Experimenting with caffeine pills

[Chicken]

Yesterday I started my experiment with caffeine pills. My goal is to increase the vividness of my dreams and hopefully get lucid. I have been drinking coffee during my WBTB and it gives me very long and vivid dreams, only problem is; getting back to sleep :-( With the pills I don't have that problem because the caffeine starts to kick in when I'm already asleep! The pills are 100 mg caffeine per capsule, that's about the amount of a normal cup of coffee. Yesterday I took one after 6,5 hours of sleep and a menthol as well (have been reading the "Menthol as a dreamenhancher" thread) wrote down my dream and got back to sleep. Result: not a long dream but a very vivid moment in the dream, almost lucid-like. I will post my results here and comments or questions are welcome.

[dutchraptor]

Nope probably won't work, caffiene is a stimulant andseverly degrades rem sleep.

[Chicken]

Results from the last couple of days. For two nights I took a caffeine pill after 6 hours of sleep and went straight back to bed; no result because I couldn't remember my dreams. The same for the nights whitout caffeine, bad recall. Tonight I'll try taking a pill before bed and see what happens.

[dutchraptor]

REM Sleep Behavior Disorder According to a study published in the journal "Sleep Medicine," the ingestion of chocolate may aggravate a condition called REM sleep behavior disorder. This condition is characterized by the acting out of vivid dreams during sleep, according to the Mayo Clinic. In those with this condition, a normal muscle paralysis that occurs during sleep is absent. The study in "Sleep Medicine," conducted by Robert Daniel Vorona and colleagues at Eastern Virginia Medical School, mentions caffeine as a possible factor in this reaction to chocolate. The Phases of Sleep In their book "The World of Caffeine," Bennett Alan Weinberg and Bonnie K. Bealer report that caffeine may have an effect on the onset and quality of REM sleep. Weinberg and Bealer report that caffeine appears to shorten the deeper phases of REM sleep and lengthen the lighter phases. Moreover, those who drink caffeine may toss and turn more frequently while asleep, the authors report, possibly the result of increased muscle tension. Those who drink caffeine are also more likely to be disrupted and awakened by noises while asleep, Weinberg and Bealer report. Caffeine will degrade your deep rem sleep, probably the reason your dream recall is bad.

[ThisWitheredMan]

For what it's worth, 100mg is actually almost double the caffeine content of a regular cup of coffee, and is probably not something you should be regularly popping.