Why do supplements boost dreaming recall, vividness, lucidity? Is it just WBTB in the end?

[FryingMan]

I've started wondering just what it is in all the myriad supplements that actually leads to increased recall, vividness, and lucidity. There is the whole science of neurotransmitters, etc around galantamine, for example. But I've noticed a very clear pattern emerge over my supplement experiences of of the last month: almost anything that "works" (resulted in improved recall/vividness or lucidity) tends to leave me alert/wake for long periods in the night. Increased brain activity is most certainly the reason for this I presume. Is increased brain activity the cause of the recall/vividness, then? And supplements just a path to this wakefulness/brain stimulation? If increased brain activity (lighter sleep?) is the actual recall/vividness enhancer, why not just WBTB? I find that the supplements leave me wakeful, why not just do the wakefulness part without the supplements? In fact I'm really starting to believe that middle of the night wakefulness is all it takes to result in great recall and vivid dreams. One theory I'm developing is that all dreams are experienced vividly. Many times I will have the feeling that a dream was long and detailed and vivid, but I don't have a vivid memory of the dream itself. This has happened time and time again, and is a pattern I have noticed over the months. Maybe some supplements suppress the natural dream amnesia that causes us to forget dreams? So our naturally vividly experienced dream translates into the actual recall of that dream. That's one likely explanation other than just promoting lighter sleep. In my first 3-4 months of LD practice I had a great many long, vivid dreams. During this time I was very wakeful during the night, waking 2-4 times almost every single night to recall and record dreams. I took no supplements during this time at all. I also had increasing lucidity frequency. In the last 4-5 months of LD practice, my self-awareness has been higher due to daytime practice, but my dry spells much longer and vivid/long dream recall much less frequent than in the beginning. During this time I have been wakeful during the middle of the night much less frequently, and have been sleeping more deeply. I have let up on the intention to wake after every dream (because I was feeling a bit tired of being awake in the middle of the night). I think this is no coincidence. So looking back at the last 3/4 of a year, more night-time wakefulness correlated with longer, more vivid dreams, and less night-time wakefulness correlated with much fewer vivid/long dreams. On those occasions where I took supplements hoping to boost recall where some effect was noticeable (most of the time I found no effect), there *always* was an increase in wakefulness, usually for several hours, before falling asleep again into long/vivid/lucid dreams. I've frankly not put much effort into WBTB due to my slow-to-sleep issues....but maybe WBTB and yes, being awake during the night, even briefly in between waking from dreams, is really the key to the recall/vividness and lucidity? And maintaining that excitement to wake up from dreams and recall them.