Thread: Drugs/dream Control

i've found that after smoking or drinking i am way more likely to become lucid that night. my first LD was after an exessive night of smoking

Originally Posted by Lucifer

The moral here is smoking weed=losing dreams??? Come on now you cant base that on one night of smoking. For people who smoke everyday the effects are much different than for someone who only does it occasionly. I get high every night and can almost always recall 3 dreams a night. Marijuana does affect the sleep cycle. Both marijuana and alcohol are REM supressors, but when the drug wears off the user will experience whats called REM Rebound, which are much longer periods of REM sleep. Basically your body is making up for it. I wonder if it could be beneficial to lucid dreaming. I think that since REM will be supressed while the drug is in affect it will only affect the first couple hours at most, possibly supressing the short REM period you would have had. Smoking before you sleep could shift the REM periods toward the end of your sleep, where you recall dreams better and are way more likely to have lucid dreams. Its just a theory, but its based off what I have noticed from my own experiences. There are a lot of variables one has to deal with when you talk about how marijuana or any other drug affects lucid dreaming. One might be less likely to do their MILD exercises before they go to sleep if they are high, but I am the opposite. Like other people mentioned, ill get high and read for hours about lucid dreaming. I get so fascinated because my imagination is enhanced so much. People who arent used to weed probably will have their dream recall hindered, because it will supress the REM of someone who has not built up a tolerance to the drug. It actually surprised me when I read a lot of posts abou drugs, especially marijuana, where people seemed so resolutely against them. I figured there would be a lot more open-minded people on a forum that delves into a topic as deep as lucid dreaming, which is an exploration of our consciousness. Its good to see fellow smokers here who are fascinated by lucid dreaming.
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Not trying to argue here, it's just that I had this discussion with 5 other individuals in a group after reading this topic to derive a somewhat consistant outcome from undividuals. Not only that, but I asked a few other people lately who are all, daily smokers.

I wasn't a one night smoker, either. I was a daily smoker. The fact is that as potheads, we deny the facts that it impairs things we like to do. "Oh but it's soo much cooler when I'm high...yada yada". Yeah we ALL say things like this. The fact is we've become accustomed to getting high, therefore its easier for us to have fun since we no longer have to worry about getting high itself. Like, "accomplished, now what to fill the gap of time?" Once you detach from it for a while, you'll find you have just as much fun reading as you did when high, and recall will tend to be clearer. The fact that you've gotten high, like many, it will be hard to detach from the rememberance, thus it's hard to continue having fun for a while typically for people quitting.

Ahh what the hell am I talking about this here for...you guys hate to read this sort of stuff.

I asked my friends what their dream recall is like as daily smokers. Most of them couldn't recall a dream from the previous days let alone night. As a daily smoker, my recall was gone and I know it. I'd possibly get a hint of a dreams at awakening, only to shortly forget. They would be badly segmented as well.

The actual night I quit, I remember having my first vivid dream in a long time, with no difference in amount slept. In the midst of non-smoking, one night of smoking eliminated any dream recall the next morning. So where is this "tolerance" during the heavy smoking? Non seemed to exist, all the smoking nights felt the same.

Now again, you can easily have dream recall and be a heavy smoker. No one says you can't. The "losing dreams" statement it however near 99% accurate from what I have gathered from not a few people, but nearly every honest individual I've asked. There is almost no way smoking will simply help dream recall, which is a key to lucid dreaming of coarse.

Now on another note, there may just be a possibility for an REM "rebound" phase entered after a period of smoking and then quitting. The problem is the timing of this, as it's certainly not a linear event, if it even truely occurs (instead of a normal REM phase that's remembered).

Now on the note of REM being suppressed during the "felt" short hourly periods therafter, this is not exactly true. The after effects in the body carry out much longer than the felt effects which shortly diminish. The REM suppressed periods may extend anywhere from short 4-5 hours periods up to possibly futher extended 6-12+ hour periods depending on the individual.

And please don't get mad like I'm some anti-pot, throw it all at you sort of responder, as I am certainly not. I just like laying out some facts which some people try to deny with utmost efforts.

Well it is too bad that you cant enjoy smoking and dreams at the same time, hope that changes for you

I have smoked nearly every day for the past twelve years, with a few breaks of no more than a week in that time.

I decided at new years to give up cigarettes and weed and I cant beleive how intense and how many dreams I can recall each night.

When I was smoking I would rarely remember a dream a week and if I did it was usually the same dream.

I started a dream journal as of new years and have been making upto 6 entries on a good night and at least one on a poor night.

I guess for me smoking definitely hindered my dreaming capabilities, not to mention my lucid ones.

I miss smoking the weed, I can taste it now, but I feel alot better for it, fresher in the mornings and for the dreams alone it has been worth it, one down side depending on how you look at it is that I can no longer sleep through out the night without waking, I wake at least twice now but hey guess it gives me a chance to write down my dreams.

P.S
One thing I wanted to add was that whilst never having a full blow WILD I came close on many many occasions when smoking weed, maybe it was due to the relaxed state I was in, now I seem to just fall asleep without any H.I or sounds.

Last year I was smoking 2 joints every day ( aprox ) , I had 0 dream recall , the day I stopped smoking , 2 months ago , I started dreaming very vividly , and a couple of weeks later I had my first natural LD , then I joined the forum and started reading the methods and my dream recall right now is 1-2 a night with 2-3 lucids a week .
Thats just my experience

Well, last night I got very stoned, and I had a dream which I recalled quite well. I was being chased (no anxiety though), and I dropped my new chillum. My friend picked it up, who was also being chased. I looked at it and it was broken :'(.

But anyways, my most detailed/longest lucid dream was when I went to bed high.