My first (bizarre) experience with Galantamine

**sharpskier** · 03-27-2012 12:47 AM

I tried galantamine last night for the first time and wanted to share my experience in order to 1) give others who are interested in it a first hand account, 2) see if anyone else has had similar experiences, and 3) see if anyone has any tips for me.

I've naturally had LDs since a kid, though they're less frequent now. I'm fairly new to conscious LD induction, doing reality checks during the day and trying MILD/WILD/WBTB when I have the motivation. Last night I took galantamine for the first time and this was my experience:

Took an ambien at about 9pm (not related to the LD attempt). Fell asleep easily at about 9:45 and had some standard dreams. Woke up to my alarm at 2:30am for a WBTB, immediately took a capsule of Lucid Dreamer from dreamamins.com, which is 4mg galantamine, 200mg choline. I walked around my apartment and little and got back in bed and turned the lights out about 20 minutes after my alarm went off. I laid on my back and attempted a WILD, but my heart was pounding and I could not relax/calm down no matter what. I don't know if there was a physical stimulation from the pill, or if i was just excited/anxious/nervous about the experience I wanted to have. I think it was more the latter, but either way after about 30 minutes I was as wired as I could possibly be, so I turned on my side and tried to just fall asleep naturally without an WILD/MILD attempts. No luck. Back on my back, no luck, turned on my other side.

About 90 minutes after waking up, I finally drifted off into a normal sleep and had an extremely realistic and vivid dream. The level of detail I can recall from this dream was astounding. I have pretty good dream recall (often 2-3 dreams/night in decent detail), but this was a whole new level. I can playback almost the entire dream and recall very minute details throughout the dream. This is not normal for me.

Then things got weird.

I woke up from that dream into a semi-conscious state, which is normal. I turned on my back and started drifting back off to sleep but the sensation was unlike anything I've ever experienced. It was like I could feel myself falling asleep but I wasn't looking my mental awareness. I could start to barely feel the twinges of instant WILD lucidity coming on, and then.....the only way I can describe it is that my eyes and ears felt like they were short circuiting. Out of nowhere, this very intense, high pitching WOMP WOMP WOMP screeching sound exploded in my ears and bright, white lights like firework orbs started exploding in my field of vision. It startled the hell out of me and i initially began to lose lucidity because I was a little rattled, but then I remembered I had read something similar online about this and that it was "normal", so I began to drift back towards lucidity. I could feel myself falling directly into a LD and it was like all I had to do was push through this bizarre sound/sight barrier and I would be fully lucid. But then this realization got me really excited, and I fully woke up. My heart was pounding and I couldn't fall back asleep again until my alarm went off at 5:30.

So has anyone had similar experience on galantamine? Particularly with the strange noises/sights right as you're crossing over into the dream world? Any advice on how to break through this barrier into full lucidity? Any advice on falling back asleep after taking galantamine during a WBTB?

Thanks, any sort of feedback would be awesome.

**OpheliaBlue** · 03-27-2012 01:53 AM

WOW, what an incredible experience! I've never taken galantamine, or anything with galantamine in it, but your post certainly perked my interest. I did have a WILD onset once where I had a short-circuit sound in my ears just before the LD, but I hadn't taken any supplements.

Do you think your heart pounding was from the galantamine or a combination of that and the ambien?

**azalea** · 07-02-2012 04:07 AM

I took galantamine for the first time this week and had a similar experience with my heart beating fast and feeling wired though I tend to be kind of over excitable by nature. I was very nervous to take it after reading about the likelyhood of sleep paralysis and the strange and sometimes scary experiences so I decided to take it once in the day to see how it felt. I took it at about 6 pm, about 6 hours before I was going to go to bed. Was more thoughtful during the day and had a very hard time falling asleep at midnight. Once I did fall asleep I kept on waking up. I remember some strange visual and morbid images but no sounds or lights. Last night I woke up after 4 hours of sleep and took a 4mg pill. I was excited about it and felt wired but this was after about 15 minutes so I know it wasn't the pill. I fell asleep pretty easily and had two very long and vivid dreams that I remebered very well. The detail I remembered was much more than usual and the dreams had some imagery that is unusual for me like demon headed women, but overall the dreams were fun. No lucidety but I haven't been doing any LD prep work or reality checks. I plan on doing my LD homework and trying again next weekend. I'm not scared anymore and excited to experience more.

**Matte87** · 07-02-2012 07:43 PM

Sounds like some heavy SP, and you do end up in SP easier when you've taken G+C, however, falling asleep can be a real problem. That's why I always take some L-Theanine which will help you go back to sleep. I've also never tried Ambien with G+C and I don't think you should try that again, who knows, might be why you experienced the things you did.

One last tip for next time, make sure that you take the pill and go to bed right away. Don't stay up, it can be real hard to fall asleep even after taking a pill and trying right away.

Oh, and don't take it more than every three days. It takes that long for it to leave your system and to make sure you get the full benefits from it you shouldn't take it too often.

**melanieb** · 07-07-2012 07:55 AM

Moved to Lucid Aids

**n00bf0rlyf3** · 07-08-2012 04:53 AM

"high pitching WOMP WOMP WOMP" same thing happened to me when I just woke up on my back once, it sounded like dubstep, but a cool dubstep wah wah wah.

**madvorak** · 07-09-2012 01:07 PM

Welcome to DV!

I have tried galantamine 5 times so far. I had quite intense HH every time. I had no problem with pounding heart. However I don't take ambien. This could cause the problem maybe. Do you take ambien every night? Did you doctor tell you to do that? I don't know if it is good to combine it with galantamine. If you need a sleep pill and want to have LDs, melatonin will be the best option IMO.

About my experience with galantamine... I had problems with falling asleep. I used to stay awake for about 3 hours and then I was about to fall asleep. I heard the typical "hum" when I was starting to drift to sleep. It always distracted me. After it repeated many times, I was starting to get used to it and could stay in the state of mind needed to drift to sleep. Then the sound became louder and I "jumped" into intense HH suddenly. It happened to me many times. However I used to wake up after about half minute.

Last week I attempted LD with galantamine for the 5th time. I took B-complex forte in the morning and 100 mg 5-HTP before bed. I woke up naturally after 3 to 3.5 hours of sleep, before my alarm rang. I took 4 mg Galantamine with 200 mg Choline. I got HH very fast, within 40 minutes. I didn't finish WILD. Then I got HH again and I woke up again. Then I fell asleep normally. I had a great DILD. The acetylcholine level was at its peak I guess. I didn't have very good control, but the LD was great otherwise. It was about 15 minutes long, my longest LD so far. The whole dream had awesome atmosphere.

Some people need to take galantamine several times before they get used to its effects and are able to fall asleep with it. I had the problems. However, my last experience was awesome. I will take the supplement combo again tonight. I look forward to it very much.