Rem-rebound Experiment.

Marijuana is a PsychoActive herb with very complex and versatile effects, also depending on what kind of Marijuana is smoked. In general it is Classifyable as:

• Depressant: as in it calms your Mind, gives feelings of extreme Relaxation & well-being and sometimes makes you somewhat Tired
• Psychedelic: as it greatly potentiates Fantasy and Creativity, Can alter Awareness greatly and Perception Somewhat, Strengthen Emotions, gives insights from other perspectives, Can actually lead to MINOR hallucinations and False Perceptions ( usually very universally understanding and peacefull insights )
• Stimulant: As some kinds of weed make you HyperActive and very enthusiastic and jumpy-happy.

Now since Weed MAINLY is a Euphoric Downer (Depressant) it is know to Supress REM-Sleep and plunge you into a deeper, somewhat more coma-like, sleep than usual. Now for those of us who Regulairly smoke pot ( As in: At least smoking Pot twice a week ) I wanted to do an Experiment. It goes a little something like This:

I want to know how Smoking Pot AND Suddenly Stopping Smoking Pot Influences our Dreams, DreamRecall, Dream Vividness and Lucidity. I've heard it beeing speculated that when a Pot Smoker suddenly STOPS smoking weed, his or her REM-Sleep will suddenly REBOUND a great deal, which would result in much more Vivid Dreams I assume.

Well I want to find out and here's how:

FIRST OFF: You gotta be a Regulair pot Smoker that smokes Weed pretty Frequently!

I want to know:
+ Does Suddenly COMPLETELY Stopping Smoking Marijuana Increase your DreamVividness ?
+ Does NOT smoking Marijuana at least 4 hours Before going to Sleep Increase your DreamVividness?
+ Does Suddenly COMPLETELY Stopping Smoking Marijuana Increase your DreamRecall ?
+ Does NOT smoking Marijuana at least 4 hours Before going to Sleep Increase your DreamRecall?
+ Does Suddenly COMPLETELY Stopping Smoking Marijuana Increase your Lucidity ?
+ Does NOT smoking Marijuana at least 4 hours Before going to Sleep Increase your Lucidity?

Bla di Bla...here comes the Experiment part...
Lucid Potsmokers who are interrested in this experiment, Copy&Paste this ( All that is written in Blue ) and enter it's answers and Results so it applies to you:

To Participate in the REM-Rebound Experiment You have to Choose one of the 2 Methods:
1. Stop Smoking Pot COMPLETELY for an undefined period of time
2. Stop Smoking Pot 4 or more Hours prior to going to sleep for an undefined period of time.

Enter the Following first:
Age:
Sex:
Your usual Dream Recall: ( DR0 = No Recall at all | DR10 = SUPERB Detailed Recall )
Your Dream's usual Level of Vividness: ( DV0 = Not Vivid at all | DV10 = VERY very Vivid )
Usual frequency of Lucid Dreams: ( L0 = No Lucid Dreams at all | L10 = A Lucid Dream 5 or more times a week)



Enter the Results like THIS :
-Method used: (1 or 2)
-Your Dream Recall after the Experiment: ( DR0 = No Recall at all | DR10 = SUPERB Detailed Recall )
-Your Dream's Level of Vividness after the Experiment: ( DV0 = Not Vivid at all | DV10 = VERY very Vivid )
-Frequency of Lucid Dreams after the Experiment: ( L0 = No Lucid Dreams at all | L10 = A Lucid Dream 5 or more times a week)

I want to compare the DreamVividness, Recall and Lucidity to that of dreams before this experiment to see if it increases/decreases any of these before mentioned things.

If it is true that the REM-sleep Rebounds after quiting smoking pot, or smoking less pot...then a potSmoker would have an edge, because he or she can decide to Suddenly Increase Dream Vividness whenever he or she stops smoking it for a while:

Expect ANY possible results to come after several weeks.



Age: 20
Sex: Male
Your usual Dream Recall: DR4
Your Dream's usual Level of Vividness: DV3
Usual frequency of Lucid Dreams: L3


Results YET TO BE FOUND OUT! :
-Method used: I'm going to Stick with Method 2 (Smoking weed is Bliss for an Insomniac's Restless Mind so.)
-Your Dream Recall after the Experiment: DR?
-Your Dream's Level of Vividness after the Experiment: DV?
-Frequency of Lucid Dreams after the Experiment: L?

I already quit smoking about 3 months ago. I was smoking 1-3 times a day and completely stopped altogether on May 1st (yes I remember the exact date, lol). It took a while for the stuff to clear out of my system, but my dream recall and frequency of lucidity has gradually increased ever since then. Anyway, heres the form:

Before:
Age: 19
Sex: Male
Your usual Dream Recall: DR2 (usually recalled a couple scattered fragments or nothing at all... usually nothing)
Your Dream's usual Level of Vividness: DV3
Usual frequency of Lucid Dreams: L3 (about once every other month)

3 months later...

After:
Method used: 1
Your Dream Recall after the Experiment: DR8 (1-3 per night)
Your Dream's Level of Vividness after the Experiment: DV7
Frequency of Lucid Dreams after the Experiment: L7 (once or twice a week)
If you think that any of the numbers that I chose should be adjusted (based on the comments I left by them), let me know.

All this improvement was very gradual! For the first few weeks after quitting, I saw no improvement whatsoever, and then over the course of the next 2 months it got better and better.
Note: My results might be somewhat skewed, because in addition to quitting marijuana, I also took up daily meditation around the tail end of May. So these improvements are likely a combination of these two factors.

Anyway, here's something I read online a while ago that is very relevant: Detoxing from Marijuana. Here's the most relevant part:

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Marijuana Anonymous
What are some of the more common symptoms?

By far the most common symptom of withdrawal is insomnia. This can last from a few nights of practically no sleep at all, up to a few months of occasional sleeplessness. The next most common symptom is depression (that is, if you're not euphoric), and next are nightmares and vivid dreams. Marijuana use tends to dampen the dreaming mechanism, so that when you do get clean the dreams come back with a crash. They can be vivid color, highly emotional dreams or nightmares, even waking up then coming back to the same dream. The very vivid, every-night dreams usually don't start for about a week or so. They last for about a month at most and then taper off. "Using" dreams (dreams involving the use of marijuana) are very common, and although they're not as vivid or emotional as at first, they last for years and are just considered a normal part of recovery.

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Personally, I didn't experience a "crash" of dreams like they describe, which would suggest an REM-rebound effect similar to that of alcohol. Mine was gradual and progressive, and was probably a just a result of being more clear-headed.

Age:19
Sex:Male
Your usual Dream Recall: DR7
Your Dream's usual Level of Vividness: DV5
Usual frequency of Lucid Dreams: L0

Good experiment. I've recently cut back a good amount so I probably smoke about two to four times a week. It use to be everyday and when I would take a few days break I would notice a huge increase in vividness and recall but mostly they were of me smoking with random people, Kind of sad really.

I'm going to attempt to stop completely after this weekend but if I end up failing I'll make sure it's not within four hours before sleep...

Since I used to do it 3-4x a week and I now fully quit, here are my results:

Enter the Following first:
Age: 15
Sex: M
Your usual Dream Recall: ~8 (if I didn't do it right before going to bed)
Your Dream's usual Level of Vividness: ~7
Usual frequency of Lucid Dreams: 0-1


Method used: 1 (Foreverrr)
Your Dream Recall after the Experiment: 9-10
Your Dream's Level of Vividness after the Experiment: 8-9
Frequency of Lucid Dreams after the Experiment: 0-1

yeah I'm here allright :P I've been smoking sporadically lately. I went to the coffeeshop on monday and got hashis and weed. I'm almost through all of it and when I am I might not get weed again untill a week or 2 afterwards. However lately it doesn't really seem to ffect my dreams anymore. My dreams, DreamRecall and Vividness seem to increase as my Insomnia is Finally going away.

PS: What an exageration of facts and lies about Marijuana I read there on that ''Marijuana Detoxing'' article. Detoxing isn't the right word probably because weed is hardly toxic and has NEVER ever killed anyone by OD or physical harm. It is no worse for you than a Cigarette.
What it reports on the results of ''kicking'' marijuana about Insomnia and Depression I find complete Bullshit. In fact it is not at all addictive in a demanding negative manner; You just want to smoke a joint because it feels so good. It's not like you'll go all down and depressed if you don't smoke for a while, just something that you'd never say no to and is nearly always welcome.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SKA

Detoxing isn't the right word probably because weed is hardly toxic and has NEVER ever killed anyone by OD or physical harm. It is no worse for you than a Cigarette.[/b]

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Yes, this is true. In fact, it's less than "hardly" toxic, it's not toxic at all. It doesn't affect any mechanisms in your brain that could be potentially fatal. I'm referring to the active chemical, THC, of course.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by SKA

What it reports on the results of ''kicking'' marijuana about Insomnia and Depression I find complete Bullshit. In fact it is not at all addictive in a demanding negative manner; You just want to smoke a joint because it feels so good. It's not like you'll go all down and depressed if you don't smoke for a while, just something that you'd never say no to and is nearly always welcome.[/b]

---

Well, the people that it's referring to, the ones who would attend Marijuana Anonymous, are the kinds of people who were high literally 24/7, never sober, for years at a time. These kinds of users do experience those symptoms. The people who wrote that article are not merely guessing or theorizing these symptoms, they are speaking from years of experience in helping people like that kick the habit, and that is what they've seen.

And to state that pot is not at all addictive "in a negative manner" is just plain false. Given, it's not addictive to the same extreme as, say, meth or painkillers, but it's easily possible to become psychologically (as opposed to physically) dependent on the drug.

Quote:

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Originally posted by Drugscope.org.uk
Psychological dependence is when the user experiences an overwhelming desire to continue with the drug experience. This can be because of the pleasurable effects and the desire to keep experiencing them. It can, however, also represent some sort of psychological crutch. The drug experience can become a way of blocking out reality, making life bearable, and a way of facing the world. Without the crutch life seems worthless. It can happen with any drug or any activity which takes over a person's life including eating, sex, work, or jogging.

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If you think that people can't get hooked on pot, guess again. I've seen it happen. There are people, many people, people who I've met, who would "go all down and depressed" if they ever couldn't get high. For some of them, just being sober made them feel like shit.

yeah but these are rare occasions. These people are probably also addicted to a 1000 other things. It seems to be some sort of yet undiscovered syndrome: Higher lyability to get hooked on anything.
It happens with Cigarettes, Coffee, Television, Internet, VideoGames, Gambling, Alcohol, Shopping...etc

In that article it is presented as if Marijuana is the great Evil Doer. While on itself Marijuana is only minorly Psychologically addictive. These ''kicking-symptoms'' are not comming from the ''evil marijuana does'' but they are learning to get some control over their own weakness. They made themselves believe they need to smoke pot 24/7 to feel ''good'', which is not at all true. In fact I can't imagine even being able to ENJOY being stoned when it's all you ever are. They are just very unmindfull, impulsive, weakminded people.
But some people are just more self-destructive and mentally weaker than others: If it wasn't pot, it wouldn've been Alcohol. If it wasn't VideoGames it would've been Coffee... See my point?

Age: 37
Sex: M

Do you mind if I rewrite the results as there seem to be three conditions (normal, stoned, post stoned crash period of 3-5 days)? These days I binge smoke - i.e. I buy some - eighth of an ounce - about once every two months - smoke it 24/7 over a weekend, 'till its gone, then stop completely.

Method used: 1

Recall: non-stoned (usual) 8, stoned 5, post binge (crash) period 7
Vividness: usual 3-10, stoned 1-8, crash 7-10
Frequency of LDs: usual 6, stoned 2, crash 4

I've definitley noticed a short period of intensely vivid dreams after giving up. Dream recall takes a while to recover (but very vivid dreams are easier to remember), and lucidity (DILD) is only really consistently good when I am THC free - however I can WILD better when mildly stoned.