# Sleep and Dreams > Sleep and Health >  >  Serotonin Levels While Lucid Dreaming

## Green_Velvet

I found the below link when considering the dangers of lucid dreaming. If you are prone to depression or anxiety, you must really limit the amount of time you lucid dream because of the effect it has on serotonin in the brain. While in REM sleep, we burn more serotonin and thus knock the balance out of whack for a good chemically healthy brain. We become more depressed or paranoid, if we&#39;re prone to these conditions, if we lose too much serotonin through lucid dreaming. 

http://www.geocities.com/alex_sumner/lucid2.htm

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## the real pieman

that sounds really dangerous, because since i have started having successful lucid dreams i have felt myself become slowely more depressed...but i still feel happy, and i dont concentrate that much on lucid dreams during the day...i see lucid dreams as a place of relaxation which you can enter every once in a while, which help you know yourself better, but it is important not to get completely emersed in this because that can lead to extreme depression, and i am not going down that road, no way i am going down that road...

i think i feel more depressed because i see the world in a different view now, and the truth is that i am not really depressed just confused, because i have no idea what life has in stall for me, and that doesnt bother me, what does is that i have learnt there is alot more to life, physically, mentally and phisophically and there are some things that i know that i wont be able to discover...

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## ilovefrootloopz

Part of the reason I took up lucid dreaming is to conquer depression...

Hmmm...

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## Man of Shred

NO WONDER, i had such a fiucked up week since my last LD.

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## Green_Velvet

I suppose the best thing to do if you feel the need to do lots of lucid dreaming is to take a serotonin supplement. Some health food stores sell such products, but they are expensive.

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## DuB

*Being lucid does NOT make you "burn serotonin."*

When you are in REM sleep, the body&#39;s serotonin level drops. This happens every night, REGARDLESS of whether or not you become lucid during that REM sleep. This is a natural process, and the serotonin levels are easily restored afterwards.

"One particularly interesting role of serotonin is during sleep: When you are in REM sleep (the time when most dreams occur) the serotonin system turns itself off. Chaos reigns, thoughts run wild, vivid fantasies and nightmares emerge. The level of control is so low that the brain starts to generate its own dream sights and sounds and feelings without even needing outside input. While it might not seem relevant to know where dreams come from to a drug user, consider this: Drugs like LSD suppress the serotonin system. LSD can essentially activate your brain&#39;s dreaming mode while you are still awake&#33;"
~TheDEA.org

The levels of some other neurotransmitters drop as well during sleep. There is nothing dangerous about this, and *becoming lucid during REM does not affect your serotonin levels in any way*. 





> _Originally posted by that page you linked to_
> *Lucid Dreaming consists of a collection of techniques which aim at stimulating and enhancing REM-sleep*



This is patently false. The goal of lucid dreaming techniques is for the individual to become lucid during dreams or to enter dreams lucidly, not disrupt one&#39;s sleep cycle.





> I suppose the best thing to do if you feel the need to do lots of lucid dreaming is to take a serotonin supplement. Some health food stores sell such products, but they are expensive.
> [/b]



By the way, if this were true, meditation would be a safer alternative than supplements. One of the primary physiological effects of meditation is to raise serotonin levels. I don&#39;t believe that such supplements are completely safe, especially for long-term use.

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## Leixor

I tend to agree with DuB on this. While REM sleep may affect serotonin levels, I&#39;ve seen no evidence lucid dreaming affects that in any way. I mean I have dreams and REM sleep whether I&#39;m lucid or not.

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## PenguinLord13

> I tend to agree with DuB on this. While REM sleep may affect serotonin levels, I&#39;ve seen no evidence lucid dreaming affects that in any way. I mean I have dreams and REM sleep whether I&#39;m lucid or not.
> [/b]



I agree too. I have seen no connectino between Lucid Dreaming sprees and depression. I find it is the opposite. Maybe Lucid Dreaming is addictive or something, but I don&#39;t think that unless you LD every night for a _long_ time you will actually be harmed.

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## [Alpha]-0mega-

Same here, I seem to become more happy (mostly because of &#39;&#39;fun&#39;&#39; events that I do whilst being lucid).

Maybe your own type of &#39;&#39;thoughts&#39;&#39; make you more depressed?

eg.: &#39;&#39;I wish that this was real&#39;&#39; causing you to spiral into a depressed state (as you realize it isn&#39;t real).

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## the real pieman

yeah thats probably true...

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## SKA

> I found the below link when considering the dangers of lucid dreaming. If you are prone to depression or anxiety, you must really limit the amount of time you lucid dream because of the effect it has on serotonin in the brain. While in REM sleep, we burn more serotonin and thus knock the balance out of whack for a good chemically healthy brain. We become more depressed or paranoid, if we&#39;re prone to these conditions, if we lose too much serotonin through lucid dreaming. 
> 
> http://www.geocities.com/alex_sumner/lucid2.htm
> [/b]



Well the thing with Lucid Dreaming is that is is often seen as an Unnatural way/SuperNatural way of dreaming and thus people think it might tamper with your healthy Mind/brains.

But if it were Unnatural to Dream Lucidly, then why did I have sooooo many Lucid Dreams as a Kid? I didn&#39;t even know what it was and it happened naturally to me. And our brain&#39;s Serotonin balance isn&#39;t just Debalanced by Lucid Dreaming. I have tried XTC a couple of times once and THAT really burns out ALL your Serotonin making you feel very depressed all day next day since you&#39;re all out of Serotonin.

Now EVEN something as Heavy Duty as XTC can only disturb your Brain&#39;s Natural Serotonin balance if you would take XTC every weekend over a period longer than 3 months. I know from experience. It is why I stopped doing XTC soon again after having tried a couple of times.

But just to show you: Your Brain&#39;s Serotonin Balance isn&#39;t just knocked off by Lucid Dreaming, not even by the intake of XTC once or twice, which really DOES burn up all your serotonin.

I&#39;m with Dub on this one. In fact, EVERY time I had a Lucid Dream I wake up feeling like a Million Dollars and keep doing so for the rest of that day: I guess this indicates higher Serotonin production during my Lucid Dreams in fact.


Let&#39;s not just assume all SPECULATIONS are true, or at least know that they do not count for everyone.

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## magicrules22311

So what happens if you take an exstacy pill before falling asleep?

You will overload your brain with Serotonin and burn it off?


-Rob

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## YOU KNOW DAVEBO?

Keep serotonin levels high by getting plenty of daylight.

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## G0MPgomp

Interesting&#33;

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## Alprazolam

> So what happens if you take an exstacy pill before falling asleep?
> 
> You will overload your brain with Serotonin and burn it off?
> 
> 
> -Rob



 
Goodluck trying to go to sleep anytime soon after doing MDMA. (When you take E, your seratonin sky rockets, and then once you "come down" it crashes hard, on its own.)



Anyway- Regaurdless of the debate here, if anyone is worried about burning seratonin-

5-HTP is your new legal OTC friend.

(Amino acid precursor to Seratonin. Good for naturally regulating mood)

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## iadr

> I suppose the best thing to do if you feel the need to do lots of lucid dreaming is to take a serotonin supplement. Some health food stores sell such products, but they are expensive.



Taking a seritonin supplement can not only help with depression, but can help in become lucid. That's one of the reasons why chocolate seems to help with become lucid, because it contains a lot of seritonin in it. That's also why people often feel happier after eating chocolate, because of all of the seritonin it has. If you take a look at anti-depressant drugs, they all contain a lot of seritonin in them.

St John Wort is high in seritonin, in addition to having a lot of other good ingredients, so I take some of these every day. But you don't want to take too many of them because too much seritonin can cause your eyes to become sensitive to sunlight and can supposedly result in cataracts. So check on the side effects before taking something like this.

Here's an advertisement that gives some information on St. Johns Wort, but I buy mine at Walmart because they're cheaper.

http://www.biosynergy.com/sjw.htm

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## Alprazolam

5-HTP

5-Hydroxytryptophan

Direct precursor to Seratonin.

A moderate supply is usually around 10 bucks.

Case closed.

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## xcrissxcrossx

whether you are in a lucid dream or not, you still enter REM. At least thats what i heard.

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## Lofton

I have been on Effexor (which increases serotonin) for years and have learned to take it only in the morning because it keeps me from recall and those dreams that I do remember are vague and muddled. If I miss a dose my dreams are increasingly vivid. This however could be a response to something else in the Effexor...

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## triffidfood

> I have been on Effexor (which increases serotonin) for years and have learned to take it only in the morning because it keeps me from recall and those dreams that I do remember are vague and muddled. If I miss a dose my dreams are increasingly vivid. This however could be a response to something else in the Effexor...



I was on Efexor a few years ago, and experienced the exact same as you ... if I missed a dose (after I'd been on it a while) I'd have very vivid, memorable dreams .. I'd also feel kinda 'euphoric' (not exactly the right word, hard to explain precisely?)

I found out the reason for this (and the reason why you seem to dream less on Efexor) is that as well as raising serotonin levels, Efexor also _knocks down_ your levels of Acetylcholine ... so if you miss a dose, you get a rebound effect, your brain tries to quickly boost your Acetylcholine back up again by producing lots of it, and you have very vivid dreams (and feel weird ::rolleyes:: ).

One way of getting round this, is to take lecithin granules as a supplement while you're on Efexor (or if you're cutting the dose or stopping) .. it sounds strange, but the reason is that lecithin contains choline, which your body can easily synthesise into Acetylcholine.

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## WhiteUnit

Dont forget that lucid dreaming is only a state of awareness.

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## jamous

> Same here, I seem to become more happy (mostly because of ''fun'' events that I do whilst being lucid).
> 
> Maybe your own type of ''thoughts'' make you more depressed?
> 
> eg.: ''I wish that this was real'' causing you to spiral into a depressed state (as you realize it isn't real).



the thing is, it's the other way, you use too much you have less later
ever felt a little more depressed hours to days after a night of heavy drinking?

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## Xaqaria

> Keep serotonin levels high by getting plenty of daylight.



Keep melatonin high by getting a lot of sleep. There have been correlations drawn between low melatonin levels and cancer. Melatonin production is inhibited by light.

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## Spamtek

> Dont forget that lucid dreaming is only a state of awareness.



It's a state of awareness characterized by well-known neurochemical and electrical changes in the brain, so while this discussion is a little silly (Will masturbating give me cancer?  Is plucking my nosehairs going to make my nose grow?  Does cutting my toenails raise my risk of dying from SIDS?) it's still a valid one.

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