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New to site
Hey all, I used to be into lucid dreaming a while back just getting back into it now. This site seems very interesting, I never realised that so many people were into lucid dreaming, but then again I could also say I cant understand why so many people are not!
I had my first "proper" (intentional) lucid dream about two years ago. I also had a few when I was a child, but I never thought much of them, they were mostly associated with recurring dreams which I had at the time. My first recent lucid experience was rather unnerving due to the circumstances at the time. A family member had died and in many of my dreams afterwards, whenever I saw this person I would immediatly think that that person should be dead and I would realise that I was dreaming. Sometimes I would be able to control some of the dream, however what usually followed would be seemingly endless false awakings.
After doing some reading I realised that I was having lucid dreams, and after some practice learned to control it more. It is an amazing experience when it works. It also explained some experiences which I had had before which I could not explain such as those associated with sleep paralysis.
What mainly concerns me, and one of the reasons why I stopped, are potential health problems. Surely the process must have some negative effects, after all you are messing around with sleep patterns. I would actually feel extremely refreshed and invigorated after having a night of lucid dreams, even if was just 5 hours or less! I would usually get this amount of sleep anyway. I understand that some forms of meditation use lucid dreams to replace normal sleep patterns.
Also, I was always worried about the possibility of believing I was in a dream when in fact I was awake (I know it sounds stupid, do reality checks every time, I know).
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As far as I know there are no health worries with lucid dreaming so I wouldn't worry about that. And as for thinking you could be dreaming whilst awake, well, I don't know how you could... Anyway welcome to the site, make yourself at home :D
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There is only one health issue i can think of:
Addiction
Don't foreget to live, you do have a life outside your mind! :o
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Well, since you dream every night regardless of whether you are conscious of it or not, I don't think there should be any risk in terms of affecting your sleep cycles. Although, my understanding only stems from the many articles I've read.