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    Thread: Serotonin

    1. #26
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      hi
      I'm studying psychology at university and i've been doing some research in the area of serotonin and dreaming (thats how i actually came across this website..and got very distracted..damn..)

      anyhoo.

      just thought i'd give my own bit of knowledge and such....

      basically serotonin is a chemical in your brain which has been associated with all sorts of behaviours and psychological disorders such as depression, over-eating, aggression, dreaming, alcohol-abuse, hallucinations etc..

      you can't physically make your body make more serotonin - how drugs like ecstacy and also anti-depressents work is by blocking these things in your brain called 'receptors' which receive the serotonin and bind to it..like a puzzle peice. If the serotonin binds to the receptors then it gets used up, broken down and recycled.
      So if you've taken a certain drug which "increases serotonin levels" what it basically does it stops the serotonin from binidng to the receptor. so you have a lot of this chemical floating around your brain, not being used up, broken down or recycled. So all this serotonin floating around makes you feel happy. Howeverrrrrrrrrrr, since its not being broken down and recycled, once the drug wears off, your levels of serotonin will drop (coz its not recycled - there's not the same level of serotonin in your brain as there once was) and in the case of ecstasy at least (im not sure about antidepressents but in theory it should be the same) your serotonin levels never return back to same level they were before. so you just get lower and lower serotonin levels, get more and more depressed, and then "need" more and more drugs.
      dont take drugs.


      and yes dreaming has been associated with using serotonin to dream. however, just because you have used serotonin over night it does not necessarily mean you have a reduced mood in the morning. perhaps if someone woke up up while you were in R.E.M sleep (where dreaming occurs) then you just may feel down - altho you'd probably just be peed off that someone woke you up in the middle of a dream.
      however, a few studies have found that depressed people enter R.E.M sleep more often in one night than someone who is not depressed - which suggests they have more dreams that the average person... so that sort of raises a few questions and problems - why would someone with depression use up more serotonin levels by dreaming more - your body is meant to try and restore internal problems and often does weird things to try and make things work like normal - so perhaps there's some advantage to more dreaming? or perhaps an advantage to lower serotonin levels...or even depression?

      as for melatonin - i don't know much about it - but what i do know is that it is released in order to make you feel tired - and its usually released about two hours before you actually are tired enough to go to sleep.

      if someone wishes to dream i don't suggest attempting to mess with your serotonin levels - instead don't do exercise for the day - apparently exercise gives you a more restful sleep without dreaming (r.e.m sleep is not particulary restful - could be the reason why people with depression often don't feel rested after a nights sleep..) plus..if you dreamt every night you probably would not feel so rested so not dreaming is good for you.

      anyhoo..time for sleep

    2. #27
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      Quote Originally Posted by ChicagoRedwing2b View Post
      I will add my 2 cents to backup Seri's info about Antidepressents and people with ADD/ADHD meds.

      I take Concerta for my ADD, and I now take Lexapro (Antidepressent) diagnosed mildly depressed to help level out my lows and highs more.

      I have been on Lexapro for about 2.5 weeks now, and its starting to take more direct effect with me.

      Antidepressents take nearly 3 to 4 weeks to build up properly in the human body so taking a few one day will not help anything, except to help you overdose and possibly hulucinate and possible end up in the hospitol.

      But I personally have experienced an increase and more vivid, realistic dreams, and have started to induce more lucid dreams.

      I have to be careful as my parents both took antidepressents and both started to hulucinate in and out of dreams.

      I had a sleep study done not long ago, and was surprised to see the report by the sleep doctor concerning my brain wave activity level compared to normal human levels.

      He reported that my brain wave activity during awake hours was 20% higher then normal human average, but during sleep my brain wave activity rose to a 30% higher the normal human average during sleep.

      They told me this is typical of people who are higher thinkers, writers, dreamers, inventors, creators, artists, those that can think on a level that far exceeds normal human thought processes.

      Particularly I was tested for information processing efficentcy and speed.

      My results threw the doctors off as usual, LOL.

      I am Dyslexic, ADD, and mildly depressed, and it was easy to see the information processing of linear, logic, left brained information as slower and less efficent.

      But what got them going was that my information processing and efficency levels were near 35% higher then normal for phyisophical, psychological, abstract thinking, and free formed thoughts and comprehension of theray and fantasy.

      Basically I had trouble doing simple mathmatical word problems in high school becasue the anylitical processing in my brain was screwed up, but I could theraize the concept of quantum physics and time travel as possible and then proceed to explain how it was possible and make perfect sense.
      that's cool. i've always thought that some 'disorders' lead to improvements in other areas and your a classic example. it's quite prevalent in schizophrenia - often they are very talented in a certain area..think along the lines of 'a beautiful mind'. you should read 'the man who mistook his wife for a hat' by oliver sacks. its a bunch of short stories by oliver sacks who is a neurologist - gives accounts of different cases with his paitents.. one man could only see the world in abtract shapes (something along these lines anyhow) and because of this he mistook his wife for a hat.
      if i could not only understand but explain quantum physics and time travel i would so become some mad scientist and win a nobel prize. try it..worked for einstien. im sure he had some disorders. how can you be 'normal' and come up with what he did?! ..seriously..explain that to me?!

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