Thread: Alcohol as a Aid..?

As far as I know, alcohol suppresses REM. I haven't had any LD or couldn't even remember any of my dreams after drinking or going to a party.

alcohol give you rem-rebound, so if you plan your drinking you can take advantage of it, kind of.

Ahh.. that's interesting ^^

Oros is correct, REM rebound is the culprit. Melatonin works in exactly the same way, so you can just take that if you want to achieve the same results.

Yup, the REM rebound can be pretty heavy when you've had enough to drink. I often try to gauge how hungover I'm going to be by trying to recall any dreams. If I can't recall any, I'm probably going to be very hungover.

If you intend to use it, don't overdo it, but you can't drink just a little either. You'll have to try it out for yourself

If have actually tried it after a hard party. My dreams were so vivid and felt so long. It felt unreal to me :p Thanks for the answers, I appreciate it

I know it's been eons since people responded to this thread but I wanted to add some recent observations.
I have been drinking red wine instead of beer on the weekends. I don't usually drink through the week but do enjoy a glass or 7
when works out for the weekend :-). I have had multiple LD's since I started this alcohol change. and usually in the morning. I have always had vivid dreams the day after a good hangover but never controllable LD's. FYI the wine I drink is Yellowtail Cabernet Sauvignon. (All their reds are Vegan Friendly too)

beer always helps me with dreams. My best nights are when I've had at least 2 beers.

just my perspective, but I think it keeps me from too deep of a sleep, so you're less prone to just keep sleeping between REM

I also will wake early in the morning and can't sleep again after too much alcohol.

I have had incredible long and vivid dreams after beers before bed. More so than without to be honest.

I can also confirm that alcohol, in moderation, makes for more vivid dreams and more opportunities for lucidity. Part of it is certainly due to REM rebound from having really low quality sleep earlier in the night. I also think that any time you alter your brain chemistry, there's a very good chance that you'll experience vivid dreams.

Hm, just last night I had a short lucid dream and I had an alcoholic beverage (pretty low alcohol content) shortly before bed.

Originally Posted by insideout

Hm, just last night I had a short lucid dream and I had an alcoholic beverage (pretty low alcohol content) shortly before bed.

Insideout

Was the alcohol "beer"?

Hops is a plant. The dried, flowering part of the plant is used to make medicine.Hops is used for:

anxiety,
inabilityto*sleep*(insomnia)
and other sleep disorders,

restlessness,
tension,
excitability,
attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD),

nervousness,
and irritability.

It is also used to

improve appetite,
increase urine flow,
start the flow of*breast*milk,
as a bitter tonic,
and for indigestion.

Other uses include

prostate cancer,*
breast cancer,
ovarian cancer,*
high cholesterol,
tuberculosis,*
bladder infections,
intestinal*cramps,
an intestinal disorder called mucous*colitis,
nerve pain,
and prolonged painful erection of the*penis*(priapism).

Hops is sometimes applied to theskin*for leg ulcers and as an antibacterial agent.

In foods and beverages, the extracts and oil are used as flavor components.

Hops are also used in brewing beer.

In manufacturing, the extract is used in skin creams and lotions.

How does it work?

The chemicals in hops seem to have weak*estrogen*effects.

The Dr said that it was unlikely that his 80+ year old friend and patient would become an alcoholic.

In the 80s a friend moved in with an 80+ year old lady because the family didn't was gran to live alone.

My friend told the the family that nana was drinking every night. They explained that the Dr prescribed a stubbie (small bottle) of beer before bed because nana had insomnia. The Dr didn’t want to shovel sleeping pills down his old friend (and patients throte.

A small bottle of beer before bed and she slept like a baby all night.

Originally Posted by Alyzarin

Oros is correct, REM rebound is the culprit. Melatonin works in exactly the same way, so you can just take that if you want to achieve the same results.

I tried B6/Melatonin for the first time last night and it was pretty effective. It was like drinking a pot of coffee without the physical effects (nervous legs etc). My brain was racing. Tons of dreaming.

Recall was better as well when I remember to journal it.

Much better option than drinking alcohol before bed.

It was a pretty dramatic effect. After 3 hours, I felt both unable to sleep and very tired. I eventually slept, it was a bizarre feeling of being on caffeine and being tired.

I took 100MG of B6 and 3 mg of Melatonin.

Also, I noticed what someone had mentioned that dreams are a bit more violent or more aggressive with these supplements, that seemed to be the case.

Not sure if the suggestion made it so or if it is an effect.

Drinking a glass of beer before you go to bed is a great way to get a break from lucid dreaming if you are haunted by lucid dreaming like me.

Overall it's great to have lucid dreams each night. But sometimes, lucid dreams (especially lucid nightmares) confuse and scare me a lot. Alcohol helps with lucid dreaming but it does not help with remembering those dreams.

So if you are suffering from lucid dreaming, this is one way to deal with it (not a very healthy one, though).. but if you want to enjoy your lucid dreams, I would not recommend alcohol at all.

Alcohol is not always reliable, and I certainly wouldn't recommend it to someone who isn't inclined to drink anyway, but I have often experienced rich and vivid dreams or successful LD attempts after drinking heavily, which I also attributed to the REM rebound effect.

If I fall asleep while still under the effects of alcohol I will sleep very deeply and dreamlessly for a few hours, then wake up in the middle of the night extremely thirsty. At that point I start doing what I call "water-cycling." I will drink a lot of water, and that of course wakes me up an hour or so later to use the bathroom, during which point I drink more water, and the cycle repeats for the rest of the night. This not only does a great job of preventing or minimizing hangovers (because you are fully rehydrated by morning!), but it can also lead to plentiful and vivid dreams: the more I wake up during the night, the more chances I have to remember my dreams or even decide to stay up longer for an organized WBTB lucid attempt.

Again, though, I would never recommend this to someone who is not already an experienced drinker and knows their limits, or you'll just make yourself sick and have a terrible night's sleep. I drink moderately every day with dinner, usually wine, so my body is habituated to it, and the effects tend to wear off before bedtime. The only times I've experienced the REM rebound effect are when I overdo it a bit and keep drinking later into the night.

Since Im all new at the forums, I'll introduce myself.
My name is Marcus and Im from Sweden, Im 19 years old, currently studying as a senior game programming and recently (last year or the one before that) found interest in lucid dreaming.
I still haven't managed (I never put much effort into it up until now) to induce lucid dreams. So I'm practicing dream recall by waking out of dreams with alarm to help recall my dreams and write them down as soon as I wake up.

Last night I took a break from my dream recall practice and was drinking my own homemade red-wine and got mildly intoxicated before I decided to sleep.
I went to bed according to my normal sleep schedule of around 1:10, and I woke up at 6:16 like I have for the past few days, however, that has been with an alarm. I did not have any alarm on this morning and just naturally woke up at that time. I could remember the dream very vivid when I woke up, I even remembered an image/ piece of art from the dream, which is also odd since I usually have problem recalling actual visual elements from dreams; art, numbers, those sort of things.
This dream was very clear on those notes however. I'm not sure if it has anything to do with alcohol or if it was just sheer luck, but its an interesting subject and worth experimenting with again.

Yes, I'm also using alcohol among other things to give me REM rebound after wbtb and increase the chance of becoming lucid a bit.