Hacker News Reader

Comment by bencollier49 | Hacker News Reader

Learning to lucid dream is basically giving yourself a sleep disorder on purpose. Having done this deliberately in the past and had some fairly wacky side-effects, I think it's worth people considering the negatives if they style trying to induce lucidity.

View on HN

I could believe it ruins sleep quality definitely. Even with experience it's hard to keep your mind from fully waking during periods of lucidity. I've managed to go an hour or two many times but it invariably ends with me waking at a random time in the middle of the night

Anecdotally I tried for a few weeks to lucid dream and had success a few times, but both mornings after the lucid dreams I felt absolutely exhausted.

What side-effects did you experience?

Having done this deliberately in the past and had some fairly wacky side-effects

Such as?

I used to read lucid dreaming forums. A lot of people complain that their sleep becomes less restful, the more they lucid dream. Also that it becomes impossible to have a night without lucid dreams once you get enough experience, so you can't catch a break.

I experienced this for years, but it never seemed to actually affect "rest". I'd have multiple intense dreams per night, waking up often between them. But not feeling sleep deprived at all, if anything the opposite. However i was also in my early 20s so maybe it would be harder now.

I used to lucid dream all the time as a kid, it just happened naturally, and never left me tired. It mostly stopped and in my 20s I tried some exercises to induce lucid dreams. My experience was like a restless night of sleep after studying late for a big test the next morning. Because, there was something I was supposed to be remembering, instead of just sleeping soundly.

So I think lucid dreaming is not necessarily a problem in itself but forcefully training yourself to do it can be rough going.

False memories are one which many have experienced, as well as mentioned above, increased chance of sleep paralysis. Increased SP doesn't seem so bad, just maybe inconvenient. Building up more and more false memories doesn't seem like a great idea.

Thanks for sharing your experience. Can I ask how you found your sleep paralysis encounters? (for want of a better word).

Personally I've found them deeply disturbing. Throughout my life I have experienced moments of sleep paralysis at most on 10 occasions. They've left a big impact though, and I sympathize with anyone who has the misfortune of feeling as though you are trapped and unable to move.

After watching the film "Waking life" I spent a long time thinking about lucid dreaming and perhaps maybe had 1 or 2 myself. I had never connected the two however, definitely food for thought.

I'm not the parent but I experience sleep paralysis fairly regularly - maybe once or twice a month. It's happened enough times that I can usually recognise it and can either try to wake myself up or wait until I go back to sleep, so it's not particularly scary. It depends though - if I get sleep paralysis coming out of a nightmare it can be fairly uncomfortable, but not much more than if I were to have just the nightmare on its own. Probably the worst part is the embarrassment of someone witnessing me thrashing around trying to wake up or hearing me moan in my sleep.

Have you ever been checked for sleep apnea? Sleep paralysis is a common symptom.

I haven't actually. I feel like my previous girlfriend told me I was an extremely quiet sleeper so I don't think I have problems breathing when I'm asleep.

I used to get sleep paralysis a lot when I was younger. It could be fairly terrifying sometimes. I remember the scariest i was probably as a teenager lying on my stomach while it felt like someone eas holding me down with the blankets. The first one i remember i was pretty young. My brother and me still shared a room and had bunk beds. I remember waking up one morning and watched a giant spider crossing the ladder towards my face and freaking out but not being able to move or yell or anything. Then suddenly I could and the spider was gone.

When I actually learned what it was I tried lucid dreaming and stuff with it. But, I always find the feeling uncomfortable. I don't like not being able to move or do anything while your dreams mix with your bedroom.

It doesn't happen so much now. Every once in a while if I wake up in the morning and go back to sleep, the second time I wake up it'll happen. I don't tend to sleep in any more and once i'm awake I get up.

I don't know if it's related but i've always had problems sleeping. When I was young I was scared to sleep, even as a baby i didn't sleep well. I can usually fall asleep alright now but the slightest noise in the night wakes me up and I still feel wary about losing conciousness.

I've always had trouble with false memories. Not of anything important, but I sometimes dream of very mundane things, like moving my wallet or keys. Or telling someone something.

Makes it very difficult to keep track of things.

I used to have regular hypnogogia, and I often imagined that monsters were coming to steal my wallet and keys from my bedside. Those items started "moving" during the night, to under the mattress, or into blankets in the closet, so "they" wouldn't find them. It is genetic for me, as my mother had some similar experiences. I only happened to learn it was a "thing with a name" because I was dancing Argentine tango with a postdoc sleep researcher, and we got to talking. Oddly enough, her suggested solution worked perfectly - a night light. It is a very long story.

Would love to hear this very long story!

That is why you keep a dream journal. To understand what is real and what is not in the long run.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com