Benefits and Risks of Lucid Dreaming
If you’ve ever thought about using lucid dreaming as a way to harness the power of your sleeping brain, you are not alone. The first step for aspiring oneuronauts is to let your mind know that your dreams matter. As part of the seminar Lifehacker’s Lucid’s Dream Workshop , here’s some history about the risks and benefits of lucid dreaming, as well as the fact that it happens to your brain when it happens.
What are the benefits of lucid dreaming?
Why bother with lucid dreaming at all? Lucid dreaming is, first of all, entertainment. Like, really fun. My first lucid dream happened when I was a teenager. I had just started reading a book on lucid dreaming, and as a newbie, luck struck me in a hotel room during a family vacation:
I found myself talking to a dream friend – who was not real, but convincing in my dream state – while standing on the soccer field at my high school. While we were talking, I came to an open understanding: I am now on a trip with my family, so how can I be at school? Suddenly everything stopped and became brighter. The grass seemed real, the sun on my skin warmed me, and I was very well aware that I did not know the person with whom I was talking. “Am I dreaming?” I thought it was allowed. “If I dream, then I can fly.” I felt my feet lifted off the ground and gently hovered over my dream friend. “I can fly. I can go anywhere!” I thought as the thrill of flying lifted me higher and higher. Soon I was in the clouds, planning to see the world without getting out of bed.
The dream did not last long, as I could not maintain clarity of mind, but woke up ecstatic. It was the most fun I’ve ever slept and I couldn’t wait to do it again.
But lucid dreams can provide other opportunities as well, if you’re willing to work hard. Your dreams can be a refuge for personal reflection and deep meditation; a place where you can communicate with your true self and ponder important decisions without being distracted from the waking world. Dreams can also be a place to practice in real life. Think of the dream world as a mental rehearsal space where you can watch a large presentation for work, focus on your athletic activity, or even continue your studies before the big exam.
If you’re a creative person, lucid dreams can be a never-ending source of artistic inspiration. The dream world is your canvas, and you can create anything on it. Finally, dreams are a safe place to experiment and overcome anxiety. You can confront the bully, practice communication, find the courage to ask your boss for a raise, or fight your fear of public speaking.
What are the risks of lucid dreaming?
Lucid dreaming is usually safe for those who are mentally tough, but it is important to consider some of the potential risks associated with this practice.
Sleep paralysis occurs in almost everyone at night during the REM cycle – to prevent you from physically acting out your dreams – but some people experience a state that falls between sleep and wakefulness when they try lucid dreaming. This can be intimidating because you cannot move, you know you are awake, but you can still experience hallucinations from your sleep. This type of sleep paralysis is rare, but it is definitely possible when experimenting with lucid dreaming. Fortunately, there are ways to either wake yourself up from this state, or induce a state of complete sleep / sleep, but we’ll look at those later.
One of the best benefits of lucid dreaming can also be one of the worst pitfalls: realistic feelings. Lucid dreaming can be euphoric with gazing, movement, happiness, and even sex, but that means feelings on the other side of the spectrum can also arise. Fear, sadness, and pain are also possible in lucid sleep. However, such negative feelings are still more likely to be felt while awake because, unlike in a dream state, you have less control over the world. And no, you don’t die in real life if you die in your sleep . Believe me, I have died in my sleep many times.
There is also the possibility of “dream claustrophobia” where people become lucid in a dream scenario that they cannot control or from which they cannot wake up. But they are not very different from ordinary dreams – they are just brighter. Finally, some fear that using lucid dreams as a form of escape from reality will cause them to lose touch with reality. After all, why would you need to spend time in a normal world when you can be in your own personal world where you have unimaginable power? Well, lucid dreaming only last as long as your REM cycles occur during sleep, and training to be lucid at any time you choose takes years of training. In short, running away from your dream reality won’t be more harmful than watching a movie or playing video games, except perhaps a little more instructive.
However, if any of these mild risks do scare you, lucid dreaming may not be the right one for you. In addition, if you have borderline personality disorder or any other mental disorder that makes it difficult for you to understand what is real and what is not, you are better off sleeping the old fashioned way: Lucid dreaming can cause you to suffer from a confusion of dreams and reality and make you worse. your condition.
But then again, while these scenarios are very real, they are still unlikely for those in a relatively healthy mental state and making their way to lucid dreaming with gradual, purposeful practice. Lucid dreams are very much like a swimming pool; it is a place where you can fight and drown, but if you learn to swim, you have nothing to fear and you will have a blast wave.
Start and keep a dream diary
Learning to wake up in your sleep doesn’t matter until you develop your dream memory. You must learn to stand before you can walk. In fact, you may have already experienced a lucid dream, but do not know it because you do not remember that it happened.
Your brain usually tries to automatically forget your dreams. He knows these experiences are not real, and when you wake up, he tries to push them into the background of your mind to make room for instant memories from the waking world. But there is an easy way to break this: a dream diary. Always keep a pen and notebook next to your bed . It should be easy to pick up and use right away. Do not put it in the bedside drawer, throw it under the bed, or use strenuous writing utensils (fancy pens, nibs, etc.). You must be able to reach, grab, and write.
Also, do not use your phone for this. The process of writing, like taking notes in class , will only help you remember the dream. Or, if you have artistic skills and can draw them , that’s even better.
A good night’s sleep – for at least seven hours – also helps tremendously during this exercise, as well as throughout your lucid dreaming foray. Without constant restful sleep, lucid dreaming will be nearly impossible. You won’t get stronger by spending less time in the gym.
Also,don’t keep the alarm clock too far from the bed . You only have a few precious moments to remember your dream when you wake up, and chasing your alarm will waste that time. Go to bed early if possible and try to wake up without an alarm. When you wake up, take a few seconds of what you just experienced, then grab your journal and write it all down as quickly as possible. Do this as often as possible, and your brain will gradually alter its normal wake-up protocol to suit your newly stated memory needs.
“Oh, did you want to hold it back?” Your brain will say when you wake up from a wonderful dream and you pick up your dream diary with a loud “Damn it!” Okay, oneuronauts: sleep well and keep dreaming.
This story was originally published in June 2017 and was updated on July 20, 2021 to follow the Lifehacker style guidelines.