Wormwood Thread (New '22)

[Hilary]

Inspired by the recent post in the old thread, I thought it would be a good idea to start a new one and discuss the herb Wormwood. Here is the last post in the old thread: Really appreciate this detailed feedback about your success! Wormwood is a fascinating herb :-) Sorry to resurrect a two-year-old thread, but the first post in this thread was the one that made me try wormwood for WBTB, so it made sense to follow up here. Using wormwood has brought me lucid dreams three times out of three attempts so far. The first time I took wormwood for WBTB was about 2 weeks ago. I took one capsule of Oregon's Wild Harvest organic Wormwood, which contains 280 mg of wormwood herb aerial parts. I had a very brief lucid dream, but woke up almost immediately with my heart pounding. I made a note to try again with a much lower dosage. The recommended dosage on the bottle is 3 capsules (780 mg), which might be necessary for expelling intestinal worms, but the pounding heart tells me even one capsule is too much, at least for me. The second time I tried wormwood for WBTB was about a week ago. I opened the capsule over my mouth and took the minimum amount I could get out. Even though it's bitter, I held it in my mouth for a while for sublingual absorption. It wasn't easy to get back to sleep, but when I did, I went right into a lucid dream, which lasted longer than the first, but was still fairly brief. No pounding heart on awakening this time. The third time I tried wormwood for WBTB was last night. I tried the same minimal dose of wormwood, but this time I added a tiny amount (< 1mg) of 5-HTP to help with getting back to sleep quickly. This time I hit the jackpot, with at least 5 distinct lucid dreams interrupted by short periods of nearly waking up but directing attention to bringing the dream back, which worked several times in a row. I think the 5-HTP helped with staying asleep. I am strongly affected by 5-HTP, melatonin and just about everything else, so I only take tiny amounts, but someone who needs more will probably do better with more. I believe there are two factors that helped me to bring the success rate of wormwood up this high. One is that I don't set an alarm to do WBTB, I wait for a night when I naturally wake up too early and take advantage of the fact that it's 2 or 3 am instead of worrying about it. The other is that try not to use any particular dream-aid supplement more than once a week. I've never found a supplement that worked its best two nights in a row, and most things that work well work better the longer I wait to try them again. A week is usually sufficient. The intensity of the onset of my dreaming on wormwood calls immediate attention to it. The whole scene appears out of nowhere with no subtlety and I immediately suspect I'm dreaming. That is usually easy to for me to verify by having dream characters say words I am thinking. I think of an uncommon word, and if somebody else says it, I know for sure I'm dreaming. Lately I've also tried looking at my hands. It's fun to watch the number of fingers change, unquestionable evidence that a dream is in progress. So, wormwood has been a great success for me. I wanted to post because 6 months ago, I purchased some loose leaf Wormwood for tea. I have been very hesitant to try and it and feel guilty for buying it! So I would love to hear about more recent experiences with the herb that people may want to share. Note: Make sure you research any supplements before taking, and consider talking to your doctor about it, especially if you have other health conditions. I'm mostly just interested in occasional use as I realize this is a pretty potent herb with some potential side effects.

[FryingMan]

I'd be careful with it. As I posted back on the old thread in 2015, I tried a tincture, and felt generally poorly (racing heart beat, feeling of malaise). Thujone is a toxic hallucinogen, the dreams I had on it were indeed wild. But I'm done with it. Caveat!

[Voldmer]

Wormwood is really interesting, and it's one of my most reliable dream aids. The main advantage with this herb, for me, is that it generates inordinately peaceful sleep (MUCH better than any pharmaceutical sleep aid) and very vivid dreams (though not necessarily lucid ones). Perfect combination really, and an unusual one since most dream enhancers tend to prevent good sleep. The downsides are two-fold: on the one hand it is truly disgustingly bitter, and on the other it is supposed to be somewhat taxing on the kidneys. The first of these issues I have (more or less) overcome by making a tincture from it, and I take 20-60 drops of it (this is still a bitter experience, but not comparable to drinking a water-based infusion of it). The second issue is simply handled by not using it often (for me probably once every other week). I have never experienced adverse effects of wormwood. What I have found interesting is that it works much better for dreaming than mugwort does, even though mugwort has a long history behind it of being used as a dream aid.

[Lang]

Wormwood is really interesting, and it's one of my most reliable dream aids. The main advantage with this herb, for me, is that it generates inordinately peaceful sleep (MUCH better than any pharmaceutical sleep aid) and very vivid dreams (though not necessarily lucid ones). Perfect combination really, and an unusual one since most dream enhancers tend to prevent good sleep. I still would use any supplements or even herb or anything like that with caution. Also, if you’re taking medications or have any preexisting health conditions or Underlining, it may interact with the Medications... Best advised to consult an doctor before use.

[FryingMan]

Mugwort I found never did anything for me, but at the time I took it, I had already very high dream recall, and very vivid and present dreams. Wormwood was highly "effective," far too much so. I felt entirely altered, drugged if you will, on it. Maybe my source was too strong or I took too much of it, but that's one of the issues with it, as is written, you never know just how much thujone you're ingesting.

[cedwards105]

I stumbled across a bottle of wormwood tincture this evening in an herbal supplement section of a organic/eco friendly type store. I have heard good things about this, so I'm looking forward to trying it. When is the best time to take it? Before bed, or during a WBTB? Or does it matter? *update: I went ahead and took the recommended dose in a small cup of water. Kind of bitter, but I imagine one could get used to the taste, especially with some sugar and carbonation. I might get some carbonated water for the future..Anyway, I'll update tomorrow if anything interesting happens. *update: the next day... not much happened dream-wise, as far as I can remember. But I woke up earlier than usual this morning. Maybe I'll try again later and take a nap.