Reach Lucidity using B-vitamins?

Posted on February 7, 2007
Filed Under Lucid Dream, uncategorized |

Being a fanatic of Lucid Dreaming, I am constantly looking for new ways to increase my ability to reach lucidity. Anyone who knows about lucid dreaming, know that it takes a lot of practice to get it right. After reading this thread at the forum on LD4All, I was interested in trying out this method, using B-vitamin to increase my ability to get lucid dreams. However, I am not a huge fan of taking more vitamins, than the recommended dose. Generally I am taking one multi-vitamin pill, once each day. Even though the name “vitamin” makes you think of it, as a healthy choice, too much can certainly be damaging.

According to the guys over at the LD4ALL forum, the specific vitamin to use is B6. So I went to Wikipedia, to read a bit more about it. Here is the first thing which really caught my attention:

At least one preliminary study has found that this vitamin may increase dream vividness or the ability to recall dreams. It is thought that this effect may be due to the role this vitamin plays in the conversion of tryptophan to serotonin.

These three lines were more than enough to convince me. So I started looking for the recommended dose. The guy who started this thread, took 200 mg before going to bed. At Wikipedia I found this:

In order to prevent sensory neuropathy in virtually all individuals, the Food and Nutrition Board of the Institute of Medicine set the tolerable upper intake level (UL) for pyridoxine at 100 mg/day for adults. Because placebo-controlled studies have generally failed to show therapeutic benefits of high doses of pyridoxine, there is little reason to exceed the UL of 100 mg/day.

Since this is only a short term experiment, I decided to go with the upper level for a few days to see if this would give any results. So I went down to the local pharmacy and bought a pack of B complex. Besides B6, it also contains B1, B2, B5 and B12.

I took my first dose last night before I went to bed, and I will be doing the same for the next four days. The results will be posted here:

First night:
I took one pill last night before I went to bed, and I slept great. It certainly felt like I had more dreams than usually. Since I was off from work that day, I woke up when my girlfriend got up, but I stayed in bed. This resulted in some kind of half-a-sleep & half-a-wake situation, where the dreams I had, probably resembles more of daydreaming, than the ones I have during REM. When I got up, I could not distinct the morning and night time dreams from each other. Hence I was only able to write one page in my dream journal, which is close to an average day. I had no lucid dreams, and I am not sure the dreams I had, felt more vivid. It is difficult to tell if it was easier to recall the dreams due to the morning situation. Having more dreams than usually might be a placebo effect, since I was rather hyped about this last night. However, it sure felt like it had some kind of effect on me, so I am continuing my project. Tomorrow I will set my alarm clock, so I won’t be in this situation again. Stay tuned.

Second night:
Throughout the entire day I did a lot of reality checks. I spend a few hours in front of my laptop, which is the time where I often forget to do my checks. So I used my brothers new program discreet reminder, to keep me reminded.

Just as yesterday, I took a pill right before going to bed. I read a few pages about lucid dreaming before falling a sleep, since this has helped me before, when trying to reach lucidity. Just as the night before, it felt like I had more dreams than usually. This time they also seemed to be more vivid and clear than any other day. When my alarm clock rang, I got up right away, and wrote in my dream journal. I was only able to recall two dream, but I got it very detailed compared to what I normally do. I did not get any lucid dream. This annoys me, since there were a few, very unrealistic moments, which I remember perfectly clear. It’s frustrating. I should have been able to tell that this is not possible, so I must be dreaming, but I didn’t.
Anyway, it has been easier to do dream recalls, and the dreams seemed more clear and vivid, which should make it easier to get a lucid dream. Hopefully I will be more lucky tonight. Until then, another day filled with reality checks.
To be continued.

Third night:
Just like yesterday, I did a lot of reality checks throughout the day. I tried to keep my mind on the dreams I had last night, to see if I was able to recall any additional details. Before I went to bed I read an article on Steve Pavlina´s blog, called Dream Food which was rather inspiring, and it helped me to keep my mind on the subject. I took my vitamin an hour before I went to bed. I had several dreams during this night, three of them which I remembered perfectly clear, and the last one being a lucid dream! This was an amazing feeling. I was walking around in the streets of Copenhagen. It was snowing and people are wearing winter clothes. Suddenly I realized I was wearing shorts, but I was not feeling cold. This seemed a bit odd, and I realized that I was dreaming. I started to run on the walls, and perform crazy jumps. People was looking at me like I was Spiderman, and I felt great! Some minutes later my alarm clock rang. I went up and wrote my dream journal. I got one page on the first two dreams and two pages about my lucid dream.

I am sure the B-vitamin has a positive effect on my abilities to reach lucidity. It sure makes it easier for me to remember my dreams, and it makes them more vivid. As I have mentioned above, this might just be a placebo effect. When I take the vitamin, hoping for it to have some kind of effect on me, it obviously makes me think about lucid dreaming throughout the day, which might just make it easier to actually get a lucid dream. Either way, I am sure it helps.
Two nights more to come.

Fourth night:
Last night I messed things up a bit, due to a late night out with the guys. A few beers too much made me sleep like a rock. Actually I did remember to take my vitamin when I got home, but I was not able to recall anything when I woke up. This goes both for my dreams, and for the last hours of the night out. I was fairly hangover the entire day, which made me think more about hamburgers than lucid dreams. When I went to bed, I forgot to take my vitamin, and the day after I decided to stop this experiment, to give my body a rest from the B-vitamin.

Conclusion:
In the beginning I was a little anxious about the high dose of B-vitamin. However, I have seen no signs of side effects. I am sure it makes it easier for me reach lucidity, this being placebo or not. However, I am sure that such a high dose of one specific vitamin is unhealthy for my body, which is why a break is necessary. But I am definitely going to try this again, sometime in the future.

Comments

7 Responses to “Reach Lucidity using B-vitamins?”

  1. Marty on February 10th, 2007 12:53 pm

    I have a question for you because you have been doing research on what helps dreams become more vivid. How much of an affect could either of the following being had separate or all in one day have on a person’s dreams being vivid?; White grape juice, banana shake (milk, two bananas, cinnamon and whole ice), a bunch of mini carrots, and/or an orange. I ask you this because you have looked up stuff about vitamins and such.

  2. Marty on February 11th, 2007 6:56 pm

    Nevermind my top comment, the reason i asked that question was because two nights ago, i had the most vivid dream i had had in a very long time where i was actually able to recall it an hour later after i had woken up. I did take the time to type it down (I got about 85% of it down). I did some reasearch about the foods i ate (because earlier that day before i went to bed i ate a bunch of things that hadn’t eaten in awhile. Well i’ve come to learn, and this may help support the Vitamin B6 theory, that the majority of the food i ate were great sources of vitamin B6 (I had other things besides what is listed in my above comment). Good luck on your experiment, and i’ll continue to read your updates.

  3. Lucid Dreaming Techniques on June 19th, 2007 9:34 pm

    Recommended Reading…

    What good reading can be found on Internet? Interesting links for lucid dreaming….

  4. Sume Diang on January 10th, 2008 2:37 am

    I’d be curious to find out if you ever took up this experiment again. Dreams are rather fascinating but I’ve never heard of anyone making a concerted effort to have a lucid dream. I can barely even remember the ones I have. Also, were you not concerned that the Food and Nutrition board mentioned neuropathy? Would an overdose of B-vitamins really cause that?

  5. Katarin on January 23rd, 2008 2:53 pm

    Would an overdose of B vitamins really cause a lucid dream ?? That´s very intresting… Vitamin B6 plays a very important role in the maintenance of the bodies systems and it is recommend that a person takes in at least 1.3 mg of Vitamin B6 daily. So it´s easy to try.

  6. gordman on February 5th, 2008 7:23 pm

    This is a very interesting discussion, it’s actually the first time I hear about this and I find it hard to believe that an vitamin overdose and enhance lucidity results. I think it would be mostly useful to have a detailed vitamin discussion here.

  7. Rent a Snowboard in Whistler on February 7th, 2008 6:52 am

    I am intrigued as to whether Vitamin B actually does help. As a kid in Australia, i used to lucid dream a fair bit, and I used to eat Vegemite a fair bit (high in Vitamin B’s I believe). Maybe it was just being a child, and having an more open mind, and maybe the Vegemite helped. I recently got some more sent over from Australia. Maybe I will start having it before bed, instead of in the mornings, and see what happens.

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