Lucid Dreaming vs Virtual Reality

[MythOfProgress]

while i have talked a bit about staying grounded in this cold, dark universe of ours, the truth is a good majority of us in general have always a tendency to fantasize and that's not necessarily a bad thing, sometimes it can be a relief from having to think about the more mundane parts of our lives, sometimes it's proven beneficial to us by having thought about new, innovative ways of tackling a certain problem as our mind works on it in the background and sometimes it can be a maladpative way of coping with our environment.

which is what leads to me thinking about the differences between lucid dreaming and VR technology. in a list of cons and pros I can think of, i'd like to see which is the more superior mode of imagination between the two. To go analog or to go digital? The + symbol indicates a positive or net benefit that the sub-topic has, while the - symbol indicates a negative or drawback that the sub-topic in question has.

Lucid Dreaming
+ Depending on the person's creativity, imagination and ability to break new ground, the person can attain a limited form of omnipotence in being able to dictate what happens in their dreams

- On the other hand there's only a certain amount of time before you wake up, so there's a limited amount of time one has to enjoy their lucid state before waking up

+ For people who struggle with nightmares, PTSD or in general struggle with some type of phobia- this can be a good way of tackling their fears/stresses in some capacity, like exposure therapy.

- Inconsistent, as in sometimes you'll have one, sometimes you wont as it varies for most people, entering into the REM state isn't always a guarantee as the time you spend sleeping may not be the same each night

- Adding onto the inconsistent nature of it, some people can spend a good portion of their time towards learning and practicing the techniques needed, but it can take days, weeks, months if not years before success is made

+ Some portion of the population is naturally predisposed to lucid dreaming, so experience for them isn't needed

- However, for the good majority it has to be taught, so like any other skill it has to be refined and maintained

- There is no one size fits all technique, some people have to use different methods of inducing a lucid dream- which means it can take awhile before finding one that suits you

-Can't sell a dream, as in there's no money to be made off of giving people lucid dreams(yet, if the capability ever exists, possible chance it could become a billion dollar venture for some companies.

+ As i mentioned before, the brain tends to work on a problem we struggle with in the background, this works just as well for lucid dreaming.

+ Forces you to have a regular sleep schedule, as your biological clock resets itself as you practice using dream recall techniques/diaries or other means of inducing lucid dreams

- For anyone who's a night owl or just has a tendency to stay up late from other circumstances, it's gonna be a bit difficult trying to induce a lucid dream.

- Sleep quality can be affected by vivid dreams, although this isn't always a guarantee.
Virtual Reality

+ Doesn't require you to sleep, which means you'll be aware of your surroundings(on some level)

+ VR means you interact with the physical world, whereas lucid dreaming is almost entirely in your head- some people may or may not like the fact of lucid dreaming being a solo experience and prefer to share with others, which leads me to the next point

+ in some VR instances, you can interact with other people/players(like VRChat for instance)

- Headsets need to be charged, which means its limited in some capacity by power

- Limited in imagination, as it relies on programming(which can take hours, weeks, days, months, years depending on the task of what it is programmers are trying to simulate) and creating assets(for videogames of course, other mediums might not apply)

- For reasons mentioned before, you can share your experience with other people- but this also means your experience isn't unique and can be replicated to other people- whereas a lucid dream will always be personalized to you.

- Virtual Reality is mostly commercialized, which means it has to be bought/sold to consumers in order for them to use- some VR companies might grant a free demonstration for others but this depends on the company in question and whether they even want to release something like that- whereas lucid dreaming is something that the good majority of humans have access to as it relies on a natural part of our brain and just needing to access it the right way.

+ FIVR immersion is a promise that many are invested in and seem to be interested, if possible- could prove to be a more widespread/popular wish fulfilment method compared to lucid dreaming(which would be inferior in some capacity if this technology ever comes about to exist)

- FIVR is still in the theoretical stages, and with the advances in tech it would take to reach that level of VR- pretty good chance everything's gonna collapse before we'd ever reach that point-but time will tell.

These are some of the cons and pros I can think of for each, there's probably more i'm not thinking about but i'll make edits along the way. feel free to add any new cons/pros for the sub-topics in question if you can think of any.