Melatonin + Caffeine

[Xanous]

I am sure I am not the first to try this or post about it but I have had huge success the past week with melatonin and caffeine. I was wondering if anyone else had tried this combination and what they thought of it. My thing is that I noticed that unless I get to sleep in really late regularly; I tend sleep way too heavily. So, it became clear that if I found a way to sleep more lightly after a WBTB then it would help with lucidity. For a little more than a week I have at least some sort of lucid experience every night but for one or two nights. Some of those night I had two lucids. Some lucids were brief and mildly vivid but others where very long and as real as real life. The huge increase in frequency got me really excited and I found it hard to give it a rest when I knew I should. Anyway, what I started doing is taking 5MG Melatonin at bedtime 9-10PM then WBTB at 3:30AM and stay up reading past lucid dreams. I will do this maybe 5-30 mins and then just before bed I will already have some coffee prepared. I drink maybe 1-2 mouthfuls of cold coffee and then go to bed and do a little SSILD before I fall asleep. The first night I never went back to sleep because I took too much coffee. After that night I tried drinking a little less but if I found that I was still too awake I took an additional 2MG melatonin. Inspite of what they say about the suppression of REM in melatonin, I found that I was unaffected this way at this time of night. I eventually wore myself out with all the WBTBs and loss of sleep. Most of the time I would wake and 40-50min after the lucid dream and found it almost impossible to go back to sleep, partly due to excitement and partly due to the caffeine effect. I figure I was losing 1 - 1.5 hours of sleep each night but it was hard to stop. I am taking a break for now but plan to start it again this weekend. I need to work out a better way of measuring the coffee rather than just by mouthfuls and maybe adjust the WBTB a little later so there is less loss of sleep. Getting to bed earlier is an obvious fix but not as easy at it sounds. Also, this time I will be more careful not to do it every night. Anyway, I know some folks around here tend to look down on lucid aids and supplements. Perhaps there is a better audience here with some input and/or understanding of why this was so effective. I don't plan to rely on it 100% but I think it will be something that I will rotate around in my routine perhaps every few nights or so.

[MissGnomers]

Interesting...I drink a ton of coffee during the day and have been taking melatonin for months to help me sleep. I didn't realize it was supposed to be a REM supressant. I've noticed since I stated to take it that my dreams have become incredibly vivid and I've had a lot more dream recall than I used to in the past, and this was all BEFORE I found this site and started working on a dream journal and such. I'm actually only on my third day of trying out this LD stuff....Sorry, that probably wasn't very insightful, but I found your post intriguing.

[Xanous]

Nah that's cool. Thanks for the reply. I think the thought is that melatonin supposedly causes REM rebound and that's why you have better dreaming. Good luck in your efforts!

[novis]

I am sure I am not the first to try this or post about it but I have had huge success the past week with melatonin and caffeine. I was wondering if anyone else had tried this combination and what they thought of it. My thing is that I noticed that unless I get to sleep in really late regularly; I tend sleep way too heavily. So, it became clear that if I found a way to sleep more lightly after a WBTB then it would help with lucidity. For a little more than a week I have at least some sort of lucid experience every night but for one or two nights. Some of those night I had two lucids. Some lucids were brief and mildly vivid but others where very long and as real as real life. The huge increase in frequency got me really excited and I found it hard to give it a rest when I knew I should. Anyway, what I started doing is taking 5MG Melatonin at bedtime 9-10PM then WBTB at 3:30AM and stay up reading past lucid dreams. I will do this maybe 5-30 mins and then just before bed I will already have some coffee prepared. I drink maybe 1-2 mouthfuls of cold coffee and then go to bed and do a little SSILD before I fall asleep. The first night I never went back to sleep because I took too much coffee. After that night I tried drinking a little less but if I found that I was still too awake I took an additional 2MG melatonin. Inspite of what they say about the suppression of REM in melatonin, I found that I was unaffected this way at this time of night. I eventually wore myself out with all the WBTBs and loss of sleep. Most of the time I would wake and 40-50min after the lucid dream and found it almost impossible to go back to sleep, partly due to excitement and partly due to the caffeine effect. I figure I was losing 1 - 1.5 hours of sleep each night but it was hard to stop. I am taking a break for now but plan to start it again this weekend. I need to work out a better way of measuring the coffee rather than just by mouthfuls and maybe adjust the WBTB a little later so there is less loss of sleep. Getting to bed earlier is an obvious fix but not as easy at it sounds. Also, this time I will be more careful not to do it every night. Anyway, I know some folks around here tend to look down on lucid aids and supplements. Perhaps there is a better audience here with some input and/or understanding of why this was so effective. I don't plan to rely on it 100% but I think it will be something that I will rotate around in my routine perhaps every few nights or so. I find this thread very interesting. 6-7 years later, what happened?

[Xanous]

Whoa! Has it been so long!? I believe I have a huge caffeine thread somewhere in the research sub. I really haven't messed with aids much lately but I think the thing with a low dose of caffeine is that it made me slightly more wakeful thus allowing me to be more aware over all. I'm not sure the melatonin mattered as much

[novis]

Whoa! Has it been so long!? I believe I have a huge caffeine thread somewhere in the research sub. I really haven't messed with aids much lately but I think the thing with a low dose of caffeine is that it made me slightly more wakeful thus allowing me to be more aware over all. I'm not sure the melatonin mattered as much Ok. Maybe I'll try it.