CBTB - Coffee Back to Bed

**ChrisDeemian** · 03-25-2013 05:53 PM

Hey Guys,

Been a while since I posted. I see a recurring trend in my LD focus, it's apprears to be cyclical... I was just wondering if any of you have tried drinking coffee during a WBTB?

Coffee has a very "relax moment" in my mind. I tend only to drink it while traveling or sitting in the sun on a sunday morning. Thing is that since my last travel I've begun to like it more and more. Then I read about the theory of using caffeine to nudge the brain a bit. Half of the interwebs seems to find LDs and Caffeine a no go, while others seem to recommend it.

None of the posts I've read back their claims upwith science or personal experience but rather an "obviously this is the case" from a writer that is probably more into the idea of LDing than actually managing to do it.

Concretely:

I want to try doing WBTB's before the last 2 hours of sleeping, and having a bit of a zen midnight coffee moment. What would be your take on that?

Cheers from the NL,

**Jayme** · 03-26-2013 03:25 PM

A few months ago I was struggling to stay awake after school and do my homework. The only way I could keep myself up, was to have coffee.

Sometimes I'd have 3 cups after 8pm. One time I remember going downstairs after waking up and having a cup of coffee. I couldn't get back to sleep. This also killed my dream recall because I wasn't sleeping very well at all. Coffee can relax you, but I'm not entirely sure if waking up and drinking it then going back to sleep will help you out.

Think about it. When people wake up to get up and start their day, they'll have a cup of coffee. Why? To wake themselves up. It doesn't seem like it would be a useful lucid aid.

**snoop** · 03-26-2013 04:08 PM

I think drinking half of a mixed berry "focus" amp (the blue one) would probably be better for this situation. It has both Caffeine, B Vitamins, Choline, and L-Theanine. Without taking something like galantamine or huperzine a, the choline is kind of useless, but the L-Theanine helps from getting too stimulated from it. It would probably make it easier to get back to sleep, I'd say drink like half of it. I've heard many reports from people that caffeine is an excellent lucid aid, the only downside to it is being unable to fall back asleep after having some.

**ChrisDeemian** · 03-26-2013 04:11 PM

Originally Posted by Jayme

Think about it. When people wake up to get up and start their day, they'll have a cup of coffee. Why? To wake themselves up. It doesn't seem like it would be a useful lucid aid.

That's what I'm wondering about. What you describe is having coffee before the NREM phases. Caffeine has a half life of 5 hours in the blood meaning it can take 10-24 hours to be removed from the body. I don't drink coffee before bed, it doesn't work out as you describe.

The idea is that caffeine stimulates the mind, while the body is sleeping. Also caffeine increases dopamine efficiency which could aid in dream bizzarity (the mechanism behind a lot of "dream herbs") making dream sign recognition easier...

**Jayme** · 03-26-2013 05:01 PM

Hm. I think perhaps trying out some pure caffeine pills for this would be better.

**~~Alyzarin~~** · 03-26-2013 05:06 PM

There's a thread in Research going on about this right now.

Check it out!

http://www.dreamviews.com/research/1...e-trigger.html

**snoop** · 03-26-2013 05:17 PM

Well the reason caffeine is a good lucid aid despite it's negative effects in keeping you awake can be attributed to this:

Originally Posted by Wikipedia

Consumption of caffeine antagonizes adenosine and increases activity in neurotransmission including acetylcholine, epinephrine, dopamine, serotonin, glutamate, norepinephrine, cortisol, and in higher doses, endorphins which explains the analgesic effect to some users.

Assuming you can get back to sleep, said neurotransmitters would increase cognitive functioning during a dream. This means you're more likely to realize that you are dreaming, you will have better short term memory while dreaming, and you will be able to follow strains of logic more easily and clearly. It would probably make dreams more vivid as well.