Thread: Marijuana, alcohol, and cigarettes...explain.

So...what do these three things (and any other drugs) do to affect lucid dreaming, dream recall, and anything else to do with dreaming?

I'm not sure about cigarettes, but the other two supress REM sleep for the first half of the night. REM sleep is the type of sleep where most dreams occur, your body is completely paralyzed and your eyes are moving rapidly back and forth under your eyelids. Marijuana and Alcohol are likely to ruin your dream recall or even having a dream for that matter, but thats only for the first part of the night, because afterwards your body wants to make up for lost REM sleep so it goes into REM rebound where you dream more intensly during the last half of the night. Personally, I went to sleep high once and still had a lucid dream but it was in the late morning, and I didn't recall any dreams from earlier in the night.However, that does not mean that they will help you become lucid, for some they may even do the opposite.

Alcohol is an absolute no no. It kills a ridiculous amount of brain cells, plus how do you expect to even remember a dream with hangover.
Weed is ok for a while.. (imo) i still had dreams, but if i had smoked it alot that night i would wake up feeling hazy, dreams unclear and with not much motivation to actually remember them (and of course it does affect your memory in the long term). Since I gave up weed and cigarettes (not that long ago) my recal is becoming alot clearer, although my dreams arent as fun (at the moment) due to withdraw symptons i think, i quite occasionally dream of marijuana, as its a desire, and desires are what we mostly dream about, but that should only be temporary until i can fully get over it. But yeh depends how deep you wish to dive into this, me im quite spiritual, and doing drugs wasnt good for my spiritual, i knew i could never progress as far as i dreamt off unless i was true to myself and got clean, no more being tied down to material desires that werent healthy.
Sorry if i strayed a bit but i feel strongly about this topic since ive experienced it and seen what good it does to get free from it.

Every single time I'm drunk, I recall a dream the next morning. Every single time, whereas normally I often have nights with absolutely zero recall. I don't know why that is, just throwing it out there.
As far as nicotine goes, I have no clue. Haven't noticed any drastic effects by amount of cigarettes I smoke, but I'd be interested to see some research into that.

Originally Posted by RealVirtuality

Every single time I'm drunk, I recall a dream the next morning. Every single time, whereas normally I often have nights with absolutely zero recall. I don't know why that is, just throwing it out there.

Alcohol disrupts sleep ergo you would be sleeping lighter, waking more often,(unless you are absolutely s***-faced) and probably would have better dream recall. Its not worth the crappy sleep, however!

Thanks for the answers! Good to know about marijuana. I've pretty much stopped that completely, mainly because I heard it causes you to "dream less" and from what I've seen, that's true. But I didn't know that about alcohol. Soooo disappointing. I was interested about cigarettes because, obviously, I smoke and I plan on quitting by a certain date. I was curious to know how that would affect my dreaming. I saw someone post that they heard cigarettes make recall better, but then more posts about how it is worse. (Although, the obvious answer would be just to quit, with no excuses involved.)

That might be due to what Lawilahd said about REM rebound, but i like to think long term, alcohol will mess up you up, and if you can only remember dreams after consuming it then something is wrong and its not a solution to carry it on.
For cigarettes i doubt the results would be so obvious, but from having smoked them for about 4 years, then coming of them i feel alot more upbeat and energetic, i feel more like a kid and less like an old man who can barely run down the road (im not an old man btw lol), so i wouldnt be suprised that it would help dreams feel more alive/energetic, plus my mental state is alot more clear and not craving for the next top up of nicotine

From what I've heard nicotine can increase dream vividness, but alcohol and weed mostly suppress it.

Originally Posted by ShadowOfSelf

That might be due to what Lawilahd said about REM rebound, but i like to think long term, alcohol will mess up you up, and if you can only remember dreams after consuming it then something is wrong and its not a solution to carry it on.

It's not like I don't have any recall when I'm sober, though, just saying that getting blasted is a surefire way for me to recall a dream. And yeah, I actually meant getting shitfaced to kingdom come, after like 3 beers I don't notice any change in both dreaming and sleeping.

Originally Posted by Stirred

From what I've heard nicotine can increase dream vividness, but alcohol and weed mostly suppress it.

I read something about that today and it seems that nicotine actually does that, I just can't seem to find my source anymore.

Anybody else find cannabis to actually somewhat aid in the hypnogogic/visualization aspects of WILDs?

I find it helps with the vividness of the hallucinations and makes the mind all that much more capable of wanting to focus on them

I've experienced both sides of the spectrum. On one hand, I've had very vivid lucid dreams while on cannabis. But I've also had "black out" nights where I can't recall a single dream. I do recall the hypnogogic hallucinations being a lot more intense. Normally for me these visualizations would be in grayscale colors, but the cannabis affected visualizations ended up being very vibrant and colorful.

Also, I'm curious about the effects of Salvia Divinorum on lucid dreaming. I've found the hallucinations of Salvia and lucid dreams to be very similar experiences... Except I actually have control of the environment in a lucid dream haha

Originally Posted by DoctorEams

Anybody else find cannabis to actually somewhat aid in the hypnogogic/visualization aspects of WILDs?

I find it helps with the vividness of the hallucinations and makes the mind all that much more capable of wanting to focus on them

I know what you're talking about. Definitely wondered the same thing myself. I do think that it has helped me understand the concepts and feelings of WILDing a bit more because it is a more intensified and focused image. But while I'm having episodes of extreme hypnogogic imagery induced by cannabis, it doesn't usually lead to a WILD. Just a very interesting day dream.

put away the alcohol if you want to lucid dream... and live longer

I have noticed after either a harsh night of drinking or even a slow night of low percent alchohal, if I go to sleep at a specific time in my bodies recovery, my dreams become insanely vivid. Extremely vivid. Usually pretty memorable, and strange.

Marijuana on the other hand... It's never made my dreams more vivid. But I can't say that it has every stunted my recall like some people have reported. And then cigerettes I doubt have any short term chemical functions relating to dreams.

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