I tried out the transdermal G & A gel last night. It definitely produced moderately-strong, long-lasting effects, though I didn't get lucid. Here are the details:
I went to bed around 10:20 pm and slept until 3:00 am (i.e., slept for about 4:40 hrs). I then got up and applied the transdermal G & A gel to my wrists and ankles, after cleaning them with alcohol wipes to remove oils from my skin.
By the time I got back to bed, it was 3:15 am, and I was feeling moderately-strong effects from the G & A. The effects were strong enough that I couldn't get back to sleep. It seemed like each time I was just starting to drift off to sleep, my wife would move slightly or make a sound, which would wake me back up. To prevent any further disturbance of my sleep, I moved into the guest room around 3:45 am.
Once in the guest bedroom, I was able to get to sleep pretty quickly (probably after 15 or 20 min). After that, I got up a couple of times to pee and didn't have too much trouble getting back to sleep either time. Both times I woke up, I noticed I was still feeling the effects of the G & A at about the same moderately-strong level I felt around 3:15 am.
I definitely had a lot of dreams, but none of them were lucid and my recall isn't as good as I would have hoped for. In one dream, I remember looking at myself in the bathroom mirror in a small one-room apartment or hotel room. In another I was wandering around for a long time in a huge maze of hallways, with lots of doors and random objects and lots of other people also wandering around. I don't feel like any of the dreams I had were worth writing down in detail. I think I also had at least one dream in which I was in bed thinking I was trying to fall asleep, when I actually already was asleep (i.e., missed opportunities for INRALDs).
I got up at 8:20 am, still feeling about the same moderately-strong effects from the G & A. I took a shower around 8:30 am, being careful to wash off all the transdermal gel that remained on my wrists and ankles. However, I still felt some effects of the gel 2 hours later (i.e., around 10:30 am), at maybe half of the original level. It's now about 4 hours after I washed off the gel (i.e., 12:30 pm) and about 9.5 hours after I first put it on my skin. I think I can still feel some of the effects from the gel, but they're pretty weak.
In summary, I would say that the G & A gel definitely produced moderately-strong effects that seemed to last for at least 5 hours without weakening significantly, and probably would have lasted a few hours longer if I hadn't washed off the gel. I'm disappointed, however, that I didn't get lucid or at least have better dream recall. I'm also not sure how much the A contributed to the effects. When I tried the gel that just had G (specifically, GalantaMind) in it, I didn't have any issues at all with insomnia, so maybe that shows that the A added to the effects. OTOH, when I tried the G gel without A, I took it at bedtime, rather than after sleeping for a few hours, so that may have been responsible for the lack of insomnia in that case. Regarding the dose level of the G & A gel, I don't think I'd want to increase it, due to the mild insomnia I experienced with the dose level I used last night. Possibly if I added some T [i.e., theanine] into the mix, though, insomnia would be less of an issue. As for desensitization, washing off the gel didn't produce a very fast reduction in effects, but I think it produced a significant reduction, since the effects seemed to decrease to around half the original level 2 hours after washing it off.
As for what to try next, I'm still mulling that over. Maybe adding some T to the G & A gel would be worth a try. Or I could try it with an N patch. Eventually I'd like to try combining it with both T and an N patch.
Note added 03/08/2019: After further thought, I realized the dream about standing in front of the bathroom mirror was actually extremely interesting. So I added it to my non-lucid dream journal.
I
just now realized the other dream about wandering around in a labyrinthine building was probably related to the bathroom-mirror dream! So I'm also going to add that one to my non-lucid DJ.
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