Dreams and drugs

[BigDrewLittle]

:confused:Hi out there everyone! Just joined today, and have been curious about this subject for a while. I hope this is the appropriate forum for the question!

 

I am a 34 year old man. I have been a pack-a-day cigarette smoker for 13 or 14 years and an almost daily 4 to 8 cups a day coffee drinker for 10 or 12 years and have noticed that in that time, I have scarcely remembered half a dozen of my dreams. The few I have remembered have only been of fragmented images or three-to-five-second sequences of activity, with only one or two clearly remembered full-length dream "shows" as I call them.

 

I've been told that I can't possibly have gone that long without dreams or REM sleep, or else I'd be insane or dead. So what I'm curious about is the lack of memory of the dreams.

 

Also, in gaining weight and continuing to smoke, I have developed moderate obstructive sleep apnea. I was told that I probably suffered the OSA for at least 2 or 3 years before being diagnosed. For the last 2 years I have been using a CPAP machine to treat it and have had moderate to fair success with it. It seems to have had no effect on my dream clarity or memories. I also get less sleep than I used to. Before graduating college, I averaged 6 to 7 hours of sleep. I'd say that for the last 4 or 5 years I've averaged more like 4 to 6, occasionally getting even less than that.

 

Any opinions? Obviously I need to lose weight and quit smoking, but if I did, does anyone think there might be a correlation between the nicotine/caffeine and the dreams?

 

I'll hang up and listen.

 

BD

[iNow]

Hi BD,

 

I would not anticipate a strong connection between your nicotine and coffee and your weak dream memory. In fact, I would suggest that they might actually help, as both are stimulants of the brain, and would hence increase activity.

 

Do you have alcohol before bed? I know that can impact dream memory, and I myself tend to enjoy a nice scotch or glass(es) of wine at the end of a day.

 

If it worries you, you might consider increasing your vitamin B... I think it's B12 specifically, but I won't commit to that. That helps memory overall, and would likely help your dream memory, too.

 

I can guarantee you that you do dream, and that your neural network is being reorganized as part of this dream process. The way your brain is structured and the way you think and understand the world are all very much "plastic" and being reorganized a bit each night you sleep. So, no worries there.

 

If you really want to consciously improve dream memory, I'd suggest that you get a journal and a pen/pencil beside your bed, then commit yourself within 10 seconds of waking up each day to record everything you can about where your "mind was" during those last few minutes of sleep. Write it all down... as many details as you can... and do this regularly everyday for months. Basically, you'd be training yourself to recall your dreams better, and with writing them down you are engaging other parts of your brain to help in the process of memory.

 

Those are just a few thoughts off the top of my head. Take it with a grain of salt, but good luck all the same. On a personal note, there are some dreams which are better not to remember, otherwise you might be walking around horny all day.

[StringJunky]

Here's an actual method to remember your dreams that elaborates on what iNow suggests:

 

http://www.lucidity.com/NL11.DreamRecall.html

[Moontanman]

Have a need to dream? Take large doses of melatonin, you will dream so big! But be prepared to feel tired for about two days after.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melatonin

 

Some supplemental melatonin users report an increase in vivid dreaming. Extremely high doses of melatonin (50 mg) dramatically increased REM sleep time and dream activity in both people with and without narcolepsy.[48] Many psychoactive drugs, such as cannabis and lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), increase melatonin synthesis.[48] It has been suggested that nonpolar (lipid-soluble) indolic hallucinogenic drugs emulate melatonin activity in the awakened state and that both act on the same areas of the brain.[48]

[Double K]

Most "shamans" from the older times of our histories, used to take drugs to dream. Payote, shroom tea, pot, opiates etc...pretty much all of them used a drug induced "vision"

(whether these were waking dreams or during sleep I'm not sure)

 

But as stated earlier there are some methods to use to remember dreams, and pretty much it's just a matter of training yourself to remember them. Keeping a notebook by your bed and if you are woken up in the middle of the night half way thru a dream, note it down. It's likely that you dream, are woken up, and return to sleep and then forget most of what the dream is about. The American Indians used to have 'dream catchers' in their tee-pee's. I doubt these things actually did much other than serve as a 'trigger' to remember the dreams, just a subconcious reminder to think about the dreams. Maybe it's worth making one for yourself ( I recommend that over buying one, as the act of making it will queue you with a trigger)

[vordhosbn]

I found one of those lucid dream "triggers" pretty effective. It's the "see what time it is and then again" trick.

Basically, when you check the time with your wristwatch (in da reel world), make a habit to recheck it very shortly afterwards.

Once, i "woke up" ( ), got up from my bed, and then i looked at my watch - it was showing early afternoon, something like 14:25 for example. Then, as I checked it again - it was showing something like 35:65. Very cool way to realize that you are dreaming.

This particular experience was very interesting for me, when I wondered why the second time the time was so absurd. As if my subconscious dream-weaving mind was trying to tell my conscious with it.