Thread: Things that are BAD for dreaming

Fear of the unknown.

Kept me from WILDing for a while, and ruined many potentially great lucids.

An irregular sleep-schedule?

(guilty!)

Weed, I hear.

Like Frishert said, little sleep and too much is not good. If you watch a scary movie and are afraid of them, that is not good either. Heavy sleep means no dream, and music playing while you sleep.

These I have gathered from this site.

Hmmm, Half of the things listed so far actually work as lucid/vivid dream aids for me, so yeah, this thread definitely doesn't apply to everyone

And Hash, a purified resin of the Marijuana Plant, more often stimulates vivid dreams than surpress them in my experience. I find it hard to tell wether it has a negative or positive effect on dreaming.

Weed most always knocks me out at night and has me wake up with very little to no recall of my dreams.

Without wanting to sound weird, masturbation is supposed to affect dreaming adversely. Also, on the alcohol front, I find that a small amount of bourbon seems to improve my dream recall. Not sure why.

I think letting one out, sex or masturbation, is supposed to keep sex out of your dreams. I know that could have a big impact on dreams overall.

Also, I found that movies affect lucidity.

Watching television?

I've noticed if I watch alot of television before going to bed It is very detrimental to my recall.

anyone else ever heard of this?

No experience = no belief

I mean before I actually experienced LD (using supplements) even when I tried hard I couldn't do it. Now when I know it REALLY exists I sometimes have DILD's (short) with no efford.

Wasnt bragging..? The topic came up so I thought it put in my 2 cents/Its another "lucid-aid" that could help other people. :S

Originally Posted by Lucid-Hunter

Lol I find sex whilst WBTB has helped me become lucid MANY a time, I think it via this method my girlfriend had her first lucid dream. But I guess itd be different for alot of people.

why do you need to brag?

i find that sleeping for under 4 hours is VERY bad for dreaming, infact it makes it just about impossible

Artificial sweeteners -nutrasweet (aspartame), "neotame", etc

This last week I've been quitting all the artificial sweeteners I can find in my usual diet. And beside maybe improving my health, my dreams have all become much more intense and powerful.

when i smoke pot before i go to bed i absolutely cannot remember my dreams the next morning.

which is part of the reason i quit smoking weed

I have Ld'ed after taking tylenol pm, smoking weed, caffeine etc
but i noticed significant recall reduction after smoking weed.

Originally Posted by JamesLD

when i smoke pot before i go to bed i absolutely cannot remember my dreams the next morning.

I can second that.

I think it's obvious that while Marijuana may have Lucid aid properties, it has for me at least, been extemely detrimental to my DR.

I am upset to hear what was said about artificial sweeteners. I hardly ever use them but I drank them in a tea this morning.

Well, oh well!

Stress and worries keep me away from Lucidity and Dream Recall.

Originally Posted by Odd_Nonposter

I keep seeing threads that say what is good for dreaming, but we never say what specifically is bad for it. We all know what we should take to enhance the dreaming experience. But I've noticed that no matter what, if I take something negative, nothing will ever help. So, I ask you, what do you notice that absolutely wrecks your recall, lucidity, vividness, etc.?

I few things I know that don't help me at all:


Alcohol

Even one drink for me several hours before bed makes me lose my recall entirely. Several drinks make me wake up several times during the night, and I can't remember anything. One thing that I do notice is that the next night is usually better.

Diphenhydramine (Brand names: Benadryl, Simply Sleep, Tylenol PM, many OTC allergy/sleep preparations)

While it induces drowsiness in most people, diphenhydramine is an anticholinergic, meaning that it supresses the action of acetylcholine, the brain chemical that galantamine, choline, EGCG, and B-vitamins try to boost. Like alcohol, I find that the next night is better than normal.

Doxylamine (Active ingredient in Nyquil, some sleep aids.)

This works similar to diphenhydramne, and also has an anticholinergic effect.


I'd like others to add to this list as much as they can, so that maybe we can create a list worthy to be stickied.

Benadryl at high doses affects your short term and some long term memory pretty badly. I'm slowly beating my addiction to diphenydramine, but I've gone to bed after being fucked up off of 20 or so and sometimes I can remember my dreams and sometimes I can't. I've also found that the REM-rebound is great. One time the day after benadryl, I had a 30-minute long LD with a pretty high level of lucidity within an hour and a half of falling asleep for the night.

Originally Posted by SKA

Stress and worries keep me away from Lucidity and Dream Recall.

amen to that

Not sleeping for at least 8 hours. LaBerge backs this up...

To illustrate what this means, let’s say that ordinarily you sleep for eight
hours. In the course of the night, you probably will have six REM periods, with the
last half occurring in the last quarter of the night. According to our research, the
probability of your having a lucid dream during these last two hours of sleep is more
than twice as great as the probability of your having a lucid dream in the previous six
hours. This also means that, if you were to cut two hours from your ordinary sleep
time, you would halve your chances of lucid dreaming. Likewise, if you normally get
only six hours of sleep, you could double your chances of lucid dreaming by extending
your sleep by two hours.

Ayup. Sorry, LaBerge...Quietly protesting the 10 character limit.

I do pretty well on little sleep. My last Lucid was maybe just over three hours into sleep, And it was a pretty long one. A lot of times I get Lucid in the first hour or two.

I break up my sleep schedule with naps. I sleep anywhere from two to four hours when I get home from work, and anywhere from one to four hours at night. Breaking it up really does a lot to help my recall. My night hours are always very dream filled. I have less recall in my day hours, but sometimes really good recall, and Lucidity too. On my days off I try to sleep in a little longer.

For me the worst thing for dreaming is any waking life events that take my mind off of dreaming, either positive or negative. They always say that stress is bad for dreaming, but that's just because the stressful events take your attention away from your dreams. In my experience, the same thing holds true for positive events. If I get over excited about anything outside of dreaming, it has the same dream killing result.

Originally Posted by Realmofmind

I think it's obvious that while Marijuana may have Lucid aid properties, it has for me at least, been extemely detrimental to my DR.

Weed, ohh that sweet stinky weed!

The effects it has on my sleep/dreams is so strange. Please note that ive been blazing for over 4 years daily. For all those who love to hate, my academic performances havent suffered in the slightest, neither did my long/short term memory nor my ability to make quick decisions. My sleep did, though.

Now I seem to get restless nights if i havent smoked before. Right before sleep is appreciated but not needed. On dry nights i simply feel like im in preSP all night long, and when i wake up, i always feel like i had too little sleep, even when i do 9h. Those nights also seem to pass by like mere seconds of that preSP relaxation.

My DR doesnt really suffer, since when i sleep sober, i dont even realize im dreaming. Its like my brain simply shuts off, or rather like bugs out in the closing process, like some old PC might do.

In general, my DR has been terrible most of my life, and I started having year long stretches of black nights long before i picked up the joint. Id say it rather enhanced my dreaming, to a certain extent.


To get back on topic, I find that one thing thats really bad for dreaming is spending your last REM cycles in broad daylight. As in when you go to sleep at 5 and by the time your dreaming, its already bright day outside.

Peace out

Alcohol

Even one drink for me several hours before bed makes me lose my recall entirely. Several drinks make me wake up several times during the night, and I can't remember anything. One thing that I do notice is that the next night is usually better.

I drank alcohol before bed once, i remberd all my dreams. Werid.

Yea me two about the alcohol.