Question before I start LDing

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02-14-2008, 04:17 AM
noturning

Question before I start LDing

Hi, you may have seen my other two posts in the lucid aids forums however it has been 2 weeks today and I still haven't received a response to my question so I've decided to make a new thread.

My question is:
I take melatonin every single night because I have insomnia. Is it dangerous for me to start attempting lucid dreams? I have only had two lucid dreams before that only lasted 30 seconds because I was too excited but those two were really just from realizing I was dreaming however I had read about lucid dreaming before those two.
I'm hoping to start attempting these lucid dreams seriously now, of course I'm going to take it easy with them. But I'm very concerned as to whether attempting lucid dreams whilst taking melatonin every single night could be dangerous. Also, does insomnia prevent lucid dreams?
Thanks, I'm really excited to start but I want to clear things up first.

So far I haven't tried to induce the dreams. The first one I just realized I was dreaming, the second was when a teacher was calling my name for the school role and I was screaming "here" and he couldn't hear me. Any help would be much appreciated, I've tried getting my dream recall up except that I am woken by an alarm every morning and I have to dive out of my bed towards the alarm to shut it off before it wakes anyone up and I read that moving kills recall.
02-14-2008, 04:22 AM
Jonathan

Well, if you build up your dream recall, intend to have lucid dreams, and do reality checks, you should have LDs without influencing your health. Or other methods, but i wouldn't suggest trying other/higher doses of drug supplements without speaking to your doctor.
02-14-2008, 04:27 AM
noturning

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jonathan

Well, if you build up your dream recall, intend to have lucid dreams, and do reality checks, you should have LDs without influencing your health. Or other methods, but i wouldn't suggest trying other/higher doses of drug supplements without speaking to your doctor.

I don't intend on trying higher doses, The recommendation on the bottle is 3-4 drops but I take 2-3 because they are prescription and tend to run out faster than they should. You mentioned "Or other methods" but I'm unsure of what you mean by those 3 words on their own, is it safe for me to attempt WILD's?
02-14-2008, 08:12 PM
NeAvO

Lucid dreaming isn't dangerous. The only difference between it and normals dreams is that you are aware of what is happening. You can continue to try and lucid dreaming. You have nothing to worry about! :)

Well insomnia will affect lucid dreaming while not sleeping :P As long as you get to sleep and have dreams, you can lucid!

Hope this helps!
02-14-2008, 09:47 PM
ThePhobiaViewed

Yep like NeAvO said, lucid dreaming isn't any more dangerous than normal dreaming.

Sometimes people experience scary situations with WILDs because doing so involves sleep paralysis, but it can't hurt you. The only way I could see it being dangerous was if you had a very weak heart but even then I'm not sure how risky it would be.

Using an alarm does usually kill recall if you have to dive at it. I don't even worry about remembering or writing down my dreams on school days because I hate mornings and don't have the drive then to do so, I just do it on weekends.
02-14-2008, 10:31 PM
Jonathan

Quote:

Originally Posted by noturning

I don't intend on trying higher doses, The recommendation on the bottle is 3-4 drops but I take 2-3 because they are prescription and tend to run out faster than they should. You mentioned "Or other methods" but I'm unsure of what you mean by those 3 words on their own, is it safe for me to attempt WILD's?

Well, I'm no doctor, but WILDs shouldn't be dangerous, no other methods, save anything having to do with supplements, could be possible harmful.

WILD, MILD, DILD, FILD, TILD, they're all good.
02-15-2008, 01:12 AM
Moonbeam

You shouldn't take melatonin every night, because you will cause your own body not to produce it anymore, and you will have worse insomnia than ever.

Melatonin is supposed to prevent you from dreaming. However, it quickly wears off, and some people find that their dreams are more vivid later in the night after taking it, due to rebound.
02-17-2008, 07:22 AM
noturning

Thanks for all the replies, I had a proper lucid dream last night which was the first one to last more than 30 seconds. It lasted about 7-8 minutes, I could fly for a little while however It was more like I could do insanely high and long jumps. I was semi-lucid for the second half and my "Jumping" ability decreased and I could no longer clear a creek that I had been jumping over. I'd go into further detail but this isn't a dream diary.

Regarding your comment on melatonin Moonbeam, I've been taking melatonin for 2+ years and haven't found my insomnia getting any worse, I only have insomnia because of a medication I am on so I don't know whether that is the reason that it hasn't got worse, though however has stayed constant. I'm not disagreeing at all with your statement however I did mention to my doctor about melatonin and she said it was very safe and the side affects were very minimal.

Also, you mentioned dreams to be more vivid later in the night. From my experiences I have found this to be correct however this could be because I tend to sleep almost all night and only have limited recall. I am only able to remember the last dream I had most of the time.
Today is Sunday so I won't be playing around with my dreams until next Friday.
02-17-2008, 08:45 AM
Jedi Jeff

Taking melatonin every single night will not cause your body to stop producing it.
I'm not going to flame anyone or go into any medical explanation concerning the bodies ability to produce melatonin. I will however say that the main side effect from taking melatonin long term is sleepiness, which goes away when you stop taking it. Other reversible side effects might include vivid dreaming. So this may enhance your dreaming experiences.
02-17-2008, 05:19 PM
Noobody

nice. i was a bit concerned about melatonin too, cause i take it in pill form, never noticed the enhanced vivid dream side effects though.
02-17-2008, 06:38 PM
Moonbeam

Good job on the lucid, Noturning.

Hormones, like other systems in the body, are self-regulating. Often when you take hormones, there is a negative feed-back effect to the organ that produces the hormone, causing it to produce less; for example, if you take testosterone, you produce less yourself, causing atrophy of the testicles. This is the same with melatonin. However, it may not be permanent (I really don't know if your pineal gland will atrophy); I was just saying that you might have worse insomnia for a while if you went off of the melatonin until your body started producing it again.
02-18-2008, 09:09 AM
noturning

Thanks for all the replies, everyones input is much appreciated.
On a rather different note, I am unsure of whether I had sleep paralysis or not this morning.
I was aware of sleep paralysis and how it works however last night someone told me it can kill you if you are narcoleptic. Because everything was relatively unknown to me and I was extremely scared about the hallucinations all night I was just worrying about them. I got sleep however I woke up every 2 hours or so (This also may be due to a cricket that was stuck in my wall that was making noise).

I woke up about half an hour earlier than I am used to and kind of just rested for a while, all the time worrying about sleep paralysis. I lightly slept in this half hour but probaly only for 10 minutes. In the last 10 minutes of laying there, shortly after I awoke from the short light sleep I kind of drifted of and I think I may have had sleep paralysis. The only problem is that I was very tired and I am unsure of whether I just dreamed it.

I will describe all I remember (The whole experience was rather...I cannot describe it however it all seemed to happen quickly)

I awoke from my sleep and lay on my bed on my side thinking about sleep paralysis. I then kind of drifted off and I am unsure of how I realized it but I believed that I was in SP. The whole thing kind of felt rather weird, like I just somehow knew that I was not in reality and I tried to move my fingers and felt a tiny small amount of movement. All I could see in my vision was the fan (Literally, the fan is basically right next to my face) and I did not think enough to try and move anything. About 10 seconds in the noise from the fan became very warped and different - kind of like the whole thing had slowed down and every sound from it was being emphasized - Like on the matrix how everything slows down. After about 6 seconds of this warped noise everything kind of "Whooshed" back to reality. During the ordeal I felt my eyes beginning to close however I opened them before they closed. I never actually opened my eyes back up after everything returned to normal. I am unsure of whether I closed my eyes and entered a dream however I know that at the end of the 15 seconds, there was no "waking up", just a big "Whoosh" back to normal.

Sorry for the long post, Hopefully someone will read it (I tend to skip over posts that are excessively long). To clarify, my question is "Did I actually experience SP or was it a dream?" The whole time I reminded myself to stay calm which might suggest that I was fully aware of everything.
Thanks:)
02-19-2008, 04:55 AM
Photolysis

Quote:

Is it dangerous for me to start attempting lucid dreams? I have only had two lucid dreams before that only lasted 30 seconds because I was too excited but those two were really just from realizing I was dreaming however I had read about lucid dreaming before those two.
I'm hoping to start attempting these lucid dreams seriously now, of course I'm going to take it easy with them. But I'm very concerned as to whether attempting lucid dreams whilst taking melatonin every single night could be dangerous. Also, does insomnia prevent lucid dreams?
Thanks, I'm really excited to start but I want to clear things up first.

Lucid dreaming is no more dangerous than normal dreaming to someone with a healthy mind. If a person becomes obsessed over dreams, and uses them to avoid dealing with reality, then there's a problem. For insomnia being treated with melatonin, there's no issue whatsoever.

Insomnia does not prevent lucid dreams, but it makes falling to sleep at regular/convenienent times difficult, and as such, you will find it harder to have them most likely.

Quote:

On a rather different note, I am unsure of whether I had sleep paralysis or not this morning.
I was aware of sleep paralysis and how it works however last night someone told me it can kill you if you are narcoleptic. Because everything was relatively unknown to me and I was extremely scared about the hallucinations all night I was just worrying about them. I got sleep however I woke up every 2 hours or so (This also may be due to a cricket that was stuck in my wall that was making noise).

Why would sleep paralysis kill? People experience it all the time, including those with narcolepsy. I suggest that you tell your friend to check the facts before they make unsubstantiated claims, especially those which needlessly worry others.

Sleep paralysis is scary the first time because it's so weird. When you're familiar with the sensation, you won't have any problems.