5-htp

If I am not handling this topic in a scientific enough manner for this thread, feel free to move it somewhere else where it might fit better.

This is going to be a thread where I post what kind of experiences I have with 5-HTP, which I just started taking.

1/14/2013 -- Two bottles of 5-HTC arrived in the mail today. 120 capsules each, 100mg. MY plans for the moment are to take 1 each night before sleeping, a small enough dose that there should be no worries about any sort of overdoses or side-effects.

I take one capsule at around 11:30, and start trying to go to bed around midnight.

Have problems falling asleep, as I frequently do, currently, but probably fall asleep within two hours. Still wake several times in the night.

1/15/2013 -- Wake at around 9 in the morning, and can remember two dreams that were kind of short, but also kind of vivid. (They can be read here: Ziva and the Wrestlers, Tom Drick and Betty White, and Cops Chasing Dad (Fragments) - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views )

While I don't seem to have any longer or more interesting dreams, I do seem to be in quite a good mood, hinting at possible good feelings from increased whatever in the brain. Very pleasant.


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Nighttime, 1/15/2013 -- I take one capsule about an hour before trying to go to sleep, at about 11 PM, and try to go to sleep at midnight. I have really bad problems falling asleep and seem to be mostly awake and tossing and turning until almost two in the morning. Finally manage to fall asleep.

Morning 1/16/2013 -- Woke at about 5:00, remembering a dream that included a dream within a dream, false awakening, and strange time stuff where the time seemed to keep changing, even to before I actually went to sleep, while I was trying to remember the dream I just had and write it down (within the dream, after the false awakening). Really wrote down the dream, then tried to go back to sleep. Eventually managed it, and woke about 8 to write down another dream, that seemed to partly start as a continuation of the other dream.

Neither in a good mood or a bad mood.


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Nighttime, 1/16/2013 -- Took 1 capsule at about 10 pm, before trying to go to bed at around 11pm. Fell asleep fairly quickly and easily.

Morning, 1/17/2013 -- Woke about 2 am from a long, involved, detailed chase-style dream that involved locations I could remember from many other dreams. Far more lengthy and detailed than I would have expected so early in the morning, after having taken 5-HTP which is supposed to suppress the dream state. Took about 45 minutes to write down the dream, then tried to go back to sleep, and might have taken around a half hour or so to do so.

May or may not have woke again after another dream. May have barely woke, tried to remember dream, and fallen back asleep and back into same dream without ever fully having woke up, or may have just dreamed I did so. No way to be sure. Woke fully and wrote down 2nd/3rd? dream at about 8 am.

Feeling slightly depressed (my usual state)

At this point, 5-HTP doesn't seem like it is having any -regular- effects, but different every day. Will continue to take for at least a couple more days, and try to continue posting daily experiences, and what kind of effects seem to be occurring.

Increase the dosage to two pills. I was taking two at a time and didn't see effects, I need more htp before I can experiment further with it. Don't stop taking them either.

Well, life gets ever more hectic. A couple of days ago I had a really, really positive dream, woke feeling really, really positive about life, and then had my landlord tell me she is evicting me. Within a couple of weeks I may well be living on the street. (I hope not, but it is a distinct possibility.)

Things were acting weird with the 5-HTP anyway, so I ended up not taking it for a couple days, while dealing with everything else.

I've been back to taking it for either two or three days now, and this time I upped the dose to two 100mg capsules about an hour before bed. For at least two or three days the results have been a little more standard then the last time.

I have found myself falling asleep more easily (it usually feels like it takes maybe 10 or 15 minutes), sleeping much more solidly for perhaps four to four-and-a-half hours, then waking from a fairly long and involved dream, that unfortunately seems to vanish the second I wake up, much quicker than dreams normally vanish. Thankfully, if I take a couple of minutes to concentrate, I can usually bring them back in pretty good depth and detail.

The negative side is after taking close to an hour to remember and write down the dream, it is very difficult to get back to sleep to possibly have more.

But the experiment continues.

And for anybody worrying, the frequent level of dosage for 5-HTP seems to be 100mg three times a day, when used for non-dreaming purposes, so my doing 200mg before bed is not likely to lead to any sort of problems. Especially considering that my fairly large mass might require the stronger dosage to just equal the effect that others get from a 100mg dosage.

Yesterday and today, two tablet about an hour before bed time. Sleeping very poorly. Dreams are often more memorable, but also a little stranger than usual. Since sleeping poorly, sometimes waking up, then falling back to sleep, only to drift back into the same dream, and kind of continue it.