# Lucid Dreaming > Attaining Lucidity > Lucid Aids >  >  L-Theanine

## Firewalker

This seems to be working well for me with several lucids now after taking it.  It isn't a guaranteed lucid maker, and I don't take it as such.  What it does is relax you and generate alpha brain waves, as well as increase dopamine levels.  If I take it at night, and wake after sleeping about 7 or 8 hours I usually remember 2 or 3 vivid dreams, then if I take another 200mg capsule and after staying up a couple of hours go back to bed for a couple more hours I often become lucid as I have a couple of times this week.  The WBTB is important as well as sleeping enough to where you shouldn't be really sleepy, then take more Theanine which makes me sleepy enough to fall back to sleep.  I think the Theanine's part in this is to make me sleepy enough to go back to sleep but since it promotes alpha brain waves, keeps the sleep light enough after waking to not sleep to deeply, making it more easily to become lucid.

----------


## westonci

> This seems to be working well for me with several lucids now after taking it.  It isn't a guaranteed lucid maker, and I don't take it as such.  What it does is relax you and generate alpha brain waves, as well as increase dopamine levels.  If I take it at night, and wake after sleeping about 7 or 8 hours I usually remember 2 or 3 vivid dreams, then if I take another 200mg capsule and after staying up a couple of hours go back to bed for a couple more hours I often become lucid as I have a couple of times this week.  The WBTB is important as well as sleeping enough to where you shouldn't be really sleepy, then take more Theanine which makes me sleepy enough to fall back to sleep.  I think the Theanine's part in this is to make me sleepy enough to go back to sleep but since it promotes alpha brain waves, keeps the sleep light enough after waking to not sleep to deeply, making it more easily to become lucid.



 keep posting your results, im interested

----------


## Seamuslee

Im interested also!
Can you tell us where to get theanine?
Ited be awesome to have a little extra help for recall =D

----------


## Fiddler's Green

I have been using l-theanine to help me fall asleep, but I haven't noticed any of the things you have mentioned.

It's a better sleep aid than melatonin in my opinion, but I have not noticed any enhanced dreaming benefits besides that.

----------


## Firewalker

You can find L-Theanine at most Vitamin shops, also you can probably order it online from Amazon. I got mine at my local vitamin shop. Theanine is an amino acid taken from green tea, but you would have to take a lot of green tea to get the concentration of theanine of theanine extracts.

I haven't really had the time to experiment further with it much, I have taken it before bed again, and had vivid dreams but to work lucidly I usually have to take it before bed, sleep 6 or 7 hours or so, wake up take it again, stay up an hour or two, go back to bed for a couple of more hours, this is important, and is likely the main reason I can become lucid, but this is where the theanine is also important, without I would usually be to awake to fall back to sleep, but the theanine keeps me very relaxed, mine is 200mg, which I recomend, it is also sold in 100mg capsules.  The state of mind induced from L-Theanine is like during meditation.  It relaxes you, and helps make entering a altered state of conciousnes easier.  

I will post more results, when I have the time to try.  For me most of my lucids are WILD or OBE type experiences and they seem to be working better when I have 8 or 9 hours to devote to sleep total.  It might work as well if you could take it before bedtime, wake after 4 or 5 hours and then try, I don't live alone, so I can't really set an alarm to wake me up in the middle of the night very often, but for those who can this might be a worthwhile experiement.

----------


## zhineTech

(i realize i am digging this up, but the topic/thread is still relevant) 

excellent article on L-theanine:
L-Theanine Unique Anxiety Reducer and Mood Enhancer Increases Alpha Waves and Alertness

after reading so much on it in the galantamine + choline thread i have begun researching it on its own. it seems to be quite good for stress, blood pressure, and relaxation, which translates to a useful tool for LD'ers.

----------


## NrElAx

Do they still sell  theanine at stores because I talked to a lady at gnc and she said that they only sell it mixed with other herbal stuff because it was banned to be sold individually.

----------


## zhineTech

thats the first ive heard that. i got mine on the internets for like $6 on amazon.

----------


## NrElAx

I can probably look online. Maybe they just don't sell it in store as an idividual ingredient. The lady said people were taking too much of it so it got banned to be sold by itself.

----------


## DpsBob

> I can probably look online. Maybe they just don't sell it in store as an idividual ingredient. The lady said people were taking too much of it so it got banned to be sold by itself.



Not sure what the hell she's talking about, l-theanine is not banned anywhere. It's even on the FDA's GRAS (generally recognized as safe) list.

Piracetam isn't even on that list  ::shock::

----------


## ItalianKid

I drank green tea then took a mid day nap.  It had to have been the l-theanine that gave me wacky dreams within minutes even with multiple wake ups if I went back to sleep in a few minutes I would dream again.  Had a dream someone gave me a lake house and another dream that someone has a wedding over a dark swamp with wood panels you stood on and it was really hard not to go in the water.

----------

