Is Lucid Dreaming Dangerous? Dream Experts Explain

Contemplating the thriller that surrounds dreaming, it’s not a foolish query to ask. “Lucid dreaming is like having a foot in each worlds: the acutely aware, waking world and the unconscious dream world,” says dream analyst Lauri Loewenberg, writer of Dream on It: Unlock Your Dreams, Change Your Life. The thought of towing the road between actuality and the dream world is somewhat scary, however the advantages of lucid dreaming are plentiful and price pushing previous any preliminary fears you may need, says Loewenberg. “In the event you’re capable of lucid dream, it’s one hell of a superpower!”

Forward, dream consultants reply your most urgent questions in regards to the security of lucid dreaming and the potential risks of controlling your goals.

Is lucid dreaming harmful?

Doubtlessly, sure. However the dangers of lucid dreaming primarily revolve round our waking life, not the precise act of lucid dreaming itself.

Firstly, lucid dreaming can throw a severe wrench in your sleep habits, particularly while you repeatedly attempt to have them on objective. Sure lucid dream techniques, just like the Wake Again To Mattress technique, require you to power your self to get up and fall again asleep in fast succession so as to obtain REM rebound—the place your REM sleep cycle is prolonged, growing the percentages that you can lucid dream. Doing this often (and thus always being sleep disadvantaged for the sake of lucid goals) can open your self as much as a myriad of potential health consequences, starting from minor results (like a foul temper, or poor focus) to extra severe potential points (like an elevated danger of diabetes and dementia).

That’s why some consultants—together with dream decoder Theresa Cheung, best-selling writer of The Dream Dictionary From A to Z—warn towards utilizing lucid dream strategies that contain reducing into treasured snooze time. These strategies are sort of like a shortcut for lucid dreaming, which makes all of them the extra tempting to strive (particularly for individuals who don’t have dreams in any respect). However “sleep could be very restorative and therapeutic in thoughts, physique, and soul,” says Cheung, “and something that interferes along with your sleep hygiene, to me, is not excellent news.”

One more reason why lucid dreaming may be harmful is that it could actually blur the strains between actuality and goals, particularly when performed repeatedly and in fast succession. When you have got constant management over your goals *and* your waking life, differentiating between the 2 can get difficult, which is one motive why Loewenberg recommends towards making an attempt to lucid dream each single night time.

The potential psychological results of lucid dreaming turn into extra harmful for individuals who battle with some type of psychosis²—like bipolar dysfunction, schizophrenia, or manic episodes. This muddying of the waking world and the dream world can exacerbate current signs and will probably reinforce any flawed perceptions of actuality they’ve.

Preserving this in thoughts, lucid dreaming can truly be useful when performed responsibly. It has even been used as a therapeutic intervention for people who struggle with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)³. “Lots of therapists will use the consciousness throughout the dream to [help the client] overcome trauma,” explains Loewenberg. “You actively face no matter it’s that has traumatized you in a protected atmosphere—you are very protected in your individual head.”

Are you able to get harm lucid dreaming?

Probably—however once more, not in the way in which you suppose. It is unlikely that you’re going to bodily hurt your self whereas lucid dreaming (

Regardless of a rising quantity of analysis, the subject of whether or not or not we will expertise actual ache throughout our goals continues to be topic to debate. There have been plenty of studies⁴ performed on ache in goals, with new research⁵ suggesting that we do the truth is expertise ache (or one thing much like it, a minimum of). One study⁵ discovered that the mind exercise related to real-life ache and the mind exercise related to imagined, in-dream ache are intently correlated.

What we all know for positive is that any bodily hurt we expertise within the dream world exists solely within the dream world. In different phrases, you possibly can’t pull a Freddy Kreuger in A Nightmare on Elm Avenue.

Can lucid goals be scary?

Similar to regular goals, lucid goals can get intense (er, or downright terrifying). That preliminary second of realization that you just’re dreaming may be particularly overwhelming in the event you’ve by no means skilled it earlier than. However identical to any sort of talent, the extra you do it, the higher you are gonna get at it, says Loewenberg. “Settle down while you turn into conscious that you just’re dreaming,” provides Cheung, who recommends actively reminding your self that you just’re the one in management.

Since our goals, lucid or not, aren’t certain by the bodily limitations of actuality, actually something can occur in them. Within the dream world, you run the danger of working into one thing completely nightmarish, like, say, a 30-foot-tall speaking tarantula. The advantage of working into mentioned spider when you’re lucid, although, is that you’ve the attention wanted so as to determine what occurs subsequent.

“When lucid dreaming, it’s vital to attempt to floor your self and give attention to an object within the dream which doesn’t set off concern,” says Cheung. Each time we acknowledge a personality in our goals, they have a tendency to stay round. If mentioned large spider appeared when you have been in the midst of one thing else throughout your dream, strive diverting your consideration again to what you have been initially doing.

If that doesn’t work and the spider insists on sticking round, confront it outright. Slightly than flip away from the large spider, strive difficult it, suggests Cheung. “Summon your concern within the dream and ask it what it needs,” says Cheung. “Typically, the concern dissipates while you face it and present it compassion.”

If that doesn’t work, Cheung recommends reaffirming to your self that you just’re the one calling the photographs in your dream. “Remind your self that you’re in management, and consider one thing you need in your dream which makes you’re feeling protected,” says Cheung. That’s the great thing about lucid dreaming, in spite of everything: You get to determine what occurs subsequent.

What must you not do in a lucid dream?

Simply as our waking life selections can affect our dreams, our in-dream actions can decide how a lucid dream will pan out.

Lucid dreaming is thrilling—so thrilling, the truth is, that our pleasure can take us out of the lucid dream totally, says Loewenberg. Making an attempt to right away do one thing tremendous cool in a lucid dream (for instance, flying an area shuttle) might even make you get up. If you first turn into conscious that you just’re dreaming, relax, says Loewenberg, and begin by making small modifications to your dream as an alternative.

As a result of lucid goals defy the legal guidelines of physics that we expertise in our waking life—just like the law of gravity, or the law of reflection—we will’t count on our goals to abide by these legal guidelines. That is why many dream consultants counsel towards looking in a mirror when you’re lucid dreaming, because the reflection staring again at you is perhaps distorted or unusual, since your mind is trying to re-create a picture of what it thinks you appear to be.

As talked about earlier, lucid goals can get scary, identical to every other dream. With a view to forestall your lucid dream from changing into a lucid nightmare, don’t actively strive to consider issues that scare you. “Preserve it optimistic,” says Loewenberg.

Greater than something, although, “do not overdo it,” says Loewenberg about trying to lucid dream night time after night time. “It’s essential enable the unconscious to do its factor,” she says, and in the event you’re at all times making an attempt to take management of your goals, you might be lacking out on an vital message out of your unconscious.