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After watching this SciShow video on sleep, I wonder about lucid dreaming.

Specifically: Does lucid dreaming and associated directed agency within Lucid Dreaming decrease the regenerative effect of sleep?

That is, if I gained the skill of lucid dreaming - would I be negatively tampering with the brain's autonomous healing processes for the period that I had conscious control or even simply objective awareness during sleep?

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  • $\begingroup$ I am not sure about biology, but from what I feel of lucid dreaming, I, contrary to decreasing the regenerative effect on sleep, can increase it, since I am able to choose what dream states are the most refreshing. I have also noticed that sometimes it is enough to reach a particular states and dream and see particular things to get the tiredness load off in just a few seconds (of experiencing a particular dream). That never frees you from the requirement of the full-scale normal sleeping, but comes handy in some situations $\endgroup$
    – noncom
    Mar 27, 2015 at 22:14

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It's possible that they do, depending on the intensity of the dream and the amount of brain activity.

For example, if the dreamer is thinking too much or is having a dream that's way too intense, the brain activity goes up and they're not as rested. However, lucid dreaming can be good for sleep if the dreamer creates a more relaxed dream. This can possibly be better for the sleeper, especially if they're someone who experiences nightmares every night.

Basically, it just depends on what you're dreaming about. The calmer and more relaxing the dream is, the better.

Source: -www.world-of-lucid-dreaming.com

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    $\begingroup$ Welcome to Biology. It would be great if you could add some references to your answer. $\endgroup$
    – Chris ♦
    Jun 27, 2015 at 23:43
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    $\begingroup$ A scholarly source would be preferred to fan site / infomercial. $\endgroup$
    – Corvus
    Jun 28, 2015 at 7:26
  • $\begingroup$ That's true. Should I just take my answer down, then? $\endgroup$
    – hydromend
    Jun 28, 2015 at 15:22
  • $\begingroup$ You could edit it? $\endgroup$
    – Chris ♦
    Jun 29, 2015 at 10:24
  • $\begingroup$ If you can't edit it, you could make a comment out of the answer. Those kind of comments can be very helpful. $\endgroup$
    – Remi.b
    Jul 25, 2015 at 18:24
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Yes, when you are dreaming, brain activity increases ( called the REM phase because of the effect of the increased neural activity: rapid eye movements ).

You can tell this by looking at the EEG, from witch we can state that our brain is more active and therefore is consuming more energy, making the regenerative effect of the sleeping less efficient.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapid_eye_movement_sleep#Electrical_activity_in_brain

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