# Sleep and Dreams > General Dream Discussion >  >  Do Menstral Periods Affect Dream Vividness And/or Content? (for You?)

## Snowy Egypt

Alright, ladies, I&#39;ve been wondering about this for a while, and I thought I&#39;d ask the female population of DV their opinion:

Do Menstral Periods affect dream vividness and/or content? For you, of course.

I ask this because it seems that whenever it&#39;s that time of the month, the dreams I have are...
well, _weirder_ than usual. The content, I mean. And the vividness is always increased *tenfold*. It aslo occurs to me that these are the perfect dreams to produce lucidity, because of all the weird things happening, or to attempt a WILD, because of the fact that whenever I close my eyes, there&#39;s a dream already in progress, so I feel like I can jump in.

Anyways, all I want from you is your insight. Does this happen to you, or am I just crazy?

Thank you for your time,

~Snowy Egypt  ::dancingcow::  

(Did I mention that I&#39;m VERY embarrased about asking this?  :Oops:  )

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## Like A Bird Without Arms

I think I&#39;ve read something about the menstrual cycle affecting dreaming before.  I can&#39;t say I notice it in myself, though.

At any rate, this thread is quite relevant: http://www.dreamviews.com/forum/inde...howtopic=35906

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## Snowy Egypt

Whoops...

Dang, I knew I should&#39;ve looked before I posted. Sorry...  :Oops:

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## Moonbeam

> Whoops...[/b]



That&#39;s OK, I don&#39;t think we got very far with it before.  It&#39;s interesting that you have noticed an effect.

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## Abra

Actually, a few days ago (April 3rd) I had a really intense, long, and vivid lucid dream (it had to be the best lucid I&#39;ve had in my life&#33 :wink2: . And today I started my cycle. But I think it was only coincidence, as my even more recent dreams weren&#39;t as vivid.

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## Lucidbulbs

I have to say yes, I carefully observe what I eat and what&#39;s going on with me mentally and physically to what might have affected my dreams to be what they are [even though I don&#39;t write it down, which I should]. I have more vivid dreams and am lucid the most often then. Also, my dream recall goes _way_ up. 

As for the content, they get more interesting, either in a weird way or a "Man I wish I could dream that" kind of thing [my dreams can be really random or dark at times]. 

Oh and, I would say don&#39;t be embarrassed at starting this topic, but I know it takes a lot of will to press a simple post topic button [I have fears of criticism, I tend to take it really badly even if I know not to], so kudos to you.

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## Burns

I also experience better recall during that time, but I don&#39;t think I&#39;ve noticed a difference in the occurance of LDs, one way or the other.

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## juroara

hmmm..I havent really been paying attention.........give me some weeks and Ill get back to you   ::bigteeth::

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## elsanpedro

Interestingly enough I started my cycle today and I had the most vivid and longest (normal) dream this morning that I have been able to recall so well. Haha, finally one advantage of having periods   ::roll::

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## Gwendolyn

I&#39;ve never really payed attention to this, but perhaps in the future I will be able to look a little closer.

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## dreamship

> Alright, ladies, I&#39;ve been wondering about this for a while, and I thought I&#39;d ask the female population of DV their opinion:
> 
> Do Menstral Periods affect dream vividness and/or content? For you, of course.
> 
> I ask this because it seems that whenever it&#39;s that time of the month, the dreams I have are...
> well, _weirder_ than usual. The content, I mean. And the vividness is always increased *tenfold*. It aslo occurs to me that these are the perfect dreams to produce lucidity, because of all the weird things happening, or to attempt a WILD, because of the fact that whenever I close my eyes, there&#39;s a dream already in progress, so I feel like I can jump in.
> 
> Anyways, all I want from you is your insight. Does this happen to you, or am I just crazy?
> 
> ...




Yes, my dreams are vivid and more strange and exciting before my period starts. I am in a cycle of having some really cool and vivid dreams now. None lucid though.

The book Women&#39;s Bodies Women&#39;s Dreams by Patricia Garfield states what happens hormonaly. This is not really of any value as we cannot keep our hormones at that level. 

 ::bigteeth::

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## Abra

Hm. Actually, hypnogogia has increased tenfold, if anything. And I&#39;m having trouble remembering the chronology of my dreams. As for content... Well, I&#39;m definetely seeing patterns of stress (which may account for my _decrease_ in recall), but hopefully it&#39;ll wear off, as today is the day I&#39;ll be facing the stress.

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## Spamtek

You know, they say that multiple women in households will adapt their cycles to all happen simultaneously; if menses brings about wild and vivid lucid dreams for most ladies, that sounds like an idea platform from which to explore shared dreaming.

I really just wanted to be the first horrid horrid male who dared to post in this lady&#39;s bathroom of threads.  Cheers&#33;

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## EagleEye

Interesting question&#33; I&#39;m also going to pay better attention to this, especially when my sleep patterns normalize again.

It wouldn&#39;t surprise me if dreams intensify or become more vivid before one&#39;s period...or get more romantic during ovulation.

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## Snowy Egypt

Go Spamtek&#33;&#33; WOOT&#33;&#33;&#33;  ::dancingcow::  

Anyway, I&#39;m on my cycle now, and I just had a very vivid dream last night. I&#39;m pretty sure it was a lucid dreaming semenar, and I think Burns was there... 

I&#39;ll keep posting throughout the week to see if I can make an LD appear out of all of this.  ::content::

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## someweirdsin

Very cool thread&#33;

I was thinking about this today actually as i had 3 very vivid LD&#39;s last night and am expecting my period soon.  I record all of my LD&#39;s but unfortunately i don&#39;t date when i have my period, but i&#39;ll start doing that now out of interest. 


I read in Carlos Castanada that he believed during a womans period a "crack" is opened.  This crack is used during dreaming and is basically a door through which we can perceive other worlds.  This got me wondering about DMT and its supposed use in dreaming and whether its effect has been studied during the menstrual cycle.  I read that there was a notible different in the effect of DMT in animals during their menstrual cycle but i haven&#39;t found anything studied on people. 

There&#39;s my rant.  Thought i&#39;d put it out there in case i wan&#39;t the only one in the world interested in this  :smiley:

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## Spritely

My dreams during this time tend to be more vivid, but not in a way I&#39;m espescially fond of. The amount of violence, stress, and bewilderment in them seems to increase; I think I also tend to have more third-person dreams as well. I haven&#39;t noticed whether I have more lucids around this time or not.

In a way, pre-period or period dreams for me are almost like the dreams I get if I&#39;m ill or feverish. This may be because I tend to be in pain during this time of the month, and it seems into my dreaming. Ack. Oh well-- violence and surreality provide me with more opportunities for dream signs, I suppose.

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## MercurialDream

Mine definately increase in _strangeness_ during my cycle.  My mind just gets a bit more twisted in its thoughts, perhaps that has something to do with it. Ironically, my first lucid dream was during my period... so perhaps&#33;

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## Lucidbulbs

Ah, I&#39;m not sure whther it&#39;s my cold or my period but one of them has been decreased my dream recall for the past two nights, I could only remember noe dream the first night and nothing last night&#33; I&#39;m thinking that it&#39;s probably the cold mixed in with the stress from memorizing my history debate topic and speech [thank goodness I was involuntarily first, now tomorrow I can ditch school and sleep]

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## someweirdsin

Hi all!  I wanted to bump this one up as i have been finding that my most intense lucid dreams occur just before my period and thought that there is more exploration in this.  

Any more experiences ladies?   And boys, don't be afraid to comment hehe.

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## Jourdemayne

Hormone levels immediately prior to a menstrual period can affect many sleep-related phenomena such as lucid-dreams, sleep paralysis, erotic dreams and out of body experiences. There have been accounts in Medieval documents of incubi (sexual demons) plaguing nuns around the time of the 'flux': presumably, some nuns interpreted lucid dreaming with erotic content as real - supernatural sexual assault.

I think it's well worth scheduling quality sleep time just before a period. If the lucidity ever spills over into sleep paralysis, you could always use these tips to avoid it:

http://www.arkanefx.com/unpred/sexpred/night.html

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## someweirdsin

That's really interesting, hehe supernatural sexual assault! Crazy!

So they said it was hormone levels causing it?  I suppose it could also be like fever dreams as the body gets really hot during this time.  

I was curious as to the roll that DMT may play at this time.  I read on the net (so its not exactly text-book worthy) that results from DMT experimentation on animals showed a notible difference in the effect on females during menstration, suggesting that DMT may behave differently in the brain during this time.  If DMT does have some involvement in dreaming, maybe this could be another factor?

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