Lucid aids: thinking outside the pill
Forewarning: I'm not completely against using lucid aids in pill form. I understand that people use them, but on a personal level, I try to find out what naturally occurring plant or animal it's found in. The main reason is because I believe that ingesting vitamins and other minerals are better ingested, and not wasted as much as it's laboratory brethren.
I'm going to name some of the more common lucid aids that people rely on, and where to find them naturally.
Melatonin
We all know what it does, but it's illegal in some countries. (not the USA, because the FDA...well an entirely different subject) There are ways to boost melatonin levels, and this includes the consumption of Orange Juice, Pineapple Juice, and bananas. These items stimulate the pineal gland to more melatonin, or they contain it. Amounts in blood serum increased in little as 2hours.
Choline
Eggs are the bomb...not only do they contain a good source of choline and protein, they're a good source of tryptophan. I mentioned protein because some of these vitamins and minerals need protein to be digested. As for you vegetarians and vegans, you'll have to settle for spinach and cauliflower.
Vitamin B6
I think people take waaaay too much of this stuff, and I know what you're going to say (mainly to the people living in the US), but listen: 100mg is the upper limits to take for that...in the US. In Japan, it's half that. Again, I'm not saying that the FDA is garbage, but it's garbage. I mean, we only need about 1.4mg of the stuff, and that can be found in red peppers, garlic, basil and parsley. My advice would be to just sprinkle a little garlic powder in whatever you're cooking from time to time and you'll be okay.
Tryptophan
Turkey, peanuts, liver....which brings us to....
Apple Juice It's been talked about, and honestly I'm not sure why people are getting lucid off of it. A regular apple has 1.3 mg of Tryptophan, which is horribly low (at least compared to at least 200 other foods that contain more) and that gets vaporized when it's turned into juice. It also has B5 and B6, but both are very negligible. If anyone has any proof, as far as what it contains that may help, be my guest to inform me with sources of course.
Update provided by CanisLucidus:
Quote:
Apple juice has lots of sugar which will induce a spike in insulin. Insulin transports branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) into the muscles of your body. That's step 1.
Step 2 is a transport protein called CD98. It's responsible for transporting BCAAs, tyrosine, and tryptophan. With fewer BCAAs competing for CD98, more tryptophan gets carried to the brain, where it can be converted to serotonin.
There are more lucid aids that people rely on but I think this is a good base template to see if this helps anyone in the dreaming department. I'll probably end up increasing the list size over time depending on feedback, and results from the community. Either way 'hope this helps'.
