Does LD conflict with the natural purpose of dreams?

Question

This is actually not my question, but my husband's. &#010;&#010;I'm not even lucid yet (let alone in active control of my dreams!) but I've excitedly told him about my journal and how I've gotten much better at remembering my dreams within just a couple of days. So I'm hopeful that I'll be lucid soon, and that worries him. What worries him is not so much the lucidity but the next step: actually influencing and controlling the dreams.&#010;&#010;He says: But dreams have a purpose – you need dreams to safely process your experiences. If you start hijacking dreams and forcing them to take a different course, won't that prevent your mind from dealing with whatever caused the original dream? &#010;&#010;He's a graduate physicist and has a very scientific mind, so he wants to know: Have there actually been studies by reputable sources about the effects lucid dreaming has on mental health?

DanWright · Accepted Answer

I’d say not as the majority of us forget most of the dreams we have, although they are a reflection of our brains processing events so to speak, I don’t believe it’s a necessary process or that attempting lucidity could interfere. For a start, the chance of getting lucid for every dream you have is pretty much impossible and as you dream in each REM cycle as well as in some NREM, there are multiple opportunities for any ‘sorting’ to occur that you’ll most likely never be aware of, even with journaling and increased memory. Also, the sort of control he imagines isn’t likely in all or even most of any lucid dreams you experience, a lot will have you just realising vaguely that you’re in a dream if my experience is anything to go by. 👍

DanWright · Answer

Daniel is the one to ask about any effect, detrimental or otherwise but I don’t think I’ve ever come across anything, as some people can do this naturally, you’d say it isn’t harmful, certainly not in the numbers of lucid dreams to all the dreams we have, it’s a tiny fraction even for the most successful. Practices like Wake back to bed can affect your sleep of course but then thats why we don’t do them every night, all in moderation to get the right balance of effectiveness and detriment to sleep. If you’re lacking sleep you’ll not get decent REM periods. 
Addiction I guess is possible but the amount of work required and the techniques generally employed such as WBTB generally ensure you’ll not get more than a couple a week, maybe more if you’re extremely lucky and dedicated but most likely less, so it’s not like you can just decide to have one and it’ll happen, much as that would be nice.

Daniel Love

Lucid Dreaming Teacher

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Does LD conflict with the natural purpose of dreams?