Dear people, today I will tell you about lucid dreaming and how it may help to reduce stress and anxiety. I will not talk about lucid dreaming techniques here but about a concept of it.
What is lucid dreaming and why do you need to consider using this interesting and adventurous method for stress relief? Did you know that dreams can help you? Let’s see!
What Is Lucid Dreaming?
Lucid dreaming is the ability to control your dreams. It seems like an alternative reality that is different from your life, but everything you see, smell or hear is authentic like in real life.
In lucid dreams, you are self-aware because you know you are dreaming. You can always wake up if you want. Isn’t it great? When you have a nightmare, you just can escape from it because you understand that it is just a bad dream and nothing more.
In fact, it happened to me once or twice in my childhood, and I can say that they weren’t lucid dreams. At least, not at first sight. I had dreams where somebody was chasing me. Do you have these dreams?
In my dream, suddenly I understood that it is just a dream and that I can wake up, I became lucid. Then the next second I was awake. Other times I just made small changes in my dream, and nothing was chasing me anymore. Somehow it didn’t occur to me that I can create my dreams from scratch.
Benefits
There are many benefits of lucid dreaming like facing fears, improving problem-solving skills, or boosting creativity. Stress relief is one of its main benefits of it.
We all want to better cope with stress, so why not use lucid dreaming. That is an amazing way to reduce stress, and it isn’t nonsense.
Many people speak about their experiences and how lucid dreaming helps them. Recently I read some people’s opinions about lucid dreaming and, how it reduces the stress they are feeling. Who doesn’t want to try something like that?
Why Is Lucid Dreaming Great For Stress Relief?
Do you want to know this? I am sure you are curious now. 🙂
Can you imagine your vacation, your holidays on the beach or forest? Maybe you visualize yourself traveling to some exotic island or exploring a foreign country. How does that make you feel? Better?
You are not stressed or anxious when you see yourself in your mind eye enjoying a vacation that you so long deserved, right? It seems almost real even if you are sitting at home after a stressful day at the office.
Lucid dreaming can help you with this. You will feel like you have holidays every day at night when you enter the lucid dream world. If that doesn’t excite you, then I don’t know what will.
After a great vacation, you are always relaxed and full of energy, right? Because of lucid dreaming, you can also feel like that.
Of course, sleep is essential, because it helps you to reduce stress, feel relaxed, and less stressed, but lucid dreaming is another level.
Vacation For Free
You would feel like you took a vacation for real, spent holidays in a place that you have always wanted to visit. It seems as real as everyday life. How can you be stressed if so many great things are happening to you? I am sure you would be more at ease, happier and healthier.
Lucid dreaming is like living your fantasies. You can be whatever you want to be, travel or fly above the Earth with your wings. You could explore the Universe or dive deep into the ocean. There are no limits, and the only limit is your imagination.
If you can’t relax before going to sleep and worrying too much, lucid dreaming will not work for you. Then, of course, you need to use meditation or other relaxation methods to fall asleep.
How?
Of course, you may think that there is a catch somewhere. It is too amazing to be true. You are right because you would need a lot of practice before you can fully control your dreams.
There are techniques that can help but as I said at the beginning of this article, I will not talk about them.
I just want you to know how different and unique can be tools for stress relief.
I want you to open your mind, your imagination, and your creativity and see a little bit beyond normal. Can you see the potential you have, the potential this world brings you?
Studies
Very few scientists are studying lucid dreaming, and some of them think that lucid dreaming could be used to treat anxiety.
Lucid dreaming might be able to help people with posttraumatic stress, and they could overcome their nightmares.
But there are still too few studies to say for sure, that lucid dreaming helps for stress, anxiety relief and could treat posttraumatic stress. Even researchers disagree with each other, and their results are not clear.
Conclusion
Lucid dreaming has many benefits including stress and anxiety relief. But nothing is proven. Do we need some studies to prove us something? Then we will know it’s true. Really?
If something can help us to reduce stress naturally, we need to use it. Of course, lucid dreaming requires a lot of practice and patience.
I always wanted to try lucid dreaming but never did. Maybe we can do this together. I had some dreams that were lucid, but I didn’t try to induce a lucid dream intentionally. Do you want to try?
However, remember that any dreams help you with emotional processing. You can be sure that dreams including lucid dreams can help you with anxiety and stress relief because both of them are tied to your emotions.
Let’s dream away the stress that is holding you captive and doesn’t fully allow you to live your life!
How about you? Are you lucid dreaming? Does it help for stress relief for you? I would love to hear your stories.
I like to hear from you, so please leave me a comment below to let me know if this article helped you.
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Until next time!
Linda Mo
Founder of How To Reduce Stress Naturally
I love this article! I’ve had quite a few lucid dreams over my life. I’ve been rebellious when I’ve realised I was dreaming and there were no consequences, I’ve travelled back in time, I’ve walked through walls, breathed under water, spoken to loved ones who have died. Lucid dreaming is the best! I just wish I could do it more often. I seem to have them more lucid dreams when I’m not getting enough sleep, or when I get up in the middle of the night and then go back to sleep. But sometimes I get so excited when I become lucid that I wake myself up in real life…I hate when that happens! Thanks for sharing such an interesting topic!
Hi, Angela!
Amazing to hear it!
Interesting. I read once that if you want to get a lucid dream, you need to get enough sleep. But it seems that for you is different.
If you are getting too excited, you will surely wake up.
Thank you!
Hi Linda, another fantastic read. I guess I can consider myself a lucid dreamer because at least once a month I always “wake up” in my dream realizing I am just dreaming and from there on, I almost always control all my actions. What’s interesting though, and it may sound like the movie “Inception”, is that I just simply “wake up” in it and I only realize when I am inside it already. Initially, it stressed me out because I was in a “real world” but when it was occuring often, I tend to appreciate the experience. As you mentioned, it can be a stress reliever, I do agree with that 100%, but let me add another aspect, the feeling is amazing once you are in complete control – when all your senses are at work. Whether my dreams were travels, suspense thrillers (I was even a ghost catcher at one point), romantic ones (my favorite part) or a historic moment (I was in an era of our national heroes), all seems majestic when I wake up. I guess differemt lucid dreamers will have different take on the experience, but as for me, I can totally relate with your article because it gave me freedom, it gave me peace. But of course, I guess I am still a work in development because I havent mastered the art of inducing it. My lucid dreams though it occurs at least once a month, do not choose any specific moment. I am sporadically thrown in the zone and the feeling is crazingly amazing. Again, thanks for this. My reply is kinda lengthy, but it really struck a cord in me and I appreciate it. Thanks Linda =)
Hi, JR! Thank you for sharing your story, your experience! It was amazing to read your comment, and you made me smile. 🙂
I am glad you agree that lucid dreaming is great for stress relief.
Your comments always lift up my mood. Thank you for that! I really appreciate that you told me this! Maybe you need to write a story about it. 🙂
It has been a long time since I last had a lucid dream, it seems as if my current dreams just happen by themselves and I have no control over them.
I remember when I have a few lucid dreams it was the coolest thing ever! I could be like a magician and get to do whatever I want even super bizarre things like speaking to animals and flying to the moon…
Thanks for this post,
Paulina
Hi, Paulina!
Thank you for your comment! Great to hear that you had an amazing experience with lucid dreaming. 🙂
Linda, I actually was advised lucid dreaming by my doctor after giving birth, as I was in a ‘sticky’ relationship. That was 17 years ago, and at the time I was told I should write what I remembered of my dream as soon as I opened my eyes when I woke up. Techniques may have changed since – I hope you’ll touch on technique soon. Lucid dream is seen therefore as stress reliever for victims of a crime, to co,bat post traumatic stress disorder. Eventually I stopped, as I found it as an escaping solution that did not bring a solution to my problem. However lucid dreaming should not be seen as a solution, but solely as a relaxing mechanism, so that when your mind wakes up refreshed by the ‘holiday’ experience, it can then start working with renewed energy on finding solutions to problems.
Hi, Giulia!
Thank you for sharing your experience! Interesting!
Maybe I will write about lucid dreaming techniques, but I don’t know when. Because there are so many important topics about stress relief that I need to write.
Lucid dreaming can’t help everyone because people are so different. Lucid dreaming is great for relaxation, and I think everyone needs to try it.
What a great article. I’ve been interested in lucid dreaming for years, but I’ve only been able to make it happen a few times. Sometimes I’ll notice that I can do things like fly, but that ability is always so limited because I don’t really realize I’m dreaming. I just kind of figure out how to adapt to what’s going on. Hopefully one day I’ll be able to get it right!
Hi, Steve! Thanks! I love people stories about their lucid dreaming experience. 🙂 Hopefully indeed.