I have tried this brand. Unfotunately for me it was too effective, when i took it I could not get back to sleep, it was like taking a mild caffeine pill. It also causes a mild burning/ discomfort in my stomach, which I have heard a few other people have this symptom as well, one girl recommended taking it with a slice of cheese to help combat this.
I then decided to use the remainder of the bottle to help me quit caffeine, which worked out wonderfully, I took it in the morning instead of a cup of coffee. (Has been close to 6 months of no coffee ) One afternoon when I was very tired and had woken from a nap and could not get back to sleep, I took 2 4mg Galantamine pills and decided to go to the gym. When I got home and went to sleep, I had my first lucid dream of the year the following morning. I think it was partly due to the reminants of the drug in my system, and the fact that my body seems to be highly sensitive to it.
It is primarily intended for Alzheimer’s patients with off-brand use discovered for LD. I will not take a pill if I know I may have trouble getting back to sleep. I really like your de-cafine utilization, though I still enjoy a cup, or some strong tea, before noon to get the muscles unglued. Alzheimer’s research using Galantamine suggests 8 mg a day has little effect while 16-24 MG shows some cognitive gains in patients when taken for 3-6 months. Sometimes, if I take a pill and it’s on a very empty stomach I will eat a pretzel, small cookie or chew some gum to alleviate any potential stomach discomfit. Still, I make sure I know I can get back to sleep or I won’t take it!
It may be worth trying again. I’ve found that I’ve gotten back to sleep on galantamine every time I’ve taken it recently. I have gone through a couple months of study of sleep and insomnia, though, and I think that helps. If it does keep you up, then yeah, you can avoid it.
I have thought about doing that, as my sleep seems to be improving, at least going back to sleep after waking is improving. I ideally would like to get it perscribed by a doctor. I think it might be wise to do 1/2 a 4mg pill, instead of the full one.
My last 2 LDs were without any Galantamine in my system, so I think for now, I am going to see if I can continue without it. Been working on my meditation practice. Looking to learn Dzogchen from a monistery that is not too far away from me, but the big problem is that most of the monks there only speak Thai, and the ones that do speak some English, is still difficult to converse with. Not sure if they even teach it there, hopefully they do.
Writing this though, reminds me that the last time I did one of their in person free meditation lessons, the monk at the end asked the people there what they were having trouble with/ needed help with. I told him that I needed help with LDs and doing Dream yoga, as I had only had 1 LD so far in the year. His response sounded like he did not understand what I was saying. 2 nights later, I had my 2nd LD of the year, and my first time flying (which I had been trying to do for 3 years!)!!!
There is little doubt in my mind that he was responsible for it. I dont know if he did some kind of transmission, or prayer, but what ever it was, it dramatically changed how I saw the world. Since then I have heard members speak of similar experiences in Andrews videos. Really amazing stuff, really mindblowing!
It may be time to ask him to be my teacher, or in the very least double down on meditations, or both.
There is also the stimulation that comes from the anticipation of the coming dreams, with galantamine. Of course, maybe it just means my (expired) galantamine’s potency is reduced :). All natural LDs are best, I agree. I had my 3 LDs two nights ago and last night’s LD (and nicely vivid non-lucids) without any supplements. But from time to time, I think there’s nothing wrong with it, to sort of kick-start more progress.
8 mg may have little effect on full blown Alzheimer’s but it seems to be beneficial to my memory as a late 60’s guy with occasional forgetfulness and I also seem to remember my dreams better. Just my subjective experience. Or perhaps it’s placebo. Doesn’t seem to be any research on this.
I ordered another dosage of it. I figure wosrt case senario I can use it as a stimu
Dont think it is a placebo, but it may be. I think it may have helped me when I statrted doing the dream journal. At first I could barely remember my dreams, started to see big progress after a month of taking it, on and off.
I also think it helps with imagination and visualization, but that is just from my persoanl experience.
For me it’s pretty much a memory enhancer, but sometimes clearing the way for lucidity. Almost all of my lucid dreams this century came on nights when I used galantamine.
I will never forget the second time I took it, around 3am in the morning, trying to do wake back to bed. I could not fall back to sleep, it was too stimulating. But the visualization/semi hypnogogia I still remember to this day:
It was of a diver, deep underwater in the darkern deapths, viewed from underwater very far away so they looked very small, and they were slowly swimming up to the surface. There was music in the background, that was very powerful and meaningful, somewhat classical.
The visualization ended with a close up of the diver ‘crashing’ up into the surface.
Only lasted about 10-15 seconds. But it took me another 30-60 minutes of ‘meditating’ on the music, and playing the music over and over again in my head to finally figure out where it came from, which finally came as a flash of memory of a movie scene.
My mind had manipulated and flipped upside down the scene from this movie, instead of falling downward viewed from a distance, the diver was moving in the opposite direction (fast forward to the 5min mark of the clip):
Needless to say I became a believer in how powerful Galantamine was after that visulizarion episode.
Had not seen the movie LOTR in over a decade, nor listened to the soundtrack. Something in that pill stimulated a memory from way back, and replayed it in a very meaningful way.
You say this was not a lucid dream but was hypnogogic. Seems like there is a fine line between hypnogogic imagery this vivid and detailed and a lucid dream state.
Yes I agree. I have actually heard Andrew say that you can have Lucid dreams while in a Hypnogogic state, if you brimg your awareness with you completely, but these dreamlets dont usually last for morse than a few seconds.
Reporting back that I tried it! Took 4 mg of the Relentless Improvement brand at around 4 am or so, which is usually when I wake up with a dream before going back to sleep again. I could feel an upset stomach beginning so I tossed in a piece of faux-cheese after it.
I definitely could not sleep, and at one point I experienced a kind of strong whoosh of lucidity, it was intense enough that I had to remind myself to relax into the experience, like a very short rollercoaster ride.
I might consider trying again sometime during a normal weekend when losing a little sleep is okay. This time I did it while doing a ton of shamatha meditation, about 7 hours a day of sitting, which can itself already lead to slightly different states and sleeping patterns. Dreams became much more vivid and fantastical.
It can do that if you’re not ready to go back to sleep—maybe being excited to try it will keep you up. Sometimes I’ll have a cookie, or even chew some gum to mitigate any ill feelings. I make sure I am over the threshold before I take galantamine, or any other dream substances. Usually works. Good luck if/when you try it again.
The exact same symptoms happened to me. I have read about a few people who get upset stomachs from it as well. Taking it with food like you did seems to help.
Just got my second batch of it in the mail. To combat the stomach unease, I decided to place the pill under my tongue, and let it disolve there first, swallowing eventually after it had completely disolved. My theory was that some of the chemicals would be absorbed in the under the tongue tissue, and the mouth may be able to handle the harshness better than the stomach.
It kept me up and I was not able to go back to sleep. But the following night, Imhad really good dream recall and vivid dreams. So it definitely has a powerful effect.
If it continues to disrupt your sleep, you may want to try taking it in place of coffee or cafeine in the morning, or at lunch. And you may try doing a higher dosage then as well 8mg, or 12mg (2-3 pills). Becuase, like me, you are so sensitive to the drug, you may find that small amounts of will stay in your body, so 8 to 12 hours later, enough of it has been metabolized so you can get to sleep, but small amounts are still in your body to help with vivid dreams, dream recall, and possibly even lucid dreams. I had my first lucid dream this year doing it this way.
Experts dont recomend ths method, but they also dont have any trouble falling back to sleep on it. If you read the Alzhiemer reasesrch, they gave patients very high dosages 32mg, and one of the side effects was lucid dreams. (And I highly doubt that they were having the Alzhiemer patents take the drug in the middle of the night )
have not tried any higher amounts than 12mg in a day, but it might be a good scientific experiment for me to try 18, 24, and 32mg, and report back here with the results.
Really amaziing and impressive. You got me very jealous! I have yet to be able to do more than an hour of meditation. I think I found my new years resolution
Tried 4mg galantamine + 300mg AlphaGPC two weeks ago at the first waking – no real results.
Then 1 week ago 4mg galantamine + 600mg AlphaGPC at the 2nd waking, around 4-5 hours, a risky time for me to take it…and I didn’t sleep the rest of the night. Ugh.
But this week I got my first LD in a while and had a vivid & present & long non-lucid. I’m building my BTS (falling Back To Sleep) skills and have had a number of successes this week including today with the LD/vivid non-lucid. I’ll probably continue trying galantamine once a week for a while to see if it will help with lucidity, but I tend to believe much more in the “all natural” path: continually building the foundations of: 1) lucid presence all throughout the day; 2) building strong intent; 3) continually improving memory.
Galantamine is one of the few medications that has significantly improved my dream state. It’s great to hear that it has been used for thousands of years .
Came across this post while searching for the right place to post something I came across recently:
I haven’t bought any commercially since I received my medicare prescription a couple of years ago. Don’t get the liquid version, at least it did nothing for me. Just checked Amazon and see they have cornered their market for the pill. This is what I get from Medicare and the price is not much different from the discontinued RI. If you can get a docs prescription, it’s way cheaper. Talk to your doc and maybe he or she can prescribe it for cognitive reasons. This version is made in India and seems to work better for me than the Chinese version I received previously. Element didn’t do much for me. Also, I would avoid Lucidimine, one of the first Galantamine meds, did nothing for me either. Same for Huperzine. Just sayin’. Your experiences may vary. Hope this helps.
) One afternoon when I was very tired and had woken from a nap and could not get back to sleep, I took 2 4mg Galantamine pills and decided to go to the gym. When I got home and went to sleep, I had my first lucid dream of the year the following morning. I think it was partly due to the reminants of the drug in my system, and the fact that my body seems to be highly sensitive to it.
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