Following my recent report that nicotine patches can produce stable, vivid LDs, I’ve done more research and find that a grower number of lucid dreamers are now using these patches. The evidence is that nicotine patches (NicoDerm CQ, Nicorette, Nicotrol, Commit, etc) are probably the most effective way of using psychoactive substances to enhance lucid dreaming. I myself haven't tried a nicotine patch but am seriously considering it.

It seems that people who don't smoke get good results with the 7 mg patch, whereas people who smoke need stronger patches. The patch is probably best applied after a few hours of sleep, perhaps accompanied by ingesting a 5-HTP pill to facilitate returning to sleep.

Here are some of the reports, starting with with Marc VanderKeere, the lucid dreaming guru who invented the WBTB method. Marc and I agree that when used judiciously, they can help people who are not natural lucid dreamers.
Now read the reports and judge for yourself...

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Normally, I have decent recall if I awaken gently and allow the dream fragments to surface and form a recollection of the previous night's adventures. On average, I remember two or three dreams per night with about ten to twenty of minutes of remembered time in the dreaming realm. While wearing the patch, I was remembering seven, eight and nine dreams with literally hours worth of elapsed experience. The entire night was experienced as one super long dream sequence with changing plotlines, scenes and characters. My recall was so complete that it literally felt as if I had been conscious the whole night. However, the dreams were not lucid ones. They were just massively intensified couple with some massively enhanced recall.

After experiencing this dreaming turbo-boost, I tried to make sense of how this could be happening. More importantly, I wanted to find a way to recreate these effects without becoming dependent on a nicotine patch. Aside from being expensive at thirty-seven dollars for a box of fourteen patches with twenty-one milligram potency, nicotine like caffeine is not a vitamin. It is a drug that should not be regularly added to your system. By finding some kind of cause and effect, I hoped to find a more natural substitute. My guess was that the dreaming process was being energized by the added stimulation of nicotine. This stimulatory effect increases the circulation and this boost may serve as a catalyst for dream enhancement.

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I have had great incredibly vivid dreams with the 21mg patch, but 7 and 14 don't seem to have the same effect on me. I DO however like your application of the "cocktail" during the W period. I've always tried the patch before bed, and then by morning I'm sweating...

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If your mind is the dream engine, then I'd say the patch is like a supercharger. I always have longer, more vivid, more memorable dreams when I wear it, and also more false awakenings.

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Nicotine for instance has a profound effect on my abillity to become lucid and this doesn't diminish with time. It's not that it actually causes lucidity, it simply creates a state of stimulated awareness which is very conducive to becoming lucid and greatly increases my chances. This effect seems to be enhanced even further when applying a patch only after waking during the night, and then using WILD.

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For extra lucid dreaming fun, slap on a nicotine patch. It will blow your mind. I actually had a dream that was subtitled once. Some people were speaking Italian and I could understand what they were saying by "reading" the subtitles at the bottom of my view. Creepy bit is I don't know a word of Italian, so it obviously probably wasn't, but the whole concept blew my mind for a couple of weeks.

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The only thing I have to look forward to now is lucid dreams. Maybe you don’t know this, but wearing the nicotine patch while you sleep causes major lucid dreams. I mean HARDCORE vivid shit. It’s awesome.

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A nicotine-patch dream, the kind you can't pull yourself out of no matter how horrible, because it's too real. For six straight weeks now, recurring, nicotine enhanced dreams have shaken my world. I should consult with my doctor. I hope it doesn't come to that, but giving up three or more dreams each night, completely remembered and often lucid, will be tough.

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I tried Calea Z last night in combination with a low strength nicotine patch. I did not wear my NovaDreamer, but I did awaken at one point briefly after about 4 hours of sleep, maybe for about 5 minutes. I did a reality check and found that I was indeed awake, and then fell back asleep.

At this point, I had a WILD as soon as I closed my eyes. I was pretty startled at first, because I've only had 2 successful WILDs in the past and had pretty much given up on the technique. The ensuing LD was long, undistorted, and I had no trouble staying in the dream. I know it's hard to estimate the passage of time while in a dream, but I'd say I had a good 20 minutes in there, and I had such a good time that I woke up laughing.

Being familiar with the dream-boosting effects of the patch, I'm thinking that the Calea Z worked synergistically with it, and allowed me to transition from awake to REM quickly enough to facilitate a WILD. I'm definitely going to try it again, perhaps also with some acetylcholine-enhancing supplements like DMAE and an AChEI.

I've also recently tried this combination and I agree it really seems to boost lucid dream induction methods - espescially WILD. Both nicotine and Calea also make my dreams incredibly vivid and strange (even nightmarish sometimes), and even more so in combination. I also seem to get more false awakenings.

I think that Calea and Nicotine are amazing catalysts to lucid dreaming, and if you use them with the SWBB method (and WILD of course) they are even better.

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If you like dreaming and you have good dreams and like the whole "lucid dreaming" thing put on a nicotine patch before you go to sleep. You'll have longer dreams that you'll remember clearer. One word of warning it’s hard to snap your self out of a nightmare, like you normally could.

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Any of the nicotine patches or lozenges will produce extremely vivid, 3-D, better than the movies type dreams for me.

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I've had the most success with:

nicotine patch - 7mg
5htp - 200mg
huperzine a - 50mg

All taken during the wake period of WBTB.

I also take DMAE 260mg during the day before i go to work in the morning....i find it provides a better stimulatiing effect than caffiene, more of a gradual, background effect on alertness than a caffiene buzz, and no shakes or 'come downs' when it wears off. plus i hear antioxidants are good to take, and dmae is a strong one.

with this combination my lucid dream frequency has risen significantly, although it is by no means a guarantee of course.

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