ehhh just slow it down…let it come naturally
Here’s a shot in the other direction. I propose lucid dreaming works wonders for depression, and can drastically improve quality of life for those of us who otherwise don’t feel the value of humanity measures up to the cost.
I frequently experience ups and downs, and most of those positive feelings are generally in light of recent success with lucid dreaming. I wake up satisfied, and willing to bare the insanely cold air once again for another day of drone-like twaddle. Having regular success with lucid dreaming gives me an escape that I desperately need, even if I spent the limited time carelessly wandering the streets distracted from the obligations of real life – it’s just a release.
Anyone who finds themselves incapable of distinguishing real life from a dream already needs help. It’s fair to say that lucid dreams can provide an astounding sense of realism, but there is absolutely no chance of anyone mistaking real life for a dream unless they were already blessed with severe autism – regardless of how much experience you’ve had with this sub-conscious practice.
Some of this seems a little backwards to me… I agree with Atheist’s mention of some of the benefits, but also, it’s the NON-LD’ers who are the ones having trouble telling dreams from “reality.” I assume the process of learning to LD and doing RC’s improves your ability to be aware of what state of consciousness you are in. So I don’t understand why people are looking at it the other way around thinking the distinction would get more confusing, when what we’re really learning to do is to make that distinction.
Peace,
Sruthan
It’s as healthy as normal dreaming.
I don’t see why this is causing you to sleep longer, there could be other factors to that. Tiredness due to daily activities you don’t normaly do to depression or possibly to diabetes. It is possible that your LDing practice is causing you to sleep longer but i really don’t see how.
The headaches, daze and impaired sense of time IS due to sleeping longer than normal. It’s basically you’re body saying OI! you slept too long!! I get it sometimes. But part of the reason i get it is because of the mild diabetes. If it happens again have a coffee/tea with sugar to wake you up (or chocolate - anything with sugar) if this brings you round they you may actually have diabetes. If i sleep to long that happens to mea because i have gone longer without the sugar.
Ahh i do that all the time, before i even heard of LDs. I question reality all the time.
If both realisties seem too real that you can’t tell which is the real one, then maybe just maybe NEITHER are real.
I would say that the only thing I’ve heard about this was in EWOLD when LaBerge said that the only people who shouldn’t lucid dream are the ones who already can’t tell normal reality from “non-reality” or whatever like schizophrenics (like my friend who would see people following her and think it was real. 
)
As for other mental illnesses, I have a few and I would agree with Atheist that it can really help you. You can use LDs to get over anxiety and they can help you add meanig to your life if you are depressed. If you can currently tell the difference between waking reallity and dream reality for the most part then I think you’ll be ok.
I once woke up and could not tell if I was awake or dreaming but I was on sleep aides at the time. It was really scary though not being able to tell.
My nephew has schizophrenia, better not tell him about LDs 
Even without his meds for a day he gets spazzy.
As for lucid dreams causing paranoia and other mental conditions, I don’t think so. Sometimes when I have a lucid dream I sorta know I’m dreaming, but I’m not really sure. But in real life, I’m always sure I’m not dreaming.
Dont worry about the effects - youll adapt to them. In fact - I woke up 2-3 times a night my first 2 weeks on the techniques ;\
I don’t think there is a huge problem with questioning the reality we live in. After all, how do we know that our waking life really is ‘real’? I mean, define ‘real’. We could be living in a matrix, a truman show, or anything!
Mahayana buddhism teaches that our reality is indeed false, and that there are higher dimensions above us, called Nirvana. This reality is called Maya.
That said, there is a thin line between enlightenment and insanity.
If u do get bad loss of memory or other SERIOUS problems in the long tem, maybe consult a psychiatrist.
I was reading a book about heaven and the author says basically that heaven is more ‘real’ than our reality.
I had a similar theory in fact.
I just watched “What Dreams May Come” (a great movie btw), anyways, this line really caught my attention:
Thought is real. Physical is the illusion. 
I tend to be leaning towards the opinions of the last 3 posts lately.
This reality might just be a shared dream I’m having with you all. When I die I hope to “wake up” to the real world.
Either that or I’ll cease to be conscious for eternity. How do I kill that skeptic in me?
Well, I don’t think lucid dreaming can ruin the borders between reality and dreaming or whatever. It can only really strengthen it. After all, LDers have methods for distinguishing between them and everyone else doesn’t. And questioning whether you exist etc., how can that be a bad thing? It’s worth considering, after all, it could be true. Everything’s worth considering. And by the way, ease up on the techniques. It seems to me you’re trying a little too hard, and that is a bad thing. The bad side effects start to overtake the good points if you try too hard.
I agree, Ld makes the difference increase otherwise how would you know you are dreaming. I think it is normal dreams that blend the border.
That is strange because for me the less meaning there is in life (i think there is none) the happier i feel, and i don’t get depressed. But that is a little off topic.
Ah, well. If I go insane because of lucid dreaming, at least theres a lot of other lucid-addicted insane people out there 
. No, I don;t think lucidity changes your mind for the worse. If it changes you, it will be for the better !
Yeah, and i also forgot to mention more on topic that i don’t really care if i go insane, it is only really a word to describe a person who might place an unreasonable amount of importance on something. But reasonable is subjective and you could say that everyone is insane.
If you want to say that LD makes you go insane because it changes the way you view things, fine, at least its not like we won’t have something to do in a straight jacket.