Issue with Laravel 11 Auth: Login Works, But Auth Is Null After Redirecting to Dashboard

I am facing an issue where the Laravel 11 authentication works perfectly on the login page but fails after redirecting to the dashboard. Here's how my current code looks and the steps I took for troubleshooting:

1. Login Method in Controller Here's the code for my login method:

public function login(Request $request)
{
    $credentials = [
        'mprpUsers_email' => $request->input('email'),
        'mprpUsers_password' => $request->input('password'),
    ];

    $request->validate([
        "email" => "required|email",
        "password" => "required",
        "profile" => "required|numeric",
    ]);

    if (Auth::attempt($credentials)) {
        dd(Auth::user()); // Debug line showing user data after login
        return redirect()->intended('dashboard/author');
    } else {
        return Helper::setError('Invalid login credentials.');
    }
}

When I run dd(Auth::user()) within this method, it displays all the user data as expected.

2. Index Method in Dashboard Controller Here is the code for the index() method in my dashboard controller:

public function index()
{
    dd(Auth::user()); // Debug line showing user data on the dashboard
}

When I use dd(Auth::user()) here, it returns null, even though the login method shows user data before redirection.

3. Configuration Settings Below are the settings from my .env and auth.php configuration files:

.env file:

SESSION_DRIVER=database
SESSION_LIFETIME=120
SESSION_ENCRYPT=false
SESSION_PATH=/
SESSION_DOMAIN=null

I've also tried changing SESSION_DRIVER to file, but the issue persists.

auth.php file:

'providers' => [
    'users' => [
        'driver' => 'eloquent',
        'model' => env('AUTH_MODEL', App\Models\User::class),
    ],
],

I would greatly appreciate any insights or suggestions for resolving this issue. Has anyone faced a similar problem with Laravel 11 authentication not persisting after a redirect? Any help would be highly valued!