Why doesn't lucid dreaming have the repercussion it should?

[Eww555]

I heard about Lucid Dreaming the first time in my life 3 days ago and I just don't know how the hell hasn't anybody ever told me I can fly or get through walls and stuff like that while sleeping. This should be teached in schools...

[davethewarrior]

I guess as far as mainstream education is concerned lucid dreaming would be a leisure activity or hobby whereas they are only interested in teaching boring stuff like History and Algebra.

[OneUp]

The education system doesn't care. They only teach you to pass the tests, not to genuinely learn. Hobbies such as this literally mean nothing to them, but I do think it should. I mean really, you could do anything you wanted. Practice anything, learn alot, explore. The possibilities are endless.

[Superadam051]

Most people would think you're incredibly weird, it's not something that most people would think is "cool"

[Zoth]

While I'm a great proponent for lucid dreaming, I disagree. 1. We still don't know whether lucid dreaming is harmful or not. You might think it isn't, but we severely lack research that allows us to safely assert that lucid dreaming doesn't have a negative impact on the quality of your sleep, or even in the process like memory recycling or learning. Because we have reasons to believe it might have, it's not something that black and white. 2. It's not a known phenomenon: once again, you'd think it was, at least for us lucid dreamers, but we're far from understanding the full ramifications or components that constitute the overall experience (both in and outside the dream). We don't have much data on induction, frequency maintenance, dream control, etc etc. While this happens, you'll never see it appeal to a broad facet of society. I could go on, but just those 2 points already dictate that we're decades away from even perceiving it as we perceive something like meditation, much less something as we view as art of even physical exercise.

[dolphin]

I think lucid dreaming is touched upon in psychology courses, probably when sleeping and dreaming is discussed. They don't go deep into it though because lucid dreaming is not vital to health. I feel the turnoff that prevents lucid dreaming from being a major part of pop culture is the amount of effort it takes most people to lucid dream. There isn't yet a way to make lucid dreaming easy for the masses so people don't want to take the effort because they want instant gratification. Many people don't even care to notice their dreams at night because other things are more important to them because they don't notice their dreams at night. So, they don't become interested with dreams in the first place. Lucid dreaming isn't harmful. If it was, self-awareness would be harmful.

[Aristaeus]

When I made a speech on lucid dreaming for one of mine college classes, people looked at me like I was Giorgio Tsoukalos. [Shrugs] But in the end, I got a perfect score, so I thought, "Whatever".

[Marm]

Because most kids don't have the discipline to learn something like lucid dreaming.

[lumiina]

I don't think most people understand lucid dreaming, and that's why it's not taught in schools. I took an online dreaming course in college, and I was the only one who talked about purposefully triggered lucid dreaming! My teacher didn't even mention it, but welcomed my comments. The course did however re-trigger my interest in dreaming and led me to this forum! I have told the girl I used to nanny about lucid dreaming, and she's told me a few times she keeps forgetting to look at her hands when dreaming to see if she's dreaming. I wonder if she's had a lucid dream yet (^_^). However, lucid dreaming was in fact taught on Blue's Clues (an old American kids show)! I always thought it was full of baloney because I could never change my dreams from scary to good! Until now, that is (^_-)

[Laurelindo]

I think one big problem is that most people tend to think of dreams as random scenes that you observe from the distance, rather than "worlds" where you are actually "inside" the dream scene - think of it like watching a movie instead of being in a holodeck. And if people have the preconception that dreams are that vague and distant, then it will be extremely hard for them to accept that dreams can be just as vivid as waking life - this would almost be like trying to convince someone that you can jump into a TV screen and become a part of a movie or something. The first step in giving people a chance to truly discover lucid dreaming is probably to make them comfortable with the fact that dreams are just as immersive as waking life, and that you are a kind of entity that moves around and interacts with the dream environment.

[JadeGreen]

However, lucid dreaming was in fact taught on Blue's Clues (an old American kids show)! I always thought it was full of baloney because I could never change my dreams from scary to good! Until now, that is (^_-) I watched my share of Blues Clues as a kid. I never saw the lucid dreaming episode. I think every kids show should teach lucid dreaming... I think lucid dreaming has repercussions. I know that in order to lucid dream I have to give up bedtime and late-night video game sessions, and often allow myself some extra time to sleep. That could count as a repercussion. Also, being periodically distracted during the day by reality checks. But so far as I know, the benefits outweigh the repercussions.