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dope and dreams

A

Anonymous

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For about 15 years I used to smoke weed and / or hash most every day. Then I more or less stopped. I've smoked a couple of evenings only in the last year or so.

I've found that my dreams feel much more intense since I stopped smoking. Also, I think, more intense than before I was smoker. Has anybody else noticed a relationship between dope and dreams?
 
My bf finds his dreams more intense whens he's been smoking when he does'nt smoke his dreams are harder to remember.
 
Yes, when I smoked pot regularly it seemed that I rarely dreamed at all.
 
I would always notice increased and more vivid dreaming on going without for a while (something i try not to do too often heh heh) and I always put it down to a brainwave thing, like when you smoke you spend a lot more of your waking time in relaxed alpha and even mystical theta wave states so the brain feels less need to enter the visionary/dreaming theta state when you sleep.
On reflection I am sure this is absolute nonsense that i made up, but there is definitely a link between dope and dreams. A regular smoker will find dreaming increased when he stops, an infrequent smoker will find dreaming increased when he smokes, it seems.
Of course a lot of dreaming stuff is to do with how well you remember your dreams .... i ave been recording mine for some time now in a notebook and find they just get weirder and weirder .... basically because i have trained myself to remember more. In addition I now work full time and so am rudely awakened every morning by my alarm clock as opposed to just gently coming round some time just after lunch which i did as a heavy smoker heh heh and this too may be a factor?
 
I was an extremely heavy smoker,quarter oz a day man, when I would run out (2 months of the year) my dreams would return with a vengance.The remaining 10 months would be blissfully absent of dreams and nightmares(except of people stealing my plot).I beleive this to be a sympton of lifestyle,when you go to bed you usually can just barely crawl to get there,so how are you going to remember what happens after you got there. Just leave me alone man gotta sleep.
 
I also recently stopped smoking and have found I am dreaming a lot more.I also find it a lot harder to get to sleep at the moment.
Other smokers I know have also told me of the trouble they have sleeping when they stop.The sleep I do have tends to be lighter and I wake up easier and more often through the night.
This could be the reason behind the dreams,as I understand it the dreams you remember tend to be the ones you have as you are waking up,not the ones you have in really deep sleep.
The only other time I've had dreams more vivid than these was when I was using nicotine patches.Those things will give you some really full on nightmares.Its enough to make you take up smoking again.
 
urm, when, urm i urm smoke urm pot....urrr what was i going to say ???
 
Alkyhol has the same effect. Now I'm on the wagon, I dream like buggery. When I was on the pot/booze I never recalled ever having a dream. Tell you what, though, I sweat like a pig now I'm off the drugs.
 
I'm on a strict diet right now. It hasn't changed my dreaming level, but last night I dreamed I put my trousers on and they were LOOSE around the waist!

Somebody please tell me that dreams do come true...
 
Lard said:
Tell you what, though, I sweat like a pig now I'm off the drugs.
Click to expand...

Thats withdrawel.......:cool: I'm not kidding either but that's what happens......
 
Famous. Swiss-born nightmare artist Fuselli is said to have eaten
raw meat to induce nightmares.

Don't miss the Cat Eaters article - link on FT Home page. Yum! :cross eye
 
I used to be a hard-drinking pot-head, too, for which I have no good excuse, and I could barely remember what day of the week it was, let alone dreams.

Seriously, though, I reckon it's connected to the different phases of sleep. Hash seems to send you straight into the 'deep sleep' period, thereby skipping the lighter REM stage of sleep.

Nowadays I have a joint before going to sleep, purely for medicinal purposes of course, as it helps prevent the sleep paralysis which, as you probably know, is caused by falling straight into REM.

However, unless you have another joint at around 5am, the next phase of REM cannot be prevented, so you're still likely to get dreams and/or sleep paralysis just before waking.

Drinking heavily may seem to help but, in reality, isn't conducive to having a good sleep. It's pretty much unconsciousness, followed by fitful sleep which can exacerbate conditions such as sleep paralysis.
 
I've noticed that if I lay off the beer I can remember my dreams.
I think you miss out on some level of sleep if you're pi**ed!
If I have a "lay-in" i.e. oversleep, I remember my dreams better and am a happier soul allround!:)
 
Am I the only one here who limits his use of dangerous, mind-damaging drugs to mere alcohol?
 
Inverurie Jones said:
Am I the only one here who limits his use of dangerous, mind-damaging drugs to mere alcohol?
Click to expand...

And coffee, mate!:)
 
I can never remember my dreams when stonered. When I lay off it they come back with a vengeance, usually in the form of tripped-out nightmares like a David Lynch movie on acid.


When the 'mares ease off I have this recurring dream in which I'm the only sane person left in a world gone crazy... in the same dream the sun always shines, my girlfriend is Angelina Jolie and I'm hung like a horse as well!

To sleep, perchance to dream...
 
In his book The Botany of Desire , Michael Pollan talks in part about how research has shown that THC acts on certain brain receptors that are associated with pain relief. The conclusion being that the reason THC causes short-term memory loss is connected to it's effect on these receptors.

Apparently the body is programmed to "forget" pain. Think about it. How well can you remember pain? I mean the actual pain. Not just the feeling that "this should be avoided". Now think about the taste of vanilla ice cream.

Which is the stronger memory?

Chances are it is the ice cream. You can probably almost taste it. But the pain memory is vaguer.

The theory is that the brain is programmed to forget pain. We just remember that it sucks and have vague memories of it. Not strong ones. THC triggers this function.

Now, think of dreams. How many times can you remember them? Not that often.

Perhaps steady THC use makes it EVEN EASIER to forget dreams. Thus, you "don't dream" (although in reality you do, but just forget them). You stop the THC intake, the short-term memory starts working better, and then the dreams "come back" because you can now remember them.

Well, that's my theory at least....It could be bullshit.
 
I used to smoke a joint before going to bed specifically to prevent insomnia, and very shallow sleep punctuated by stupidly stupid dreams.
It did work beautifully, but i don't do it anymore as i seem to sleep better naturally, and it wasn't really worth all the breath i was wasting saying "What?" and "Huh?" to people the next day.

:confused:
 
Had to put down the left-handed ciggies. Didn't notice an increase in dream intensity OR memory!

Maybe I just can't remember my dreams? :confused:
 
Since I laid off thedrugs (weed, alcohol) I found that I have had a far more fulfilling dream life. Not only do I often remember my dreams, I can often reenter them upon waking and going to sleep again. They also seem, for want of a better word, more literry with plot, characters, resolutions etc. When I have been on depression medication the character of my dreams has changed, content, 'feel' etc.

I never really got on with weed to be honest...
 
Yep, I stopped and sweated like a pig for the first couple of nights. I then started to have really vivid dreams and ever since, feel like I`ve had a good nights sleep - dream or no dream (as opposed to waking up thinking I needed a spliff yet still half asleep) :madeyes:
 
Some friends and I recently did a quick survey, it seemed to us that the females amongst us dreamt regularly - regardless of smoking habits. But the males show a different trend - dreaming more when abstaining than when not abstaining.

Can anyone else support this sex difference?
 
I'm of the female persuasion and i find i dream quite regularly whether or not i've been smoking. My dreams don't seem to be any more or less vivid following a smoke. A lot of the time i can remember my dreams although i'm not sure what % of the time. Perhaps i should monitor it.
One thing i have found that gives very colourful dreams is Bach's Rescue Remedy (part of the Bach's flower remedy range).
 
with respect to the weed I find the best bet is to treat it like a North Sea Oil Rig worker - two weeks on, two weeks off.
;)
 
One thing i have found that gives very colourful dreams is Bach's Rescue Remedy (part of the Bach's flower remedy range).
Click to expand...

Recently I awoke from a strange haunting dream of spires, monks and secrets. An extract from the St Mathew Passion was playing on the radio. The music had almost certainly inspired the dream.

Normally Bach reminds me of films about architecture. But I'm not familiar with his Flower Remedy.
 
I think I can add something to this discussion - there was bugger all on TV this evening, so I found myself sorting through some old tapes of documentaries I had.
One that I forgot I had was the part of the 'Secrets of Sleep' series which was shown on C4 some time ago. In one part of the episode I had, dreams are discussed, and there's one bit which I think may be interesting for you guys.
It was found that, if test subjects were denied REM sleep (the part of sleep where you dream), they experienced odd visual effects when awake. But the most interesting thing was that, when they were allowed to return to normal sleep patterns, the dreams that they experienced were much more intense and vibrant. IMHO, it may be that hash in some way blocks the mechanisms of REM sleep states, or at least inhibits it. So, when you don't have hash in your system any more, the normal processes of REM sleep return with a vengeance, just as if you had been actively prevented from REM sleep.

It's a pity I don't have more episodes of this series, as it's absolutely fascinating!
 
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