☛ Official ☚ The Oneirogens Megathread: Herbs and Chems for Dreaming

[Neuroborean]

Hi fellow Onironauts.

In my almost 20 years as a psychonaut I have been, until the last few years, more interested in psychedelics and substances that manipulate the conscious state than the so-called "unconscious".
During these years (since adolescence) I have had several naturally lucid dreams and also several sleep paralyses.
However, it was after studying philosophy, and as a result of several ultralucid experiences experienced during the pandemic confinement when I started to investigate about Onirogens.

I want this Megathread to point out the WHOLE world of onirogenics, from personal empirical experiences of substance/weed induced lucid dreams or astral experiences/OBEs to theories/hypotheses about what really happens in these cases.

My point of view is quite mystical, paranormal some would say. However I do not believe that the paranormal or mystical is outside of science, rather I believe that science is yet to discover or accept certain aspects of existence. So I mean, there's physical and chemical correlates of all these experiences but knowing and/or reproducing those correlates doesn't exhaust the meaning and subjective experience itself, its shamanistic power and meaning.

The relationship with dreams or "visions" as some cultures call them is as old as mankind. The shamanic relationship with dreams is very very similar to the shamanic relationship that is maintained through the use of psychedelics or delirogens. That is to say, all these herbs or substances serve practically to induce trances of transformation and communication, with the ancestors or the spirits/angels/demons.

The reasons for inducing these trances within shamanism and animistic cultures are usually of two types:
-to see the future (divination)
-to see the hidden present (e.g., to detect illnesses or the reasons behind an event, or someone's hidden intentions).
All this can be called "spiritual healing" within shamanism.


So to speak, the doors of perception open from two directions, that of sleep (onirogens) and that of wakefulness (psychedelics/delirogens). There are interesting intermediate cases such as ibogaine, which is considered an onirogenic psychedelic that induces a state of "subconscious" visions similar to REM.

As I do not want this first post to be too long I will not make an academic exposition on onirogenics and shamanism, but I will quote one of its most interesting exponents. The Sangomas of Africa and their medicine Ubulawu. It must be said that some subgroups of the Xhosa/Sangoma tribes use 2C-B nowadays, instead of their traditional beverages, mainly because it's easier to do, but not all do that nor I think it's "just the same".

One of the most interesting guys studying this stuff it's Jean François Sobiecki,
here's an excerpt of one of his papers:

"Southern Bantu diviners (e.g. Xhosa: amagqirha, Zulu: izangoma) are called to their profession by their ancestors. “The verb ukuthwasa refers to this process of becoming a diviner, and the noun intwaso to the state or condition of the person undergoing the process” (Hirst 1990: 89). The intwaso condition is characterised by a ‘trouble’ (inkathazo) that involves various illnesses, copious dreams and psychiatric disturbances (Callaway 1868). To become a diviner the initiate must first be cured of the intwaso condition. The treatment includes the use of special plant-based “medicines of the home” (HammondTooke 1998: 12), dieting with ubulawu and training in techniques of divination and curing. The novice is apprenticed to a practising healer who teaches him or her the ways of indigenous healing. Ill-health and misfortune are believed to stem from ancestral wrath, witchcraft or ritual pollution (Hammond-Tooke 1998). It is the diviner’s work to discover the cause of this misfortune and then to apply or recommend appropriate action, in the form of prescribing plant medicines or rituals."

In the same paper:

"My research yielded a list of 85 plants used for divinatory purposes, that is, during initiation, to enhance intuitive abilities, to promote dreaming and induce trance (Appendix 1). The plants are believed to be crucial to the development of special healing powers. The majority are administered internally. Of the 85 species, 39 (45 %) are known to have psychoactive properties (Sobiecki 2002). Appendix 2 lists plants used in non-divinatory healing, but which nevertheless have interesting psychoactive effects."

The Ubulawu medicine itself it's not just an herb or a mixture of herbs (well, Ubulawu CAN be a mixture of herbs...) but more like a family of herbs that are used to induce those trance states, mostly a mix of them, but it's not super clear which ones are. The most well known are already very famous in the Western world such as Uvuma Ohmlope (Synaptolepis Kirkii) Undlela Ziimlophe/African Dream Root (Silene Capensis/Undulata) and other less known herbs like African Dream seed (Entada Rheedii) or Ubhubhubhu (Helinus Integrifolius)
Here you can see one of the interesting papers with "unknown" psychoactives,(some of them pretty dangerous like Boophane Disticha):

http://www.ethnopharmacologia.org/prelude2020/pdf/biblio-hs-51-sobiecki.pdf

Apart from the South African traditional medicine there's other tribes using trance inducing herbs that work like oneirogens to put some easy examples we can go to South America, where tribes like Chontal use well known plants as Dream Herb/Thepelakano (Calea Ternifolia/Zacatechichi). This plant is used in divination, it causes different effects, slight sedation and dreamy feeling awake and long, vivid and crazy dreams during the night.
Some other example it's the use of Bobinsana (Caliandra Angustifolia) in the Dietas used by the ayahuasqueros in Amazonia. It's said that once you establish a relationship with the plant the Spirit of the plant can talk to you, specially during dreams and she appears as a siren (it's called Sirenita Bobinsana). It seems that this plant can have som MAOI activity, as Syrian Rue (Peganum Harmala), plant that can be also used as a sleep aid and oneirogen.

In the next post in this thread I would do a list of my experiences with different oneirogens and how I think they could be used and also. It's obviously a limited research, and probably there's people out there with 10x times/broader experience compared with me, but that's the reason I post this as a Megathread... because I'm pretty sure some people here can help and post their own experiences. I could think for example in @deficiT , @Xorkoth , @iridescentblack , @n3ophy7e, @G_Chem or @Kaleida . Pretty sure there's loads of people who could be interested, you can cite them if you know...
Please take into account that my next post will be quite long so it will take time to write it, I would like to have it in the first page of the thread so please don't write more than 2-5 posts in this thread till it's done (if you think it's and stupid "rule" please tell me).


Hope you will like this Thread! I thought we needed one!

 

[deficiT]

Awesome idea for a thread, I wanna say I tried to make something similar but it fell to the wayside would love to talk about it more. I feel I'm naturally tuned into "something". I've had lucid dreams, nightmares, sleep paralysis, the banshee, my whole life and eventually I decided enough was enough. I have even had premonitions. I predicted my father's death, as well as a car wreck.

So I started studying it more and have learned how to control it now. Now when I experience sleep paralysis or lucid dreaming, I gently press upwards so as to escape my body. It takes practice. Starts with an arm, and then eventually you feel yourself fly to through the ceiling and before you know it you're exploring the cosmos. Not for the faint of heart there's some freaky shit out there. Usually my trips are brief. I also feel some kind of connection to the dead but I can't really explain that, aside from deceased loved ones saying hi.

 

[deficiT]

But as freaky as it is when your astral body is traveling the cosmos, nothing is freakier than a shadow presence standing above you while you can't escape, which is why I learned how to control it.

 

[arrall]

As with many other survivors of childhood trauma, I've struggled with consistent, horrifying nightmares for as long as I can remember (Since at least age 3-4)
I've had experiences with lucid dreaming, sleep paralysis, and all that.
These nightmares drain me and often lead to me avoiding sleep when I am around a trigger (almost always my abusive family)
I'd love to use this thread to find a way to take my life back from something that has tormented me for nearly my entire life.

 

[Neuroborean]

Awesome idea for a thread, I wanna say I tried to make something similar but it fell to the wayside would love to talk about it more. I feel I'm naturally tuned into "something". I've had lucid dreams, nightmares, sleep paralysis, the banshee, my whole life and eventually I decided enough was enough. I have even had premonitions. I predicted my father's death, as well as a car wreck.

So I started studying it more and have learned how to control it now. Now when I experience sleep paralysis or lucid dreaming, I gently press upwards so as to escape my body. It takes practice. Starts with an arm, and then eventually you feel yourself fly to through the ceiling and before you know it you're exploring the cosmos. Not for the faint of heart there's some freaky shit out there. Usually my trips are brief. I also feel some kind of connection to the dead but I can't really explain that, aside from deceased loved ones saying hi.

I was about to do the second part of the "main post" but I'll do it tomorrow instead, I was quite busy today and here it's late at the moment..

I also think I've been "tuned to something" since I was a kid. I remember several dreams in which I saw things that happened hours or days later, although they were details, things of little importance. I also had vivid dreams, but they were usually recurring nightmares. Later the dreams turned into normal vivid dreams and then into lucid dreams.
In some of them, futuristic cities appeared, which he saw again months or years later in other dreams, recognizing them immediately, even if they were other "parts" or areas.

A few days ago I had my first "astral projection" which I did totally unintentionally and unintentionally. In fact, if you search my posts on BL you will see how I openly rejected the idea of astral projection as something negative as dangerous/risky, sketchy in a way.

The day I projected was very brief and I was quite surprised, I was a bit shocked for the first few hours. I didn't take anything in particular that day, except kratom (which has never given me anything but sleep paralysis). I think a very deep conversation with a friend was what "triggered" it.

I had been having sleep paralysis quite often in the past few years and that day came when I was calmer than ever, without any kind of overwhelm, I simply concentrated on the sensation of consciousness and not on the body and performed (without planning it much) a kind of "spinning", which did not result in the spinning of my body but in the spinning of the so-called "astral body" which separated from the body in a violent and almost orgasmic movement.
I suddenly entered a strange nebulous place, colored between orange, cream and brown, that looked like Jupiter or something, it had sparks and a windy sound. There I heard a voice: go away! go away from here!
And that was the end of my trip. I could have done it some other time (the "spinning") but I didn't consider it convenient. Maybe I will do it when I feel ready.

Have you been somewhere like this? have you been "attacked" by strange beings when you have been outside? or have they spoken to you? I know some people use sigils to get to certain places in the astral, I personally wouldn't do that.

Tomorrow I will write the second part of the post I promised. night night!

 

[deficiT]

I was about to do the second part of the "main post" but I'll do it tomorrow instead, I was quite busy today and here it's late at the moment..

I also think I've been "tuned to something" since I was a kid. I remember several dreams in which I saw things that happened hours or days later, although they were details, things of little importance. I also had vivid dreams, but they were usually recurring nightmares. Later the dreams turned into normal vivid dreams and then into lucid dreams.
In some of them, futuristic cities appeared, which he saw again months or years later in other dreams, recognizing them immediately, even if they were other "parts" or areas.

A few days ago I had my first "astral projection" which I did totally unintentionally and unintentionally. In fact, if you search my posts on BL you will see how I openly rejected the idea of astral projection as something negative as dangerous/risky, sketchy in a way.

The day I projected was very brief and I was quite surprised, I was a bit shocked for the first few hours. I didn't take anything in particular that day, except kratom (which has never given me anything but sleep paralysis). I think a very deep conversation with a friend was what "triggered" it.

I had been having sleep paralysis quite often in the past few years and that day came when I was calmer than ever, without any kind of overwhelm, I simply concentrated on the sensation of consciousness and not on the body and performed (without planning it much) a kind of "spinning", which did not result in the spinning of my body but in the spinning of the so-called "astral body" which separated from the body in a violent and almost orgasmic movement.
I suddenly entered a strange nebulous place, colored between orange, cream and brown, that looked like Jupiter or something, it had sparks and a windy sound. There I heard a voice: go away! go away from here!
And that was the end of my trip. I could have done it some other time (the "spinning") but I didn't consider it convenient. Maybe I will do it when I feel ready.

Have you been somewhere like this? have you been "attacked" by strange beings when you have been outside? or have they spoken to you? I know some people use sigils to get to certain places in the astral, I personally wouldn't do that.

Tomorrow I will write the second part of the post I promised. night night!

I have indeed been somewhere like this. It's like a dmt trip, akin to blasting off on a rocket ship. Mostly just cosmic stuff that I had a hard time comprehending. I realized I had gone way too far and needed to get back, so I fled back. It was my own fear of the unknown that compelled me. The only entity that truly frightened me was the man with no face or body, just a pitch black presence huddled over me while I tried to break the spell of sleep paralysis. You learn to control it in a way. Psychiatric meds and benzos have dimmed my midnight adventures lately. But when I come off, they come back with a vengeance.

 

[HOOH]

This has always interested me, I have had about 6 lucid dreams from years of practice but they have been quite hard to achieve, and I don't think I can recall any dream from the past month or so. Does anyone know good and chemically simple (e.g. not galantamine) oneirogens? Plants don't really interest me in this regard

 

[Kaleida]

Hi fellow Onironauts.

In my almost 20 years as a psychonaut I have been, until the last few years, more interested in psychedelics and substances that manipulate the conscious state than the so-called "unconscious".
During these years (since adolescence) I have had several naturally lucid dreams and also several sleep paralyses.
However, it was after studying philosophy, and as a result of several ultralucid experiences experienced during the pandemic confinement when I started to investigate about Onirogens.

I want this Megathread to point out the WHOLE world of onirogenics, from personal empirical experiences of substance/weed induced lucid dreams or astral experiences/OBEs to theories/hypotheses about what really happens in these cases.

My point of view is quite mystical, paranormal some would say. However I do not believe that the paranormal or mystical is outside of science, rather I believe that science is yet to discover or accept certain aspects of existence. So I mean, there's physical and chemical correlates of all these experiences but knowing and/or reproducing those correlates doesn't exhaust the meaning and subjective experience itself, its shamanistic power and meaning.

The relationship with dreams or "visions" as some cultures call them is as old as mankind. The shamanic relationship with dreams is very very similar to the shamanic relationship that is maintained through the use of psychedelics or delirogens. That is to say, all these herbs or substances serve practically to induce trances of transformation and communication, with the ancestors or the spirits/angels/demons.

The reasons for inducing these trances within shamanism and animistic cultures are usually of two types:
-to see the future (divination)
-to see the hidden present (e.g., to detect illnesses or the reasons behind an event, or someone's hidden intentions).
All this can be called "spiritual healing" within shamanism.


So to speak, the doors of perception open from two directions, that of sleep (onirogens) and that of wakefulness (psychedelics/delirogens). There are interesting intermediate cases such as ibogaine, which is considered an onirogenic psychedelic that induces a state of "subconscious" visions similar to REM.

As I do not want this first post to be too long I will not make an academic exposition on onirogenics and shamanism, but I will quote one of its most interesting exponents. The Sangomas of Africa and their medicine Ubulawu. It must be said that some subgroups of the Xhosa/Sangoma tribes use 2C-B nowadays, instead of their traditional beverages, mainly because it's easier to do, but not all do that nor I think it's "just the same".

One of the most interesting guys studying this stuff it's Jean François Sobiecki,
here's an excerpt of one of his papers:

"Southern Bantu diviners (e.g. Xhosa: amagqirha, Zulu: izangoma) are called to their profession by their ancestors. “The verb ukuthwasa refers to this process of becoming a diviner, and the noun intwaso to the state or condition of the person undergoing the process” (Hirst 1990: 89). The intwaso condition is characterised by a ‘trouble’ (inkathazo) that involves various illnesses, copious dreams and psychiatric disturbances (Callaway 1868). To become a diviner the initiate must first be cured of the intwaso condition. The treatment includes the use of special plant-based “medicines of the home” (HammondTooke 1998: 12), dieting with ubulawu and training in techniques of divination and curing. The novice is apprenticed to a practising healer who teaches him or her the ways of indigenous healing. Ill-health and misfortune are believed to stem from ancestral wrath, witchcraft or ritual pollution (Hammond-Tooke 1998). It is the diviner’s work to discover the cause of this misfortune and then to apply or recommend appropriate action, in the form of prescribing plant medicines or rituals."

In the same paper:

"My research yielded a list of 85 plants used for divinatory purposes, that is, during initiation, to enhance intuitive abilities, to promote dreaming and induce trance (Appendix 1). The plants are believed to be crucial to the development of special healing powers. The majority are administered internally. Of the 85 species, 39 (45 %) are known to have psychoactive properties (Sobiecki 2002). Appendix 2 lists plants used in non-divinatory healing, but which nevertheless have interesting psychoactive effects."

The Ubulawu medicine itself it's not just an herb or a mixture of herbs (well, Ubulawu CAN be a mixture of herbs...) but more like a family of herbs that are used to induce those trance states, mostly a mix of them, but it's not super clear which ones are. The most well known are already very famous in the Western world such as Uvuma Ohmlope (Synaptolepis Kirkii) Undlela Ziimlophe/African Dream Root (Silene Capensis/Undulata) and other less known herbs like African Dream seed (Entada Rheedii) or Ubhubhubhu (Helinus Integrifolius)
Here you can see one of the interesting papers with "unknown" psychoactives,(some of them pretty dangerous like Boophane Disticha):

http://www.ethnopharmacologia.org/prelude2020/pdf/biblio-hs-51-sobiecki.pdf

Apart from the South African traditional medicine there's other tribes using trance inducing herbs that work like oneirogens to put some easy examples we can go to South America, where tribes like Chontal use well known plants as Dream Herb/Thepelakano (Calea Ternifolia/Zacatechichi). This plant is used in divination, it causes different effects, slight sedation and dreamy feeling awake and long, vivid and crazy dreams during the night.
Some other example it's the use of Bobinsana (Caliandra Angustifolia) in the Dietas used by the ayahuasqueros in Amazonia. It's said that once you establish a relationship with the plant the Spirit of the plant can talk to you, specially during dreams and she appears as a siren (it's called Sirenita Bobinsana). It seems that this plant can have som MAOI activity, as Syrian Rue (Peganum Harmala), plant that can be also used as a sleep aid and oneirogen.

In the next post in this thread I would do a list of my experiences with different oneirogens and how I think they could be used and also. It's obviously a limited research, and probably there's people out there with 10x times/broader experience compared with me, but that's the reason I post this as a Megathread... because I'm pretty sure some people here can help and post their own experiences. I could think for example in @deficiT , @Xorkoth , @iridescentblack , @n3ophy7e, @G_Chem or @Kaleida . Pretty sure there's loads of people who could be interested, you can cite them if you know...
Please take into account that my next post will be quite long so it will take time to write it, I would like to have it in the first page of the thread so please don't write more than 2-5 posts in this thread till it's done (if you think it's and stupid "rule" please tell me).


Hope you will like this Thread! I thought we needed one!

I have three favorite oneirogens. They are as follows.

Calea (Dream Herb)

This was the first drug I ever tried for the sake of seeing if it had an effect on my dreams. The effect appeared to be very real and obvious, and since then it has remained a consistent effect every time I've ever used it. I usually just smoke it before bed because it's easier. I really like the way it mixes with cannabis for me - it adds an additional relaxing component to the high, as well as making the cannabis's light, quasi-psychedelic closed eye visuals become more vivid and contain more realistic imagery - but this does come with the caveat that the cannabis itself will make dreams less vivid and harder to remember if you're not already a regular cannabis user. I don't recommend mixing them if maximizing the dream-enhancing effect of calea is the goal, but if you do already use cannabis every day anyway and have no plans to stop, adding calea on top of it may still have a noticeable effect compared to what you're already used to.

Calea seems to do two things primarily to my dreams. The first is that it potentiates the aspect of my dreams where I'm usually walking around in crowds of people, like having dreams of being back in school or walking through a mall or airport or something, which is very common for me; I call this effect of calea "calea crowds" because it really is very obvious and extreme for me, it makes nearly every scene so densely packed and vividly so that it's practically like I could barely move in real life because there were so many people and they're very obviously also all carrying various things in their hands that wouldn't be present or clear to me in normal dreams, not necessarily things of any importance, but just to add to the level of detail. My most memorable "calea crowd" dream was one I had where I became lucid at a theme park and climbed up on top of a building and started doing Hulk jumps from one roof to the next, and as I looked down over the crowd below me, they were literally packed in like sardines, and quickly I noticed that I kept seeing the same faces repeating over and over again like tessellated tiles, almost as if my brain had run out of processing power for coming up with new faces because of how many there were already and was just looping the same background imagery together over and over hoping I wouldn't notice.

The second effect calea has on my dreams is adding a sense of emotional intensity to things that can resemble an action movie-like plot. It's very common for me to feel adrenaline rushes in calea dreams of the kind that would almost certainly wake me up most of the time in normal dreams, specifically without waking up as a result. I cannot remember a time this had a negative effect on my dreams, it was always exciting and seemed like a memorable story upon waking. The first time I ever tried calea, I went to bed and had a vivid dream about going to a two-story roller rink where a rave was being held and taking ecstasy and meeting a bunch of new people. I dreamt myself going home at the end of it and going to bed, and then woke up for real in my actual bed. It took me a moment to realize that none of it had actually happened.

Calea would almost certainly be my first choice if I were to purposefully use a drug specifically for no other reason than to enhance my dreams again.

Kratom

I have no non-negligible opioid tolerance, which should probably be stated upfront here. I don't know how much if at all any of what I'm about to say would apply to anyone who does. I do not recommend taking kratom on a regular basis specifically for use as a dream enhancer - I think that's a poor reason to get into regular use of an opioid, even a safer one like this - but I occasionally take kratom specifically at night, and it does enhance my dreams very significantly when I do.

The main reasons I use kratom are for pain or digestive issues when necessary. Most of the time I use it at night, the reason is because I have knowingly made poor dietary choices during the later part of the preceding day. I know that I'm going to have issues if I ate a bunch of cheese or something for instance, and I don't like suddenly waking up the in the middle of the night just to have to have an uncomfortable bathroom break and then go back to bed feeling gross, so I take a single kratom capsule (and never more than that) as I'm going to bed. This almost invariably allows me to sleep peacefully through the night and then wake up and have a more normal bathroom experience, which is great, I love kratom for this purpose.

When I do this, the dreams I have get very trippy and memorable. I haven't managed to define the difference as well for myself as with calea, but it's very obvious; I usually wake up thinking something like, "Holy shit, what was that? Ohhh yeah... kratom." It is to the point that I did come to the conclusion on my own that I do specifically think of kratom as an oneirogen, at least when used this way. I can't guarantee anything, but I could see the fact that I only use one capsule mattering; perhaps a higher dosage would disrupt dreaming in some other way(s).

I don't ever plan to use kratom this way for the same reason I wouldn't recommend to others using it this way just to get crazier dreams. I very much enjoy it when I do use it this way though.

Menthol

A long time ago on a forum I used to visit in my youth, I came across a thread of someone complaining that they were having vivid nightmares every night and didn't know why. I don't remember how exactly the conversation went anymore, but we came to the conclusion that the most likely culprit was the fact that they were eating whole bags of mentholated cough drops like candy at night before they went to bed.

I decided to use this information to launch an anecdotal investigation into the effects of using menthol as an oneirogen. Several of my friends and acquaintances joined in as well and we established a simple scientific method for describing the effects we got from our experiments. From what I remember people were mainly using mentholated cough drops, which do contain ingredients other than menthol, for what it's worth. Still, menthol was the defining similarity that brought us together to experiment.

From my own experience, I noticed a curious effect: in my mentholated dreams, I was naked, something which basically never happens normally. I specifically recall that the first time I tried it, I had a dream where I was not only naked, but was in bed with someone else and felt an emotional connection between us. I can't remember if I took the cough drop before bed, or if I did it in the early morning after already sleeping some and then went back to bed again.... I was into using the wake-back-to-bed method of inducing lucid dreams at the time.

When the others tried the menthol, they curiously noticed a similar impact. It's been a long time now, but I specifically remember that one of them had several sex dreams in a row, and raved about how effective the menthol had been. Another had a dream where several beautiful women were walking all around them, and they were so excited about it that they tried it again in combination with galantamine, and achieved the same kind of effect repeatedly whenever they used it, along with more vivid and frequent lucid dreams seemingly from the galantamine, if I remember correctly. Both of these experimenters were male.

A female friend who tried specifically did so after hearing about the sexual dreams, because she was very into BDSM and the idea sounded very appealing to her. Humorously, she described herself as frustratingly having a dream where all she did is sit in an open field and enjoy the peaceful happiness of it.

Others tried it as well, but I don't remember the specific anecdotes they gave. The general impression I came away with was that the kinds of effects people did seem to get, if any, were at least somewhat along the lines of what I have described here.

I'd recommend anyone to give it a shot if they're interested in trying a novel and safe dream enhancer too. It seemed to work for us, at least.

As with many other survivors of childhood trauma, I've struggled with consistent, horrifying nightmares for as long as I can remember (Since at least age 3-4)
I've had experiences with lucid dreaming, sleep paralysis, and all that.
These nightmares drain me and often lead to me avoiding sleep when I am around a trigger (almost always my abusive family)
I'd love to use this thread to find a way to take my life back from something that has tormented me for nearly my entire life.

I don't know how much you do or don't use cannabis, but I read in a different thread from last year that you had no tolerance to it, so I'm guessing not much?

This might seem like an odd recommendation, but I strongly suggest trying THC before bed, if that's something you'd be willing to try. This is probably the least stonery cannabis usage recommendation I've ever made; in fact, it has literally nothing to do with that, and I'd recommend it even to someone with severe PTSD who had never used a recreational drug in their life before.

Why?

Because THC is literally the best nightmare reducer known to man. I mean, I haven't read every single study ever to totally guarantee there's never been something better... but hear me out on this.

THC has been specifically investigated as a nightmare-reducing medication in PTSD patients. According to this paper describing medical uses of cannabis, "In an open-label pilot study by Fraser, 34 (72%) patients experienced total cessation or lessening of severity of nightmares (28 patients had total cessation of nightmares and 6 had satisfactory reduction). In a follow-up double-blind treatment study by Jetly et al., they showed that after starting nabilone (an oral synthetic THC) treatment, 7 out of 10 subjects (70%) scored nightmare reduction as very much improved or much improved, compared with 2 out of 9 (22%) on placebo as scored on the Clinical Global Impression of Change, a tool used by clinicians to measure changes in patients’ symptoms. They did not see any effect on sleep quality. Cameron et al. did a study that showed significant improvement in PTSD-associated insomnia and nightmares. Also, in contrast to the study by Jetly, the subjects had an increase in the number of hours slept (mean 5.0 h pretreatment versus 7.2 h post-treatment) as well as fewer nightmares (mean 5.2 pretreatment versus 0.9 post-treatment)."

In more than half of PTSD patients, THC literally just makes nightmares stop. It also reduces them significantly in another chunk of them. Obviously that means a smaller percentage still have them, but I mean, it seems worth recommending nonetheless.

Anecdotally, I never have nightmares while regularly using cannabis, at all (and I do often use it right before bed too). I often go years and years while having probably less than ten total. I used to have them fairly frequently as a child, and I still get them relatively quickly after I stop using cannabis for any extended period of time now. I'm currently at the beginning of a break and have just started getting them again.

I hope you get it figured out for yourself in any case.

This has always interested me, I have had about 6 lucid dreams from years of practice but they have been quite hard to achieve, and I don't think I can recall any dream from the past month or so. Does anyone know good and chemically simple (e.g. not galantamine) oneirogens? Plants don't really interest me in this regard

Read my above comments and give mentholated cough drops a try.

 

[Neuroborean]

This has always interested me, I have had about 6 lucid dreams from years of practice but they have been quite hard to achieve, and I don't think I can recall any dream from the past month or so. Does anyone know good and chemically simple (e.g. not galantamine) oneirogens? Plants don't really interest me in this regard

Gonna reply to you here, but this post it's more general, the second big post I wanted to do as the introduction of the Megathread, my experiences with different stuff and those substances that I've heard of.

I had experiences with different stuff, I'll try to sum it up:

Huperzine-A: the MOA (Mechanism of Action) is supposed to be AChE inhibitor, more choline normally means more attention/focus, clear mind and memory enhancement. It's also a mild NMDA antagonist.
It's a good nootropic, some days can feel stimulating and create a super strong focus, but other days it's barely noticeable, for that reason it's good to combine with a good choline source, (diet or supplements like Alpha GPC, cpd choline and the alike). For dreaming I found it works sometimes making dreams longer more memorable, narrative and interesting, increasing lucidity but it's not super reliable. I still didn't try using it as a WBTB (Wake back to bed) timing, normally EVERYTHING works better that way.

Galantamine: Never used it but it's the same mechanism, people normally consider it the best AChE inhibitor for Lucid dreaming.

Alpha GPC, CPD Choline, Choline bitartrate... : Good choline sources to support the action of AChE inhibitors. Never tried but there's enough literature and anecdotal evidence to list it.

Celastrus Paniculatus/intellect seeds: Quite obvious nootropic effects during wake hours, very clear minded, almost as transparent as a LSD microdose or a LSD come-up. People tend to increase slowly the dose over the course of weeks, till reaching 50-100 seeds (6-20 is a normal dose). I don't particularly like it but it's no placebo. People say it works for dreams, I didn't reach good results but I dind't try enough, if there's memory enhancements then seems logical it can do something. The MOA seems to be a mix but mainly AChE inhibition.

Silene Capensis: I list this very high on the list because there's loads of anecdotal evidence claiming you get incredible dreams but to be honest the way it's traditionally used seems TOTALLY different from how people use it because the quantities used traditionally are crazy. I've seen a photo in a blog where an african guy was moving a big spoon in a gigantic POT on which there was an enormous amount of Silene roots and there was the foamy thing that was building up in the pot for days.... Nowadays normal people use little quantities, like 300-1000mg, perhaps a bit more, in different forms. Taking during the day and night, several times a day till there's a build up of actives (saponins, it seems) in blood/brain. I tried it without success, but I wasn't patient enough to take it for more than 2-3 days and with something that seemed bad quality stuff. Will try again with better material and more discipline. MOA seems to be also an AChE inhibitor but not completely sure. Anecdotal reports claim that it causes "ancestors" dream/prophetic dreams and the alike.

Melatonin: never worked for me but seems to increase vividness, lenght and lucid likeliness in a lot of people. I've tried from microdoses 0.2mg to several mgs (10?). Never did a thing, but I seem to be very unresponsive and hardheaded for little quantities of indoles. The MOA seems to be REM enhancer and general sleep inducer (balances sleep phases).

Artemisias genus: for me the best I've tried is Artemisia Annua, much much better than normal mugwort (Artemisia Vulgaris) and I still don't have experience (enough) with other interesting Artemisias like Artemisia Absinthium or Artemisa Afra (there's loads of artemisias and most seems interesting). Absinthium seems to be specially psychoactive, both in dreams and in in wakefulness. Regular Mugwort didn't work for me (it does for loads of people), but Annua works intensely, taking +3grams of powder before bed. Dreams become much more vivid, they have specific themes (film-like, escaping, sci-fi, evil characters) and they have some strange dark vibe. If I go overboard with Annua I can get sleep paralysis and astral attacks from "agents" (that sometimes are not seen), other times I get distracted by succubus, specially when lucidity is reached. VERY interesting herbs for dreaming, that's for sure. The active could be thujone but it's not completele clear in my opinion and there's a lot of actives in the artemisia genus that could be onirogenic directly or indirectly (via oxygenation of tissues and affecting the brain as vinpocetine or gingko biloba).

5-HTP: I like to use it in combination more than on its own but it can be used on its own effectively. Seems to create 2 things that enhances dreams and dream recall: create more serotonin and a REM rebound during the last hours (after 5-6 hours of sound sleep). It has worked several times for me, but I generally don't have good recall so I like to use it along with some stuff that helps recall like artemisias or AChE inhibitors. It doesn't seem to change the characteristics of dreams.

Haritaki/Terminalia Chebula: I really don't think it's placebo but I cannot tell for sure that this worked for me. Several times when I've taken it I've had crazy dreams of strong emotional importance and those dreams that have that "moral of a fable" spirit in them. The actives in Haritaki are just too many to list, they are subtle but this plant is no joke in terms of medicinal effects, an amazing detox that it's said to "heavy metal detox" and to activate the "third eye". For me sometimes creates the conditions for epic dreams on which family members (alive, dead) appear, very unusual for me. Sadly, it's not consistent.

Ashwagandha: the biggest surprise in my case.
True, it has been a plant that I have used a lot and that I have used expressly for sleeping so I have had some discipline and consistency in using it. One day it worked out that I used it both to sleep before going to bed and then at 5-6 hours when I woke up. That's how it works best and it's usually pretty consistent. Its effect on GABA and increasing serotonin levels creates hyper-realistic dreams with a HIGH probability of lucidity and a very high degree of awareness and control. They are not as long as other dreams but they are very solid and vivid. Their theme is usually exploratory, urban or "peri-urban" adventures. The possibility of astral attacks and distortions is much lower (in my case) than with Artemisias, but some people report weird and "disturbing" dreams. I use powder form that seems more reliable than extracts. 3 +2 grams seems consistent and effective.

I will keep reporting my experiences with other stuff in other post, first I feel in the need of replying those who have written...

 

[Neuroborean]

I have three favorite oneirogens. They are as follows.

Calea (Dream Herb)

This was the first drug I ever tried for the sake of seeing if it had an effect on my dreams. The effect appeared to be very real and obvious, and since then it has remained a consistent effect every time I've ever used it. I usually just smoke it before bed because it's easier. I really like the way it mixes with cannabis for me - it adds an additional relaxing component to the high, as well as making the cannabis's light, quasi-psychedelic closed eye visuals become more vivid and contain more realistic imagery - but this does come with the caveat that the cannabis itself will make dreams less vivid and harder to remember if you're not already a regular cannabis user. I don't recommend mixing them if maximizing the dream-enhancing effect of calea is the goal, but if you do already use cannabis every day anyway and have no plans to stop, adding calea on top of it may still have a noticeable effect compared to what you're already used to.

Calea seems to do two things primarily to my dreams. The first is that it potentiates the aspect of my dreams where I'm usually walking around in crowds of people, like having dreams of being back in school or walking through a mall or airport or something, which is very common for me; I call this effect of calea "calea crowds" because it really is very obvious and extreme for me, it makes nearly every scene so densely packed and vividly so that it's practically like I could barely move in real life because there were so many people and they're very obviously also all carrying various things in their hands that wouldn't be present or clear to me in normal dreams, not necessarily things of any importance, but just to add to the level of detail. My most memorable "calea crowd" dream was one I had where I became lucid at a theme park and climbed up on top of a building and started doing Hulk jumps from one roof to the next, and as I looked down over the crowd below me, they were literally packed in like sardines, and quickly I noticed that I kept seeing the same faces repeating over and over again like tessellated tiles, almost as if my brain had run out of processing power for coming up with new faces because of how many there were already and was just looping the same background imagery together over and over hoping I wouldn't notice.

The second effect calea has on my dreams is adding a sense of emotional intensity to things that can resemble an action movie-like plot. It's very common for me to feel adrenaline rushes in calea dreams of the kind that would almost certainly wake me up most of the time in normal dreams, specifically without waking up as a result. I cannot remember a time this had a negative effect on my dreams, it was always exciting and seemed like a memorable story upon waking. The first time I ever tried calea, I went to bed and had a vivid dream about going to a two-story roller rink where a rave was being held and taking ecstasy and meeting a bunch of new people. I dreamt myself going home at the end of it and going to bed, and then woke up for real in my actual bed. It took me a moment to realize that none of it had actually happened.

Calea would almost certainly be my first choice if I were to purposefully use a drug specifically for no other reason than to enhance my dreams again.

Kratom

I have no non-negligible opioid tolerance, which should probably be stated upfront here. I don't know how much if at all any of what I'm about to say would apply to anyone who does. I do not recommend taking kratom on a regular basis specifically for use as a dream enhancer - I think that's a poor reason to get into regular use of an opioid, even a safer one like this - but I occasionally take kratom specifically at night, and it does enhance my dreams very significantly when I do.

The main reasons I use kratom are for pain or digestive issues when necessary. Most of the time I use it at night, the reason is because I have knowingly made poor dietary choices during the later part of the preceding day. I know that I'm going to have issues if I ate a bunch of cheese or something for instance, and I don't like suddenly waking up the in the middle of the night just to have to have an uncomfortable bathroom break and then go back to bed feeling gross, so I take a single kratom capsule (and never more than that) as I'm going to bed. This almost invariably allows me to sleep peacefully through the night and then wake up and have a more normal bathroom experience, which is great, I love kratom for this purpose.

When I do this, the dreams I have get very trippy and memorable. I haven't managed to define the difference as well for myself as with calea, but it's very obvious; I usually wake up thinking something like, "Holy shit, what was that? Ohhh yeah... kratom." It is to the point that I did come to the conclusion on my own that I do specifically think of kratom as an oneirogen, at least when used this way. I can't guarantee anything, but I could see the fact that I only use one capsule mattering; perhaps a higher dosage would disrupt dreaming in some other way(s).

I don't ever plan to use kratom this way for the same reason I wouldn't recommend to others using it this way just to get crazier dreams. I very much enjoy it when I do use it this way though.

Menthol

A long time ago on a forum I used to visit in my youth, I came across a thread of someone complaining that they were having vivid nightmares every night and didn't know why. I don't remember how exactly the conversation went anymore, but we came to the conclusion that the most likely culprit was the fact that they were eating whole bags of mentholated cough drops like candy at night before they went to bed.

I decided to use this information to launch an anecdotal investigation into the effects of using menthol as an oneirogen. Several of my friends and acquaintances joined in as well and we established a simple scientific method for describing the effects we got from our experiments. From what I remember people were mainly using mentholated cough drops, which do contain ingredients other than menthol, for what it's worth. Still, menthol was the defining similarity that brought us together to experiment.

From my own experience, I noticed a curious effect: in my mentholated dreams, I was naked, something which basically never happens normally. I specifically recall that the first time I tried it, I had a dream where I was not only naked, but was in bed with someone else and felt an emotional connection between us. I can't remember if I took the cough drop before bed, or if I did it in the early morning after already sleeping some and then went back to bed again.... I was into using the wake-back-to-bed method of inducing lucid dreams at the time.

When the others tried the menthol, they curiously noticed a similar impact. It's been a long time now, but I specifically remember that one of them had several sex dreams in a row, and raved about how effective the menthol had been. Another had a dream where several beautiful women were walking all around them, and they were so excited about it that they tried it again in combination with galantamine, and achieved the same kind of effect repeatedly whenever they used it, along with more vivid and frequent lucid dreams seemingly from the galantamine, if I remember correctly. Both of these experimenters were male.

A female friend who tried specifically did so after hearing about the sexual dreams, because she was very into BDSM and the idea sounded very appealing to her. Humorously, she described herself as frustratingly having a dream where all she did is sit in an open field and enjoy the peaceful happiness of it.

Others tried it as well, but I don't remember the specific anecdotes they gave. The general impression I came away with was that the kinds of effects people did seem to get, if any, were at least somewhat along the lines of what I have described here.

I'd recommend anyone to give it a shot if they're interested in trying a novel and safe dream enhancer too. It seemed to work for us, at least.



I don't know how much you do or don't use cannabis, but I read in a different thread from last year that you had no tolerance to it, so I'm guessing not much?

This might seem like an odd recommendation, but I strongly suggest trying THC before bed, if that's something you'd be willing to try. This is probably the least stonery cannabis usage recommendation I've ever made; in fact, it has literally nothing to do with that, and I'd recommend it even to someone with severe PTSD who had never used a recreational drug in their life before.

Why?

Because THC is literally the best nightmare reducer known to man. I mean, I haven't read every single study ever to totally guarantee there's never been something better... but hear me out on this.

THC has been specifically investigated as a nightmare-reducing medication in PTSD patients. According to this paper describing medical uses of cannabis, "In an open-label pilot study by Fraser, 34 (72%) patients experienced total cessation or lessening of severity of nightmares (28 patients had total cessation of nightmares and 6 had satisfactory reduction). In a follow-up double-blind treatment study by Jetly et al., they showed that after starting nabilone (an oral synthetic THC) treatment, 7 out of 10 subjects (70%) scored nightmare reduction as very much improved or much improved, compared with 2 out of 9 (22%) on placebo as scored on the Clinical Global Impression of Change, a tool used by clinicians to measure changes in patients’ symptoms. They did not see any effect on sleep quality. Cameron et al. did a study that showed significant improvement in PTSD-associated insomnia and nightmares. Also, in contrast to the study by Jetly, the subjects had an increase in the number of hours slept (mean 5.0 h pretreatment versus 7.2 h post-treatment) as well as fewer nightmares (mean 5.2 pretreatment versus 0.9 post-treatment)."

In more than half of PTSD patients, THC literally just makes nightmares stop. It also reduces them significantly in another chunk of them. Obviously that means a smaller percentage still have them, but I mean, it seems worth recommending nonetheless.

Anecdotally, I never have nightmares while regularly using cannabis, at all (and I do often use it right before bed too). I often go years and years while having probably less than ten total. I used to have them fairly frequently as a child, and I still get them relatively quickly after I stop using cannabis for any extended period of time now. I'm currently at the beginning of a break and have just started getting them again.

I hope you get it figured out for yourself in any case.



Read my above comments and give mentholated cough drops a try.

It's pretty late here so my reply will be short in comparasion to yours, but well, this is thought to be a megathread so I hope it will get some feedback long-term-ly.
I've heard about menthol and I consider it very interesting, I have several "mentholated" plants around me, as I grow several species of the mint family (lamiaceae) which have high amounts of menthol. So I'll try quidding on some in the next future or perhaps going directly to the menthol cough drops..
I generally don't like sex dreams because at least half of the times I also get strange feelings during the "sex" with that "girls" and some other times they are strange shapeshifters or who knows what.
I'm not generally "afraid" in any way of sex in real life nor I feel repressed so I don't know what's going on with this, since it's been happening to me not so long ago (around 2 years). In anycase I would like to try just to see how that works, perhaps I could be like your BDSM-friendly friend and I end up in a peaceful dream.

For me, Kratom nowadays It's the opposite of a oneirogen. I made a thread not so long ago with a poll asking how kratom affects people and some don't feel any change at all and some others report changes in dreams, in quality, intensity... and other parameters. In my case that could be the case in the beginning, perhaps, because it help me sleeping soundly and the first changes in the serotonin transporters/receptors could trigger some unusual stuff like yours. Nowadays I'm a "chronic" user, 5 years, but not daily all those 5. I tend to do t-breaks (last time +1 month long) every 2-4 months but I use it more than 2ice a day when I use it, for medicinal reasons, so it makes sense that it changes my brain not for the best and when I have tolerance it's almost like cannabis in my case.
Maybe I got use to the kratom dreams? could be, but I remember being so vivid at the beginning, the first year, it was amazing, I imagine that it drains your brain long-term so it cannot help in anyway once you're dependent on it.

Calea zacatechichi:
I still need to do some experiments with it. I've read crazy things about the dose, some people like Jonathan Ott recommending 1g/kg! I don't know if fresh or dried, but seems crazy to me... I did several teas but never took more than 2 days straight since the taste is pretty horrid and vile.
The third day, when I stopped using it, I had a super shocking experience with a terrible false awakening + sleep paralysis + unbelievable stuff. Probably was triggered by a psychedelic use I did days ago when that happent but I'm not sure.
After that I decided just to try the herb smoked, normally with Klip Dagga (makes a good mix). When I do this just one day nothing happens, if I do this for several days I notice changes in my dreams, I have MORE dreams like I could remember every dream I have and I normally wake up at the end or middle of the dream and I could keep waking up and sleeping without much trouble which is not normally the case. The dreams seem very organic, very organized but they seem to have a movie-plot as you say, but I cannot really say what's going on completely, like something is missing in the script, they just develop too fast and they are quite emotional as you have said. It's interesting what you have said about the rave dream because with Calea dreams I have also the feeling that my mind it's "creating" the plot as a script in that very moment, so it's like it's "happening" to me but I'm not completely asleep, but in some sort of "in between" world so when I woke up I don't feel detached from the dream, cause I feel like it was very not super deep into it, like if it was some kind of super elaborated doze, more than Inception-like Parallel universes.

The first time I used Calea in the form of tea it was with a "big" amount so the effects on waking self were stronger than other times. I had interesting up-lifting, dreamy feelings, a sense of peace and a quasi-psychedelic visual enhancement, and headspace. I doze off in the bed for an hour and had strong and detailed CEVs, but more like hypnagogic stuff, similar but more detailed than kratom hypnagogia (in high doses). When I smoke I only feel a sense of peace and presence, that's quite interesting in anycase.

I have more experiences with other stuff so I would keep posting here my experiments next days. Tonight gonna rest, really need it!

 

[Neuroborean]

have indeed been somewhere like this. It's like a dmt trip, akin to blasting off on a rocket ship. Mostly just cosmic stuff that I had a hard time comprehending. I realized I had gone way too far and needed to get back, so I fled back. It was my own fear of the unknown that compelled me. The only entity that truly frightened me was the man with no face or body, just a pitch black presence huddled over me while I tried to break the spell of sleep paralysis. You learn to control it in a way.

Now I think that I kinda control it, but it's something recent. I don't enter into a psychologic panic and I just chill and soothe myself out then I could decide if I want to "jump" into astral or not. But I only decided to do it once so maybe I'm assuming too much... I think it's like riding a bycicle so once you do it it's not so difficult anymore.
I never seen entities apart from in the dreams, but they were always humans, or mostly humanoids. They tend to shapeshift into people I know or beautiful girls so I become more "attracted" to them and trust them...

Yeah man, those places are frightening because you don't know what the heck is going on, the atmosphere is too dense and there's some kind of energy there that feels disturbing. I don't think I would like to go there, but I'm not completely sure about it since I'm naturally very curious. It's strange that the first time I went out of my body I directly reach there. Why? I don't get it, it wasn't on purpose.

As with many other survivors of childhood trauma, I've struggled with consistent, horrifying nightmares for as long as I can remember (Since at least age 3-4)
I've had experiences with lucid dreaming, sleep paralysis, and all that.
These nightmares drain me and often lead to me avoiding sleep when I am around a trigger (almost always my abusive family)
I'd love to use this thread to find a way to take my life back from something that has tormented me for nearly my entire life.

Hi man, excuse me for the late reply, I get here normally on late night and I feel quite sleepy so I tend to write a couple posts check "my" subforum and say goodbye. Last days I've been using kratom (I was more than a month off) and I get specially sleepy.
I got nightmares for years, but I'm not sure why, I guess that my mother being divorced the same time when I was 1yo and things like that affected me, but I also went to some schools that I barely remember so I don't know what to think about that... I always think a bit paranoid about that.

There's quite a lot of dream herbs for avoiding nightmares, I need to check it out, but I remember Blue lotus being one of them, I'll check the rest for you asap.

 

[Kaleida]

Calea zacatechichi:
I still need to do some experiments with it. I've read crazy things about the dose, some people like Jonathan Ott recommending 1g/kg!

I don’t want to seem like I’m ignoring your post but I don’t have a lot to add other than saying it makes sense and I’ll be interested to hear how it goes if you do try any menthol stuff. But damn, that is a massive amount of calea. Literally all I ever did was smoke like a joint or two I think before bed and it worked for me. I always heard the tea was super nasty, glad I made the right choice in avoiding it lol.

 

[Neuroborean]

I don’t want to seem like I’m ignoring your post but I don’t have a lot to add other than saying it makes sense and I’ll be interested to hear how it goes if you do try any menthol stuff. But damn, that is a massive amount of calea. Literally all I ever did was smoke like a joint or two I think before bed and it worked for me. I always heard the tea was super nasty, glad I made the right yhoice in avoiding it lol.

You did right, ... Calea tastes even good when you smoke it, I like it! on tea is the most vile thing ever, only surpassed by San Pedro cactus tar...

yep, it's a massive amount of calea, perhaps it's fresh but I can imagine doing that and having incredible dreams. I think oneirogenic ethnomedicine/entheogenia it's overlooked because of the difference between real ritualistic use and amateurs.
I want to plant my own Calea, I'll do whenever possible.

 

[Ismene2]

Great post Neurorabian. I had more of an interest in dreams before I started tripping - now dreams pretty dull and colourless

 

[Neuroborean]

Great post Neurorabian. I had more of an interest in dreams before I started tripping - now dreams pretty dull and colourless

For me dreaming seems to come in waves, for years, months.. even the same month depending on several factors, like the moon phase... I will write about it tomorrow in fact, now I was reading Trout's notes on Aizoaceaes (good stuff!!) cause I plan to do another post about that.
Now I'm gonna sleep! will take some Nelumbo Nucifera resin tea, just in case I have good dreams...

 

[arrall]

A lot of interesting stuff in this thread.
I’ve had quite a few lucid dreams but never properly astrally projected.
Once I have a safer living situation and my CPTSD/nightmare issues have improved, I plan to experiment more with both of these.

Ashwagandha

KSM-66 gave me vivid nightmares with such intensity that I had to quit using it after 2 days. I retried it again and got the same effect from one dose.
I will retry this again for stress and for its effects as a oneirogen when my living situation & CPTSD improve.

 

[gordonliddy]

As with many other survivors of childhood trauma, I've struggled with consistent, horrifying nightmares for as long as I can remember (Since at least age 3-4)
I've had experiences with lucid dreaming, sleep paralysis, and all that.
These nightmares drain me and often lead to me avoiding sleep when I am around a trigger (almost always my abusive family)
I'd love to use this thread to find a way to take my life back from something that has tormented me for nearly my entire life.

Fam have you tried Marijuana? Silly question perhaps. I stopped dreaming for years when I smoked right before bed. Does this work for you?

 

[arrall]

Fam have you tried Marijuana? Silly question perhaps. I stopped dreaming for years when I smoked right before bed. Does this work for you?

I don't know how much you do or don't use cannabis, but I read in a different thread from last year that you had no tolerance to it, so I'm guessing not much?

This might seem like an odd recommendation, but I strongly suggest trying THC before bed, if that's something you'd be willing to try. This is probably the least stonery cannabis usage recommendation I've ever made; in fact, it has literally nothing to do with that, and I'd recommend it even to someone with severe PTSD who had never used a recreational drug in their life before.

I’ve tried cannabis for sleep on-and-off a fair bit. I had a prescription for it when I was underage.

I generally find that THC makes me feel too foggy-headed and unproductive the day after.
It also seems to somewhat reduce my sleep quality.
It can sometimes actually have a stimulating effect and make it harder for me to sleep.
With that said, THC IS indeed very effective at preventing me from dreaming.
If I used it daily, I would be worried about the psychological rebound symptoms when I travel and have to go without it (Most countries will not allow you to bring prescription cannabis with you from Canada, and also will not give temporary prescriptions to non-residents)

Megadosing full spectrum CBD oil (50-100mg) a few hours before bed seemed to work a lot better for me than THC.

I unfortunately don’t have access to either one right now as I am in Australia, but will probably retry both when I return home.

 

[HOOH]

Read my above comments and give mentholated cough drops a try.

Wow great read! Any recommendation for a cheap and chemically pure(ish) menthol source? Will def have to try out as soon as I get my sleep schedule stabilized near a point where dream recall could even be attempted

 

[Neuroborean]

Wow great read! Any recommendation for a cheap and chemically pure(ish) menthol source? Will def have to try out as soon as I get my sleep schedule stabilized near a point where dream recall could even be attempted

If you really are "anti-plants" for whatever reason.. you may like to use a nicotine patch before sleeping, that's well known to cause vivid dreams.
I didn't try it but it has numerous reports.