

Ask HN: Does lucid dreaming help for people in (y)our line of work? - JerusaEnt

I've been hearing a lot about lucid dreaming and how people use it practice, experience, and grow. I was wondering if people like the stereotypical HNer actually are aided by lucid dreaming.<p>Are you able to accomplish anything? Actually grow from it?
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tokenadult
_I've been hearing a lot about lucid dreaming and how people use it practice,
experience, and grow._

I've heard a lot of claims about lucid dreaming among some young people I know
well locally (who post here from time to time). I don't get the impression
that lucid dreaming is really as beneficial as they think it is. Some cases I
know about from personal observation involve disturbing sleep cycles so much
in pursuit of lucid dreams that the young people failed in work environments
or crashed and burned in their university studies. Getting a normal amount of
sleep (for you, that leaves you feeling rested when you wake up in the
morning) is very important. It's a lot more important than what kind of dreams
you have.

I think a writing intervention

[http://homepage.psy.utexas.edu/homepage/Faculty/Pennebaker/H...](http://homepage.psy.utexas.edu/homepage/Faculty/Pennebaker/Home2000/WritingandHealth.html)

may do more for many young people in high-creativity careers than lucid
dreaming. There is a better research base, by far, for the writing self-help
than for lucid dreaming. Try it and see how it works. Best wishes for much
success in improving your personal insight and problem-solving.

AFTER EDIT: An issue to consider whenever participants on Hacker News discuss
self-help strategies is how reliable the research base is. People who only use
the University of Google Library to do research will often find websites by
advocacy groups that are pushing a solution that may not have been tested.
Fortunately, Google's own director of research, LISP hacker Peter Norvig, has
written a guide to reading research reports

<http://norvig.com/experiment-design.html>

that reminds us all about what to look for when someone reports some new,
amazing treatment. Check out whether lucid dreaming has really been well
evaluated with sufficiently large sample sizes, control groups, and other
marks of good research.

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benwan
Lucid dreaming and related out of body experiences have made me realize that
the universe we're in is likely an elaborate illusion. That's because the
dreams/OBEs are just as real as here, at least while they last. If you can't
distinguish between two things then go ahead and call them equivalent.

I'm not sure this aids me though. On the downside I now think of my existence
as eternal (we'll always be experiencing some kind of reality), which promotes
procrastination. On the upside I don't need many material things to enjoy
myself.

About the lack of evidence of lucid dreaming: you know what they say about
absence of evidence. When one has had a full-on lucid dream, no more evidence
is needed. It takes only one scientist to do good science. Corroboration isn't
a real scientific requirement.

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LinaLauneBaer
I am using lucid dreaming as a form of therapy. I am afraid of interacting
with people because bad things happened to me in the past. From time to time I
experience lucid dreams and I try to interact with the people in my dream but
only if the people seem nice. Because of the fact that I know that I am
dreaming and that I am in control I do things that I usually would not do. For
example a couple of months ago I actually touched someone I like in my lucid
dream. When I woke up I felt very good. I had extreme confidence in myself
again. Lucid dreaming helps me a lot. I can try things. I can expose myself to
things I am afraid of and usually when I have done something in a lucid dream
and the experience was not too bad I am able to try it in the real world.

------
klaut
Pardon my ignorant question: how does one start a lucid dream? Are there any
techniques or is this some kind of session conducted by a "therapist"?

~~~
LinaLauneBaer
There are some people who can start a lucid dream intentionally. I am not one
of them. They happen more or less randomly. The key for me is: As soon I
realize that I am dreaming I can take over. There are many tricks and
techniques that help you to regognize that you are dreaming while you are
dreaming. I have found out that I am not able to count backwards while I am
dreaming. In my reality I count down from five to zero about 10 times a day.
In silence of course. When I am dreaming it happens from time to time that my
subconscious is counting backwards from five to zero because I am doing this
in my real life. Because I am not able to count back while dreaming I fail to
do so and then I am becoming aware about the fact that I am dreaming. This
works for me. I think one of the best resources is Google in this matter. You
have to try a lot of things.

~~~
xackpot
One technique to get into lucid dreaming is to try to look at the palms of
your hands or to try to look into a mirror while you are dreaming. This will
bring you to semi-consciousness or lucid state and will put you in control of
your dream.

