# Sleep and Dreams > Research >  >  Quiting Marijuana: Effects on Dream Recall/Lucidity

## Alucinor XIII

For the past month or two I've been trying to compromise between smoking and dreaming. My results have been consistent: sporadic success, with most all dreams of lower quality. I'm now going to quit 100%. This little project will not necessarily prove that the effects of marijuana are negative for everyone, just for me. 

Also, this little thread is mostly for me. A solid goal to distract myself from smoking, hopefully. It's hard to stop in a house that's as hazy as mine. Perhaps I'll stumble upon some good advice. =P

*Background:* Discovered Lucid Dreaming through a childhood interest in Astral Projects, which faded with age. I've practiced dreaming, so to speak, for about 3 years, on and off. Probably a total of 1 year. I did not smoke until the later 1/4th of that time. 

I was a fast learner when it came to dreams. I had my first lucid the second day of learning about it, and had a couple month for several months. There was a second stretch where I had a lucid dream or two every week. And I've had a week where I was lucid every night. 

I'd rate myself an "intermediate" lucid dreamer. Dream control has never been a problem for most of my dreams, however it seems like using it destabilizes the dream regardless. Longevity is something I need to work on, and I'm currently working on WILD. I've only succeeded once, after waking up and drinking a cup of coffee, then suddenly getting tired and trying to go to bed.)

*Day #1*

Today was my last day of smoking. Drank an Emergen-C and took a 5mg Melatonin, just to give me a boost from the beginning. Dreams from this morning were foggy fragments, little more.

Current LD Goals: (A) Find my Dream Guide (or in other words, a representation of my subconscious/ego) 
(B) Summon Beetlejuice
(C) Explore a Castle.

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## IAMHaven

I'm sort of in the same boat. I smoke a good bit and I think a big problem is that i'm used to smoking before i go to sleep, which i have to imagine is terrible for dream recall. that's not to say that i havent had vivid dreams doing that, and i havent remembered my dreams since i started smoking, but cutting it out at night is definately on the menu. it's going to be hard for me as well, i live in a hazy house as well.

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## nito89

*I also live in a hazy house!!
Although I have to be honest I have found that weed does not damage my recall what so ever, what I have noticed is that my dreams are much longer. I'm guessing this is due to the rem rebound effect!
Good luck on quitting though, its so hard when your bored! Ive now limited myself to weekend smoking. Which is nice cause it's more of a treat, instead of just thinking I'm bored and it's 4:20, may as well!!! 
I'll be keeping an eye on this thread as it's pretty interesting =]. 
Nito.*

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## StonedApe

My thoughts on this are that when you quit smoking you have more energy and ambition. This is what increases recall. I quit smoking for a bit about a week ago and my recall hasn't really improved much, but I haven't really been directing my attention toward it.

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## neurosisfish

Good luck with this man, 
When I smoke I rarely remembered my dreams, but that just may be because I would get distracted
I've noticed that, for me, it's just the motivation to recall my dreams and the practice that helps
I've also got some B6 im going to try tonight
gl hf

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## Matt123

Anyone tried smoking Datura with weed? I've been vaping crushed datura seeds recently with a big impact on my dreams being vividness and length. Going to try both together later this coming week or next.
(I know Datura is dangerous, I only use 2 -3 seeds and slowly add more until I hit 10 - 11 seeds vaped, I havn't felt any nausea ect [only mild drowsiness and a small "high" and pupil dialation] probably due to low dose though a definite dream enhancer)

PS. I do NOT recommend anyone to start consuming Datura irresponsibly! It is a toxic plant and can cause intense delirium! Only use 1 -3 seeds in the beginning and later add more between 1 hour periods~ since you will never know how potent the seed will be I advice you to start with 1 - 3 if you choose to try Datura. That said, Datura is a beautiful plant that can benefit you if used responsibly! 
PPS. Since I use a vaporizer it might have an effect on the seeds.

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## hashmash89

Cannabis only affected my dream recall negatively when i believed it would. I would also try to compromise between cannabis and dreams, but this caused me a lot of suffering(not physical suffering, just the uncertainty in my mind) Now i look at it completely differently and as a result, have better recall then most non-smokers and smokers i know.

That being said I fully support you and wish you luck. Everyone is different and if you feel this will help you grow as an individual, or even just improve your dream recall, then i say go for it. Luckily quiting cannabis isn't all that difficult. Like nito said you will mostly be dealing with boredom. I personally have an extremely difficult time getting to sleep without some indica, but i have had problems sleeping my whole life so... Like i said good luck  ::D:

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## Alucinor XIII

*Day #2*

Had unexpected night of drinking. In spite of a mild hang-over, I remembered a few slivers and fragments of dreams, but I lost them as I got out of bed. As a side note: I've learned that Cisco (the alcohol) is evil. 

And I have to agree with what most people here have said. It's definitely not impossible to dream and smoke, but I find that I have to put a lot more effort into my LDing and it's not quite as vivid/crisp as when I've been sober for a while. 

Edit: I forgot to mention. As a "control", my sober Dream Recall, at its best, was 3 full dreams a night. Since I started smoking it's about 2-3 dreams a week.

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## Alucinor XIII

*Day #3* 

Holy REM-rebound batman! Having drank the night before, followed by little sleep, cooked up a very long, vivid dream last night. 

Short version:
I had just moved in to a new apartment with friends, and I was doing my delivery job which happened to be right down the street.I happened upon some people in the attic, and they were having a meeting of some sort, and I was told to get out.

 Later, I was given a delivery-order by them, and ended up being chased down town. Whatever was in the bag, they wanted it really bad. Resulted in climbing several flight of stairs, and then jumping from a 3 story building to lose him. 

When I arrived at the drop-off location, I hurried in, panicked already, and shut the door behind me. As I turned around, there were show-cases with panels and scrolls, all with a Slash of blood across them, as well as on the doors...I got INCREDIBLY bad vibes from it, and I got the feeling I was locked in and something bad was going to happen...

That made me start to wake up, and I became lucid at that point. It was too late to save that dream, but I tried to DEILD. However, I only stared at darkness for about 3-4 minutes.

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## neurosisfish

> *Day #3* 
> 
> Holy REM-rebound batman! Having drank the night before, followed by little sleep, cooked up a very long, vivid dream last night. 
> 
> Short version:
> I had just moved in to a new apartment with friends, and I was doing my delivery job which happened to be right down the street.I happened upon some people in the attic, and they were having a meeting of some sort, and I was told to get out.
> 
>  Later, I was given a delivery-order by them, and ended up being chased down town. Whatever was in the bag, they wanted it really bad. Resulted in climbing several flight of stairs, and then jumping from a 3 story building to lose him. 
> 
> ...



Haha good to hear! I love it when you've just had a dry spell and then the first time your recall get it back it hits hard

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## Chimpertainment

weed kills my recall...unless....I wake up in the middle of the night, stay conscious for a few minutes and go back to sleep. I can have full vivid dreams that way but it still inhibits recall, awareness etc....Ive been dry from mj for bout 2 weeks now and ive been having longer more vivid dreams, more recall and lucidity is right around the corner....In an involuntary treatment so ill be dry for a while...looking forward to seeing what happens with my dreams and how intermittent smoking will affect me when treatment is over...

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## Alucinor XIII

I failed at this, hardcore. Not a great deal to do around here and time passed by so slow sometimes when I'm sober. Not to mention my friends (and their friends) constantly are tokin' up in my face.

Blah, excuses, excuses... I'm going to give this another try.

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## hashmash89

Do you meditate? Last time i took a tolerance break i just upped my meditation time. It helped a lot. 

It would be rough if your friends are constantly smoking around you, make it clear to them you are trying not to smoke and maybe they wont be so blatant about it.

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## nito89

*Honestly man it's always boredom that gets you when your trying to give sweet Mary Jane the cold shoulder, I've found that with weed if i smoke and stop for an hour or so before bed, it won't effect my recall or vividness at all. So my advice would be try to limit yourself to weekend smoking, and don't smoke past 9PM. But good luck with your next try man =].*

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## LSDgarfield

I smoke MArijuana too, but that doesnt affect my Dream recall bla , as i dont dream after tokin a joint.
Smoke _Silene Capensis_ African Dreamroot.

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## Baron Samedi

Hmm....

Yes, cannabis can weaken recall for some people. My hypothesis on this is that it slows brainwaves, so you are in Delta brainwave state more as you sleep. These dreams are harder to remember, as opposed to REM dream.  One thing you can do is just to stop for two or three days. There are also many techniques and supplements you can use to boost recall.

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## hashmash89

Nito makes a good point about not smoking before bed. If you are awake another hour or two after you have last smoked you should really have no problem. So if you do smoke one day; dont get discouraged, just make sure you aren't going to bed really stoned. Good luck man!

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## Alucinor XIII

Heh. Thanks a lot for the support/advice everyone. =]

So, with everyone's input I've come to a decision. I'm going to stop altogether for a week or two minimum, just to get a fresh start. After that I'm going to smoke on the weekends only-- should serve as a good break every week, so I don't get overzealous. 

Also, regarding supplements, I've been taking B6 and Emergen-C (Which has Vitamin C, B6, and B12, and other vitamins) on random nights. And sometimes melatonin (5mg tabs). These supplements definitely help. But I can'y help but compare my dreams to the old days (or nights, rather) where I would have 2-3 vivid adventures a night, and at least a couple LD's a Month--if not more. 

I love my Mary Jane, but a man's gotta have priorities.

Edit: I've also been considering getting Valerian Root. Any thoughts/experiences?

Edit 2: Ended up going to the Drug Store and picked up a 450mg Valerian Root extract.

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## Baron Samedi

> Heh. Thanks a lot for the support/advice everyone. =]
> 
> So, with everyone's input I've come to a decision. I'm going to stop altogether for a week or two minimum, just to get a fresh start. After that I'm going to smoke on the weekends only-- should serve as a good break every week, so I don't get overzealous. 
> 
> Also, regarding supplements, I've been taking B6 and Emergen-C (Which has Vitamin C, B6, and B12, and other vitamins) on random nights. And sometimes melatonin (5mg tabs). These supplements definitely help. But I can'y help but compare my dreams to the old days (or nights, rather) where I would have 2-3 vivid adventures a night, and at least a couple LD's a Month--if not more. 
> 
> I love my Mary Jane, but a man's gotta have priorities.
> 
> Edit: I've also been considering getting Valerian Root. Any thoughts/experiences?
> ...



Yeah. Valerian is cool. I read on erowid.org (the most comprehensive website on drugs) that you can build a tolerance to it. So, I suggest take it for awhile, then take a break, and let your body decrease tolerance.  Valerian is good for inducing Theta brainwaves in my experience. Also it, helped me to induce SP.

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## Flying Spaghetti Monster

> Nito makes a good point about not smoking before bed. If you are awake another hour or two after you have last smoked you should really have no problem. So if you do smoke one day; dont get discouraged, just make sure you aren't going to bed really stoned. Good luck man!



That sounds legit. In my experience these dreams are still fairly fragmented or hazy but thats better than no recall if i smoke right before bed.

interested to hear how Alucinor goes after a week of not smoking. maybe he'll motivate me to finally have a T-break. 
but....  ::ghosttown:: 
maybe not  ::fro::

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## Alucinor XIII

Update: Smoked a_ little_ bit since my last post, all of which was on two separate ocassions. Stayed sober for the majority of days. Dream recall is definitely recovering. Remembered 3 1/2  dreams last night. One of which was incredibly vivid. ( I actually just remembered the rest of a dream as I wrote this...lol make that 4 dreams)

I was a Father, with my (non-existent) son of age 10, at a sort of truck-stop/outpost. The entire land was frozen and covered with snow, with plenty of trees bordering one side, and a larger city in the distance on the other side. I don't know what we were doing there, but a ferocious storm hit. My son and I ran for shelter into what seemed to be a cellar for storing food (Freezers, coolers, washroom, etc). 

As I was looking out the window, a tornado began to form. I tensed for a moment, and it went off towards the other city (BC-Something, I remember it being called) and rejoiced that it wasn't after us. I looked back outside later, and it was heading towards us again, and there was a little girl running away from it frantically. 

I selfishly stayed inside, and bunkered down, despite the girl. I told my son to do the same, however he wasn't quite as cowardly as I. He went out and saved her, brought her to our spot just in time. I was yelling at him the entire time, fearing for my son's life--which is strange, I remember the "fatherly" feeling and fear, yet I have no kids, nor will I for a while. When they got back we waited out the storm. The aftermath showed debri and even a few bodies and body parts strewn across the post. 

Pretty intense. Seems like the theme for this was my selfishness and cowardice, heh. However, I suppose that the courageous son still counts as a part of me, so all hope is not lost!

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## Flying Spaghetti Monster

> Update: Smoked a_ little_ bit since my last post, all of which was on two separate ocassions. Stayed sober for the majority of days. Dream recall is definitely recovering. Remembered 3 1/2  dreams last night. One of which was incredibly vivid. ( I actually just remembered the rest of a dream as I wrote this...lol make that 4 dreams)
> 
> I was a Father, with my (non-existent) son of age 10, at a sort of truck-stop/outpost. The entire land was frozen and covered with snow, with plenty of trees bordering one side, and a larger city in the distance on the other side. I don't know what we were doing there, but a ferocious storm hit. My son and I ran for shelter into what seemed to be a cellar for storing food (Freezers, coolers, washroom, etc). 
> 
> As I was looking out the window, a tornado began to form. I tensed for a moment, and it went off towards the other city (BC-Something, I remember it being called) and rejoiced that it wasn't after us. I looked back outside later, and it was heading towards us again, and there was a little girl running away from it frantically. 
> 
> I selfishly stayed inside, and bunkered down, despite the girl. I told my son to do the same, however he wasn't quite as cowardly as I. He went out and saved her, brought her to our spot just in time. I was yelling at him the entire time, fearing for my son's life--which is strange, I remember the "fatherly" feeling and fear, yet I have no kids, nor will I for a while. When they got back we waited out the storm. The aftermath showed debri and even a few bodies and body parts strewn across the post. 
> 
> Pretty intense. Seems like the theme for this was my selfishness and cowardice, heh. However, I suppose that the courageous son still counts as a part of me, so all hope is not lost!



heavy man...real heavy. i expect your life will never be the same haha

glad to hear your recall has increased since cutting down, trying to start a break myself but every time i go to start i realise i am already smoking a fat juicy blunt

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## HiConsciousness

Hey man I'm doing the same thing! If you don't notice anything huge at first though don't sweat it. It's gonna take me at least a month to clear myself of it because I used to smoke at least once a day for about a year and a half. So depending on how often you did it the longer it'll take. Check out the Galantamine + Choline LD induction thread, it might be something your interested in. Definitely helps with memory like crazy.

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## Mathias

Hey dude I just stopped smoking on the 1st of August and I'm  starting with supplementing with choline, ginko, and b6. For me, stopping smoking isn't the problem (even though up until the 1st I smoked like 4+ times a day). In fact, there IS no problem except to work on recall now. I am practicing daytime awareness; hopefully it will carry into the night. I plan to meditate and clear my mind before bed, setting my intentions, and then each morning I'll wake up 6 hours after falling asleep to eat a banana and take my supplements. 

I believe my results will be magical  :smiley:  I'll post back once I have my first lucid. Good luck!

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## ninja9578

I went on a weed bender on Sunday, had my first vivid dream on Wednesday  :smiley:   Pretty average rebound for me.

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## phonk

Hi,
I'm new here and would like to share my experience with smoking mariJane. I was just fed up with it, smoking for a long time and accomplishing less then I should have. Well it happened just from one day to the next. I was always under the assumption that I couldn't sleep without a little joint before goin to sleep. Conclusion (for me at least) : BS! I sleep good without any supplements or replacements..

Now this is what happened; I quit on a blue monday (I think it actually was on monday haha) And I had the most extreme and vivid nightmares ever! I woke up sweating, screaming, it was hell! These nightmares kept on coming night after night. After a week I started to 'enjoy' the nightmares. At least it gave me a clear message that there was a lot of stuff in my head that needed to be cleaned up. So I even went to sleep earlier to confront the dreams. Sort of stepping into the ring saying "Bring it on I can have you!!! I kick your ass anyday (or night haha). In the end, after two weeks the dreams became more tranquil,spacy and surreal, and pleasant. Now I enjoy my dreams very much and at moments they are quite lucid aswell... Beats a joint i.m.h.o. And I must say that since then (now 3 years ago) I hardly had any nightmares, and so for me it was just a case of cold turkey, which i needed to go through...

Just wanted to share this one  :wink2: 
cheers

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## Qwer

When I smoke weed my dreams are messed up, even if I only have a tiny bit,  the other day I had a puff or two of a joint that got passed to me.
And I had bad nightmares all night. They arent scary they are just confusing and frustrating and wierd.

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## darkrom

Multiple times daily user here.  Yesterday started a break session for the first time in lets call it 5 years.  I use it medicinally so judge if you want, I don't honestly care.  Yesterday was my first day without it and it felt great mentally besides cravings (its not addicting you fools you just like it and get used to it).  I had sleep paralysis which I actually enjoyed because I've had it once before (on a day I was sick and didn't vape or smoke) and then definitely a few dream sessions.  My recall isn't great, but I didn't put in the effort to write it down or anything either.  

Also I normally wake up with the feeling that I just closed my eyes and essentially didn't sleep at all.  I ended up waking up at 5am thinking "wow I've been asleep for what feels like years" and went back to bed.  I slept through my alarm, 13 text messages from my lovely GF trying to prevent me from being late, and 3 phone calls.  Besides the fact that I normally wake up at 6:40 for my alarm and today I woke up at 8:06 (6 min late for work) I had easily one of the best nights sleep in my whole life.  The feeling of being well rested is there when it absolutely is not normally.  

I don't think cannabis is bad at all, but I think if you use it as heavily as I do you should take a break once in a while just to get the sleep benefits while at the same time lowering your tolerance.  My guess is that if I go the rest of 2011 without using cannabis, I can get the rest of the cannabis out of my system completely,  at which time I should be able to continue using it while still maintaining a quality sleep experience.  

I felt the need to share this because I don't think you will be able to find a more extreme example of this particular subject.  I used a TON of cannabis, felt like I got no sleep at all every night and as far as I'm concerned I wasn't dreaming.  I know its the recall, but the level of sleep was so light that I really question if I was getting any REM sleep at all.  Then ONE day off and vivid dreams and full blown SP that I was able to relax and maintain.  It doesn't get much clearer than that folks.  Breaks are necessary when your sleep suffers to the horrible extent that mine did.

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## ENiGmA216

Found this thread in a Google search, was just wondering how all your guys story ended up?

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## Feorgemynd

Have you tried any wake-n-bake experiments?

You know that point you get at when you first wake up, but you're laying there or sitting on the edge of the bed and you're in that half-awake, half-asleep state where you might even start dreaming as if you are asleep while you sit on the edge of the bed with your eyes barely open. Alot of times, I will dream like I'm getting ready for work (almost like my brain tricking me so I can sit there in a tired stupor just a bit longer).

Now, I know this is probably gonna sound like a throwback to that movie called Inception, but in reality this has been happening since my childhood, so hear me out if you yourself have not yet experienced this.

There is a point in time when you wake up that, if you allow that "brain-trick" half-awake dream state to take hold, you can dream very vividly for what seems like hours in the span of 2-10 minutes. This is an odd dream-state, because normally (in my case anyways) you are still "aware" of everything going on around you as far as sound, taste, touch are concerned. Your sight and believed reality, however, becomes completely replaced with the dream.

I have found that this state is more readily attained during the right kind of wake-n-bake where you don't necessarily intend to get up quite yet.

Remember, if you can accomplish this, you may get an instant and abnormally vivid dream recall of approximately 10 minutes to seemingly an hour or more within no more than 10 minutes or so of our time.

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