7 Life-Changing Benefits of Lucid Dreaming

Many people get into lucid dreaming out of sheer curiosity –– to see whether it is real and what it is like. Others do it hoping to attempt popularized lucid dream activities like flying. But beyond that, lucid dreaming has an array of scientifically proven benefits that make this a skill well-worth learning.

Gaining awareness while dreaming can help you overcome fears, treat nightmare disorders, improve your ability to learn new skills, boost creativity, and open the mind. Drawing from scientific research and real-life examples, we will discuss 7 benefits of lucid dreaming, showing you how this phenomenon can positively impact your life.

7 Benefits of Lucid Dreaming

1. Lucid Dreaming Therapy Can Help With Nightmares

Getting the occasional nightmare is normal. Many people have experienced scary dreams several times in their lives. However, they can become a problem if they keep recurring frequently, interfering with your sleep and quality of life. Nightmare disorder can get serious to the point of preventing the patient from functioning properly in their day-to-day life.

Lucid dreaming is the art of being conscious while in a dream. Some lucid dreamers control the dream content by adding characters, steering the story, shifting to different locations in the dream world, and moving into deep realms of the mind. Because of these features, lucid dreaming can be an effective treatment for nightmare disorder.

When the dreamer realizes they are dreaming and that the perceived danger is not real, they can more easily relax. By relaxing in a dream, the sources of stress that instigated the initial nightmare are emotionally resolved, learning to a greater sense of peacefulness, fearlessness, and confidence. Once you learn to control your dreams, it becomes possible to confront frightening figures and understand the illusory nature of the nightmare.

2. Facing and Overcoming Common Fears

Fear is a normal part of life – but so is overcoming fear. Since lucid dreaming occurs during REM sleep, where the stress hormone cortisol and precursor norepinephrine are largely absent, it is strikingly effortless to overcome fear and dissolve phobias.

While in a lucid dream, fear more easily shifts into curiosity. If you see something frightening, and you know it poses no real danger, you will be more willing to take a closer look. Lucid dreamers report the source of their fears dissolving and fading into something more benign–such as a monster becoming a friend or a dangerous height turning into something safe and manageable, or a stressful event going well.

One study showed that lucid dreaming can help people overcome phobias. Subjects were asked to confront their fear in a lucid dream. 51% of the volunteers reported feeling less fear upon awakening.

3. Improves Ability to Learn New Skills

Dreaming is a state of deep integration–where the experiences of the day coalesce with deep memories and neural circuitry. Any activity that occurs in the dream state has a profound impact on our ability to perform that activity in the waking world. As the ancient Tibetan lucid dreaming masters say, meditating while dreaming is 100 times more powerful than meditating while awake.

Further, the human brain is most plastic–that is, most apt to change–when in a playful mood. One of the easiest ways to get better at something is to have fun while doing it. Lucid dreaming is a highly playful way of interacting with the mind and the substance of the dream world, and this quality of playfulness carries into the waking state.

Lucid dreaming induces a feeling of open-mindedness and flexibility. This makes accessing new knowledge and skills considerably easier. The habit of questioning reality with state tests and reality checks is one of the keys that unlock the open, flexible mind that becomes valuable when learning new skills and trying new approaches to the challenges we face.

4. High-Performance Skill Training

Dream events have a real-life physiological effect. Performing an event in the dream world builds confidence and allows for a safe space to explore difficult methods. It also rewires the nervous system for enhanced performance in the waking state.

Research shows that you can improve motor performance without actual physical movements. Lucid dreaming offers a super immersive environment that you can use to practice your motor skills while still sleeping. This has been proven to have performance improvement in real life. Many athletes already include lucid dreaming in their training.

Rock climbers can train for difficult climbs and discover new movements, surfers can rehearse turns on waves, and gymnasts can safely practice a routine. Even software engineers have encountered architectural solutions to real-life computing problems. As mentioned earlier, any progress made while in the dreamworld is multiple times more powerful than progress made while awake, as dreams occur in deep and highly-interconnected parts of our mental space.

5. Lucid Dreaming Sparks Creativity

Lucid dreaming is not a new concept, and neither is using the dream world to solve problems and come up with new works. For years, even before it became a popular internet trend, people have been using lucid dreaming in their work.

Inception, for instance, is a popular movie that includes the theme of lucid dreaming. The writer and director, Christopher Nolan, said that lucid dreaming helped him in his creative process. By becoming conscious while dreaming and exploring his dreams, he can create more authentically. Billie Eilish also mentioned that lucid dreaming has helped inspire some of her work.

These are just two of the many famous lucid dreamers who have relied on this phenomenon in their creative processes, ranging from music and art to science, engineering, and even warfare.

6. Increased Self-Awareness, Open-Mindedness, and Curiosity

Everything that takes place within a dream is an expression of the mind. Even before gaining skills as a lucid dreamer, simply being aware of dreams enhances self-understanding. It provides clarity on how different thoughts and feelings interact within the mind. For this reason, starting on the path of lucidity by recording dreams in a dream journal is already an incredible step for leveling up and upgrading the mind.

As lucid dreamers gain experience in the dreamworld they gain insights into reality. Lucid dreamers see both the dream world and the waking reality with flexibility and openness. They are aware that anything is possible. The consistent practice of state tests and reality checks instills an understanding that reality is rarely as it first appears, something that pulls lucid dream practitioners deeper into their lives.

The practice of lucid dreaming ultimately becomes a practice of curiosity. Lucid dreamers consistently ask themselves: What is the fabric of reality? What is the fabric of the mind? Why do these thoughts and feelings arise? How can I better work with these experiences/places/beliefs?

7. Lucid Dreaming is Fun

One of the first actions many lucid dreamers perform with their new skill is wish fulfillment. Flying, surfing, going somewhere, meeting someone–these experiences are easy to manifest for the skilled lucid dreamer. All that's required is becoming lucid, staying lucid, and then willfully expecting the wish to be fulfilled.

Expectation kicks off a chain reaction in the mind, resulting in whatever is expected to manifest. This happens whether or not dreamers control their imagination. What makes lucid dreaming special is how it allows dreamers to take control of this natural fulfillment-of-expectation process.

Having fun in the dream world can be more than just pure indulgence. Performing any targeted dream action has the benefit of opening the mind and cutting through self-imposed limitations.

Wrapping Up

Lucid dreaming expands our effective lifespan through dream awareness. It helps us overcome fear, learn new skills, and train for high-performance activities. It can also be effective in the treatment of nightmares and other sleep disorders. Lucid dreamers have ample access to fun and play within the dream world. This translates to feelings of openness and possibility in the waking state.

Best of all, these benefits are accessible early in the journey of learning to lucid dream. You don't have to be an expert to tap into the power of the mind. Even the first step of learning the art of lucid dreaming yields immense benefits–both while asleep and while awake.