Galantamine+Choline causing severely irritating false awakenings!!

[daveW]

hi (i'm new here btw, great forum!) just been experimenting with various supplements after finding this forum... been using melatonin a while to help with occasional insomnia, which is great, but in the last week been trying Galantamine+Choline... does anyone else find it causes lots of false awakenings? last night i had 3mg melatonin before bed, then after 5 hours sleep, 8mg Galantamine+1000mg Choline (1x 'Galantamind' capsule) and 200mg L-Theanine. I had no problem getting back to sleep, and was fully lucid with a fair amount of good control and recall and stunning vividness for about 1 hour... but during that time i 'false awakened' about a dozen or more times, which sort of spoilt the experience. during the FAs i reality checked every time, but found control was hard/impossible and vividness was decreased, eventually being able to get it back after lots of stabilizing and the occasional actual awakening (although DEILD was very easy). anyone else had this? i dont usually get that many FAs. any recommendations? it was great and worked really well apart from this. might try halfing the Galantamind capsule next time, so 4mg Gal + 500mg Cho...

[Tornado Joe]

Hi Dave, I've experimented with that combination myself, if you don't perform reality checks then you will of COURSE end up with a false awakening! The Galantamine doesn't necessarily induce lucidity, it merely raises your awareness level a bit more during your dreams. It's still up to you to incorporate a technique (reality checks, dream signs) to become lucid. I recommend doing a search for Galantamine on our site. You'll find there are quite a few threads with experiences from different members.

[daveW]

hey joe, thanks for your reply... i was lucid the whole time, that was the odd thing. i'd go from a vivid LD with excellent control straight into a false awakening, but i was still lucid... but vividness was not as good and i had virtually no control, even using techniques like spinning. and this happened over and over again. i just found it strange (and bit annoying) to go from such a vivid LD which i could control into a murky false awakening where even though i reality checked and realised was a dream, the vividness and especially control was so different from minutes previously. this doesnt usually happen when i LD (most nights) so i put it down to one of the supplements. i've read a fair bit about Gal. on this forum but didnt find this exact same experience, unless i've missed it... will keep experimenting!

[Tornado Joe]

Ah, ok - well if it's control of the lucid that's not something I'd blame on the Galantamine. I can tell you I've had lucids where my control wasn't exactly up to par as well. I think it's really a matter of confidence and expectation. You can be lucid in a dream and assume that you have control because you are lucid, yet you really have to expect to have the ability to make changes in your environment to the point where you have to almost see the change happening or completed just as you're thinking about it. It's weird. For example, I usually RC by trying to levitate off the ground. For this I jump up lightly and expect to stay afloat - but, that doesn't always happen UNLESS I focus on the feeling of being afloat. Then the action of actually levitating will follow. It's like you need one to inspire the other. This sort of makes sense if you think about it. You're really not experiencing anything you do 'out there' in the world. It's all happening in your head (or non-physical realm). So, naturally everything you experience must be rooted to your thought/emotions.