Meditation for Lucid Dreaming: how it can help you have more and better lucid dreams
I have wanted to make this thread for a while and finally had the chance to write it.
This thread will have a lot of useful information and resources.
I am taking the time to write this because I genuinely want to help others understand this underrated practice. I will give you a list of the many things that meditation will help you with in your life while backing it up with scientific literature.
Meditation has many benefits, more than one can believe that a single practice could bring.
In Short: Meditation will improve your life in so many ways whether you want it to or not. Whether you believe it will or not. No placebo effect here. The improvements are real. I will provide with as many sources as possible to help you educate yourself more about meditation.
But before I get into all of the health benefits of meditation (which mentioning would be a good motivation for many people) let us explore how can meditation help you to lucid dream more and have better lucid dreams.
In this thread we will talk about mindfulness meditation (If you would like to learn about other types of meditation work just as well, so if you're interested in another type go to reddit.com/r/meditation and read their FAQ, it's a good place to learn more about meditation in general, it's a good place to learn more about meditation in general)
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Lucid Dreaming Benefits from Meditation
1. Remember more dreams
Meditation greatly increases your memory[A]. An increased memory will definitely help you remember more dreams. That includes remembering more and more details about your lucid dream experience.
2. More vivid dreams
Meditation has shown to temporary increase the level of melatonin in your brain[B], an increased melatonin results in more vivid dreams. More vivid dreams usually means more profound dream experience and easier to realize you're dreaming.
3. Increased awareness
One of the greatest benefits of meditation is increased awareness[C]. Meditation increases your awareness greatly in both the waking state and the dreaming state. With great awareness, a lucid dreamer does not need reality checks anymore. They now have the ability to just realize whether they are dreaming or not.
[B]A great practice to increase awarness while living your daily life is ADA practice (All Day Awareness). Details of this can be found here
The concept of ADA is to be aware of everything that is happening around you. Using all your senses and becoming aware of everything you hear, see, touch, smell and taste. This takes a lot of practice and effort to master. But once mastered, essentially you will start having lucid dreams A LOT more, because your self-awareness will have been boosted significantly. It is important to note that ADA is a type of mindfulness practice that can be done anywhere at any time. You MUST read the aforementioned link to understand exactly how to do ADA.
Moving on!
4. Easier time with the WILD technique
Meditation experience will help you achieve WILD a lot easier. The important stepping stone of the WILD technique is to be able to just lay there still and calm and have no thoughts interrupting you during the process. Meditation practice will definitely help this process become a lot easier. If any thoughts appear during WILD you're suppose to just observe them - don't interact - then send them on their way. With no doubt, meditation will make this a lot easier.
5. Staying inside the lucid dream longer
This again comes back to awareness. Because now you have stronger awareness as a result of meditation and/or ADA. . If you lose awareness you will fall back into a normal dream. If the dream starts to crumble around you it’s hard to remain inside. To do it you need to keep your awareness focused on the dream. Meditation makes it much easier for focus on the dream, and not waking up.
6. Having more control inside the lucid dream
It takes plenty of effort to just be lucid inside the dream and even more effort to be able to control what you do inside the dream. Meditation will help you control your mind and thoughts more. This will help you achieve whatever goals you desire inside the lucid dream easier.
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So what are the aforementioned benefits of meditations?
Regular meditation will start to have the following impacts on the person who is meditating:
I. Physical Health Effects:
1. Increases immune function
Source 1
Source 2
2. Decreases Pain
Source
3. Decreases Inflammation at the Cellular Level
Source 1
Source 2
II. Effects on Happiness
1. Increases Positive Emotion
Source 1
Source 2
2. Decreases Depression
Source
3. Decreases Anxiety
Source 1
Source 2
Source 3
4. Decreases Stress
Source 1
Source 2
III. Effects on Social Life
1. Increases social connection & emotional intelligence
Source 1
2. Makes you more compassionate
Source 1
Source 2
Source 3
3. Makes you feel less lonely
Source
IV. Effects on Self-Control
1. Improves your ability to regulate your emotions
Source
2. Improves your ability to introspect
Source 1
Source 2
V. Effects on the Brain
1. Increases grey matter
Source
2. Increases volume in areas related to emotion regulation, positive emotions & self-control
Source 1
Source 2
3. Increases cortical thickness in areas related to paying attention
Source
[B] 4. Increases melatonin
Source
[C] 5. Increases Awareness
Source
VI. Effects on Productivity
1. Increases your focus & attention
Source 1
Source 2
Source 3
Source 4
2. Improves your ability to multitask
Source
[A] 3. Improves your memory
Source
Note: These are not the only benefits of meditation, but I thought these are one of the most prominent ones. Also there is much more scientific literature on the benefits of meditation (not just the ones I provided here)
Quote:
For thousands of years people have used meditation to move beyond the mind’s stress-inducing thoughts and emotional upsets into the peace and clarity of present moment awareness. The variety of meditation techniques, traditions, and technologies is nearly infinite, but the essence of meditation is singular: the cultivation of mindful awareness and expanded consciousness.
These are the ultimate precious gifts of meditation, yet people are initially drawn to meditation for many different reasons. Some begin meditating because of a doctor’s recommendation, seeking the health benefits of lowered blood pressure, stress reduction, and restful sleep. Others come to meditation seeking relief from the fearful, angry, or painful thoughts that constantly flood their mind. Still others come to meditation to find greater self-understanding, to increase their intuitive powers, or to improve their ability to concentrate.
It is accurate to say that the purpose of meditation depends on the meditator – but it is also true that anyone who meditates regularly receives profound benefits on all of these levels – physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual.
How to practice meditation:
I will let you research this. Since there are a lot of free resources online. Just google "how to practice mindfulness meditation". Or again go to reddit.com/r/meditation and read their FAQ
Finally, I would like to thank you for reading this. I hope that this was both informative and motivational. Remember, you can always do your own research, and with no doubt you will find that meditation is something that everyone should practice for it will improve one's life in so many ways.
Ted Talks on Meditation:
How Meditation Can Reshape Our Brains
Meditation: Change Your Mind, Change Your Life:
Andy Puddicombe: All it takes is 10 mindful minutes
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