Vitamin B6

[three and four]

A lot has been said about vitamin B6 contributing to making dreams more vivid, and even being a help in reaching lucidity. Well, I tried last night. The recommended daily does is 2mg. I took 150mg, and nothing happened. Dreams were no more or less vivid than usual (intensity and recall have been so-so lately), and I came nowhere near getting lucid. In a few days I'll take the whole 300mg pill and see what happens (or I could just try an overdose of avocados , rich in B6 ). The chemist tells me that this is not risky (in the short term, in any case), as the body just eliminates whatever excess vitamins it happens to be carrying about. I'm not a big fan of chemicals, but reading Huxley's Doors of Perception recently HAS given me an urge to do a bit of experimenting, even if it's very unlikely that a vitamin pill will have any effect close to that of Mescalin...

[StickFigure]

I took 50 mg of B6 and I didnt remember my dreams better when I woke up but instead I remembered one piece of it(Its not like it came any easier than they usualy do). But so far with b6 it seems like the dreams are more realalistic, not vivid. The size of the rooms weren't huge like they usually are in my dreams, things are actually in proportion, and I can remember more IN THE DREAM, making it quite easier to piece together when I wake up. I'd also like to add that throughout the day I seem to remember more and more. When I do get the full dream with B6 I remember finer detail than usual. Without b6 the dream is in pieces and I really only remember the more memorable things. I dont know what your definition of Vivid is but mine's ; Closer to Lucidity; and I really didnt feel any closer to lucidity within the dream but I feel I could be with continuous use of B6 and a little help from my subconcious.

[WaveShaper]

I havent used B6 in ages now, but when i used it I noticed a huge difference in the clarity of my dreams. I could "see" the dreams very clearly, rather than through fog. I took about 200mg about 30mins before going to sleep. Advice; dont take it every night or the affects will wear off.

[TheUnknown]

Don't take such high quantities as well... I've experimented well over the 500mg mark before sleep. I've found the most effective solution for me was to take 50mg in the morning and 50mg at night. This helps my lucidity without the after effect of feeling like a zombie after 700mg.

[dearly]

Different techniques work for different people. Some people were talking about B6 a while back, so I decided to pick up a couple suppliment tablets and try them. They had no effect on me, so I haven't tried it since. If 150mg didn't do anything for you, I doubt increasing the dosage to 300mg will do much good. It might just ruin your night, or make you groggy the next day. There are several other techniques around these forums for increasing the chances of having vivid, or even lucid dreams. Try them out and see which works best for you. Have fun, D

[Ryden]

There is also the possibility of taking small doses every day, I remember hearing that this was more beneficial and useable for the body than one huge dose.

[will.i.am]

Keep in mind, you may not feel or notice the effects on the first night. It took me about a week for it to really kick in.

[phoenelai]

I've been taking B6 again for the last couple of weeks every night 200mg. I've noticed much better dream recall and the dreams are very vivid and clear. That stuff works for me for sure!

[three and four]

First of all, thanks very much, StickFigure, phallam, TheUnknown, dearly, Ryden, Will.i.am, and phoenlai, for your very helpful comments. I’m new to this site and really did find all your input most useful and interesting. Last night I took 300mg of B6 shortly before going to bed. This time more happened, and it made for an interesting night. The last time (previous posting) I took 150mg and nothing out of the ordinary happened. I wanted to wait a few days before taking a higher dose – these are chemicals after all, and I’m in no rush! The main noticeable improvement was recall. However, it’s a bit difficult to say how much of this was due to an actual improvement of the recall ability thanks to the B6, or to the fact that my sleep was lighter last night (due to the vitamin?). I remember waking up three or four times during the night (but it may have been more), and so at those moments actively tried to remember what I’d just been dreaming). BTW the highest level of recall I reached was nine fairly complete dreams in one night. It was this summer, in Asia where the heat was excruciating – so I was having a rough night and kept waking up (six times in all, and wrote what I remembered each time). Very tired the next day, but amazed at just how much the brain creates in one night! I don’t feel at all groggy today – in fact I’ve been doing some math this morning, and my brain seems 100%. A couple of interesting things did happen. I did not have a lucid dream, but I do seem to remember once or twice gently drifting into a dream, recognizing it as such, but then immediately drifting back to (semi)waking state again, and so on, two or three times. I’ve not done this before. The dreams that I did have and recalled were quite mundane (in the sense of close to reality: ie no three headed monsters with blue breasts flying on toasters). In one I was in a cab in London talking to the driver (who showed me her Tory party membership card and said we had met before), in another I was in the office I used to work looking at a map with an ex-colleague. Nothing I’d call consciousness-expanding! I did have one more interesting (I would call it pre-lucid) dream just before my alarm clock went this morning – I’ll post it with comments in the dream journal section. I might well try another 300mg tonight, but in the longer term I definitely don’t want to have to depend on any pill in order to get lucid. This really is just a bit of exploration before I go back to more natural methods! a happy banana (full of B6) - I MUST be dreaming

[Howie]

As far as I know you should be careful of taking too much vitamin B. Our body usually filters through most minerals and cause no harm. But I believe the B vitamins can & will remain in your system and will store up more and more. This causing some toxicity. Too much Vitamin B6? More than 500mg can cause irreversible nerve damage. Check out the ----------< Vitamin B takes is vital to your central nervous system. I believe this is one reason it has become an advantage to lucid dreaming. Vitaman B Complex

[three and four]

Thanks for your comments, Howetzer. Ok, about recommended max doses: The instructions that came with my packet of B6 warn that "Daily uninterrupted ingestion of very high doses of vitamin B6 (500mg a day or more) during more than five months can, in rare cases, cause nerve damage". Given that big pharma companies (and this packet is from a BIG pharma) can be sued for hundreds of millions if they don't give proper warnings, I'd say that you'd really have to go through quite a few packets of this stuff to get into trouble. However, I don't see the point in going anywhere near as far as that. Once again, in the long term, only mental training is going to get valid results. Also, I'm actually starting to like all these bananas, cauliflower and avocados I've been eating for more B6. I didn't realize that there was already so much info on this site about B6 - thanks for having pointed to the pharmacy section. Most enlightening. Cheers

[TygrHawk]

B6 has never done much for me, but you might want to try Valerian Root (an herbal suppliement). When I experimented with that, it seemed to help my dream recall, and the ability to LD. Could have just been a placebo effect, but I don't think it can hurt to give it a shot.

[three and four]

Well, the day before yesterday I took another 300mg of B6, and the only result was a bad night! This was my third experiment with this vitamin, and will be my last. I took the tablet shortly before going to bed, as I had the night before. If you bear in mind that the maximum recommended daily dose (i.e. what the body needs) is 2mg, then these were two days in a row when I was ingesting 150 times that quantity. I guess this qualifies as “a lot”. I would seem that what you take in excess of the necessary daily 2mg accumulates in the body – being eliminated eventually, but not necessarily right away. I was pretty tired that night, but it took me forever to get to sleep (not something I timed, obviously, but I was tossing and turning and up wandering around and reading way past when I would have been happily snoring away). Pretty simple: taking vitamins before going to bed will do this! I finally fell asleep, and was woken by my alarm clock at 5am (when I don’t actually have to get up, but I find that this is a good time to try and go WILD). So I woke up at 5 (after maybe three or four hours sleep), with zero recall. Nothing. I lay there quite still, but my mind was blank. WILD didn’t work either and the room was damn cold (serious winter here). I then just couldn’t get back to sleep, for well over the next hour. I finally got up at seven, had half a banana and some tea, and decided there was no way I could go to class, as I was feeling very groggy, and generally not too good (looks like dearly got it right!). This is when I concluded that B6 was not for me. I slept from eight to ten, after some serious MILD, and woke up with only a small piece of an uneventful dream to show for my night of effort. Damn. So there - that concludes my B6 experiment. I guess I wanted to try it as I’ve had fewer LDs recently (down to about one a month from a high of one a week this summer), and was looking for a way to boost my LD count. I’m only guessing, buy I attribute this fall in LD frequency to the fact that I’ve not been getting nearly as much exercise recently as this summer. (I twisted my neck (over)doing sports a couple of months back and have been taking things very lazily since). I’ve also done no yoga (which I find fantastic for getting relaxed yet in focus), as standing on your head if your neck is out of place is NOT recommended. ** searches unsuccessfully for an upside-down emoticon **. There are one or two other reasons for being distracted as well, but I don’t want to wander too far off topic! What has been of immense use during this B6 experiment is the feedback I got from the various people on this site (postings above), giving their ideas & thoughts on the matter. Many thanks indeed. But I’m looking forward to going back to more natural methods, once my neck is 100% again!

[three and four]

Wow! I’ve just had three LDs in two nights (all DILDs) . This has never happened to me before. It MIGHT be related to the B6 intake just under a week ago, but it might not. Without wanting to wander too far off topic here, I’ll try and go through a few reasons for what I hope is a breakthrough. I’ll put the dreams themselves with a few comments in my dream journal. They are nothing earth-shattering as LDs go, but today I’m really psyched about these last two nights. As mentioned above, the B6 pills didn’t do much for me when I took them. However, I thought this: maybe taking a very high dose (as I did) can at first somewhat overwhelm you and therefore not necessarily put you in the best state for LDing. But, perhaps once your system starts getting rid of the excess, you do pass by a point where you have a LOT of B6 in you, but no too much. And THIS could be the phase that could be good for the dreams. Look, it’s a theory (which I hope I’ve written in clear enough way), but to be honest I’m not convinced by it, for several reasons (only the first of which is on topic). Oh, must mention something: I was talking to a good friend of mine who’s a doctor, and telling him about this experimenting with high doses of B6. He was very clear: his opinion was that this kind pill popping was very stupid and should not be done. There - I thought I’d share this. The pills were not the only B6 I was taking – I also started eating plenty of avocados, bananas, cauliflower, and walnuts. Surprisingly, I’ve actually taken a liking to all of this (my Mom would be SO proud…), and so have kept eating all of these. Would it be possible that this natural above-average (but not crushingly excessive) intake of B6 could be having a positive effect? Here I’m less skeptical, and think that it’s quite possible. There are other possible reasons for this cluster (for me three LDs is a cluster!) of lucid dreams: ten days ago I discovered this site, and since have been hooked. I think I’ve never read so much about LDs in so little time (I’ve gone right back to the start of the “attaining lucidity”, and have been reading my way through (I highly recommend this – especially anything posted by a certain padfoot (aka padfoot21) ). I’ve therefore almost been thinking about LDs 24/7 and this, I’m sure, will impact on your dreaming and raise the likelihood of getting lucid. Briefly, as I KNOW I’m off topic, two other possible reasons are: 1. I’ve gotten back into working on WILD in a BIG way, right in the middle of the night, which has not worked directly, but sure has given me some funky sensations, and 2. I started taking some Omega 3 dietary supplement pills about four days ago (always looking for stuff to help me through these damn tough winters – so I was not expecting any psychedelic effect from these, but who knows). Finally, I think I’ve gotten the message (from numerous past postings), that trying too hard can be counter-productive. I generally am VERY tough on myself when it comes to reaching goals, and I realize that the way in which I was previously falling asleep was probably not the best for inducing anything: “hurry up, fall asleep, and HAVE A LUCID DREAM, geddit??!! Damn!”. (You could call it the “be your own Nazi” technique…). No, I’m exaggerating a bit, but still, that was the idea. What I do now is try to let myself DRIFT a bit more, when I’m on that border between awake and asleep, and work on gently letting go without being too bossy with myself. Something like that (but these things are really difficult to describe…). Basically, my conclusion is this: I don’t know what exactly caused these three LDs in two nights. I just know that I’m REALLY happy, and that if you’re in a rut (which I was), trying out various things, not getting upset and not giving up is always a good way to go! Thanks for reading this far! I’d love to have any comments / suggestions you might have!

[dearly]

Congratulations! I love reading about people's successes. This is the only place I can go to read about people praising themselves, their bodies, mind. Since your dreams were DILD (Dream-Initiated Lucid Dream), that proves you have trained your mind to be more cautious about things it perceives. Related, as you learn at an early age, you shouldn't always believe everything you hear--it's good to think for yourself. Thank you for sharing, and always be thanking yourself. Maybe have a nice meal today to celebrate? D

[phoenelai]

Congrats on your sucess!!! I can never explain when I have lucids back to back during the week. They just happen. Although I usually never have dry spells as long as I put effort into it (WILDS, mp3's etc). I still must admit, my 200mg a night for the last 3 weeks have completely boosted dream recall and vividness. I read that is the most you should take in one day and I will listen to that warning. I'm trying to help my mind and body and do not want to cause damage. I think it will work for some and not others. I'm also working out and eating right and taking mulit-vitamins. I try not to put too much stress on myself to have a lucid, when I don't I usually have them with ease. Relax, sleep, dream and go lucid!

[three and four]

Phoenelai, I'm glad what you're doing now is working for you. But tell me - for how long do you plan on taking a daily 200mg dose of B6? (This is after all one hundred times the recommended daily dose, and in the long term is surely not a solution...). Are you going to do this for a few more weeks, months? Are the effects still as strong as when you started? Are they wearing off? Are you still taking it at night? (And does this not stop you from sleeping?). I'm curious, so let me know!

[phoenelai]

Originally posted by three and four Phoenelai, I'm glad what you're doing now is working for you. But tell me - for how long do you plan on taking a daily 200mg dose of B6? (This is after all one hundred times the recommended daily dose, and in the long term is surely not a solution...). Are you going to do this for a few more weeks, months? Are the effects still as strong as when you started? Are they wearing off? Are you still taking it at night? (And does this not stop you from sleeping?). I'm curious, so let me know! Well good question. How long? So far my dream recall and vividness has not changed. If I saw a decrease or returned back to normal; I would probably stop. According to most sites, there is nothing harmful about 200mg a day (see link). I still take them at night and they don't seem to affect my sleep patterns (staying awake etc). Again, if the effects wore off I wouldnt continue, I take a multi-vitamin which is always good. Although I think the recommended dose will always be varied from website to website but so far it appears to be safe. http://www.vitacost.com/science/nutrients/...vitamin_b6.html

[three and four]

It was almost a month ago that I took a few high doses of B6 in the form of pills, as described above. Also as indicated above, I then wanted to go back to more a more natural way of absorbing extra B6. So, for the last three weeks I’ve been doing just that, and wanted to say a few words about my progress. I take one multivitamin pill a day anyway – especially during the winter, so my basic needs of various vitamins (including B6) are covered. It’s just a question of how you get the extra dose of the particular vitamin you want, and what it does to you. So, as well as what I usually eat every day (a diet that I think is pretty balanced), I eat a banana, an avocado, and several handfuls of walnuts. I also often eat cauliflower. All these foods are high in B6. (I often have this stuff in the evening). A major change I’ve noticed over the last couple of weeks is a very clear improvement of recall. Since I started writing down my dreams a year ago, my recall has never been as good as it is now. This Sunday morning, for example, I woke up at 07h00 and recalled five dreams, went back to sleep until 09h30 when I recalled another four dreams. All of this filled three pages in my dream journal. So quantity of recall is better, but so is quality: I remember more details, more colors, more of what of what was said or thought. All this could be the avocados and bananas, or it could just be that I’ve made progress in recall, I don’t know. I had my last LD (a successful WILD – I’ll post it in my dream journal) just over ten days ago. Since then I’ve not been trying to get lucid as I have two important exams coming and I want to focus on study (I usually try to get lucid by using WBTB – but right now I need all the sleep I can get). (In fact I try to fall asleep thinking "I will sleep deeply until morning, I will sleep deeply until morning". Seems to work pretty well). Also, I almost always wake up right after / out of my LDs, so this also can affect how rested I am the next day. However, recall in the morning and RCs during the day don’t distract me from studying, so I keep doing these. In a couple of weeks I’ll be back to setting my alarm clock for 4am, and then going back to sleep after an hour on DV, counting “one, I’m dreaming; two, I’m dreaming…”.

[Indago]

Lucid Beginner here. I'm currently working on improving my dream recall and clarity. I took 200mg of time release B-6 about two hours before sleep last night. Last night my dreams were actually in first person! I wrote down three different dreams and in each dream I was actually thinking with my dream inner monolog and talking to dream characters. Before I would almost never have dreams in 1st person, and rarely remember them even with my dream journal. Yes, this could just be a fluke, but I am going to continue to take the B-6 every night, and keep cutting back on my caffeine habbit.