Thread: Safety Regarding Lucid Dreaming

I just had a discussion over the phone with a friend tonight and told them about my new-found interest in lucid dreaming. They were very skeptical and warned me to be careful, since I was having my brain do something different than its used to doing.

While I wholeheartedly disagree with the idea that lucid dreaming is in any way dangerous (I imagine that lucid dreaming every single night to the point your body is getting no rest is not possible because, if you're too tired to be conscious during dreams, you're just going to be asleep and dream without becoming lucid!), I found I wasn't absolutely concrete 100% sure that lucid dreaming was truly never dangerous. At one point in the conversation, compared the act of inducing lucid dreams to overclocking a computer - when I went to correct him in saying that lucid dreaming does NOT push your brain to or close to maximum performance capabilities, I didn't have any proof outside of my own experiences to tell or show him otherwise.

So, I pose the following to you:

1. Is Lucid Dreaming in the ways that DV promotes it to be completely safe? I believe it is, I want extra input but most of all want some form of evidence that it is. (Can some of you more experienced dreamers support me on this?) I know methods like WILD and WBTB can cause sleep deprivation, but I'm not asking about the induction techniques, I am asking about the actual act of lucid dreaming, either in general or on a constant/semi-constant long-term basis?

2. To the above mention of the brain being "overclocked" while lucid dreaming, can someone help me find some kind of evidence (any kind of evidence - personal experience, credible publications if there are such a thing, etc.) that supports the idea that lucid dreaming is not pushing your mind to points of overworking? I believe lucid dreaming is a natural phenomenon (correct if wrong) and that it in no way pushes your mind to working during sleep, thus causing you to have diminished or no rest while sleeping.

I sincerely thank you for any enlightenment, support, or other input on this thread. (And yes, even just your opinion, backed by personal experience, is appreciated and will build my confidence in this case promoting lucid dreaming to be a safe practice.)