I've always wondered why a friend of mine always had "sleeeeppp ZzzZz.." in his away messages in AIM and aways went to bed at 10pm every night. He would say "aw yes I get to go home and sleep" and I would get confused as to why he sleeps so much. Then today, he told me about lucid dreaming and I am pretty interested. I have a couple questions that i hope you guys will answer (I didn't really read the main Dream Views site because I hope these questions an be answered):

1. When you have a LD, itsn't it kinda like taking crack or any other drug? I mean many people take drugs so that they can get away from life. It's that really dangerous if all you want to do all day is LD and not do anything else because your life sucks?

2. When you are LD'ing, wouldn't you be going against the way our minds work? I mean there's gotta be a side effect. My friend said that he has sleep paralysis as a result of LD'ing and says that if he knew that he would get sleep paralysis as a result of LD'ing, he would have never started. Is it that serious? I mean I don't want to be immobile when I am awake.

3. They say you can do almost whatever you want in your dream. Say, for example, I want to have sex with britney spears. I am only 16 years old and probably one of the youngest people here. Thus, a paradox emerges. If I have never felt what it is like to have sex, how am I supposed to know what it feels like when dreaming?

4. Can somebody explain why my dreams are so weird and strange and why I rarely remember them (like right when i'm awake, I don't never know I had a dream)? IE: I am in a stadium watching race cars then I am warped back home then I have to race some crazy dude up a hill with steps, then I am with my dad and sister and we are driving around looking at houses.

5. I've read somewhere that our brains are like 1000000000000000 gig harddrives that store everything we see and do. My memory really sucks and I don't have such a vivid recollation of my past and childhood as my friends do. When I am LD'ing, can I ask my brain what happened on so-and-so date? Will my brain tell me answers to questions I've had about me?

6. When I am in my dream, can I study or do homework? Sometimes I am really tired and just want to go to bed so is there anyway I could study in my brain so that I will know the answers the next day? Isn't LD'ing a very helpful way to get ready for a test because you can concentrate on what you will be tested on so you'll remember it better the next day?

7. Is LD'ing pretty safe?

8. Does anybody know if Speed Sleep works?

edit more questions:

9. If something bad or evil gets stuck in your mind or some song you don't like stays in your heard while awake, won't you have a bad LD?

10. I've always been really lazy and unmotivated. Can I findout more about myself and improve on who I am while LD'ing?

I rarely remeber any of my dreams, even though I am supposed to have them every night. Is LD still attainable? Thanks if you can help!