Just had my first proper lucid dream

[emjay]

Yeah, that definitely sounds plausible.

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Hopefully there's a way to undo its effects though. I read in that book that in theory it shouldn't tire you out any more than not being lucid... ie to be 'awake' and aware in your dream is something we might intuitively think would be tiring - since mental tiredness is one of the reasons we go to sleep in the first place - but if what I suggested above is right... that there's no difference in mental effort as it were between normal dreaming and lucid dreaming, just a difference in where you put your attention and how you use your thinking; in a normal dream you expend your mental energy running away from the monster but in the lucid dream you expend that same energy differently, in a more meta way, choosing to wave away the monster with your will and replace it with whatever you want (a bit like the Matrix when Neo finally realises his true power and instead of letting the matrix dictate the terms, he controls the matrix... instead of dodging bullets, he just raises his hand and they all drop to the floor... I think actually that's a very good analogy for a lucid dream)... then if all that's right then it should be no more tiring to have lucid dreams than not to... ie just taking it as a given that, aware it's a dream or not, when we're in REM sleep, our consciousness is active. Is that what you've found in your experience? If so, what in particular is the negative effect... ie if its not the dreams themselves that tire us out (whether lucid or not) then what is it... is it for instance the broken sleep... that being aware of it being a dream is perhaps one step closer to being fully awake? Meaning that what you want is to lose that awareness to go back to a lower level as it were, less likely to wake you up? Sorry if I'm stating the obvious... and/or waffling... just trying to get to the bottom of it

Your problem seems a bit similar to the sorts of problems I have with self-hypnosis and meditation, namely letting things go; ie if you become aware of a ticking clock when you're trying not to be aware of a ticking clock then it can be very hard to let go of that awareness, but doing so is the only way to get where you want to be. I'm just wondering if maybe meditation might help?, because that does develop skills in letting go. If you can... easily... let go of the dream awareness when it comes, then maybe it might improve your sleep?

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Hey...you're a shrink, aren't you? 
Just how much are you charging me for all of this?

Nope, not a shrink, just a psychology buff But if you still wanna pay me I won't say no

Seriously though, I'm not sure if you were joking with that? I've just always been interested in psychology and neuroscience... the mind to me is the biggest and most interesting puzzle to solve... but only as a layman... so just in case you weren't joking, please don't take whatever I said as anything more than a layman's personal opinion, hoping it might help a friend

If I understand your question(s) correctly, then my answer is yes, it is the awareness that I am dreaming that causes me to wake up. Not the content of my dreams/mental energy involved.
I've suffered from insomnia from as far back as I can remember (the excuse I always gave my mother as a wee child was "My brain keeps being busy...I can't!"). And if I take prescription or OTC sleep medication/antihistamines, of course, lucid dreaming doesn't occur at all. But I avoid using medication on a regular basis, because of the associated temporary short-term memory loss/"hangover" effects, and my job requiring a great deal of clarity and focus...which also stands be impaired by inadequate sleep. And round and round we go.

Perhaps meditation could improve my situation. Doubt it could hurt it, at least. 
Might as well give it a try. Thanks, emjay!

Cool I really hope it works for you and helps. It definitely helped me a lot with learning to let go of thoughts... for instance in meditation you have lots of feelings of boredom etc when you're first starting you'd rather be doing something else or you're waiting the timer to run out... but with practice you just kind of learn to let them pass through instead of 'clinging' to them and feeding them... just become more detached from them. So hopefully roughly the same thing can apply in a dream state... allowing the awareness of the dream to pass through, or at least reduce the amount of attention you give it