Mary Jane and Lucidity

[Anorak]

Anyone have any experiences with marijuana and lucid dreaming? Have you noticed that it helps or hinders recall?

[Taosaur]

The consensus is that regular smoking torpedoes recall, though you'll certainly find accounts of dreams and LDs experienced 'under the influence.' If you search the forums for "marijuana and dream recall" or "cannabis and dream recall," you'll find numerous threads. EDIT: Oh, and hi Welcome to DV.

[FatBox]

Being a pot smoker myself I find I recall my dreams MUCH better when I don't smoke for a couple days.

[nwofoxhound]

^ I am with fatbox on this one! While I am currently trying to quit, I used to be an avid pothead - as in smoke at least once a day for the last 3 yrs of my life. Now, throughout those three years, I learned one thing VERY early in my endeavors. I learned to NOT smoke right before sleeping or at any point in time in which I could potentially fall asleep under the influence. Why you may ask? Well, while I do understand everyone is different, I feel that pot has negative effects on the quality of your sleep and also the ability to remember dreams. Whenever I would smoke and still be under the influence while asleep, I could NEVER remember dreams the next day and there were 0 exceptions. I mean, I couldnt remember anything... I think THC put me in such a deep state of sleep that I am not even sure I was still having dreams. To top this all off, I would wake up extremely drowsy and fatigued - very much like the feeling you get from oversleeping. Anyways, I hope that you take my advice with a grain of salt and understand where I am coming from and I hope it helps

[Zannak]

When I was a regular smoker, dream recall was a struggle, with lots of dedication I eventually was able to remember dreams on a daily basis, but smoking before bed always made it worse. And as FatBox said, quitting for a few days would always result in increase in dream recall. I am not a regular smoker anymore and I never have trouble with my dream recall, BUT, when the rare occasion that I do smoke comes around my dreams are super vivid and remember them very thoroughly!!

[Rathez]

Marijuana will literally eliminate any chance to lucid dream, excluding the occasional fluke. After 2 hours of smoking marijuana, melatonin levels rise 4000% percent (or something like that, I read a study on it) which is why you are so tired on the come down. Melatonin induces deep sleep, and inhibits REM sleep. This is also why when you wake up after smoking before bed, you usually feeling groggy and tired, as you are most likely in a deep sleep stage. Marijuana also messes with your short term memory. If you manage to do lucid dream, there's a solid chance you won't even remember it, or it will seem like nothing after a day. Overall, marijuana severely hinders your ability to dream at all. And I'm not some anti-pot person; I'm torn that the 2 don't compliment each other.

[Fugue]

I'd have to agree with the consensus. I'd really love for weed to help lucid dreaming--mostly because you would think that it just naturally would--but it really doesn't. I won't totally knock it though, simply because while there certainly are concrete statistics about certain things, a lot of aspects of weed depend entirely on the strain you're smoking and the person you are. It also definitely depends on, like everyone's saying, how often you smoke and definitely how MUCH you've smoked. I'm actually inclined to say, through personal experience, that a slight amount of weed isn't necessarily super detrimental, but if you really hammer it hard then there's no fucking way you'll remember anything, much less get lucid.

[Anorak]

The general consensus makes sense. Falling asleep stoned is kind of difficult for me anyways, because my mind wanders like no other. I will try to separate my day-dreaming (smoking) and lucid dreaming efforts by not smoking right before bed.

[Tehbeetus]

Does it really help recall?

[Anorak]

Haha, every post has said it doesn't help recall.