's a given that they may be a bit more tired than normal because they are losing a bit of sleep to wake up in the middle of the night and stay up... But the lucid dream itself won't cause that, no matter how intense it is.

Addiction, alienation, dissociation, and the 'inability to stop' can all be linked to already-present conditions such as depression or schizophrenia, while false awakenings often happen simply because one "knows" they will be back in their bed soon because the dream is ending. Therefore, the dream will fabricate a new scenario in which you are in your bed as expected, but you aren't actually awake - after all, dream control (and ultimately what happens in a dream) depends on your expectations. FAs can be annoying but that's nothing a little RC won't solve! Not everyone will get them anyways; I've only had a couple in my various lucid endeavors and most of them were before a lucid, not after one.

The only way I can see depression working Is like so;
You have a lucid dream, feel great, then get sad because you don't have it in real life.
Other than that read posts above

Honestly, I don't think that it is dangerous. Maybe people will think you are really weird if you tell them about it. I told my friend about one about a week ago, he still hasn't stopped making fun of me for believing in LD's. I don't listen to him though, I will just be laughing at him when I can do things he will never be able to XD.

I just re-read Gackenbach's article (thanks for the link) and I think, Dreamdov, that this is not something to be concerned about. Gackenbach wrote the article at a time when she and LaBerge were recognizing the potential power of LD'ing as a tool, and I'm guessing that she felt some cautionary words might be necessary. Since then, I think time has proven that LD'ing is essentially harmless, since it's "power" can only be maximized by those with a very healthy psyche and sense of self. The article also shows why LaBerge adamantly says that RC's must be done by asking, "Is this a dream?". And not "Is this real?"

And, for what it's worth, I've met quite a few very advanced LD'ers over the years, and to a person they are the brightest, calmest, most mentally sound people I've come across.

So don't be concerned; LD'ing is more likely to help than harm your mental health...

Lucid dreaming is dangerous in the same way reading books is. It can help fuel escapism but only if you already have issues. In most cases it's extremely beneficial.

Welcome!
Don't feel discouraged. LDing is not dangerous (except you perform a RC while awake with false result you are dreaming and you jump out of a window, because you think you can fly xD).
It can be a way of escapism, but it is nothing severe, because you have limited time to dream every day. It is not like video game addiction.
Unless you suffer from depression, there is no reason to feel depressed after waking up from an LD. If you feel depressed, because you don't have an LD, just stop trying for a few days.

Only things I can think of are tiredness or introversion. Also REM is supposed to be a time where your consciousness is not at all similar to your waking consciousness, and there is probably a reason for that. So there is the potential that interfering with the natural sleep process too much might be bad. But personally I doubt it.

So, Dreamdov, it seems pretty unanimous here that LD'ing is pretty much as safe as any human endeavor: danger comes from abuse, irresponsible practice, or pre-existing conditions. So, bottom line: no worries.

... Of course, we might be a might biased here at DV...I wonder what kind of responses you'd get on a clinical psychology site?