Using supplements for lucid dreaming is a little controversial. Some people in the lucid dreaming community are completely against using supplements for lucid dreaming because they feel that people should not use any kind of “artificial” aid to help them attain lucidity. Their reasoning is that lucid dreaming supplements are not needed and only foster a sort of psychological dependence, even though the art of lucidity can be achieved with no extra help. Of course there are others who feel that liberal use of lucid dreaming supplements is perfectly okay, and in particular when natural supplements are used all they are doing is helping promote a natural process. So what is our opinion here? As you might have guessed, it’s something in between.
We feel that using supplements for lucid dreaming is not really doing anything unnatural, and in fact are merely boosting your chances at achieving something that is quite natural. However, we also feel that using supplements for lucid dreaming should not be used should not end up being what you primarily rely on for the achievement of lucid dreams. So the perfect usage of lucid dream supplements is when you already know how to achieve lucidity, have had some success, and now either want a temporary boost or have hit a plateau.
When to Use Supplements for Lucid Dreaming
One question that people have about using supplements for lucid dreaming is when they should be taken. The answer is actually a bit complicated since it differs for each of the herbs and vitamins we’ve mentioned. Here is a general guide as far as the optimal time to take each lucid dreaming supplement we’ve covered so far:
Galantamine is best taken at night, even the middle of the night to lengthen dreams and make them more vivid. Galantamine may even be most effective if you set an alarm and take it literally in the middle of your sleep time, before the onset of most of your REM periods.
Choline can be taken any time during the day in order to promote more dream time that night. Some people suggest taking Choline right before bed to promote lucid dreams, but that may be more for the psychological effect of putting the idea in your mind.
Vitamin B6 is best taken in the evening for memorable and longer dreams, though it likely still has positive effects no matter when it is taken. It may be that if you are getting the vitamin from a supplement you can take it any time, but if you are getting it through food then evening is best.
Calea Z is best taken in the evening as an herb that will help enhance dreams in general. You could also experiment with taking this lucid dreaming supplement in the middle of the night.
5-HTP can be taken any time to promote more vivid and numerous dreams, and perhaps an increased likelihood of lucid dreaming.
Nutritional Supplements for Lucid Dreaming
Many of you may be here even though you are hesitant to take a pill to help you with lucid dreaming and dream control. Perhaps you are generally wary of home remedies and supplements, or maybe you are merely concerned about becoming reliant on a supplement to have a natural lucid dream. Or perhaps still you tried one of the lucid dreaming supplements listed on our website and either it didn’t work or you had side effects. No matter what the reason for your hesitation, we want to offer you an alternative – simple nutritional supplements for lucid dreaming.
Sometimes it is not necessary to take a pill of some sort to get the benefits that you read here – longer and more vivid dreams and enhanced recall. Supplementation can often be more natural and easy. For example, many advanced lucid dreamers have reported that if they have an apple or drink apple juice just before bed, their chances of attaining dream control seem enhanced. It could be that this natural way of getting Vitamin B6 is the reason for this, but more likely there is some combination of nutrients that gives this boost. One way or another this is a possible nutritional supplement for lucid dreaming.
While lucid dreaming supplements like Galantamine, Calea Z, and Melatonin are all effective, those of you who are hesitant to jump in with one of those may just want to try drinking a cup of apple juice before bed. Of course many people who have separately felt the effects of one of the supplements and apple juice find themselves washing their supplement down with apple juice!
Supplements for Lucid Dreaming: A Technique
The main reason for using supplements for lucid dreaming is because they provide a physiological response that makes dreams longer or more vivid, or more memorable. Of course any or all of these effects would help increase your chances of having a lucid dream and remembering it. But there is another reason for using supplements for lucid dreaming, and that is that anything that brings awareness and focus on lucid dreaming into your waking life is likely to increase your chances of having a lucid dream.
Most lucid dreaming techniques, at their core, are merely ways to get you to enter your dreams with an idea that you will realize that you are dreaming because of a sign or trigger that you will notice. And in most cases lucid dreaming techniques are done so that you obsess about certain things during the day – saying “am I dreaming” over and over, looking at your hands, or merely thinking about lucid dreaming – so that they hopefully recur during the dream and you realize you are not awake. Lucid dreaming experts long ago realized that anything we obsess about when we are awake can be fodder for our dreams that night.
So the fact that you are reading this, any effort you make in ordering a lucid dreaming supplement, and the thought you put into taking it can all be fodder for inducing a lucid dream. It is not out of the question that you will end up reliving some part of the experience of using supplements for lucid dreaming in a dream and suddenly realize that you are not awake. Regardless of their physiological effects, the effort put into the supplementation can actually lead to an increased chance of lucid dreaming.
So we suggest that you think a lot about using supplements. Read up, and make a big deal out of taking them. Perhaps they can trigger lucid dreams psychologically as well as physiologically.
Supplements for Lucid Dreaming and the Placebo Effect
Some people have reported positive effects on lucid dreaming from a wide variety of supplements, many of which do not work for others or would not seem scientifically to have anything to do with dreaming. Yet people will say that on a day when they took supplement “x” they had more lucid dreams, and each time they took it thereafter they were more likely to become lucid. What explains this effect?
In some cases new information about what potential supplements can increase your chances of having a lucid dream comes in exactly this way. People did not know that vitamin B6 could enhance the chances of having a lucid dream until many realized that they were getting a positive effect from eating foods rich in this nutrient before bed. In addition, it cannot be ruled out that perhaps for some people different chemicals work to promote lucid dreams – chemicals that might not work for others. So in these cases the reports could be accurate, but not replicable.
There is another explanation, however. We can be influenced greatly by what we think a supplement will do. When we take a home remedy of any kind our confidence that it will work often guides whether it does. In other words, sometimes it is not the power of the home remedy but actually the power of our confidence that it will work that alleviates our symptoms. This well-known placebo effect can certainly relate to lucid dreaming. Let’s say a person takes a Vitamin D pill before bed because he or she wanted more of this nutrient in the winter when the sun was less powerful (the sun activates vitamin D synthesis in our bodies). Then imagine he or she happens to have a long and vivid lucid dream that night. The next night he or she will again take the Vitamin D, perhaps still mostly for the original purpose, but confidence that it can increase the chances of lucidity makes him or her think or lucid dreaming more, and that creates a better opportunity for lucid dreaming.
Bottom line: Anything technique that gets us thinking more about lucid dreaming and builds our confidence about having one is certainly more likely to truly have a self-fulfilling nature.
Please share any information you have or experience you have gained using supplements for lucid dreaming below.