Thread: Menthol as a Dream Enhancer

Originally Posted by highlander

If it's the Halls Extra strong I'm thinking of that I tried last year then mine were 15.8 mg of Menthol per lozenge. So on that basis for a first time then try two; one after the other during WBTB. (Due to the short half-life, etc.)
In my case I tend to get a bit of a gripey stomach and gas off the cough drops (and ingested air,) plus it is best to only try no more than a couple just in case you are sensitive to the other ingredients as well as the Menthol, e.g: Glycol, etc.
I advise a quick rinse/teeth cleaning after due to the high sugar content that some of these lozenges contain.

Hope that helps?

I'm a bit confused on the actual content, some sources say as high as 19mg (crikey), but the last time I had a throat infection I'd get through two packs a day with no awareness of possible menthol overdose 0_o Given that, I'm not sure on my potential tolerance, we'll see.

Originally Posted by CanisLucidus

Thanks. How much menthol is in each of those drops, Ctharlhie? For what it's worth, I got strong effects at ~35mg menthol (dream quantity and sexiness), with more mild effects at lower doses. At around ~20 mg or so, I believe that I got fewer You may just want to start on the lower end and very gradually go higher. Whatever suits your personality. Good record-keeping (right here's a good place) will help you find your sweet spot, I think.

I found the drops (or peppermint tea) most effective at WBTB, but YMMV. Highlander makes the excellent suggestion to brush those teeth afterward. Good thinking!

I will be posting my progress

@Alyzarin: I've read the whole thread and your research is astounding (I like the uncompromising approach to posting chemical and neuroanatomy jargon), do you have a career in neuroscience?

Considering that there are no warnings on the pack (and according to wiki Halls have dropped claims to having an active ingredient like strepsils do (anaesthetic) and simply call them sweets) I think it would be hard to overdose on Halls. I'm gonna go with at least two. If I had a cold I'd be having at least one during the night!

Dose: Two Hall's Extra Strong (22-38mg depending on your source), I take multivitamins so my B5, B6 and B12 levels are a bit over the daily recommended amount (but not at toxicity level, of course).
Side Effects: Nope.
Sleep Duration: ~10 hours
WBTB: 45 minute.
Lucid: No (Pre-lucid)
Vividness: Intense. (Chain FAs)
Stability: Varied dramatically.
Dream Comments: Wow. Whatever I expected, it was not this. The feel was exactly like when you have a raging fever and you cycle between overwhelming and surreal dreams and a state near ISP. I went in with doubts but the feel of it was totally unlike ordinary dreams.

Felt aroused at one point and got a spontaneous erection without any mental stimulus even. WILDing was turbo-charged, extremely vivid hypnagogia that was almost like watching a dream, including sexual imagery, and a Starwars lightsaber duel Very suddenly I felt that menthol inertia everyone's been talking about, my body suddenly felt leaden, but didn't remain aware for the transition.

I seemed to spend the time from 7:30, when I must have drifted off, to 9:30, when my alarm went off, constantly dreaming. The content was on the verge of nightmarish, with a maintained sense of threat and dread. The plot had a completely wonky internal logic and was full of surrealism and non-sequitors. The whole feel of it was like when I took salvia for the first (and so far only) time, but without the hysterical giggling.

The nightmarish feel was overwhelming to the point that my 'nightmare escape mechanism' from childhood kicked in and I became prelucid but instead of taking control I just tried to wake up. Here my old enemy the chain false awakening reared its ugly head and I had a few episodes of FAs and waking sleep paralysis w/ intruder before finally waking.

Huge recall, about 6 dreams worth of material (but completely disjointed, it's like fever dreams that don't make sense to anyone but the dreamer).


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On an unrelated note, can I suggest that rather than quantify things like lucidity and recall (which vary according to individual differences between dreamers), we carry out more of a 'content analysis', looking for the things that characterise menthol dreams; sex, surrealism, intensity, nightmarishness, etc.?