Thread: Using Caffeine as a Trigger

Originally Posted by Highlander

^ All hail the X.


I did get a short dild using 50 mg caffeine after a short WBTB this morning.

Side effects (?) - brief palpitations whilst relaxing.

Damn. I guess email notifications are broke. Sorry I didnt see your post sooner. Im glad the caff still works. Congrats

Well i may join this experiment because one of my first Lucid Dreams was when i was really drunk i woke up and went back to bed and had lucidity.
So this may work with coffee too i will try the 50-100mg range report back tommorow in my dream journal what happens, if nothing i will try again and again until i get some information.

Originally Posted by Eldan

Well i may join this experiment because one of my first Lucid Dreams was when i was really drunk i woke up and went back to bed and had lucidity.
So this may work with coffee too i will try the 50-100mg range report back tommorow in my dream journal what happens, if nothing i will try again and again until i get some information.

I'm guessing you didn't have any luck?

I tried a new form of caffiene last night. My wife bought some chololate covered esspresso beans and didn't like them so I decided to save them for WBTB. I tried figuring the caffiene content of each bean but found conflicting information online.

So last week I tried just counting the beans to a "lowe dose" (for me anyway) and going from there. I started with a dose of 10 and had really vivid dreams but didn't get lucid or insomnia. OK that sort of worked.

Lastnight I lazily took a hand full and had a nice LD with only very mild wakefullness. I later estimate that I had 15-20 beans but I really wish that I had counted. It's really a interesting idea for using this as trigger giving the added theobromine and caffine in the choloate. I plan to play with this some more some time really soon. I just thought you all would find it fun to try.

Mmm! Now we have a great excuse to indulge in these!

By the way I had some interesting results with caffeine the other day. 1/3 latte as usual but didn't do a proper wbtb and fell asleep like a log. Had an extraordinarily vivid dream that began on a mountain meadow with amazing bright colored plants and dream grasses, later morphed into zoo, then into a museum where I explored non-lucidly some amazing items and books!

:heart::sleepysteph:

Caffeine usually gives me awesome dreams even if I dont get lucid.

Originally Posted by Xanous

Caffeine usually gives me awesome dreams even if I dont get lucid.

OK another substance to add to the experiments! I'm a total caffeine lightweight so one bean may do it for me . Interesting though, I thought I read somewhere that caffeine (even in the afternoon) kills REM in the night. Not true? Chocolate coated espresso beans are also easier to explain than a drawer full of bottles of substances in gelcaps next to the bed .

I thought I read somewhere that caffeine (even in the afternoon) kills REM in the night. Not true?*

That seems to be the general consensus but to what degree I dont know. Its one of those wierd things that we dont fully understand and it may effect each person differently. Ive always been a regular coffee drinker since I started lucid dreaming, I dont know if its been a handicap to me or not but I seem to dream enough every night. I just try to keep my caffeine consumption low and nothing after noon. Since you are sensitive I would definitely start with tge smallest amount possible and do it on a night that you can afford to lose sleep; it can cause insomnia if you have too much at a wbtb.

I ran across some relevant info about caffeine and dreaming that you all may or may not be interested in. This is a quote from The Dream Sourcebook: A Guide To The Theory And Interpretation Of Dreams (second edition)

Mood-Altering Substances and Dreams

Though spicy foods and heavy meals late at night have been proven to have no effect on our dreams, there are certain substances that impact our REM sleep, for better or worse. For example, Anthony Sifton reports in The Dream Reader (1995) that "marijuana and cocaine both decrease dream recall." Barbiturate use, he reports, leads to "more conceptual and thoughtlike" dreams. Alcohol, tobacco, and stimulants such as amphetamines ''generally reduce REM time. So do barbiturates,benzodiazepines [such as Valium and Xanax], and most of the sedative-hypnotic sleeping pills, tranquilizers, muscle relaxants, etc."Interestingly, caffeine does NOT affect REM sleep unless you are attempting to withdraw from it, in which case you will begin to dream more. "That is the effect of withdrawal from any stimulant," Sifton writes, noting that it is unclear whether stress is a factor in increasing the number of dreams.

As for prescription medications, their effects, too, can vary. ''Some mood stabilizing drugs, such as lithium, reduce REM sleep, as do some antidepressants," writes Sifton. "Antipsychotic drugs have mixed effects on sleep. Stelazine, Haldol, and Tegretol are said to reduce dream recall, but effects vary with dosage, and during drug withdrawal REM time decreases."

Most of this info seem accurate but I wonder about the caffeine mention. Are they testing that from a recent dose or daily consumption? It seems the context is from daily consumption as Sifton is talking about withdraw. It's news to me that caffeine doesn't affect REM negatively (although not surprising) but we all know what WBTB caffeine does for dreaming from personal experience anyway. Also, it does seem to confirm that caffeine induce dreams work best from withdrawal whether or not you ingest caffeine at WBTB. It would be interesting to see how much effect there is from withdrawal alone. Perhaps I should start a new thread: "Withdrawal As A Trigger."

TLDR; maybe that will answer the question for FryingMan! According to this caffeine doesn't have negative effects on dreaming but if you go into withdrawal if could increase it... Possibly increasing exponentially when combined with withdrawal and a small WBTB dose!


Also I'm not sure I agree with the tobacco statement unless, again, they are speaking of daily use. That's probably the case since this book isn't about LDS.