Thread: Can't remember my dreams

What I would do if I was you would be to get off the melitonin. Try to sleep with out it the best you can,train yourself so you don't need it. I would also suggest meditation before bed it really helps me fall asleep and it gives me lots of dreams(a lot of lucids)

Thanks for the advice. I think I am going to stop taking the melitonin, but I could use some advice on meditation. Im going to study into meditation and I would apreciate any advice you have to give on that as well.

First off, if you are really and truly looking to lucid dream, I suggest not using any sleep aids or supplements. I found from experience that most sleep aids inhibit dream recall for a variety of reasons. As you mentioned, its very possible that the melatonin is helping you enter a deeper sleep and that your body is too relaxed upon waking up to remember, however let me explain exactly what melatonin does to the body.

Evolutionarily, it would be a huge deficit for any animal to mistake a hallucination or a specifically vivid memory with reality. Therefore, during "waking hours" (and there is evidence to suggest that this relies on sun exposure as well as natural circadian rhythms), your body produces a chemical called serotonin which inhibits the neurochemicals that produce vivid visuals (the most common one referred to is dimethyltryptamine, otherwise known as DMT). Basically, your body prevents these chemicals from binding so that the visuals you do have are always "less real" than external stimuli. However, when "sleeping hours" begin, your body begins a natural production of melatonin, which in a nutshell inhibits serotonin from inhibiting the visualization and hallucination chemicals, thus allowing you to have closed eye visuals.

Yes, melatonin is a great sleep aid, however, there are a few things to consider. Firstly, your body will become accustomed to this outside source of melatonin and will eventually slow down the production of its own natural melatonin. Secondly, the outside input of melatonin does not match your body's natural seratonin levels, and may inhibit more seratonin than it should. Seratonin, being the "awake" chemical, overly inhibited will reduce the lucidity of your dreams. Its not that you are not dreaming. Its that you are dazed and confused in your dreams.

I smoked marijuana before going to sleep for the longest time, it also exponentially increases melatonin production, and for the longest time I could not recall my dreams. I mention this, however, because eventually your body will match in the input of melatonin and produce the right amount of seratonin to counteract it. So, basically, you have two options. Drop the melatonin intake, and wait for your body's chemicals to balance out. Or, if you really have troubles falling asleep, keep the same amount of intake until your body, once again, adjusts. This may take weeks, and will require you to keep a strict regiment of intake. If you don't take it one night, it will throw your body's chemicals for a loop again. If you change the hour of ingestion, you will only confuse your body's natural rhythms of production.

As for meditation, regardless of your decision, it can only help. Just take 20 minutes out of your day, sit or lay down, and focus on your breathing. Imagine the air going into your lungs with the breath in, and imagine the air flowing out on the breath out. Best of luck!

Originally Posted by Ciej

First off, if you are really and truly looking to lucid dream, I suggest not using any sleep aids or supplements. I found from experience that most sleep aids inhibit dream recall for a variety of reasons. As you mentioned, its very possible that the melatonin is helping you enter a deeper sleep and that your body is too relaxed upon waking up to remember, however let me explain exactly what melatonin does to the body.

Evolutionarily, it would be a huge deficit for any animal to mistake a hallucination or a specifically vivid memory with reality. Therefore, during "waking hours" (and there is evidence to suggest that this relies on sun exposure as well as natural circadian rhythms), your body produces a chemical called serotonin which inhibits the neurochemicals that produce vivid visuals (the most common one referred to is dimethyltryptamine, otherwise known as DMT). Basically, your body prevents these chemicals from binding so that the visuals you do have are always "less real" than external stimuli. However, when "sleeping hours" begin, your body begins a natural production of melatonin, which in a nutshell inhibits serotonin from inhibiting the visualization and hallucination chemicals, thus allowing you to have closed eye visuals.

Yes, melatonin is a great sleep aid, however, there are a few things to consider. Firstly, your body will become accustomed to this outside source of melatonin and will eventually slow down the production of its own natural melatonin. Secondly, the outside input of melatonin does not match your body's natural seratonin levels, and may inhibit more seratonin than it should. Seratonin, being the "awake" chemical, overly inhibited will reduce the lucidity of your dreams. Its not that you are not dreaming. Its that you are dazed and confused in your dreams.

I smoked marijuana before going to sleep for the longest time, it also exponentially increases melatonin production, and for the longest time I could not recall my dreams. I mention this, however, because eventually your body will match in the input of melatonin and produce the right amount of seratonin to counteract it. So, basically, you have two options. Drop the melatonin intake, and wait for your body's chemicals to balance out. Or, if you really have troubles falling asleep, keep the same amount of intake until your body, once again, adjusts. This may take weeks, and will require you to keep a strict regiment of intake. If you don't take it one night, it will throw your body's chemicals for a loop again. If you change the hour of ingestion, you will only confuse your body's natural rhythms of production.

As for meditation, regardless of your decision, it can only help. Just take 20 minutes out of your day, sit or lay down, and focus on your breathing. Imagine the air going into your lungs with the breath in, and imagine the air flowing out on the breath out. Best of luck!

But clej how can you not suggest any lucid aids? What about the natural ones like mangoes,bananas or apples that contain B6? There are so many more natural lucid aids, I agree with the fact that using drugs to help lucid dreaming can slow you down, I don't think so if you get them naturally.

Originally Posted by stonedreams

But clej how can you not suggest any lucid aids? What about the natural ones like mangoes,bananas or apples that contain B6? There are so many more natural lucid aids, I agree with the fact that using drugs to help lucid dreaming can slow you down, I don't think so if you get them naturally.

Well, for me, there's a big difference between lucid aids that act as vitamins in enhancing dreaming, and ones that replace key neurochemicals entirely. Let me explain exactly what B6 does in relation to dreams:

Vitamin B6 is necessary in a process which converts an amino acid called tryptophan into serotonin over a large period of time. Serotonin, as mentioned, is the "wake-up" neurochemical, and a steady supply of it from your body digesting Vitamin B6 will let your brain "wake up" more easily during REM sleep and better process what it is seeing. Compare this to melatonin, generally prescribed as a sleep aid rather than an aid for lucid dreaming and clarity, because it will inhibit the wake-up chemical.

But also consider the difference in the intake method. When you take a dose of melatonin, you suddenly and drastically increase the level of the neurochemical, and your body reacts by fluctuating to try to adapt. When you take a dose of B6, let alone the trace amounts found naturally occurring in the fruits you mentioned, you empower your body to make its own production. Its the difference between emptying a can of gasoline over an open fire, and giving your body plenty of wood to burn in case it is required.

Originally Posted by Ciej

Well, for me, there's a big difference between lucid aids that act as vitamins in enhancing dreaming, and ones that replace key neurochemicals entirely. Let me explain exactly what B6 does in relation to dreams:

Vitamin B6 is necessary in a process which converts an amino acid called tryptophan into serotonin over a large period of time. Serotonin, as mentioned, is the "wake-up" neurochemical, and a steady supply of it from your body digesting Vitamin B6 will let your brain "wake up" more easily during REM sleep and better process what it is seeing. Compare this to melatonin, generally prescribed as a sleep aid rather than an aid for lucid dreaming and clarity, because it will inhibit the wake-up chemical.

But also consider the difference in the intake method. When you take a dose of melatonin, you suddenly and drastically increase the level of the neurochemical, and your body reacts by fluctuating to try to adapt. When you take a dose of B6, let alone the trace amounts found naturally occurring in the fruits you mentioned, you empower your body to make its own production. Its the difference between emptying a can of gasoline over an open fire, and giving your body plenty of wood to burn in case it is required.

I can agree with on that. Very well put, you must be a author of sorts. Am i correct?

Originally Posted by stonedreams

I can agree with on that. Very well put, you must be a author of sorts. Am i correct?

Yes, I'm a student of psychology and of the humanities, and an aspiring author. And thank you, I'm just trying my best to help

Thanks for all your help on everything. Last night I had my very first lucid dream and it was amazing. Many things were really insane and illogical, but I was able to keep my dreams stable for a really long time. I figured out what I done to enter into my first lucid dream, and as soon as I woke up from it I tried the exact same methods and it worked. I have learned meditation and I use it almost on a daily basis now. It has helped tremendously. I had about 3 lucid dreams last night, and I remember almost everything that happened in them. It was so crazy cause every time I looked at words, I would double take quickly at them just to watch them change. I jumped scenarios probably 12 times and it was hard to keep up with everything that was going on around me. I just kept having to remember that I was in charge and that I controlled what was going on. There was one point I was in a house with a huge selection of pictures hanging on the walls. As I passed them they changed to something or someone else. They changed into people I didn't even know, but I knew that I had probably seen them somewhere before in my life. But once again thanks for the advice and thanks to everyone on Dreamviews for being so great to me.