I am not having much success with lucid dreaming despite a lot of effort. I am on sleep meds (trazodone) and I wonder if this is adding to my delusion within the dream and therefore and extra barrier toward becoming lucid in the dream. Any thoughts on sleep meds with this practice?
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Trazodone wiped me out completely and I wasn’t able to recall dreams at all. It also affected me the next day so I finally had to stop it. My problems around sleep are pain and chronic age-related factors, so I try CBD and other therapies to aid in pain relief and to promote sleeping. Works most of the time. Currently seeing a chiropractor who seems well-attuned to working with my problems. Hope this helps.
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I’ve tried a lot of different sleep meds. Don’t use ambient, it was similar to anethesia for me. Fall asleep wake up with loss of time.
Now I use some over the counter sleeping supplements that work pretty well and one prescription. OTC - Doxylamine (<- I only use this when I have trouble falling asleep) and Alteril (all natural - includes melatonin, l tryptophan, valerian root and chamomile extract).
The perscription sleeping pill that worked pretty well for me is Nortriptyline.
Make sure to discuss with your doctor before taking any medicine recommendations online. Hope this helps.
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How do the meds affect your dreams, or do they have little or no effect?
The Alterial has allowed me to have lucid dreams that felt like they were over 30 minutes. It does not happen often but it is beautiful when they happen. They recommend you take two but I take one. Two makes you very groggy when you wake up in between dream cycles and makes it difficult to carry lucidity into my dreams.
Nortriptyline makes me fearless in my lucid and non lucid dreams.
Doxylamine allows me to have usually one moment where I am able to fall into sleep. I try to only take that when I have racing thoughts and take it when I know I will not be interrupted trying to goto sleep.
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Thanks. I use Galantamine as my basic go-to dream and lucid dream assist. I am able to get 8mg tablets from Medicare.
Some natural alternatives to sleep meds that won’t effect your dreams. First of all try GABA. It’s a relaxing neurotransmitter and can be taken as a supplement. Also try L-Theanine, a relaxing neurotransmitter found in green tea. Some people think that Zen monks drink strong green tea because it has caffeine to keep you awake and L-theanine to keep you relaxed and free of anxiety. Not that you should drink green tea at bedtime but you can get L-theanine without caffeine as a supplement. Also try taking Tryptophan or 5-HTP (5-hydroxytryptaphan) which are serotonin repcursers. Most people find them to be relaxing and dream promoting, and can also have antidepressant effects. A few people find 5-HTP to be stimulating, however, so your mileage may vary.
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I’ve used GABA, 5-HTP, L-Theanine (and a few more), which I agree are all worthwhile. GABA and 5-HTP seem to inhibit early REM but promote longer episodes later in the cycle, so experimenting does seem the way to go, though what works one night may not be reliable down the road.
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This would be a fantastic question for Dr. Ed during our Ask the Sleep Dr session! Andrew often joins and so you would get the best of both worlds at once. The sessions are always recorded so if you can’t catch live, they would be available for your convenience.
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My sleep is very deep, but I do have dreams and I am able to remember 1-2 per night. I have had 3 lucid dreams on these meds. So, it is possible, I am just wondering if I could be having more without the meds. I will eventually go off the meds to see for myself, I just thought I should get some perspective of others before doing so. Ultimately my decision to go off the meds will be for my actual immediate health and not the lucid dreaming, it might be a tie breaker to get off of them.
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Also try liposomal melatonin. Melatonin is your brain’s natural sleep hormone but regular melatonin has trouble getting through the blood-brain barrier, so it relaxes the peripheral nervous system but doesn’t help the brain sleep. Liposomal melatonin is in microscopic packets that can cross the blood-brain barrier. Also try tryptophan, an amino acid that is a precursor to serotonin and melatonin. Both tryptophan and melatonin may intensify dreaming, rather than repress dreaming as many sleep medications do.
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