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Ketamine and sleep deprivation

specialspack

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Joined
May 8, 2001
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England
Has anyone had any experiences of taking ketamine following short periods of sleep deprivation?

The most profound and sometimes frightening K experiences I've ever had have been after going without sleep for around 48 hours. All were occasions when I'd gone out on a Friday night, and with stimulant assistance, not gone to sleep til Sat night/ Sunday morning. On all occasions, the ketamine was done just before going to bed. The stimulant doses were all fairly mild - small amounts of methamphetamine on Friday night, then a small redose around Saturday lunchtime. On some occasions, MDMA had been consumed on the Friday night as well.

The effects were extremely potentiated - my usual dose of ketamine is around 200mg+ intranasal to get to a K-hole. On at least one occasion, following sleep dep, 50mg was enough to so disorientate and frighten me that I stepped away from the plate and wanted to touch it no more (very rare for me!), on other occasions, 100mg produced experiences that were either very good or very bad. One of them represents the closest thing I've had to a plus four type experience. The clarity was incredibly enhanced - my memory of the experiences was much greater than normal, there were very strong themes of knowledge being imparted in a very direct way. My ketamine tolerance means that under normal circumstances I'm often very disappointed - either not doing enough to get "out there" or overshooting and just not really remembering much coherent about it.

The "visual" side was enhanced, too - very clear, precise imagery, including fully immersive rooms, much larger than the space i was in, full of alien objects (usually quite temporary illusions on re entry, but so clear and memorable). More akin with 5ht2a psychedelics in the essence of the visuals.

A couple of experiences were quite forboding, there was the sense of being shown a dark possible future, or my life being judged. Difficult, but ultimately rewarding.

Obviously, being deprived of sleep pushes one towards a delirious state, it loosens boundaries and lowers thresholds. But i found almost synergy here, that the ketamine experience was somehow enhanced.

I was wondering if anyone else had had this experience. Obviously the tail ends of the stimulants will colour the experience as well, but it's the sleep deprivation that really ramps up the intensity.

The negative sides are the schizophrenic aspects can strongly come to the fore. Feeling out of control of part of your mind can be frightening and lead to strange behaviour, leading to a confused and unproductive experience.
 
Sleep deprivation is strange enough on its own for me, I think. I could see psychoses coming out of most any drug if you were dosing after 48 hours of wakefulness. Especially drugs of a psychostimulant nature.
 
yeah sleep deprivation just seems to add a layer of "darkness" to anything and keeps stacking the longer you are up
 
Sleep deprivation is strange enough on its own for me, I think. I could see psychoses coming out of most any drug if you were dosing after 48 hours of wakefulness. Especially drugs of a psychostimulant nature.

Yes - but I guess I'm interested in is what common ground psychosis and ketamine have.

Although there were sometimes elements of schizophrenic or psychotic elements, I've had milder versions once or twice mixing ketamine and stimulants (ie a stimulant effect but not pronounced sleep deprivation). I kind of assumed that just goes with the territory, and is a not uncommon experience? I may be wrong... maybe I'm weird (see below)*

The next question then is the ketamine experience a form of psychosis anyway? If you agree with the NMDA antagonist model of psychosis, then that needs to be considered.

Next, is there any "value" in temporary psychosis at all? Is ketamine "worthwhile" or is it "psychedelic heroin" as DM Turner called it?

As I said, one of them was the only +4 experience I've had, in that it could not be reproduced by exact set and setting and dose, and it transcended the normal experience. Which seemed a very worthwhile experience to have had.

*I'm assuming this kind of behaviour is not great for long term mental health. I've had three of the experiences in a period of about a year, but I'm certainly not going to do it again.

Another point - a couple of times when I can round I was gripping this resallyquite tight - bedsheets one time, and the other time my hands were folded on my chest clutching objects (a fine squashed note for one). This was very curious and I couldn't think of a time previous that it happened.
 
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