Does Marijuana Use Effect Dream Recall?

[Garlic]

I'm new here, I know it is illegal to talk about the purchasing and distributing of illegal substances, but it is not illegal to talk about its effects on the human body.

I used to do lots of drugs, it is not something I am proud of. I was able to stop because of lucid dreaming believe it or not. I may post that experience later. Anyway, the only thing I'm considering doing is cannibis, aka marijuana. The only reason I'm even considering it is because I consider it on about the same level as cigarettes. I do not plan on smoking marijuana, I make THC butter and THC brownies, I dislike smoking.

Also, alot of people in my tribe smoke it all the time... but they do it on a spiritual level and not recreationally... I'd like to join them a few times. They usually do it over the summer and they sit around the fire and pass the pipe around and sing and dance... it was such an amazing experience but when the pipe came to me I puffed it, never inhaled. But it is definatlly something I am looking forward to...

But if I do start doing marijuana I'd like to know if it would effect my dream recall. As for how much I do a day.... I make a batch of brownies, 8x8 pan cut into 32 pieces, I eat about one a day. 5g of the stuff literally lasts me a month, thats how little I do.(when I did it)

For reference, the last time I did marijuana was January 3rd, 2004... I found out about Lucid Dreaming April 17th 2004 and I had my first Lucid Dream July 16th IIRC, I'd have to get my DD to find out the exact date. But yeah, I'm curious about the effects marijuana has, if any, on dream recall.

The reason I ask this is because one of the things that I do best is dream recall. I can literally write pages in my journal, its the reason I wait to log my dream until two hours before I awake for the day because I write too much. My longest journal entry was 11 pages, which wasn't even a lucid dream.

[carlhungis]

Pot is very bad for your dream recall in most cases.

[long jetty]

Yeah, going to sleep on it is no good for dreams. t sedates the mind and causesshort-term memory loss. I am unsure about it say if you smoked itt he day before or something though.

[sloth]

What 'bout mushrooms? I've never gone to sleep on them before.

I am going to add, however, that when you are ABOUT to fall asleep on marijuana, it does awesome things for your hypnogogic imagery state. I mean, it is a hallucinogen. In my opinion, it's definately worth trying. Just don't expect to remember your dreams afterward.

[Garlic]

What 'bout mushrooms? I've never gone to sleep on them before.

I am going to add, however, that when you are ABOUT to fall asleep on marijuana, it does awesome things for your hypnogogic imagery state. I mean, it is a hallucinogen. In my opinion, it's definately worth trying. Just don't expect to remember your dreams afterward.
[/b]

Something I always wanted to try was mushrooms. I actually went collecting them once and I got paid, it was cool. The farmer let me on his land and everything... never used them though. But I picked about four pounds worth. It's actually legal to posess them if they aren't dried up since its technically food. According to lore the shamans of some native american groups(not mine) would take these and go on psychedilic adventures for the tribe, lol... they had all the spiritual answers, it was pretty cool.

One thing I did try was something called Belladonna and it was the scariest moment of my entire life. It was more real then any dream I had and I honestly thought I was going to die. I told my self I would never ever take something that would alter my perception of reality again. I figured I could take ti because of lucid dreaming... oh god was I wrong.

Just be sure of one thing, make sure what ever it is you are taking isn't considered a "deliriant" because those things are wicked... it wasn't a pleasant experience, it was worse then waterboarding(my friends and I got bored once).

[carlhungis]

I haven't done mushrooms very often, but I found them very difficult to sleep on. Not that it matters, your experience that you have while you are awake will be remembered for a long time and it can be a very profound experience. So I don't think they would be something to use as a dream aid.

[SKA]

True what you say, carlhungis, cuuz when I ate shrooms there ain't no sleeping untill the peak is off of the Intensity of the Sensation which is about 7 hours after ingestion of a ''moderate'' dose. Even when I try there's this STRANGE energy keeping me very awake. I lye in bed while, Adrenaline-wise, mentally and physically I feel like I'm running a Marathon and trying to end first.
Afterwards I'll fall into a Sleeplike trance that is very deep and at the same time very close to the surface of being awake. Your body is totally Paralysed due to SP while your Mind lies awake, active and Vigilant.


As I have experienced it DreamRecall being deteriorated by Marijuana dose strongly depends on the stuff's strength, dose and my own Tolerance. If I smoke 1 to 3 Joints in the evening I'll still sleep light and have lots of Dreams to remember. If I smoke more or too close to bedtime I'll fall asleep too deep usually.

With Mushrooms it is also very dose-dependant. When I eat, what for me is, a fullblown trip worth of Mushrooms I sleep very tight, tranced out and have little to no dreams. The dreams I do have are short fragments and all through the sleep it feels like you're also lying awake at the same time. Like you're really asleep but at the same time very aware of your body lying in that bed not feeling disorientated.

If you eat tiny doses of mushrooms before sleep you'll have extraordinairily vidid, colorfull and well remembered dreams.

[The Cusp]

I recently stopped smoking pot (not by choice). While I was smoking, I would have been loathe to admit that it affected my dream recall in a negative way.

But the proof seems to be in the pudding, so to speak. I'm remembering way more dreams without it, longer with more details.

I've been meanign to experiment with minute amounts of mushrooms. Not enough to get noticable effects, but just enough to stir up whatever it does in the brain.

[Garlic]

Oh, I didn't want to try mushrooms for a dream aid, I just wanted to try them just for the experience. I'd probably take them once and then be done with it.... but that's for a whole other topic.

Well, for now, I'll stay off marijuana just because I don't really need to do it. Thanks for the help though guys.

[Lëzen]

I can't recall having ever... recalled any of my dreams when I went to bed high (I don't do mary jane anymore). In fact, even when I didn't necessarily go to bed high (but had smoked earlier that day), I couldn't remember dreams.

I'm sort of glad I stopped, as now I'm frequently having dreams I can remember with a moderate level of clarity. Mary jane's good to reduce stress, but not good to increase memory potential.

[carlhungis]

Mushrooms were always too difficult to obtain for me to ever consider taking small amounts for dream experiments. You guys must be more "connected" than I ever was.

[Caliban44]

Pot suppresses something or other which inhibits not only dream recall, but I believe REM sleep length itself...

However, once you haven't gotten high for about a week and a half or so, you should see an REM rebound with tons of dreams coming through very vividly (or so they say.) I've noticed it too, as I stopped smoking when I got into lucid dreaming and for the first two weeks I remembered every dream I had, even if I waited an hour or two without thinking about them - and this was every night without fail without effort.

This might not be true for everyone, though, so don't go smoking a ton of pot just to get some REM rebound that never comes.

[MrGrEmLiN]

When I used to smoke pot it always affected my dream recall. Sometimes I remember it gave me vivid dreams but I couldn't remember them. It's probably like with short-term memory.

[Riff]

I seriously think im the only non-pothead on this forum... Drugs are illegal for a reason guys.

[MrGrEmLiN]

Yes they are, Riff, but sometimes when you get caught up by them you don't realise it...
I'm happy that I was able to quit smoking for good, cause it's really a prison you get into...
And just as you forget a lot of things it affects dream recall A LOT! And I didn't even smoke it everyday. Sometimes when I spent one week without smoking pot I would start remembering my dreams and as soon as I got back to it I would always forget them.

[Oneironaut]

...Drugs are illegal for a reason guys.
[/b]

We could get into the "Well there are many things more dangerous than weed that are legal, and for less reason" argument, but we won't.

On topic: yeah, weed does horrible things to your (my) recall.

[Howie]

On topic: yeah, weed does horrible things to your (my) recall.[/b]

We need an auto response to this question.

I have a question.
Does weed effect your daily recall, or don't you remember? :wink: Seriously. It does all the friend that I know who smoke weed.

[Oneironaut]

Does weed effect your daily recall?
[/b]

Yup. Only while you're on it, unless you are a heavy smoker, then the affects last longer. Even that effect though is temporary, as far as I've experienced, and goes away after you've quit for a while.

[MrGrEmLiN]

You don't need to be that heavy of a smoker to have your memory affected. I used to notice it when someone talked to me and I couldn't remember what they had just said, sometimes.

[Oneironaut]

Hmm. Well, after being a somewhat heavy anc chronic smoker (no pun intended), for so long, it's hard for me to say, so you're probably right about that.

[exige]

Well, if you're like me, you can train your mind to activate your memory on sometimes an even higher level than when you are high.

Marijuana has been an intense mental trip for me for the past few months. I have discovered an amazing part of me that I am grateful for, and I beleive all people are able to achieve it. Essentially I ahve delved deeper into my mind... analytically, everything. But I don't smoke my life away like some, I use it sparingly.

Anyway, on marijuana it's not that your memory is bad, it is that you lose the focus on activating it. Not only that, but your mind tends to focus more on the emotional and instinctual levels. You can remember a lot while high but on a different level... if you know what I mean. I have trained my mind to capture certain perceptions and emotions and tie them to certain stimuli in order to retain certain moments.

However, I don't think this applies to the dream world. Marijuana is a hallucinogen to a certain point. You delve more into your subconscious while you are conscious, and thus it may even be seen by your brain as an REM stage of sleep (these are my thoughts, they may be wrong). That is probably why you feel like you're dreaming while high. So, when you go to sleep, your actual REM stages are probably much shorter and much less intense because while you were conscious you somewhat induced similar brainwaves.

I don't think it's a memory issue, I think it's just the fact that you brain doesn't dream as vividly. Days that I've smoked and then slept I don't remember a single dream, I'm thinking due to the fact that maybe my other sleep stages are longer than usual and consistently wipe your memory clean of any dreams you had.

[Caliban44]

Not everything that's wrong is illegal - there's no denying that. Similarly, not everything that is illegal is wrong. It's important to not only think about the law at face value, but about about the morality (usually subjective) behind it.

That being said, I think the original poster's question's been answered well enough.

[subiime]

I used to smoke pot everyday for almost 6 months. In the beginning it really affected my memory (usually only while high though), but near the end, it was to the point that marijuana did nothing at all to me. I have the same vivid dreams and dream recall whether I am high or not high (because my tolerance towards marijuana got too high).

An interesting thing to point out is that earlier on when my tolerance was lower, I found it a lot easier to slip into a lucid dream while faded. One of my friends who currently smokes always says he experiences the most vivid dreams whenever he smokes marijuana. So I'm guessing it really depends on the person.

And as for general memory loss, there is no real proof for any real permanent deteriments other than a really iffy thing called "amotivational syndrome." What really happens is your attention is a lot shorter, but if you are actually paying attention, your memory should be the same.

[MrGrEmLiN]

I've been thinking about it and I found that I can't really tell what marijuana did to me cause I was really going through a hard time anyway. It did sometimes bring up strong emotions and I was generally more focused on the what I felt than the things that happened around me. After I quit my mind became more analitical again. Everything about this drug seems hard to explain... I did remember some dreams as I've remembered but they were really crazy dreams, even more crazy than my usual ones! Maybe there's a relation...

[DreamerConstant]

Yes it does affect your DR, i have no idea y but all i know is that it does lol.